Combining streamlined degree paths
with early-warning intervention
Scaling Up: Effective Practices in Higher Education
October 31st , 2013
Some background and definitions
 A look at the Process Flowchart (Logic Model)
 Essential Components
 General Education Credit Hour Reduction
 Remove course redundancies across programs
 Where we are at SIUC
 Predictive capability of “Early intervention
metrics”
 Flexible Components
 Lessons Learned and Potential Pitfalls


Purpose
o Removing barriers to and providing support for
successful degree completion
o Provide data-driven support structures for students
to remain on degree paths

Outcomes
o Increased retention rates
o Increased graduation rates
Easily calculated metrics
Top-level Institutional
Commitment
"Core Curriculum"
credit hour (CH)
reduction
Remove course
redundancies across
programs
Face Program
Accreditation Issues
Creative curricular
integration for
additional CH reduction



Top-level Institutional Commitment
Broad-based General Education Faculty
Committee
Significant institutional buy-in to curricular
technology platforms for student data
collection (For Early Warning system)
Top-level Institutional
Commitment
"Core Curriculum"
credit hour (CH)
reduction
Remove course
redundancies across
programs
Face Program
Accreditation Issues
Creative curricular
integration for
additional CH reduction

General Education requirements represent the
first programmatic step in the process of
streamlining degrees
◦ The requirements cut across degree programs, so
streamlining has broad impact


Institutionally, it is (almost) mandatory to have a
well-respected faculty committee that oversees
this work
The work at SIU is done by the “Core Curriculum
Executive Council”
Creativity and flexibility required for “double dipping” across
degree paths

STEM Fields
◦ Students in use advanced courses in science and math to
satisfy general education requirements in these
categories.
◦ Microeconomics or Macroeconomics satisfies a general
education requirement in Social Science.

Art and Design
◦ Students take courses in Art History to satisfy their
general education Humanities requirement
Top-level Institutional
Commitment
"Core Curriculum"
credit hour (CH)
reduction
Remove course
redundancies across
programs
Face Program
Accreditation Issues
Creative curricular
integration for
additional CH reduction



Much harder work, since it involves program
changes at department level
Again, look for changes with broad impact in
areas that cut across Colleges and
Departments
Work can often help to reconsider the design
of important courses
◦ Example: Statistics

Why the proliferation of Statistics courses?
◦ Those (**%#*%!!) Mathematicians just want to teach Math!
◦ “Our” program is special. It requires both a statistics course
and an experimental design course. (Because “our”
experiments are really special!)

Cooperation from the Chairs of Math and
Educational Psychology
◦ Core Statistics and Research Design taught in Large Lecture
Sections with Hybrid/Flipped classrooms (1 lecture a week)
◦ Twice a week students meet in small departmental level
section in computer labs for discipline specific material
◦ Win-win for departments by optimizing faculty resources.
Top-level Institutional
Commitment
"Core Curriculum"
credit hour (CH)
reduction
Remove course
redundancies across
programs
Face Program
Accreditation Issues
Creative curricular
integration for
additional CH reduction



Keeping students on the optimally designed
degree path is at least as important as
designing the degree path.
Computer-aided instruction (CAI) platforms
permit real-time data retrieval.
CAI allows integration across programs and
courses.

Week 3
 For all students in Math 107-108 (Intermediate Algebra/College Algebra)
A.
B.






25%*(In-class pretest) + 25%*(HW) + 50%*(Test 1)
25% (preparation) + 25%(motivation) + 50% (achievement)
RED:
ORANGE:
YELLOW:
GREEN:
0% to 55%
56% to 65%
65% to 75%
76% to 100%
Students also receive an intervention score in week 7 and week 11
that is simply their course grade at that time.
All of this data is given to the students and to colleges and advising
staff.

Intermediate Algebra : Success rate of Week 3
metric (C or better)
◦ Red/Orange
◦ Yellow
◦ Green

22/86 (25.6%)
5/12 (41.6%)
54/64 (84.4%)
College Algebra : Success rate of Week 3
metric (C or better)
◦ Red/Orange
◦ Yellow
◦ Green
31/155 (20%)
18/40 (45%)
142/193 (73.6%)

The success of the Early Intervention System
in Math has prompted the SIUC Provost to put
together a Task-force on Early Intervention
Technology.
◦ Coordinate data collection and metrics across
critical gateway courses
◦ Coordinate software platforms for seamless
integration of data



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Mechanism for General Education
streamlining
Campus curricular integration methods.
Campus course articulation and course
equivalencies
Early intervention metric structure



Strong leadership an essential requirement
Departments will try to protect credit hour
generation and core courses.
Try to create "win-win" situations when
eliminating course redundancies.