How To Do It
NCAT is committed to providing the expertise necessary to help higher education institutions achieve their student access, success and retention goals while reducing their instructional costs. Through constant testing and refinement of its course redesign methodology and by working with a diverse group of public and private colleges, universities and community colleges, NCAT has demonstrated that all post-secondary institutions are capable of achieving improved outcomes at a reduced cost. This is how we recommend you get started.
There are essentially two ways to work with the National Center for Academic Transformation (NCAT): 1) as part of a state or national program, or 2) as an individual institution through the Redesign Alliance. The first is highly structured and guarantees results; the second is more informal and seeks to network like-minded institutions and individuals with one another.
In general, the NCAT staff does not work directly with individual institutions but rather aggregates the demand for our services by creating course redesign programs. To date, NCAT has conducted four competitive national programs funded by private foundations and government agencies. Each national program has sought to demonstrate a particular aspect of improving learning and reducing cost. Full descriptions of our national programs can be found by following the links on our home page (Program in Course Redesign (PCR), Roadmap to Redesign (R2R), Colleagues Committed to Redesign (C2R) and Changing the Equation.) In the future, NCAT may launch additional national programs and will announce them in the Center’s quarterly electronic newsletter, The Learning MarketSpace. NCAT has also conducted six state/system-based programs (funded by the state or system partner.) NCAT seeks to partner with other states and systems to scale the concept of course redesign. For more information about state/system-based programs, see http://www.theNCAT.org/system_solutions.htm.
NCAT has created the Redesign Alliance to enable individual institutions to become involved in course redesign. The Redesign Alliance offers institutions: 1) participation in workshops, seminars and conferences, all of which are announced in The Learning MarketSpace and on the NCAT website, 2) membership levels that include campus visits and ongoing consulting by NCAT staff and NCAT Redesign Scholars. NCAT staff only visit campuses that are members of the Redesign Alliance. Campuses that have a particular disciplinary focus and/or seek to provide a general introduction to course redesign may also contact an NCAT Redesign Scholar to make individual arrangements for visits and consulting.
Institutions, organizations and companies are encouraged to take full advantage of the resources offered on the NCAT website, especially the Course Redesign Planning Resources and the Course Redesign Case Studies. In the future, we plan to develop a series of step-by-step guides for campuses and systems that want to initiate a course redesign program that draws from our experiences over the past 11 years.
NCAT’s Frequently Asked Questions When Starting a Course Redesign Program
New to Course Redesign? A list of recommended reading to get you started.
For more information, please contact Patricia Bartscherer, Program Manager.
