Enriching Undergraduate Level Courses to Meet the Needs of Graduate Students
Tim Wright
UWSP Teaching Partners
Graduate students differ greatly from undergraduate students. Graduate students have
earned a Bachelor’s degree, are often older, and are more likely to have worked, or are currently
working in a career that is related to their respective field. UWSP is one of many institutions of
higher learning offer courses that are to concurrently meet the needs of both graduate and
undergraduate students. The results of a qualitative survey regarding the issue of enriching
undergraduate level courses to meet the needs of graduate students are presented below.
Survey questions:
1. How long have you been teaching in higher education?
2. How long have you been teaching slash courses?
3. What special needs do you believe your graduate students have when compared to
undergraduate students?
4. What do you do specifically to meet the needs of your graduate students in your slash
course?
5. What additional work do you require for your graduate students, above and beyond the
course requirements for undergraduates?
Results
Participants
21 people participated in the study, 14 males and 7 females. Participants’ experience in higher
education ranged from 4 to 40 years with a mean of 19.4 years.
Perceptions of graduate students’ special needs
Themes:
1. Increased course rigor.
“For those graduate students who truly want to take the course because it directly relates
to their thesis or area of interest, then I guess they need as much rigor as possible in terms
of knowledge and/or skills.”
2. Opportunities to be self-directed.
“They fit the model of adult education – self directed, motivated by relevance, need to
relate things to their experience.”
3. More in-depth review of the literature.
“Graduate students must be able to read and analyze more complex readings and research
than our undergraduates. I think they need to understand how to review research
critically.”
4. Opportunities to conduct their own original research.
“To learn how to write scientifically, to be able to analyze data critically, perform a
literature review and be able to disseminate information effectively.”
5. Opportunity to gain practical experience.
“My current graduate student has a broader knowledge based when compared to her
undergraduate peers. She is more aware of her needs as a learner and can self advocate.
She is also more likely to expect relevance in course tasks.”
Additional efforts by the instructors to meet the needs of graduate students
Themes:
1. Meet outside of class with the graduate students.
“We meet one-on-one every two weeks to discuss progress in understanding primary
literature, outline of a review paper, first and last draft of their review paper.”
2. Give different assignments and opportunities for graduate level work.
a. Tailoring.
“I tailor added assignments to the graduate students’ specific research needs.”
b. Freedom, flexibility, and choice.
“I may encourage them to tailor the assignments I give the class to their work
situation.”
Additional course requirements for the graduate students
Themes:
1. Class enrichment.
“I ask them to help direct the pace and to give me feedback at a deeper
level; I ask them to help “administer” the course by giving them individual
units to cover, I want them to integrate ideas and principles with new
material and to synthesize what they’ve already known to be true with the
newer concepts.”
2. Additional papers.
“Graduate students are required to write a paper using the instructor’s format. The
students will share the paper and an application strategy to a different class.”
3. Additional presentations.
“I require an oral PowerPoint presentation of a portion of their review paper to the class.”