MU continues to improve high enrollment classes

Amelia Carpenter

Miami University's Top 25 Initiative will continue to redesign courses meant to engage students and enhance the student experience. Now in its fourth round, more courses are gradually being worked into the redesign process each year.

"The fourth group of courses are now just entering the planning for redesign stage," said Cecilia Shore, director of center for enhancement of learning and teaching. "The proposals are (going to) be due at the end of this month."

Provost Jeffrey Herbst explained the Top 25 courses are the ones that account for 24 percent of total student credit hours that are at the introductory level.

There are five shared characteristics of these courses through the Top 25 program, offered in departments such as chemistry, economics and political science. One characteristic involved course redesigns, which "lead to increases in student satisfaction with their learning and with the course(s)," according to the Top 25 survey results from June 2009.

Results suggest no significant difference between traditional and revised courses' student satisfaction with their learning and the courses.

"We thought that it would make class more enjoyable and students would like those redesigned sections better and we don't have the data to support that," Shore said.

Contradictory of the June 2009 survey results, COM 135 has seen student satisfaction with the class increase.

"Student feedback has been a very positive, gradual increase," said Marjorie Nadler, communications professor. "Satisfaction's going up."

Students enrolled in COM 135: Public Expression and Critical Inquiry, now use new technology allowing them to become better and more confident speakers thanks to the initiative, Nadler said. They are now using server sites to watch themselves and evaluate their performance immediately after giving a speech. Miami also created a widget to help prepare for the impromptu speech each semester, according to Nadler.

"(We've) found data that says we've reduced communication anxiety," Nadler said. "Students are more comfortable speaking by the end."

She said Miami has supplied five classrooms equipped with a computer and recording system for the course on the Oxford campus. There is also one room in Hamilton and Middletown.

The department of communication is waiting on the university to hire a programmer so the technology that would be used in COM 135 may be finished, Nadler said.

COM 135 hopes to see its computer grading system return, which allowed faculty to give feedback during a student's speech on this system, according to Nadler.

Another course that experienced change was THE 191: Theater Appreciation. The class removed a number of online submissions and quizzes for fall 2009, which had been incorporated in previous semesters but is testing their effectiveness this spring, according to Steve Pauna, associate professor of theater at Miami. Students complained the online quizzes were difficult to navigate in previous semesters in THE 191, according to Pauna.

"(Last semester) was probably one of the better semesters," Pauna said.

Pauna said student comments are very important.

"We really do listen to student comments," Pauna said.

In fall 2009, students commented that THE 191 was more work than they expected, according to Pauna.

"(That's) a typical finding across a lot of the Top 25 courses," Pauna said. "(They're) a little bit more involved."

Sophomore Mark Badalamenti said he enjoyed his fall 2009 experience in THE 191 because of the student interaction and collaboration.

"Most of the other classes are lecture or individual work," Badalamenti said. "This required us to work with others to achieve a goal."

CSA 148, a class involving business computing, has narrowed lecture time down to twenty minutes as a result of the Top 25 project according to Drew Foster, course coordinator within computer science and systems analysis at Miami.

CSA 148 is based on improving critical thinking, an engaged or active learning environment, and moving away from boring lecture, Foster said. The class requires students to complete tutorials and cases by Sunday evening of the following week where those skills learned are discussed in brief lecture, and then applied to class activities.

"The question is: are we achieving our objectives?" Foster said.

To measure, students are asked questions of what they know the first day of class, and are asked the exact questions at the end of the course.

"There is an enormous jump in terms of their personal perception in what they know and can do," Foster said.

Sophomore Morgan Bissell felt CSA was a lot of work, but the course was well structured.

"CSA, I really liked because I thought the way it was structured it was really easy to learn all the material," Bissell said. "Even though there was a lot of work in the class, if you stayed up to date in everything it really wasn't that bad."

Shore said the continuous data collecting and analysis is being done to improve these courses and meet all five objectives, including student satisfaction.