Mississippi Course Redesign Initiative Department of Biological Sciences Mary Celeste Reese The Replacement Model: Plants and Humans Animal Biology

 Plants and Humans and Animal Biology are the most popular non-majors science courses at MSU.  Because of constraints, a bottleneck typically occurs.  3 primary factors contribute to bottleneck: 1. Lack of wet lab space. 2. Lack of large lecture halls. 3. Lack of resources to hire additional instructors.  Finally, there is a lack of interactive learning

 Each semester, ~200 students enroll in each course.  2 conventional lectures are delivered weekly for 50 minutes each.  Students acquire notes through PowerPoint slides.  Labs meet once per week for 2 hours and involve watching videos and performing simple lab exercises.

 To reduce the bottleneck ◦ How? By reducing the number of lectures per week to 1 but keeping 2 sections. ◦ Enrollment can be doubled. ◦ We converted wet labs to virtual labs. ◦ Students’ lab time will be spent in open-schedule, emporium-style computer labs staffed by GTA’s to assist them.  To create a more interactive course and inspire life-long learning in the sciences. ◦ How? In-class time will be spent in active-learning exercises like case studies and group discussions. ◦ Course content delivered through Blackboard.

 Currently, we are running one in-class section per week.  Virtual labs are up and running: students complete a virtual lab exercise (created by publishing company) delivered through Blackboard.  Students then take a quiz on the completed lab assignment at a designated time in a computer lab.

 Grant idea seemed the perfect fit for the issues we were facing in our 2 non-majors courses: the bottleneck and limited lab space.  Enrollment in the courses was completely dependent on these factors.  Also, we saw an opportunity to create more interactive and engaging science courses.

 Faculty Support: ◦ Department head saw this grant as a way to alleviate the issues we were facing. ◦ Tenure-track faculty reviewed our grant proposal prior to submission. All were onboard.

 A newly formed peer-teaching committee has been formed.  Through the action of this committee, I hope to show colleagues the benefits of our redesign.

 Initially, some administrators (and advisors in other departments) had a difficult time with the class schedule format. ◦ Why is class meeting once per week? ◦ Why are labs meeting for 25 minute intervals?  With some explanation about the redesign’s attributes, specifically its cost effectiveness, those administrators are not asking questions anymore.

 “Technology is great…when it works.”  Biggest obstacle so far: compatibility.  Camtasia = my worst nightmare. ◦ Camtasia is software that allows you to voice over your powerpoints. ◦ File size can be very large. ◦ Students must have the right plug-ins, fast internet, etc. ◦ Lack of technical support staff for this particular type of software.

 Virtual labs are running smoothly.  Positives of virtual labs: ◦ Students are challenged. ◦ Cost-effective. ◦ Time flexibility for students.  Negatives of virtual labs: ◦ Students complain that they do not get enough one-on-one time with GTA’s when they need help. ◦ Emporium-style labs will be fully implemented in the fall which should offset this issue.