University of Maryland Baltimore County
Department of Psychology
Eileen O’Brien, Ph.D.
Introductory Psychology
University of Maryland System Course Redesign
 General education requirement course
 180+ students per section
 7 sections per year
 4 credit course
 3 ½ clock hours each week for instruction
 15 weeks of class
 Large lecture halls
 4 unit multiple choice exams
 Lecture style
 2 FT Grad TAs (GTAs); managing exams and
recording grades; administrative tasks.
 Failure rate peaked at 30% (Grade of D,F);
withdrawal rate as high as 10%
 60% class attendance rate
 Lack of preparation for class–limited
discussion
 Overwhelming amount of course content
 Faculty not requesting to teach this course
 Poor performance on multiple choice exams –
(e.g., class exam mean of 62% on unit exams
 Poor student evaluations re: content, learning,
environment
 Course Drift
 Faculty teaching the course*
 Lecturers
and Adjuncts
 Provost
 Dean of Arts and Sciences
 Department Chair*
 Faculty Development Director*
 Student Learning Resource Center Director*
 Blackboard Administrator*
 Evaluator*
 Graduate TAs*
 Undergraduate Student*
*Review team for timeline tasks
 Maintained 1,000 students
per year;  section size to
200.
  from 7 to 5 course sections
per/yr
 Applied 3 credit hrs/wk to
course meeting; 1 credit
hr/wk for online “labs”
 Created online labs –
simulations, practice quizzes,
online chapter tests (selfpaced).
  lecture time; shift to discussion
 Integrated CPS questions to 
interactivity and attendance
 Created common multiple choice
exams across sections
 Added weekly small group activities to
 interactivity
 Assigned 1½ GTAs for database
management and student support
 Sequenced content for more engaging
start
 Created Peer Mentors for class
activities, tutoring, and exam prep
Impact on Final Grades
Redesign sections compared to the Traditional section shows
significantly proportionately fewer Cs, Ds and Fs and greater As and
Bs, χ2(N=768,df=4) = 44.2, p<.001.
Course Withdrawal Rates
10
9
8
Spring 2004
Fall 2004
Spring 2005
7
6
Spring 2005
5
Fall 2006
4
Spring 2006
3
2
Spring
2008R
1
Spring
2008T
0
Fall 2008R
Fall 2008 had the lowest withdraw rate (3.2%) documented since 2000.
The range has been 4.1% to 10.3 %.
Grade Distributions for Psyc100
2009-2011
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
A
Spring 2009
B
Fall 2009
C
D
Spring 2010
F
Fall 2010
stopped
Spring 2011
Student Satisfaction*
 What was good about the redesign:
 “the ability to do labs on-line when ready or to review
information online,”
 “small group work and discussion in class,” and
 “in-class movies and videos.”
 What needs to be improved with the redesign:
 “review questions students got wrong on tests; discuss
questions that lots of students got wrong,”
 “more clicker questions,”
 “make PowerPoints available on-line.”
*focus group data
Faculty Satisfaction*
 What was good about the redesign:
 “removed pressure to teach every topic in the book,”
 “freed up time for scholarly activities, less need for
office hours or lecturing an additional hour a week.”
 What needs to be improved with the redesign:
 “faculty need training in technology, use of platforms,
and software,”
 “accuracy of online test banks.”
*faculty interview data
Reallocation of Resources
 Decreased the number of sections required each
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semester and increased class size.
Decreased withdrawal rates; retaining students.
Decreased the need for two faculty each year; free to
offer an additional upper level course each semester.
Freed up classroom space for the University to teach
other courses on campus.
Decreased the need for graduate teaching assistants
from 2 grad students to 1 grad student.
Leveraged existing resources to fund undergraduate
Peer Mentors; using some our savings to build the
program.
Proposal- Summer 2010; Pilot – Fall 2010; Implementation-Spring 2011
Developmental Psychology (3 credits)
Replacement Model
Outcomes
  class meeting to 4 times/semester;
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shift to Unit discussion sessions
Created faculty agreed upon final
exam to test critical concepts
 use of essays online for each unit
 testing online with weekly chapter
exams
Weekly discussion board entries
Videos with online questions after
viewing
Assigned 1 GTAs for database
management and student support
Targeted  course drift,  technology
use, student enrollment
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Course grade distributions maintained;
SCEQs remain high
Uniform course delivery with departmental
agreed upon critical content
Failure rate maintained at 5%
number of students enrolled
 writing assignments
 two faculty a year teaching the course
Freed up classroom space for additional
courses
 to ½ GTA
Cost per student $158 to $74 per student
($63,200/yr to $29,600/yr)
Proposal- Fall 2011; Pilot – Spring 2012; Implementation-Fall 2012
First Year Composition
Replacement Model
 Using small groups
 Building in use of
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Organic Chemistry
Supplemental Model
 Online activities
outside of class
 In-class discussion
sessions instead of
software for writing
assignments
lecture
Using peer mentors
 Peer mentors to tutor
Standardizing all
and work through lab
sections
assignments
Combining two
courses delivering the  Standardize all
sections with
same outcomes
common text and
Consolidating faculty
content
effort
 Students will work in
groups.
Introduction to
Sociology
Replacement Model
 Increasing enrollment
 Using technology for
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course content delivery
Standardizing syllabus
and content
Using peer mentors
Writing assignments in
class with groups
Online practice quizzes
and mastery
assignments