Open AccessThe Large Lecture Course Redesign Project: Pedagogical Goals And Assessment Results
Author(s) -
Norman D. Aitken
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the international college teaching methods and styles journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2157-880X
pISSN - 1548-9566
DOI - 10.19030/ctms.v1i2.5230
Subject(s) - mathematics education , class (philosophy) , project based learning , academic year , psychology , course evaluation , medical education , higher education , program evaluation , discipline , computer science , mathematics , medicine , sociology , statistics , artificial intelligence , political science , law , social science
An analysis and assessment of the Course Redesign Project, which used technology to improve student learning and course satisfaction in large lecture courses at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Six disciplinary-diverse departments participated in the project. Technology was selected for the purpose of introducing active learning into lecture halls and providing frequent feedback to students on their individual learning progress. The assessment methodology compares traditionally taught sections with redesigned sections, holding constant (where possible) such potential confounding factors as student academic ability, professor, textbook, day and time of class and the number, type and difficulty of exams and other graded assignments. The assessment of the project produced strong and significant statistical results that indicate that students across the broad spectrum of redesigned courses learned more and achieved higher grades than students in traditional sections. This occurred despite the fact that students in traditional sections had either the same or higher high school-grade point averages and SAT scores compared to students in the redesigned sections. The project included 12 traditional course sections with a total enrollment of 2,456 and 13 redesigned courses sections with a total enrollment of 3,101. The project was supported by a grant from the Davis Educational Foundation.