UCF is redesigning the foundational Business curriculum from a large-scale lecture capture model to a new model of instruction combining blended, adaptive, and active learning. Goals are enhanced student engagement and increased success—at scale.
The College of Business at the University of Central Florida (UCF) is one of the largest at the university with approximately 9,000 students. Each of the college’s undergraduates must pass through a defined core introductory curriculum of subjects such as Accounting and Finance. The current dean inherited an instructional model that uses lecture capture as the means to manage the scale of teaching such a large number of entering students, before they are sorted into majors.
However, he has grown increasingly dissatisfied with what he describes as the phenomenon of the “invisible student.” It’s simply too easy for students to float anonymously through these large foundational courses taught through lecture capture. The dean has a vision of engagement for the college’s students and desires to challenge them.
The Division of Digital Learning has partnered with the college to redesign more than 15 foundational courses, eliminating lecture capture in favor a brand new modality that combines blended learning, adaptive online learning, and technology-enhanced classroom-based active learning. At the institutional level, this new modality has been labeled RA: Reduced Seat Team Active Learning. The college has “private labeled” the institutional modality definition for their own students, calling these courses REAL: Relevant Engaged Active Learning.
The premise behind the design is that we will sub-divide each very large lecture capture course (1,000 or more enrollments) into six smaller cohorts. Each cohort will meet on a regular basis for a total of five times throughout the semester. When students do meet, it will no longer be in a lecture format but in an active learning format where students are grouped together and collaborate on applied case studies, problems, and other activities. In the intervening weeks when not meeting face-to-face, students are completing structured online activities and in many cases are working through custom-developed adaptive courseware.
Upon clonclusion of the session, participants will be able to:
1. Explain how blended, active, and adaptive learning can be combined to enhance student success
2. Identify the leadership activities necessary to implement such a large academic transformation
3. Explain the support resources including personnel, time, and funding required