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In an ever-changing technologically diverse world, status quo won’t work. Change is necessary, including the way students are taught.
The Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering is at the forefront of this effort to improve student success, participating in the Crimson Course Transformation Initiative, a project sponsored by the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning.
Faculty meetings began in the spring semester. They met daily for three weeks during a May workshop.
Akesha Horton, Luddy director of curriculum and instruction, said the initiative’s objective is to transform first- and second-year introductory courses and curriculums by designing them based on the needs of enrolled students.
“Faculty use their vast experience in the discipline,” she said, “as well as various data points to help them understand the diverse array of students in their classes.
“While all the faculty are experts in their disciplines, they are constantly asked to understand that they are teaching novices. This requires them to think through what novices need.”
Shalaunda Reeves is an assistant professor of STEM education at the University of Tennessee. She participated in the workshop, which was led by Greg Siering, IU CITL director.
Reeves has previously supported course design initiatives at the University of Florida, the University of Michigan and the University of Tennessee.
During the workshop, participants stressed that struggling students still care. It’s finding new ways to reach them, work with them, and more effectively teach them in a sustainable structure. How can faculty build more cohesive courses, develop better assessments and create a smooth handoff for future instructors?
Reeves said the goal is to get faculty thinking about the learner experience in each course.
“As a novice learner, what will the journey look like from start to finish,” she said. “How are we communicating the ways of thinking and knowing within our domain to those novice learners?”
Reeves said change doesn’t mean etched-in-stone guidelines.
“Changing the elements is predicated on what the goal is and what the needs of the students are. How are we supporting them?”
Because these are introductory courses, students won’t become experts, she added, but they should make progress.
“There is a big difference between an expert and a novice,” Reeves said. “If you think about getting a degree, in each course it’s a user journey. Each course is a layer of getting students to transition from novice to expert. The whole purpose is in what ways are we supporting that transition.”
Reeves added she normally works with one department at a time. At IU, she had faculty from chemistry, math, computer science, informatics and business departments.
“I think of departments and domains as cultures,” she said. “There are ways of thinking and knowing for each domain. Each domain has different needs. I tell (the faculty), meet the needs of your users. Figure out how to best meet their needs to better support learners.”
Reeves said faculty from each department can learn from each other because a lot of these courses feed off each other. She said math supports many of the STEM courses. It might help chemistry faculty to hear what math faculty say about what they’re teaching so chemistry instructors can better teach their students.
Mehmet Dalkilic, Professor of Computer Science/Data Science/Adjunct Statistics and director of Data Science Undergraduate Program, is working on C200/H200 Introduction to Computers and Programming, a class he created as an alternative to the traditional pathway into programming. He said IU has identified several classes that are critical to the ecosystem and that students find daunting because of the content. The goal is to improve their understanding to ensure their success.
He said the typical ways to measure success are through homework and exams, but is there a more effective way to serve students?
Dalkilic said faculty are considering factors of students that historically not been considered; they seek to build an environment that gives obvious learning signals not only through lectures, but on Canvas.
He said that this summer, faculty are “learning how to employ these principles broadly and specifically. We are working with some of the people going through actual lectures to restructure them so the signaling is clear.”
In other words, teach in ways students better understand rather than how professors have taught for years.
“That’s refreshing,” Dalkilic said.
Mitja Hmeljak, Luddy senior lecturer in Computer Science, said one objective is to evaluate students in terms of their backgrounds, goals and academic status.
“It would be useful to know more about prospective students, in terms of their backgrounds, goals and academic status,” he said. “It's important to check whether a specific course would be a good match, or if students might be better served by another equivalent class.
“One of the goals is to better identify how the class we teach matches (students') expectations from the course, and our expectations from students.”
Hmeljak said faculty look at the design of the classes, “not only from the content point of view, but many other aspects, as well.
“The work we went through in the spring semester was different than what we’re doing during the summer. Now it’s much more intense.”
He said they are working with specialists to re-design and re-appraise classes.
“The next step is to plan course revisions for the fall semester.”
Other Luddy School participants were Chase McCoy, lecturer, and Logan Paul, senior lecturer, for I-110: Introduction to Informatics.
Horton said the course’s design process allows faculty to evaluate their discipline’s big ideas and how those ideas are distributed throughout the course. Faculty also examine potential assumptions and misconceptions that students might have about the content, and then align in-class assessments and feedback in ways that support the growth of novice learners.
She added that course designers need to think through what roles the instructor is asking students to engage in during course activities.
“What supports can help students develop into scholars and feel like they belong in the course and discipline. This might include metacognitive practices such as study skills that are specific to the discipline.”
The bottom line, Reeves said, is “Some of the faculty are doing great jobs, but they just might not be communicating it in a way that is meaningful for students.”
The Crimson Course Transformation Initiative is part of a larger goal to attract more women and underrepresented minorities to STEM fields to meet the workforce demands of the future.
Luddy School Dean Joanna Millunchick acknowledged the challenges that come from curriculum changes and the work faculty are doing to embrace them.
“I’m so appreciative of the incredible work the Luddy faculty are doing to help revise these courses. Their effort will positively impact students for years to come.”