鈥淭his is a growing national recognition for the quality of 麻豆原创鈥檚 large online program and an increasingly prestigious reputation for the work we do,鈥� Cavanagh said.

Key to the CDL award was the work of the personalized adaptive learning team overseen by Baiyun Chen, he said.

Most of the award, $80,000, will be reinvested in the digital-learning operations. Two mathematics faculty members will share in the award. Associate lecturer Tammy Muhs and lecturer Rachid Ait Maalem Lachen, each will receive $10,000, Cavanagh said.

The consortium said the award recognizes 鈥減rojects that inspire innovation, increase access, support implementation, improve outcomes, enable accessibility and promote sustainability鈥� of digital courseware.

During the 2017-18 school year, about 82 percent of 麻豆原创 students took at least one online or blended course. About 73 percent of students took at least one class that was totally online.

One 麻豆原创 faculty member, however, has developed an online adaptive-learning approach teaching the subject that has drawn the interest of philanthropist Melinda Gates, who recently posted a and story on her social channels.

Gates met associate lecturer Tammy Muhs last year when the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation visited the 麻豆原创 campus to learn about the university鈥檚 teaching methods.

Through the years, Muhs said she has discovered that students in her algebra classes have varying levels of understanding, so some of them need more time to progress. Muhs also told Gates that observers often are surprised to find out that so many seniors are in her freshman algebra class 鈥� because some students put off the class out of fear, which often is the obstacle that keeps them from graduating.

Muhs鈥� online adaptive-learning technique helps the students move ahead at their own pace. This system allows her to tailor course lessons based on the students鈥� aptitude, and continually adapts based on individual comprehension.

For example, if students can quickly understand the material in Algebra I, they may also be able to finish Algebra II in the same semester.

Conversely, the adaptive-learning platform is designed to automatically provide remedial instructions for students who may be lagging behind.

In addition to providing what each student needs to succeed, the system can accelerate the path to a degree and save students money.

鈥淲ith personalized learning tools, Dr. Muhs is able to make even a class of 450 feel a little more like a class of five,鈥� Gates says. 鈥淎 student who is struggling is offered extra help. It鈥檚 like each student has a customized textbook that is constantly being rewritten just for them. And because Dr. Muhs is able to see the data in real time, she鈥檚 able to step in right away if a student needs her.鈥�

Gates said she hopes more schools can develop such personalized courses and follow 麻豆原创鈥檚 example.

鈥淣ot every student will be lucky enough to have a teacher like Dr. Muhs,鈥� Gates says. 鈥淏ut as the tools she used to design her course reach more faculty on more campuses, I hope to see more students across the country experience classes like the one she created for hers.鈥�

John Hitt wants the university鈥攁 public institution with more than 45,000 undergraduates鈥攖o be the premier institution for undergraduate teaching in the state of Florida, explains Alison Morrison-Shetlar, 麻豆原创鈥檚 former vice provost and dean of undergraduate studies, who recently began a new position as dean of Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences at Elon University. It was this goal that prompted the university to look into factors influencing student success, and the subsequent pilot projects in algebra and English composition. Called the President鈥檚 Class Size Initiative, the plan鈥檚 goal is not simply to reduce class sizes, but to find new ways to teach high-demand courses in smaller settings. The pilot projects are supported by 麻豆原创鈥檚 differential tuition, which all undergraduate students now pay on top of their regular tuition at a rate of about $8 per credit hour. Seventy percent of the differential tuition payment goes to undergraduate teaching and learning initiatives, and 30 percent goes to need-based aid awards. 鈥淎 lot of universities are forced to do nothing new, or even make reductions, during these tough economic times,鈥� Morrison-Shetlar says. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 visionary of our president to see that even when times are difficult, it鈥檚 important to improve learning and fund things that will make our future citizens and graduate and professional students more capable and more confident.鈥�

Building Better Introductory Courses

麻豆原创鈥檚 work on college algebra pedagogy actually began in 2008, when a grant from the National Center for Academic Transformation allowed Tammy Muhs, 麻豆原创鈥檚 general education program mathematics coordinator, and some of her colleagues to attend a conference on improving outcomes in entry-level math courses. Their goals were to increase student success as measured by course grades, to decrease dropouts, and to reduce costs. When the original grant ran out, the President鈥檚 Class Size Initiative provided funding for additional research and innovation. The mathematics department hired four additional full-time instructors in 2009, selecting people with extensive undergraduate teaching experience and a desire to work within a professional cohort to improve undergraduate education. This cohort set about to develop an introductory college algebra course that worked in a fundamentally different way than traditional first-year math courses.

麻豆原创

The English and math departments at 麻豆原创 recruited new instructors with extensive teaching experience who were willing to participate in ongoing professional development.

Historically, 麻豆原创 algebra classes featured a large lecture of 380 to 400 students meeting three times a week, plus smaller groups of thirty-five students meeting one hour a week with a graduate assistant, Muhs explains. In the modified course, instructors introduced a new pedagogical method: students meet for only one hour a week in the lecture hall with the instructor, and they sit in cohort groups of eighteen that allow more interaction and in-class collaborative problem solving. Then they spend three additional hours a week working in the Mathematical Assistance and Learning Lab鈥攖he MALL鈥攁t their own pace, with assistance available at all times. Morrison-Shetlar explains that entry-level math is many students鈥� stumbling block, and if they can鈥檛 get to calculus, they won鈥檛 be able to graduate in a STEM discipline. 鈥淲e changed the traditional model of 鈥榳atching math being done鈥� to focus on mandatory lab time with faculty and graduate mentors,鈥� she says. Muhs had noticed that students studying on their own would often get stuck on a problem and not be able to move on, and she designed the MALL to provide immediate assistance in those situations. 鈥淪tudents learn by doing,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just geared toward 鈥業 can鈥檛 figure out problem seventeen,鈥� it鈥檚 geared toward, 鈥業 don鈥檛 understand the concept.鈥欌��

Similar thought went into the redesign of first-year English composition classes. Using funding from the Presidents鈥� Class Size Initiative, the English department hired six new full-time instructors, all with extensive teaching experience and a willingness to do ongoing professional development. Courses were capped at twenty-five students, and some sections were even smaller, capped at nineteen, to allow instructors to spend more time providing detailed feedback on student papers. 鈥淐lasses used to be capped at twenty-seven students, and just taking it down eight students per teacher makes a huge difference鈥攁t a four-four course load, the difference is at least thirty-two fewer papers per teacher,鈥� explains Elizabeth Wardle, an associate professor of English and director of writing programs at 麻豆原创. The nineteen-student classes were taught using a new curriculum that focused on writing concepts and practices that were transferable across the curriculum. 鈥淲e call it writing about writing,鈥� Wardle says. 鈥淲e try to give students a flexible understanding of how writing works and how different situations require different rhetorical approaches. The idea is that they鈥檙e reflecting on their writing, they have meta-awareness, and they can adapt. 鈥� In one assignment, students write an autoethnography; in another, they study scholarship about how writers and readers construct and approach texts. 鈥淲e want them to own the writing process and be active agents, instead of floating along and asking the teacher, 鈥榃hat do you want me to do?鈥欌�� Wardle says.

The university writing center also received a boost with funds from the class size initiative, hiring additional undergraduate and graduate tutors to provide more than seven hundred tutoring slots per week (up from about 450 in past years). 鈥淭he idea behind this initiative is that students do better with more support,鈥� Wardle says. 鈥淪tudents used to have to wait up to two hours for a writing tutor. More tutors mean students get the help they need.鈥�

Assessing Pilot Project Classes

麻豆原创 conducted assessments of both pilot programs to determine whether the pedagogical innovations and reduced class sizes paid off. In a fall 2009 comparison of traditional versus new sections of introductory college algebra, students in the new sections demonstrated higher percentages of success, defined as achievement of a C or higher. Of students in traditional courses, 62 percent succeeded, while 75 percent of students in the new sections succeeded. And more students earned A鈥檚 or B鈥檚 in the new section, too鈥�62 percent, versus 56 percent in the traditional class sections. Muhs notes that there are several intervening factors to consider, including the fact that students who are STEM majors tend to select the traditional classes, and also tend to demonstrate better preparation for the algebra course than their non-STEM-major peers. Even so, she says, the new course format shows that it鈥檚 possible to bring less-prepared students up to and beyond the success level of their better-prepared peers. Muhs also assessed whether students felt the new course design provided sufficient interaction with faculty members. A fall 2009 survey found that 91 percent of respondents in the new course said the format provided at least as much faculty interaction as their other, traditional classes, while 61 percent said the new format actually provided more interaction that their traditional courses. 鈥淭hat really answered some of the critics who might say, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e taking away the teacher and the computer is doing all the teaching,鈥� Muhs says. 鈥淎 strong student will probably be successful in college algebra regardless of the format. But we鈥檙e providing the resources for a weak student to also be successful.鈥�

In the English department, Wardle and her colleagues compared learning outcomes for students taking the redesigned English composition course and the traditional course. They also investigated differences in the three class sizes鈥攖wenty-seven students, twenty-five students, and nineteen students. Using student portfolios randomly sampled from all introductory composition classes, a panel of trained raters read each work sample and rated its demonstration of ten criteria, including college-level thinking, rhetorical analysis, and correct use of citations. The assessment team found that the new curriculum consistently outperformed the old curriculum, and that the nineteen-student classes using the new curriculum performed best on measures of higher-order thinking. 鈥淭he new curriculum is having the effect we wanted, and when you have fewer students, they do even better on the measures that matter,鈥� Wardle says.

Both Muhs and Wardle stress that dedicated, experienced instructors who are paid fairly are a requirement for success, and that without support from the university鈥檚 highest levels, especially the president鈥檚 office, the gains their pilot programs demonstrated would not be possible. The university is now working to develop a plan to expand the methods used in English and algebra to other high-demand courses primarily for first-year students. 鈥淭he take-home point is that it鈥檚 the combination of the new curriculum plus full-time, committed teachers and smaller class size that makes the difference,鈥� Wardle says. 鈥淪maller class size isn鈥檛 the Holy Grail on its own. You need committed teachers making living wages, too.鈥�

Source: Association of American Colleges & Universities, Increasing Student Success: Smaller Classes, Innovative Pedagogy at 麻豆原创