A Course by Any Other Name.v3

Editor's Notes

• #5: Masters level institution. 7 graduate level programs, no PhD The Elon Core Curriculum brings together all ten nationally recognized “high-impact educational practices” (AAC&U) into an engaging, integrated program of study: first-year seminars and experiences, common intellectual experiences, learning communities, writing-intensive courses, collaborative assignments and projects, undergraduate research, diversity and global learning, service learning and community-based learning, internships, and capstone courses. The high-impact practices are structurally embedded within the program for every undergraduate; they are not just special opportunities for some students. Our office has developed a reputation for developing research and publications that focus on unique student populations and student behavior in general. Most of our research specifically addresses challenges that certain subpopulations face, etc. or uncovers unknowns about students – essentially always trying to learn more about the students that we serve so that we can better serve them)
• #7: Four year planning, as encouraged by most academic advisors at Elon, is still largely a paper-based process. The Office of Advising offers major and minor checksheets which preclude the development of a flexible or dynamic plan. This has a direct impact on course selection at Elon, rendering it largely a linear and front-loaded process as opposed to a backwards-planned roadmap that enables agility and pivoting. Like many other institutions, Elon requires that all first-year students complete a one hour P/F seminar, the purpose of which is to orient students to the Elon experience and help them formulate a four-year plan. Elon 101 advisors are encouraged to play a role in encouraging course selection based both on personal interest and major selection – balance of exploratory course selection (sampling) versus charting progress towards degree completion There is tension in this idea, and we will circle back to it. Winter term tuition is included in fall tuition (students get to take a course that is essentially free) Summer term is a challenge, as students travel and go home, and a liberal transfer policy allows students to take courses at quite a few institutions for credit. However, our intelligence and forecasting activities over the last few years have enabled us to grow our summer college enrollment over the last few years in a time in which most institutions have seen declines. We have increased our net summer revenue over $2.5 mil over the last three years. Academic Catalog Course types, experimentation with course videos (this was met with criticism, difficulty)
• #10: Course selection is a specific type of decision-making, in which a prospective course of action must be chosen among alternatives, each related to a particular set of outcomes. Like most other types of decision-making, the agent usually must trade off certain utilities for others to reach a satisfying decision. Sometimes the decision is simple. I’m sure many of you made this decision over the last couple of days… Stairs or the escalator. It’s a trade-off. Each has utility, each will result in some level of satisfaction relative to your needs, your desires, your mood, and so on… Many decisions in life, of course, are more complex. Think about vacation planning: beach or mountains sounds simple, but of course involves different types of planning, different contingencies, costs, etc.
• #11: Though theoretically simple, the sheer number of factors that must be considered to make course selection decisions makes it rather complex. Some of these factors are within the student’s locus of control, like their bedtime and morning alarm, their out-of-class commitments, their discipline; others, like the term schedule, are not. Additionally, many students lack a clear and explicit understanding of their priorities and goals, making the CS process messy and disorganized. Few students create a term schedule perfectly on their first try without revisions. Course selections are latitudinal and longitudinally interdependent. In a given term, the decision to take one course will impact decision-making related to other courses: students must construct balance daily schedules or time slots – they cannot take two courses that occur at the same time; savvy students must also consider balancing workloads – most would not choose to take two lab sciences, calculus, and undergraduate research in the same term. Each choice modifies the considerations and the weighting of course characteristics for the next. The ultimate goal of modern higher education is the expansion of future occupational and educational opportunity. Frequently (especially among first and second-year students), the impact of course selection decisions is not readily apparent. Early decisions can determine later choices and may limit further possibilities. Many of these decisions can significantly impact the trajectory of a student’s college experience, but this impact cannot be easily captured by a course name or description. Particularly for students that change their major, certain course selections may actually result in additional courseloads or semesters because the original choices are no longer applicable. Because of the complex, interconnected nature of course selection, students seek shortcuts.
• #12: In decision theory, Decision-makers are assumed to be risk-averse. As in all other forms of decision-making, students will engage in risk mitigation while making course selections. Dennis Zocco of UC San Diego defined the key compound question that students face like this: (quote). Students appraise the potential benefits of a course, which include: Personal interest in the course or subject matter Intellectual challenge/rigor Demand on their time Grade potential Alignment with career goals Enjoyment of the classroom experience This of course is based entirely on the student’s perceptions, and will vary greatly from student to student.
• #13: Here are the common ways that students will attempt to mitigate this risk. Quote from Zocco was from his study at UC San Diego. Zocco found an inverse attribution of perceived risk among undergraduates and graduates: Undergraduates highest perceived risk factors were grade-related risks (what is the consistency of grade distribution, how often does the professor assign As) and the lowest risk factor were subject matter-related risks. Graduate students, on the other hand, appraised risk in quite the opposite way. They were most concerned with how relevant the subject matter was, and hardly worried at all about the grades they might earn. Interestingly, he found that risk perceptions vary across class standing among undergraduate students, but were very consistent across disciplines (business, arts & sciences)
• #14: There is merit to this idea, especially at larger institutions where, whether we like it or not, students are more often considered a number than an individual. In that frame of reference, is it more important to consider policies and procedures that mitigate risk for all students? Understanding this dynamic helps us improve our transactions with the student, but… Institutions, departments, faculty, and staff should take care to develop meaningful rapport and trust with students, thinking of them as more than mere customers The key question is, “Are your students strictly a user of a service, or should they be considered an integral part of the creation of the learning environment?”
• #15: Perhaps the most salient characteristic of course selection across the literature that we reviewed (studies conducted since 2000) was a strong work avoidance factor. Millennial students will avoid taking courses that require a significant amount of effort or present high expectations in terms of student output. Students will typically only compromise if they absolutely must take the course, or there are other course qualities that the student believes will outweigh or counterbalance its difficulty. While it may seem counterintuitive given the first point, students maintain a strong preference for “high learning value.” They want to gain relevant and useful knowledge, despite a demonstrated avoidance of hard work. Together, these two factors highlight a collective quality of millennial students – they seek efficiency. They want the shortest, least burdensome path to value as possible. In a study by Badad and Tayed in 2003, students were found to compromise on difficulty before compromising on learning value, choosing a high value, high difficulty course before choosing a low value, low difficulty course… but not by much. The only scenario in which a student would make a compromise to choose a difficult course was in the case of that same course having a high learning value and a high quality instructor. The researchers also found that students will choose a course with a poor quality lecturer before selecting a course with a high difficulty level. A separate study Course selection evolves over time - certain considerations progressively replaced others as predictors of SRT (students’ reports of teaching), reflecting students’ changing needs and values [experimental analysis, page 377] Not surprisingly, students attribute greater importance to selecting major-required courses. They will often prioritize the arrangement of ‘necessary’ courses over decisions that are relatively inconsequential. Across all publications reviewed, WOM was identified as the most important influencing factor in course selection. Much like in other decision-making activities, WOM can make or break the decision.
• #16: We spent a lot of time on ideation for this project. One iteration of the project involved a full-blown registration simulation, but we determined that while this was ambitious, it was entirely unfeasible with the resources available to us. We solicited input from the full registrar team, as each individual participates in some element of registration and/or advising. We also invited the full range of our student workers and research assistants to contribute their input. This was obviously valuable, as they have extensive experience registering for courses. Our Associate Provost of Curriculum and Assessment also offered his two cents.
• #17: Elon University has a site license for Qualtrics – we have used this platform for several other quantitative studies in the past We distributed to study to all undergraduate students; we were interested in the undergraduate course selection experience as there is much greater variety in courses and major track sequences. By contrast, our graduate level programs require a more rigid sequence of courses and often have similar titles. We wanted to keep the survey short to improve our response rate. We also offered an incentive for completing the survey, as well as for opting in for a follow-up interview.
• #18: Because we wanted to learn about the effect of course names on registration patterns (if any), we decided to develop this as a blind study, meaning that we did not reveal the intent of the study to students at its introduction. Also, though we decided that we could not produce a full-blown registration simulation, we created a simple one.
• #19: Students were asked to rank six courses by their preference for taking them. To reduce variance and the influence of factors other than course names, we created fake courses (these do not exist in our catalog), assigned them all a generic 200-level number, and did not offer course descriptions. The presentation of the courses in this question was randomized so as to prevent bias based on their ordering. Our two “test variable” courses were SOC 2XX Deviance and Social Control and ENG 2XX From Fiction to Film: Movie Adaptations. Specifically, we were focused on the influencing effect of the words “Deviance” and “Film.”
• #20: After ranking these courses by preference, students were then presented with Likert-scale questions for their top three choices. We used piped text to pull their top three choices. In this example, since we ranked REL 2XX as number one, we were asked about this course first. We asked if students has previous knowledge about this subject or course, whether they had a friend that has taken a course like it, whether it has an interesting title, and if it aligns with their interests. These questions were developed to be validated, so a student could not continue through the rest of the survey unless they selected a point on each Likert-scale.
• #21: After the Likert-scale questions about their choices, we asked students to think about their general registration experiences at Elon. They were asked to rank the course qualities here by importance during registration.
• #22: At the request of the Registrar, students were also asked Likert-scale questions about their inclination to take courses of interest if other factors, like time and costs, were not in effect. We also gauged interest in exploratory courses with the purpose of selecting a major (which we do not currently offer) and whether or not students take the time to research course descriptions before registering. These were also validated. We asked students to offer any additional thoughts they had about registration with a multi-line text entry field, and the survey ends with demographic questions.
• #23: This response rate is the highest of all studies that we have ever conducted. Before even looking at the results, we knew that students had plenty to say about selecting courses and registration.
• #25: So, who took our survey? We had a plurality of first-year students take this survey, but the distribution of years in school and major is pretty representative of our student population.
• #26: Despite having a population rati oof 42/58 male to female student ratio
• #27: Before the big reveal… Any guesses? What do you think students ranked at the top spot?
• #28: This is the frequency with which students ranked each of the dummy courses as their first or top choice. Interestingly, neither of our test variable courses – the courses with “interesting” or “alluring” words in their titles, were selected most frequently. It was actually PSY 2XX – Social and Personality Development.
• #29: This is the frequency with which students ranked each of the dummy courses as their first or top choice. You can see that our two test variable courses, SOC in red and ENG in yellow, have many more responses here than as compared to PSY in the top spot. As you might imagine, the third choice becomes more evenly spread…
• #30: This is the frequency with which each course was ranked last. The least popular course by this ranking was “Religion in the United States.”
• #34: For the rest of our analysis, we are going to focus on those top three choices – our two test variable courses and the surprise top-ranked course, PSY 2XX – Social and Personality Development. Test variable course 1: SOC 2XX Deviance and Social Control
• #49: This is a table of the mean position value of each factor among all students. The closer to zero, the higher the factor was ranked. On average, Elon students prioritize satisfying degree requirements above the other factors presented. This is followed by the professor’s reputation….
• #50: Interestingly, when we start cross-analyzing, we see differences among prioritization. First-year students ranked the importance of the course’s title higher than the undergraduate average, and the mean position of satisfying degree requirements, while still relatively lowest, is lower. The mean value of the satisfies a degree requirement item is 1.75 for first-year. Interesting title has a mean value of 2.76, almost equal to the value of the professor’s reputation at 2.77.
• #51: For second and third year students, the importance of satisfying degree requirements increases – the mean becomes lower (1.51, then 1.29). The importance of the course’s title jumps up to a mean value of 3.83 for sophomores, but then declines slightly for juniors to 3.81. Here are the senior students’ values. The importance of satisfying degree requirements again decreases, not surprisingly, but so does the importance of an interesting course title (3.75 for seniors).
• #53: I would take additional courses of interest if there were no additional costs (tuition, books, etc.) I would “” “” if my schedule and four-year plan allowed
• #54: Not only did we have an overwhelming response to the survey, over 320 respondents opted to give us written feedback about selecting courses.
• #55: First of all, students were sure to tell us that registration is STRESSFUL. They way that they talk about it, you’d think that they have a midlife crisis every term.
• #60: On the left is the major program of study – well-defined, possessed of specific characteristics and potential; On the right are courses that seem or sound interesting – mysterious, uncertain characteristics, limitless potential; Students, without using these exact words, express contending with this dilemma. They want to take a variety of mystery courses – they want a basket of eggs – so that they can learn whether or not what’s within corresponds with their values or moves them to action. However, students also know that they must decide what kind of chicken they will be before they don’t have time to become one. They must declare a major after a year or two of study, otherwise they will not graduate on time.
• #61: Four year graduation rate ranks in top ten of private schools nationally
• #63: Our team has transitioned to the qualitative phase of our study
• #64: In the study quoted here, which was conducted in 2008, students were found to attach more importance to a high grade and a low workload than to skill development as represented by analytical, computational, and communication skills. Substantial erosion of dedicated study time during the past two decades. A comprehensive survey of several hundred executives regarding the skills of recently hired graduates (2006) found “reality not matching expectations” and a “growing talent gap” in workforce readiness. (Cassner-Lotto and Barrington 2006). Add to that 70% more 12th graders wanted a bachelor’s degree in 2004 than in 1982 Signal of the American contribution of “democratizing” education (DelBanco), as well as Inflation of earning potential (?) – increasingly necessary to acquire a college education to succeed/earn a desirable standard of living Ideology of boomer generation is one of hard work translates to success; whereas ideology of millennial generation is more focused on identifying efficiencies and using technology to discover or create shortcuts. Access to technology has created a sort of undeniable quality to this idea… millennial students were bred in the context of ubiquitous technology access. They were the first elementary students that were consistently using computers throughout their education, which is reflected in their preferred style of learning.
• #65: Learn about your students’ needs, whether they can explicitly tell you or not. Monitoring registration patterns in real time using different metrics. Which ones fill first? What is your seat efficiency like? Are your registration time tickets appropriate for your student populations? DO you find that there are a significant amount of course overloads, prerequisite overrides, etc.? Forecasting course demand based on longitudinal/historical reports of major and minor declarations. This changes gradually, seasonally, and with enrollment patterns. For example, we have noticed that the popularity of our Finance program has soared over the last few years, so we have increased our focus on offering a spread of business courses. Work with your departments to understand their curricula and also to collaborate with them on presentation of courses.
• #67: Elon is currently updating its curriculum management and academic catalog. Many students mention a lack of information about “course types” – this is being added to the catalog via a batch process.
• #68: According to our survey, first-year students are more likely to rank an interesting course name as relatively more important. They have more flexibility and perceive less risk in the course selection, so they may respond more strongly to “interesting” course names. Of course, it will be up to you and your department to determine what “interesting” is at your institution. Summer sessions often offer courses that are lower level, required for a variety of majors, etc… but your stable can have more than one breed of horse Experiment with titles of courses that have traditionally low enrollment in standard terms for the summer term, attracting more and a greater variety of students to participate in summer sessions; observe enrollment patterns in those courses (remember – learn about your students) Our winter term, for example, is a space/time for experimental course development (at your institution, offer a grant/stipend or TLT assistance for development of new/interesting courses, and title them with cool words)
• #69: Consider encouraging the development of an exploratory course – students need help determining a major program of study that aligns with their personal interests and values. A major and a student’s interests do not have to be mutually exclusive. Encourage departments to offer “open house” or group meetings – students in our study expressed a desire to learn more about courses, content, and professors before registering for the course. Ratemyprofessor.com was described as helpful to a degree, as is WOM, but students want the best of both of those tools – they want verifiable and reliable information, and what better way to ensure both than connecting them with the source. Link sample syllabi to course entries in catalog or registration portal – course names are effective at “hooking” the student, much like the hook at the beginning of the story. But our students want to know the details. They want to know what the course involves, how the professor grades assignments, and how much time/effort they should realistically dedicate to it. A sample syllabus available to students in advance of the term would help satisfy these needs. However, would this make students more reluctant to take difficult courses? Worth testing… Reevaluate the assignment of registration priority - Student respondents in our study proved that they know much more than we think they do about how “time tickets” are assigned, and they offered plenty of ideas and opinions about how it “could” be executed. Surprisingly, the majority of their suggestions were not self-serving. They know that athletes and students with disabilities go first, they know that the rest of the student population is arranged by credit hour, and they know that there are no other steadfast rules in place to preserve seats in certain courses. There are workarounds, of course, but could registration look different?