Redesign of a Multi-Semester Introductory Redesign of a Multi-Semester Introductory CourseCourse

General Biology at Fairfield UniversityGeneral Biology at Fairfield University

Overview of Redesign Efforts The Past The Present & Future

Cost Savings & Pedagogical Improvements And reconciling the two

General BiologyGeneral Biology

Was a “chalk and talk” lecture format

Students were more passive than active & were unhappy with their educational experience (in more ways than usual)

Some Q & A, but it was mostly one-way communication

Technology was limited

THE PAST

2 Semester Course4 Faculty Each Semester

Simultaneous Lectures: same syllabus & timeDifferent (adjoining) Rooms

This General Biology course was resource “expensive” (space, time and money).

The Plan:

Move to “large” lecture hall

Create an active learning course built upon peer instruction.

Use laptops & wireless technology in lecture & laboratory Administration Buy In:

Redesigned an Existing Lecture Hall to Meet Our Curricular Goals

The redesigned course: The The redesigned course: The AlmostAlmost PresentPresent

The redesigned course: The The redesigned course: The PresentPresent

Redesigned syllabus to take advantage of technology

Incorporated student-centered, active-learning approaches to instruction

Laptops in the labFocused on depth of coverage not quantityEmphasized higher-order thinking (hypothesis testing, data analysis, data interpretation)

Costs Reduced # of professors in the course (CAVEAT)

Reassigned faculty time to other high priority courses Our realized savings in the laboratory were substantial

Funds re-directed towards important departmental goals

Pedagogy•Students attitudes increased dramatically

• Team work, technology and dynamic classroom were consistently cited as positives in the course

•Scores on common questions were higher (not significantly so) compared to the “old” course

•Increased number of declared majors by 4%

Cost Savings&

Pedagogical Improvements

Redesign spread through the curriculum