Not making students wait to earn a grade

Looking at course scheduling from a flip side: in a semester system, we are making students wait 15/16 weeks before earning a grade. Why? Why can't they complete the 45 hours of instruction sooner? 

Well, they can. It deals with having the instruction and assessment separate. As long as we can account for those hours, then it should be ok for them to assess for the student learning outcomes. 

Our students are finding alternate methods of education

Because our schools are so expensive many of our students (or to be students) are fleeing to Canada for their higher education. In many instances, tuition falls under 10k for their degree. We certainly have to figure out a way to be more efficient in order to provide a high quality level education while also saving our students money. It is certainly not an easy task. Cutting spending and maintains quality does not always fit in the same sentence. However, efficient scheduling and responsible spending are just two ways it can be accomplished.

Shorter Sessions and Moving Entry Points

Someone recently asked me to think about shorter sessions and moving entry points.

Here are my thoughts:

1. We have to identify courses than lend themselves to a modular environment. Or, transition to it.
2. More importantly, we should separate learning events from assessment events. Or at least not tie them to each other. Why does someone have to wait until we are past the unit to be assessed? That’s the thinking behind this.

With these two things in mind (and others) in trying to change a semester model, I would start by

1. Making online courses 8 weeks (period, whether or not they will be modularized). This fits in the current semester model. With this, a student that is two weeks late for the semester can start in 6 weeks. Although, I think 6 weeks is too long, so maybe have 4-week modules in an 8-weeks course, so that the student can start half way without a problem or we can have 8-week courses starting every 4 weeks. 
2. For that last thought and maybe in general, we cannot offer things that give student too many choices at the same time. Why dilute our offerings by having too many choices? So, instead of offering 262 and 263 at the same time and having 10ish in each, we offer 262 now and 263 alternating to it. This is only for those low enrolling courses. Of course, we have classes that we can run all year long and be full (ENGL, MATH, BIOL, etc). 
3. Ok, so now we have, hopefully, been able to create learning events and assessments that can be done in 4-week modules inside an 8-week course. So, we move this to the local environment. Assessments would remain online while learning events happen in the classroom (easy, right?). Well, it would require faculty to follow the same 8-week course schedule that was done already, so we (and students) would know what will be thought each live-session of the 8 weeks. Now, students can either start a course half way or wait until the next one begins. If we can have starts every 4 weeks, then I would do that.

Sharing an Article on HyFlex Classes

This article does an excellent job at explaining the competency-based learning models I have discussed. It is more of a flexible hybrid course with learning sessions and assessments being separate along with having support available for our students. http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7066.pdf

 

Going Beyond the Credit Hours

The conversations about direct assessments continue. Below is an article on going beyond the credit hour, which is a great thing to do. However, we should also stay focus on the other higher education mission, which is to provide a learning environment. Even those with previous experience can learn more and become even more of a well-rounded individual.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/03/19/feds-give-nudge-competency-based-education

Letting Students Choose their Learning Platform

More than 30% of college students nation-wide take at least one online course (http://sloanconsortium.org/news_press/january2013_new-study-over-67-million-students-learning-online). I’m sure there were several reasons for this (not withstanding that some courses are only offered inline due to declines in enrollment).  Other reasons may fall in line for the purpose of online education such as flexibility, convenience, practicality from the student’s perspective.

What if we were to combine this? The hybrid format comes up where students attend a portion of the class online and the other portion in person.

What if we did it better? We give the student the total option of attendance. The material is delivered in various ways: online and in-person; then, giving the option to the student as to what format they wish to learn from.

It may not be quite just from a learning standpoint to expect a commitment to all-online or all-live for the full quarter or semester without taking under consideration that even within a course material can be best delivered in various ways and people learn things differently depending on the concept. With this in mind, the commitment is then to complete the content of the course and all the required assessments in a certain period of time regardless of where the information came from.

Of course, as higher education, we should create a model example of credible, valid, and reliable sources of information by developing material to be delivered in various ways (and sharing). 

Universities earn an F accoring to Strategy-Business

While colleges and universities accomplish their goal of educating their students and awarding degrees based on what the students have demonstrated they know, this article points out a few areas in which we can do better:  completion, cost, employer needs, retention, and others:  http://www.strategy-business.com/article/00147?gko=da535