How can course redesign foster student success? In this video, students provide their viewpoint on barriers to learning in a traditional lecture classroom and offer suggestions to improve courses. Dr. Eileen O'brien, professor of psychology at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, also shares her story of redesigning her Psychology 101 course. After successfully implementing online support, peer mentorship, and faculty collaboration, Dr. Eileen O'brien saw improvement in student participation, attendance and grades.
To learn more, watch other videos exploring Maryland's course redesign success featured here on CollegeProductivity.org
Maryland Success in Course Redesign
Comments
Hi Dr. O'Brien, you say that 'successful faculty question changing what they believe works'. What role do you see for data in proving that what they are doing in particular classes may not be working? After all, redesigns are usually done in classes with high failure rates. Has this kind of data helped create the will to change the way teaching is being done?
One of the challenges to course redesign was engaging seasoned faculty to explore new technologies. Successful faculty question changing what they believe works and stepping out of their comfort zone to embrace ever-changing technology. There truly is a learning curve for faculty and that "learning" time is critical to build in when planning redesigns. This is "front load" work that is critical for any successful redesign initiative.
Thank you Dr. O'Brien for sharing some thoughts about your experience with course redesign. You mention that faculty engagement is critical for making any redesign initiative succeed. As with so many things in education, without early buy-in and contributions from those charged with implementation, it's hard to see how this would succeed. How did Maryland engage faculty? What was the process and how early in the process were faculty involved? Were students involved at all? I look forward to watching these efforts evolve and seeing some evaluative data on their impact on student learning. Thanks again.
Yes, Bridget, our faculty drove this process. I took the lead and developed a Steering Committee of faculty, administrators, IT, Faculty Development, Student Services, The blackboard administrator, an Evaluator, and one graduate student who had TA'd in the course, and two undergrad students who had completed the course with a C or above. This committee met monthly and reviewed the proposed redesign, the online components, and provided input into the evaluation and data that would be helpful. Faculty Development was particularly helpful, along with IT, in assisting with faculty learning technologies. Buy-in was critical, and once this was achieved, we had a solid backing to move forward. I think the Steering Committee is essential.