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Instructional Design Discussion Notes

Learning Support and Instructional Design was one of four shared areas of interest for participants at the East Georgia CCG Regional Meeting held at Augusta University on March 7, 2016. Brief notes from the breakout conversation on this isse at the meeting follow:

Key Concern: Remediation instructional model seems inefficient in some modes of implementation.

Observation: There are a wide variety of instructional designs for both remediation and core courses within the humanities and sciences.

Information on best fits for these strategies is not always shared across institutions or the System

One Solution to design: Create a catalog of instructional delivery models for learning support and share broadly across the System.

Discussion Notes

  • There has been a move to encourage students in non-STEM programs to pursue quantitative reasoning as their math
  • Faculty resistance in the humanities, however, has students taking a college algebra pathway. 
  • Because of this, there are sections of quantitative reasoning at East Georgia that are chronically underenrolled.
  • Suggestion was made that program maps with pathways can provide some relief from this; with disciplines having to select the math pathway for their students based upon the discipline’s expectations and demands.
  • With respect to the design of learning support, East Georgia is also struggling to maintain attendance in the corequisite learning support course that accompanies the collegiate math course (English may also face a similar problem). Because the course is offered for institutional credit only, and is not required to satisfy exit from learning support, student enrollment in sections of LS drops dramatically throughout the year
  • It was noted that the model of having a separate class meeting for LS may contribute to some of this drop off.
  • Concern was most significant that this was an inefficient use of faculty resources—each section of Math with a LS student has its own LS support section. This results in faculty teaching fewer courses because of the additional hour of instruction.  Since this additional hour is being poorly utilized as the semester advances, there is an efficiency loss.
  • Other options for delivering learning support were discussed, including using MyMathLab as a required component of a math lab for LS students, creating an emporium model for the LS component of the course, and shifting to an emporium model for math overall.
  • The emporium model was noted for its efficiency and ability to expand to support more students without having to add additional staff or faculty.  The model also allows advanced undergraduate students to serve as teaching assistants/peer instructors/mentors, expanding the range and flexibility of offerings. 
  • Georgia College offers a “drop in” model for the emporium lab component; students take a 90 minute lecture and then must spend an additional 3 hours in the computer lab, which is staffed and monitored by faculty and undergraduate assistants.  Other approaches might include extended lab requirements for LS students, or specific lab times for students with LS requirements.
  • A further challenge was seen in having inconsistent curriculum across sections; Instructors in math at East Georgia each develop their own syllabus, which complicates providing learning support to students from different sections in the same setting.  Other disciplines (most especially lab science) have coordinated syllabi, so this option is a possibility to streamline the program.
  • It was noted that students are often resistant to flipped/emporium models, at least at first, because the approach places the burden for learning the material on the student, which is generally an unfamiliar concept. Using this model in science has allowed for more time to be spent in the classroom in experimentation and application of research concepts.
  • Finally, it was noted that instructors may not offer sufficient markers of progress to students for them to gauge their status in a course prior to the withdrawal point.  This also tends to mean that students may get to the course midpoint with no indicator that they should seek additional support in order to succeed.  It was noted that it is not unreasonable to expect faculty to provide regular, early grades or other indicators for students in order to help them make course decisions and to intervene to improve their performance when possible.