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Program in Course Redesign
University of Colorado at Boulder The Traditional Course Introductory Astronomy is a two-semester sequence designed primarily for nonscience majors to fulfill the natural science requirement of the College of Arts and Sciences' core curriculum at the University of Colorado–Boulder. The course enrolls 1,040 students per semester (or 2,080 students per year) in two different section configurations: four large lectures (approximately 220 students each) and two moderate-sized sections (approximately 80 students each). Not surprisingly, the smaller sections offer much better opportunities for participation by students. However, the department is severely limited in the number of smaller sections that it can offer because of the high costs of faculty time. Only about 15% of the students have the opportunity to enroll in the sections of 80 or less. The traditional course configurations face several academic problems including poor class attendance (attendance at the large lecture sections averages approximately 50%) and insufficient student participation and engagement with the material. In the lecture format, few students ask questions or contribute comments. Although students can meet individually and in small groups with Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) or with the professor during office hours, only a small number of students avail themselves of these limited resources. Most students simply attend lectures, take notes, study the text, turn in their homework, and take the quizzes and exam. The traditional large-lecture format is ineffective for engaging students, except for the relatively small fraction of highly motivated students who will do well in any setting. Larger sections are effective in terms of cost but only marginally effective in terms of learning by students, whereas smaller sections reverse this outcome. Colorado wants to find ways to retain some of the advantages of small classes in the larger sections while keeping costs under control. Redesign using Web-based technology provides a means to increase active learning and interactivity in large classes. The Redesigned Course The learning goals for the redesigned course will require students to
Engaging students in inquiry-based learning, involving a high level of interactivity with their peers and teachers, best achieves these goals. This can be done very well in a small class (less than 30 students), but doing so in larger classes becomes a much greater challenge. Economic realities at a large state university preclude offering introductory courses in small classes to most students. The university needs to find ways to retain some of the advantages of small classes in large sections. Thus, the primary goal of the redesign is to restructure the large-lecture sections so that they will retain some of the advantages of a small interactive class. The redesign will increase active learning and interactivity in large classes through the use of Web-based course materials—developed at the University of Colorado and elsewhere—that stress peer interaction and asynchronous learning. Colorado has developed and tested a large number of Web-based resources in both traditional large-lecture sections and small classes. The redesign will employ the following:
The course will be redesigned so that all students, no matter what their section size, will work in small "learning teams" of 10–15, thus creating an environment in which active and collaborative learning can occur. Each learning team will be coached by an Undergraduate Learning Assistant (ULA) and will meet in a dedicated computer classroom for one hour per week; Students in the teams will explore the hypertext "text" of the course, discuss posted questions, help each other with homework problems, and prepare "challenge questions" for the other teams. Students will be graded on both individual performance and the performance of their learning teams, creating an incentive for collaboration. Course faculty will conduct two interactive sessions per week and will visit the teams periodically. Instead of delivering traditional formal lectures, course faculty will pose selected questions to the learning teams in order to provoke dialogues. GTAs will be available to answer questions on evenings and weekends via e-mail and chat rooms. Traditional Course Structure
Six faculty teach one section each of the course by delivering lectures; preparing homework, quizzes, exams; supervising GTAs; and holding two to four office hours per week for individual or small-group instruction. Redesigned Course Structure
Summary In summary, the redesigned course will implement the following changes:
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Program in Course Redesign Quick Links: Program In Course Redesign Main Page... Lessons Learned: Savings: Project Descriptions: |
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