Epiphanies at the Second NCAT Redesign Alliance Conference

I am writing from the second Annual NCAT Redesign Alliance Conference in Orlando, Florida. This three day conference (March 16-18, 2008) is a gathering of higher education professionals that have received NCAT funding in the past, who may have just begun an NCAT-associated course redesign or who are generally interested in the redesign process. This is the place to be if you are interested in the large-scale course redesign process promoted by NCAT, although the best practices being discussed would be suitable in both large and small scale course design.

Who are the conference attendees? There are over 400 people here! There are faculty, administrators, instructional and technology staff, student affairs professionals and even a number of folks from publishers and software firms.

There are thirty individuals from Ohio institutions, including representatives from Lorain Community College, Central Ohio Technical College, Hocking College, Miami University of Ohio, Ohio State University, University of Dayton, Cleveland State Community College, Columbus State Community College, and the Ohio Learning Network. Maybe next year we could see more?

Since this is only the second annual conference of the Redesign Alliance, it may be inappropriate to draw generalizations, but an emerging trend is to send teams of individuals from an institution. That’s especially true of Lorain County Community College. Under the very capable leadership of Karen Wells (Provost/VP), Lorain has 14 individuals here!

The teams from Ohio and elsewhere represent diverse backgrounds. There are IT folks, librarians, student affairs, registration, learning support etc. So here is the first epiphany of the conference: It takes a team effort to foster significant course redesigns.

This team-approach can be challenging for some faculty who consider themselves as the sole planners of the educational experience. Yes, they may be content experts and represent their profession, but the learning enterprise is woven from the expertise of many individuals. Significant course redesign calls on the skills of everyone involved in higher education.

During the conference I noted that the institutional teams were not only learning from other attendees, but they took time out to connect within the team. It turns out that it is difficult for team members to meet on their own campus. Taking time to do so at the conference makes sense – because they need to exchange ideas and develop plans collaboratively.

So another important idea to emerge from the NCAT process I feel is the importance of time for the team members to work together: Create ways to build community and foster dialog amongst course redesign team members.

It’s interesting to see the breadth of disciplines present. All disciplines are amenable to redesign. Science and math courses are popular choices… perhaps with the most to gain. Social science courses are another substantial presence at the conference. But humanities are growing in presence too. English and language course redesign (e.g. Spanish) are growing in number and were represented by several successful implementations. But regardless of the subject, the redesigned courses were primarily in the top 25 highest enrollment courses. Since they impact so many students, typically in the first year or as the first step into a major, it makes sense to make these courses more learner-centered. There are some folks considering graduate level courses, but the majority of the people at the conference (representative of NCAT funding), are associated with undergraduate program at both 2 and 4 year schools.

The reasons to make changes are becoming ever more obvious. The keynote speaker was Kati Haycock, the president of the Education Trust. Her compelling presentation demonstrates that we have seriously failed to support the learning needs of many children in K-12 and students in higher education. Despite the rhetoric associated with prominent programs designed to support minority and socioeconomically challenged populations, her data reveals that education has become increasingly stratified. We need to do much better to meet the needs of our increasingly diverse student populations.

At a much shorter presentation, an equally compelling reason for rethinking higher education came from Tom Meredith, the Commissioner of Higher Education for the Board of Trustees of the Mississippi State Institutions of Higher Learning. Tom gave the broad context in which our graduates must compete in a global economy and that we need to do much more to stay competitive. This used to be something discussed in business classes, but now we all have to be concerned.

So another take home idea from the conference: Identify the compelling reasons for making course redesign. The reasons may be driven for a desire to build a more internationally-relevant curriculum, or to address Drop/Fail/Withdrawal (DFW) rates – but this is a critical step in creating faculty and administrative buy-in to the change process and ultimately frames the process of setting goals.