INSTITUTIONAL
TRANSFORMATION:
THE NEXT GENERATION
C O U R S E R E D E S I G N TM P R O J E C T
AASCU Conference – Portland, OR
July 28, 2011
TODAY’S GOALS
• Share why UNT changed its approach
to undergraduate instruction
• Describe how the Next Generation
Course Redesign Project works at UNT
• Demonstrate parts of NGen courses
• Discuss barriers to course redesign
• Challenge you to think about course
redesign at your institution
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WHY REDESIGN LARGE ENROLLMENT COURSES?
• Bad News – the “Perfect
Storm”
• High DFWI rates
• Demographics – higher and
more diverse enrollments
• Financial factors – tuition cannot
keep exceeding CPI
• Accountability
• Good News
• Knowledge of learning
• Emergence of digital tools
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WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT LEARNING
• We know that, if we
provide an active learning
experience that allows
students to engage with
• course content
• each other, and
• instructors,
they can and will think
critically and develop
cognitively
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GOALS OF THE UNT NGEN PROJECT
• Improve student learning
outcomes in large enrollment
undergraduate courses
• To have a university-wide
impact through the
establishment of a Community
of Practice
• Create a redesign process
that is sustainable and
replicable
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(TRANSLATION) GOALS
• Students think, work hard, like
what they are doing, get
good grades that mean
something, and graduate
• Doesn’t cost more and uses
less space
• Faculty enjoy and believe in
the process
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UNT’S TRANSFORMATIONAL QEP GOAL
NEXT GENERATION REDESIGN IS
A TEAM PROCESS
• Faculty teams redesign 4-6
courses per year
• Two-year commitment
• Occurs within an interdisciplinary
community of practice
• Senior Faculty Fellows
• “Choreographed”
• Retreats and monthly meetings with
faculty and staff
• Institution-wide forums
• End-of-pilot and project meetings
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STEPS IN THE NGEN REDESIGN PROCESS
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THE “BUILDING BLOCKS” OF NGEN COURSES
• NGen courses consist of a
“blend” of the following:
• Large group lectures: 0% –
30% of contact hours
• Small group experiential
learning: 30% – 60% of contact
hours
• Media-rich interactive online
environment: 30% - 50% of
contact hours
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IN NGEN, LECTURES ARE BEST USED TO:
• Create interest and motivation and
provide assurance that students can be
successful
• Clarify and expand upon (rather than
deliver) content
• Model the acquisition of knowledge in the
field
• “How does a chemist/sociologist approach a
research question?”
• Present the critical lower level concepts to
provide scaffolding for higher level
concepts
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WHAT IS EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING?
• The major goal is the
acquisition of higher-level
abstract concepts and values
• The instructor plays a vital and
purposeful role in the process
• Experiential learning has two
equally important parts
• Concrete experiences
• Guided reflection
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IN NGEN, EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING ACTIVITIES
ARE BEST USED TO:
• Introduce an emotional
component
• Brain-based learning
• Analyze, evaluate, and
synthesize
• Present and defend
newly-acquired
hypotheses
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A SIMPLE CONCEPT, BUT EASILY MISAPPLIED…
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DEVELOPING SUCCESSFUL
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING ACTIVITIES
 Start with Student Learning
Outcomes (SLO’s)
 Provide opportunities for
reflection
 Ensure foundational
knowledge
 Try out learning in new
situations
 Plan for learning spaces
 Assess the results
 Develop the learning
experience
 Evaluate the experience
(cost/benefit)
See handout
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EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING ACTIVITIES
VARY IN COMPLEXITY
• Level of complexity is driven by:
•
•
•
•
Complexity of GLO’s/sLO’s
Flexibility of the classroom
Time available
Instructional support
• Examples
• Simple: Think-Pair-Share
• Moderate: Parts of a cell beauty
pageant
• Complex: Competitive simulation
game
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EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING EXAMPLE:
DAM IT!
• Competitive simulation game
that lasts for one month
• Students play one of three
roles dealing with the historic
Hetch Hetchy dam project:
• Member of U.S. Senate
Committee on Public Lands
• Preservationist – e.g., John Muir
• Conservationist – e.g., Colonel
John Biddle
• Students reenact the public
hearing and committee vote
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IN NGEN, ONLINE LEARNING ACTIVITIES
ARE BEST USED TO:
• Acquire lower-level learning
to free up time for in-class
experiential learning
• Chunk content to overcome
working memory limits
• Provide low-stakes
assessments such as quizzes
for practice and confidence
building
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ONLINE LEARNING EXAMPLE:
U.S. HISTORY II
• Providing the foundation
for the Hetch Hetchy
“Dam It” simulation game
• Specific context
• Background readings
• Character descriptions
(special website)
• Online course content on the
Progressive Era
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UNT CURRENTLY OFFERS 19 NGEN COURSES
Art History
Biology I
U.S. History I & II
Organic Chemistry
American Government I & II
Developmental Math/Algebra
Principles of Language Study
Survey of Mathematics
World Literature I & II
Computer Applications
Modernism & the Visual Arts
Occupational Health
Introduction to Communications
Human Development
Introduction to Sociology
Motor Development
Sociology of Disasters
Global Marketing Concepts
Music Appreciation
Six new courses will start the redesign process this fall
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FACULTY PERSPECTIVE
DR. BRENDA MCCOY
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CHANGE WHAT OR WHO?
• “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
• Good teaching evaluations
• Well-rated on “Pick-a-Prof,” but what
does that really mean?
• It’s getting harder to cover material
in all types of courses
• Students are not reading—slowing
lecture and class discussions
• Plagiarism is becoming common and
writing skills are deteriorating
• Critical thinking skills have been
declining
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IMAGINE!
• Away from blame
• Trying to imagine what is needed
to engage my students
• Verstehen
• Trying to understand or imagine
how my students must see the
classroom and the world
• Coming to grips with the idea that
the “train is leaving the station…”
• The social changes are profound
and I must adapt if I want to be
on board
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JUST “GOOGLE IT”
• It has never been easier to find
“answers”
• We have become addicted to
“Google”
• Our students have never known
another way
• Radical impact on higher
education
• “The professor is an idiot—I just factchecked him…”
• “Why do I need to learn that? I can
look it up when I need it.”
Doodle 4 Google
Matteo Lopez, age 7
2011 National Winner
• The shape of “Gen Y” and later
generations
• Long on answers, but short on
experience
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EXPERIENCE!
• Confucius
• I hear and I forget.
• I see and I remember.
• I do and I understand.
• Facilitate student discovery
• How can I structure a situation so that
students experience collective action?
• How can students easily draw random
samples of different sizes and explore
varying results?
• How can I get students to espouse a
position based on personal investment
rather than repeat “sound-bites?”
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SOCI 1510
THEN…AND NOW
• 8 -10 sections taught each semester
• Large classes: 100 – 120 students
• Less “sage on the stage” and more “guide on the side”
N-Gen Redesign
Old System
M
W
F
• Lecture
M
• Lecture
W
• Lecture
F
•Lecture or formal discussion
•All students
•Experiential learning
•Group A (half of class)
•Experiential learning
•Group B (half of class)
• Online textbook and testing
• Online learning objects
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SOCIOLOGY 1510
• We use 8 different activities
• Group size varies from 5 – 50
• Different degrees of length and complexity
• Examples:
• Flash mobs
• Semester-long project on collective behavior
which students plan and execute
• Survey questions
• Using clickers, students respond to survey
items and evaluate what happens when the
wording is slightly altered
• Philosophy of Individualism
• Students explore their feelings about “freeriders” and the process of creating policy
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LEARN!
• “Who dares to teach,
must never cease to
learn.” (John Cotton Dana)
• Ever-changing subject
content
• New pedagogical
approaches—not “shinyobject” syndrome
• From our students
• Wiki-world: the brave new
world for the academy
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THERE IS “PUSH-BACK”
• “Now can we stop playing games and learn
Physics” (Wieman, 2006)
• “Active learning…is a philosophy and
movement that portents trouble for the future of
higher education and the professoriate.
It is longer good enough to teach well; instead,
professors must be ready to embrace newly
developed methods of ‘engagement,’ even as
class enrollments skyrocket. The ‘new professor’
must make large classes as entertaining as
video games—or else take students out for
coffee and memorize their hobbies.” (Mattson, 2005)
• “I just can’t take the ‘me’ out of my teaching.”
(Frustrated NGen Fellow, 2009)
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DILEMMA!
If I use experiential learning
in my class, how am I
going to “cover” all the
material?
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THERE ARE SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGES
• Once you move beyond the
small circle of innovators, there
are formidable challenges
Lack of rewards
Hostility to change
Scheduling problems
Research vs. teaching demands
Entrenched and comfortable
pedagogy
• Lack of resources to produce online
materials
•
•
•
•
•
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ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGES
• Extended Redesign Project
• Currently 9 years
• Nurturing Communities of
Practice
• Offer “NGen Lite”
opportunity
• Redesign single unit
• Summer-long project
• Retains assessment
expectations
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ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGES
• Working to change the
recognition/reward system
• Creation of professional career
track for instructors
• Development of institution-wide
teaching assessment
• Revision of workload documents
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ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGES
• Creation of a Core Academy
• Separate academic unit under the
Dean for Undergraduate Instruction
• Faculty are full-time instructors in a
professional track
• Faculty report to the Core Academy
but are co-hired by the department
• Department receives SCHs for their
courses taught in the Core
Academy
• Serves as a “Beta” site for NGen
Courses
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ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGES
• Creating student demand for change
•
•
•
•
Presentation to advisors
Promotional items
Website
Billboards
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ENABLING TRANSFORMATIVE
COURSE REDESIGN: 3 P’S
Passion
Project
Management
Persistence
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DISCUSSION
For more information:
Dr. Philip Turner
Philip.Turner@unt.edu
Dr. Brenda McCoy
Brenda.McCoy@unt.edu
Next Generation Course Redesign
Peter Lang Publishing
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