Student-Centered: The College of Liberal Arts Course Transformation Program
Students, past and present, often talk about the large lecture course as if it is a rite of passage. Jen Mein, director of Academic Technologies, College of Liberal Arts-Office of Information Technology (CLA-OIT), understands that well and is aware that students form their first impressions of the University during introductory classes, often taught in a large lecture format. “How can we make those classes more exciting and interesting? How can departments show what they have to offer beyond that first experience?” Mein also is aware that students’ impressions of their education will likely be formed within the College of Liberal Arts (CLA), where many take their introductory courses. She says, “We want to make a good first impression. The introductory courses provide a gateway to majors and build a foundation of knowledge necessary for our students to succeed in their academic careers.”
Integrating technology provides both opportunity and means to enhance the large enrollment courses, either taught in a large lecture format or in many sections with smaller enrollment. The Course Transformation Program (CTP), an initiative in CLA, is designed to introduce technology into the 21st-century large enrollment course with students’ needs in mind.
The CTP was built on an existing program offered by the CLA Student Technology Fee Committee that awards grants to CLA faculty and departments integrating technology into their courses and providing technology resources to their students. As the grant program was refined, Mein and others wanted to build in the opportunity for instructors to “think creatively and thoughtfully about redesigning their courses through the effective use of technology.” The program also is designed to align with strategic goals. Key documents are Student Learning Outcomes for the University and the College of Liberal Arts Strategic Plan, which sets a collegiate goal of redesigning introductory courses to provide an extraordinary education to undergraduate students.
Realizing this vision resulted in a partnership between the CLA Student Technology Fees Committee, CLA-OIT, the Office of CLA Undergraduate Programs, and the Digital Media Center (DMC), Office of Information Technology (OIT). The program has enjoyed enthusiastic support from James Parente, interim dean, CLA; Arlene Carney, vice provost for faculty and academic affairs, Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost; and Ed Clark, director, CLA-OIT. Department chairs will help the design teams structure and articulate their instructional goals and ensure those are aligned with departmental goals. Jude Higdon, instructional technology support team coordinator, CLA-OIT, and Lauren Marsh, senior educational technology consultant, DMC, OIT, partnered to plan the 18-month program and together with Kurtis Scaletta, senior educational technology consultant, DMC, OIT, will act as consultants for the course redesign teams.
Many strive toward student-centered teaching and learning, but this college-wide initiative is student centered even before anyone sets foot in a classroom. Each team consists of at least one lead faculty, an educational technology consultant, and an undergraduate student who has previously taken the course. Jude Higdon notes that as voting members, students have a real stake in the process. “Instructors are doing the design work, and students have a legitimate voice. Throughout the process they will react to proposed changes in courses and let everyone know whether the changes will work for them.”
While students enrolled in the redesigned courses will benefit in the immediate future, the program is designed to have long-term impact. Grounded in the scholarship of teaching and learning, the redesign process was designed to allow for thoughtful planning, documentation of the process, and sharing results. The entire process will take 18 months, which allows the teams to assess their efforts and make improvements accordingly. The course redesign process is also a research process, and Mein anticipates the contribution to research will be of great value. “When I go to conferences, I learn a lot about course redesign and learning outcomes but not too much about designing an entire program that coordinates efforts across departments within a college, bringing different elements in alignment and figuring out if the process worked.”
Both the changing landscape of technology and the wide range of disciplines within CLA make any standardized approach to course redesign impractical, according to Mein. Rather than emphasizing any given technological or pedagogical approach, the CTP teams are working to establish clear goals for each course and then will research both technological and pedagogical solutions. The goal is for “students to enjoy learning and to feel engaged. We want students to come away from our introductory courses both with disciplinary knowledge and with sense of how to learn and succeed in a 21st-century world.”
