Course Transformation Proposal

The Course Transformation Program cohort for 2008-2009 has been announced. Congratulations to the recipient departments: Art, Communication Studies, Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Psychology, Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Spanish and Portuguese, and Writing Studies.

The call for the next cohort, AY 2009-2010, is currently planned for fall semester, 2008. Please check back for more information in the fall!

About the Program

The College of Liberal Arts Office of Information Technology (CLA-OIT) Academic Technologies in partnership with the CLA InfoTech Fees Committee, the CLA Office of Undergraduate Programs, and the Digital Media Center of the UMN Office of Information Technology is pleased to announce the Course Transformation Program, an exciting new initiative designed to empower energetic, creative, and motivated faculty members in the College of Liberal Arts who want to innovate in the field of technology-enhanced learning and put CLA at the forefront of 21st century undergraduate education. Interested faculty members are invited to apply to participate by proposing course redesigns that employ innovative teaching with technology strategies. This program, in alignment with the College of Liberal Arts strategic plan, will provide extraordinary undergraduate education that attracts the best students, engages them with the breadth and depth of knowledge in their academic fields, and aids them in developing the skills they need to understand and shape the world in which they live. Through the process of course redesign, faculty participants will:

Design and implement innovative approaches to teaching large introductory courses through the use of technology;
Experiment with emerging approaches to learner-centered assessment designed to better measure student learning outcomes;
Redesign course activities that give students an opportunity to practice skills and knowledge in a dynamic, technology-enhanced learning environment;
Model effective practices for evaluating the learning environment to ensure alignment and mutual reinforcement of individual components such as learning outcomes, assessment, and learning activities;
Explore the emerging field of educational technology;
Learn techniques for making thoughtful choices about technologies to use in support of the learning environment and the desired learning outcomes; and
Expand their academic publishing opportunities via the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Benefits to Faculty

Enhanced student learning: Instructors will redesign courses to engage students in the process of discovery, meet student learning needs more effectively, and better assess student understanding.
Increased familiarity with scholarship in Teaching and Learning: By redesigning courses, faculty can benefit from, and contribute to, scholarly publishing in the teaching of their academic field.
Increased efficiency: Redesigning courses using technology can enable faculty to focus time and effort on course aspects that are most crucial for student learning.
Innovation in the academic discipline: By sharing knowledge and experience from their own teaching practice, faculty can influence how courses are redesigned and taught in their department, and even in their academic fields.
Collaboration and engagement with students: Instructors will have the opportunity to collaborate and design directly with students as they envision new ways of teaching their courses. Students gain deeper understanding through working closely with faculty.
Increased teaching success: By innovating in the field of course redesign, instructors will have the opportunity to examine and improve their own teaching practice.

Benefits to the Department

Departments can also benefit greatly from their support of faculty members involved in the initiative. First, course redesign can be used to create programmatic efficiencies. In some cases, course redesign may allow departments to reach previously inaccessible populations of students, for example via distance learning. Additionally, the use of cutting edge teaching and learning practices can be leveraged to improve student perceptions of the redesigned course, the program, and the major, potentially increasing interest and enrollment in departmental majors. Further, course transformation can be used as an opportunity to restructure curricula in order to realign courses and programs with CLA and University initiatives, such as the UMN student development and learning outcomes documents published in May 2007. Finally, in an era of accountability and evidenced-based learning, course redesigns can be used to align programs with accreditation requirements.

Is Your Course a Candidate?

"Introductory courses not only are a key part of the freshman experience, but also shape learning for the years ahead by providing gateways to core disciplines of knowledge" - CLA Strategic Plan 2007, p. 12

Your course is a candidate for the program, if it:

Is a 1000- or 3000-level introductory course in the College of Liberal Arts
Enrolls mostly freshmen and sophomores
Enrolls 50 or more students each time it is offered
Fulfills a major or liberal education requirement

Course Team Approach

At the heart of the Course Transformation Program is the Course Team. This Course Team will work with consultants from the Digital Media Center and with other Course Teams involved in the program. Each Course Team will be asked to commit, depending on the scope of the curricular transformation, to one to two hour monthly meetings for a 12-18 month period. The ideal team will be comprised of 3-5 individuals including one faculty subject matter expert or consultant, one undergraduate student currently or previously enrolled in the course, and other faculty or staff associated with the delivery of the course. Through active participation in the process, undergraduate students on course teams will take a leadership role by gathering and providing feedback on ideas and implementation of new strategies.

Departments will elect course team members who are interested in taking a scholarly and collaborative approach to offering an enriched teaching and learning experience via a course redesign process.

Funding

Each course team is eligible to receive a total of $12,000 to be distributed such that $5,000 is for student support (student members of the course team will be compensated at an hourly rate for their participation); $4,000 for the faculty team leader(s); and $3,000 for the development costs such as equipment and software.

In addition, the program will match departmental funds for 1-2 course team members to present their course redesign experience and outcomes at professional conferences.

For more information, contact:
Jen Mein, Director of Academic Technologies
College of Liberal Arts - Office of Information Technology
jen@umn.edu, direct: 612-625-3838