University of Maryland Baltimore County Department of Psychology Eileen OBrien, 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 (self- paced).

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 Fall 2008 had the lowest withdraw rate (3.2%) documented since The range has been 4.1% to 10.3 %.

Grade Distributions for Psyc

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 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 class meeting to 4 times/semester; 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 Outcomes 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 software for writing assignments Using peer mentors Standardizing all sections Combining two courses delivering the same outcomes Consolidating faculty effort Introduction to Sociology Replacement Model Increasing enrollment Using technology for course content delivery Standardizing syllabus and content Using peer mentors Writing assignments in class with groups Online practice quizzes and mastery assignments Organic Chemistry Supplemental Model Online activities outside of class In-class discussion sessions instead of lecture Peer mentors to tutor and work through lab assignments Standardize all sections with common text and content Students will work in groups.