University System of Maryland officials in the process of redesigning large undergraduate classes may introduce curricula that would cut student-professor face time, replacing it with online materials or classes taught entirely online.
The move, which is in the testing stages and wouldn’t be expanded unless proven successful, would alter the time-worn tradition of vast lecture halls filled with scores of undergraduates listening to a single lecturer. But it’s part of a changing digital landscape that, in the course of just a few years, is prompting educators to rethink decades of conventional classroom methods.
The University system, which comprises the state’s 13 public universities, will likely be the first in the nation to implement the pilot program at a total of 11 system schools, with three pilot classes proposed at this university, officials said.
“These principles really come into play with large enrollment courses, where you’ve got hundreds if not thousands of students taking the course,” said system spokesman Donald Spicer. The changes are driven by needs to reduce space and staffing costs, he said, but also because educators are concerned students may not absorb enough information in large lecture settings that often have few assignments.
“The reason that we went with this particular idea of course redesign is that the evidence that [researchers] have put together suggests that just because we do things the same old way all the time doesn’t mean it’s the best way,” said Nancy Shapiro, a system associate vice chancellor who is helping lead the redesign.
Assisting the system is the National Center for Academic Transformation, which is contracted for three years at $100,000 annually. The partnership redesign in the early stages is especially targeting classes students are most likely to drop or fail, Spicer said.
“It doesn’t help anybody if a student drops out after five weeks,” he said. “It just impedes their progress and adds to the cost of their education.”
At this university, proposals are on the table for PSYC221: Social Psychology, ENGL234: Introduction to African-American Literature and SPAN303: Approaches to Cultural Materials in the Hispanic World, according to Donna Hamilton, dean of undergraduate studies.
But students shouldn’t look for the end of large lecture style classes anytime soon. Although the company contracting with the system provides clients with options such as CD-ROM simulations and online quizzes to supplement class material, if instructors want to maintain large lecture-style classes, they still can.
At the University of Colorado, Boulder, for example, an introductory astronomy class features a professor holding a twice-weekly lecture, with an overview in the first class followed by questions posted online that students answer together in small learning teams. Each team posts its answers online and the professor uses the second class section to discuss questions that garnered a variety of responses from the team.
Other options include reducing or completely eliminating class time by posting interactive learning activities online, while others tailoring courses to each student’s learning style, according to company’s website.
“All of the courses will include a technology component but the goal is not to put it all online,” Hamilton said. “These are lead professors and they will still be the lead professors in these courses.”
But there is a fair chance classes such as social psychology could forfeit in-class discussion sections for online programming, Hamilton said. She added that such a move would free up classrooms and increase efficiency.
“If you have one part of it that doesn’t require students to come into a room, it means you freed up that resource of a classroom,” she said.
The first pilot classes will likely debut in spring 2008, with full implementation across all the sections of the course scheduled for fall 2008, Spicer said.
“We view this as a three-year project and we’re in the first six months of that,” he said. “We have to give faculty and students the time to figure out how to do this.”
Contact reporter Sara Murray at murraydbk@gmail.com.
