Evolve Allan asked that we speak to you about change. I want to talk to you about change and about evolution. Let me start by telling you a little about the organization that makes this conference possible.

CAUSE Back in 2001 an organization called the Consortium for the advancement of undergraduate statistics education was formed. People from all over the country, from small schools, big schools, public, private. But the thing we had in common was that we wanted to make teaching statistics better.

CAUSE So we sat in a room for a couple of days and brainstormed how we could pull it off. We wanted to provide a conduit for resources and research, that many of you know now as CAUSEweb. We also wanted to bring people together for a conference on teaching statistics so that we could share ideas.

CAUSE So we sat in a room for a couple of days and brainstormed how we could pull it off. We wanted to provide a conduit for resources and research, that many of you know now as CAUSEweb. We also wanted to bring people together for a conference on teaching statistics so that we could share ideas.

About that same time I started doing workshops for teachers of statistics. I would go out and spread the word about GAISE guidelines and how I had taught stats. I would show them how to use technology and active learning. The workshop participants thought felt they learned a lot.

In a 3 day workshop they got too much In a 3 day workshop they got too much. They felt they overwhelmed and couldn’t do everything. My advice to them was simple. For your course it is evolution not revolution. Start small and add a few things at a time. Each semester add in a few things that make your class better. Small changes rather than a complete redo.

While I was working on improving our courses and implementing GAISE, my students were changing. Our students are now much more connected to technology. My average student has over 500 facebook friends.

So I followed my own advice and further evolved my course So I followed my own advice and further evolved my course. I flipped my course. Now my students spend two hours per week listening to my voice on their computers and meet with grad students one day a week. My course has evolved over the past 10 years to be something that is very different.

This made me think about how evolution This made me think about how evolution. Many people incorrectly think that individuals develop characteristics to match their environment. I was making small changes to match the environment. But that is not how evolution works.

The smiledon, the saber tooth cat wasn’t sitting around one day thinking, “wow if I grow my teeth out I can have elephant for dinner.” The smiledon was a freak. She was the weirdo with a deformity. Because of outside pressures Smiledon survived for a few hundred thousand years.

The big teeth meant that she got lunch, her kittens survived to the next generation and became the force to be reckoned. Evolution doesn’t make small changes that adapt to a situation. Changes happen, outside forces kill off the examples that don’t work. What does this mean for our courses?

What does this mean for our courses What does this mean for our courses? It means that courses that don’t have an evolutionary advantage will starve to death. The outside forces will turn some of our courses into fossils. In 10 years some of our courses will be gone. Not because of something we did, but because nature and happenstance put an end to them.

What is going to kill us off. It is the book keepers What is going to kill us off? It is the book keepers. The dean or the department head that says do more with less. It is the state legislator that sends down a mandated curriculum. Students looking for the easiest way through the hurdles that college puts forth. Our online environments are giving students options to find courses elsewhere. Where will they get the best grade, which will require the least work, which will cost the least.

If your course doesn’t have evolutionary advantages the administration may see no value in it. This is a different world. Now we must seriously ask who will teach our courses? This is really scary.

I want my courses to be a lion I want my courses to be a lion. He dines out on water buffalo, gazelle and zebra five nights of the week. He is the top of his food chain. Hyenas pick at his table scraps. But if my courses here at NCSU survive does that mean your courses go the way of the smiledon?

I want my courses to be a lion I want my courses to be a lion. He dines out on water buffalo, gazelle and zebra five nights of the week. He is the top of his food chain. Hyenas pick at his table scraps. But if my courses here at NCSU survive does that mean your courses go the way of the smiledon?

No. Your course can survive too No. Your course can survive too! Because what works for some doesn’t necessarily work for others. What works on the Serengeti doesn’t necessarily work well in the mountains of north America or the jungles of the subcontinent. There is room for all of us to win.

But you may be saying, I am not at a big university, I don’t have the resources to compete with the big cats. I don’t have 20 grad students to put to work. Nature has a place for the lynx, the bobcat, the ocellot and even the house cat. Just because you are small doesn’t mean you are destined to go extinct.

Don’t wait for someone else to make your course better Evolve Don’t wait for someone else to make your course better Take what you have learned at USCOTS and INNOVATE My message is that your course should evolve. Don’t wait for someone else to make your course better Take what you have learned at USCOTS and INNOVATE. Build on those ideas. Develop your own evolutionary niche.

Don’t stop making changes! Evolve Don’t stop making changes! Keep trying new things! Come back to USCOTS and tell us about them. And don’t stop making changes. Keep trying new things. And come by back to USCOTS and tell us about them.