Labor Saving Techniques

Iowa State University

Given that a major goal of the course re-design project is to substitute technology "capital" for faculty teaching "labor," in what particular aspects of the course and its delivery are you finding that you are able to do this?

The pilot course of 80 students was taught by one instructor (or rather, one course designer) and one TA. As expected, there were no cost savings for the pilot course. Next year, we will be offering the course to 240 students per term, a savings of about two TA positions per term. That number of students is the largest we can accommodate with the existing computer labs in light of the fact that several other mathematics courses are being taught using the computer labs. Further savings would be possible if we had more computer labs available. An implementation of the redesigned course to a significant percentage of the students who take Discrete Mathematics would result in significant cost savings.

December 2002 Update: We had room for 240 students in fall 2002, but only 130 signed up. Preliminary enrollment figures for spring 2003 are a little higher (150 or 160), but still not up to capacity.

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