1

Appendix: Technology-Based Platforms

OverviewTechnology has changed from a necessary administrative support, to a “mission critical” element of the modern learning environment, essential to the work of students, faculty, and staff. This shift places new burdens on the University’s technology infrastructure, not simply in its capacity, but in its design, since it must now serve the needs of a broad learning community. Any disruption in the infrastructure, particularly in the learning platform, is a disruption to the learning experience.

Traditional assumptions about teaching and learning are no longer adequate. Regardless of our approach or methodology, as educators we must take every advantage of both traditional methods and new approaches that offer exciting ways of using technology to enhance the teaching and learning process. We must take every advantage of the new media tools that are products of the technological advances of the past decade. These allow students to learn individually and through collaboration with others, and to learn at their own pace, sometimes exceeding the parameters of the course.

Many universities that manage large scale enrollments are actively exploring sophisticated and flexible technology-based learning platforms that improve the quality of education and reduce the costs of instruction. Four models emerge as the leading practices that capture how information technology, web-based materials, and course-management software supplement and/or replace traditional learning processes: the supplemental model, the replacement model, the emporium model, and the blended model.

Although all of the models discussed here have successfully improved the quality of student learning while reducing the costs of instruction, the rigidity of each model limits the scope of platform applicability. By employing all of these various models for the applications most appropriate to the particular discipline and scale of the situation, ATLAS will successfully synthesize both traditional methods and new technology-based approaches to learning. The dynamic and accommodating approach of the ATLAS platform will make students an intimate and active part of the learning process, thus enhancing a student’s ability to learn and achieve within a customized learning environment that has the flexibility to bridge disciplines and course structures.

Supplemental Model

StructureThe supplemental model retains the basic structure of the traditional course, maintaining the number of class meetings. The supplemental model strengthens functionality of the course by either a) adding technology-based, out-of-class activities, or b) changing what goes on in the class by integrating technology-based activities with traditional lecture, thus creating an active learning environment within a large lecture hall setting.

Examples• Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon University supplemented introductory statistics

lectures with SmartLab, an automated, interactive tutoring system that draws from artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology and computer science methodologies. SmartLab tracks and assesses the development of statistical inference skills, providing individualized assistance and a personal tutor for each student.

ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

2ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

Results: After introducing SmartLab to statistics courses, exams testing the skills and concepts of statistics significantly increased by 22.8 percent. Students also appreciate the integrated learning environment that blends traditional lectures with computerized learning activities.

• University of New Mexico: While maintaining the number of lectures for general psychology, the University of New Mexico provides students with a two-disc CD-ROM that contains quizzes, interactive activities, and movies supplementing in-class course content. The course requires that students complete three online mastery quizzes for credit.

Results: Since offering the supplemental CD-ROM, the drop-withdrawal-failure rate for general psychology courses has decreased from 42 percent in traditional lectures to 18 percent in the course redesign. Additionally, the percentage of students receiving a C or better has risen from 60 percent to 76 percent.

• University of Massachusetts-Amherst: The University of Massachusetts-Amherst has integrated technology with in-class activities as well as adding out-of-class technology-based supplements. The goal is to create an active learning environment within a large lecture hall setting supplemented by technology-based out-of-class activities. For the introductory biology courses, UMass created an interactive class website that equips students with the objectives, key concepts, and supplemental materials that prepare students before coming to lecture. Once in class, UMass uses ClassTalk—a commercially available, interactive technology that compiles students’ responses to problem-solving activities—to foster class interaction and small-group work.

Results: By facilitating a desirable learning environment, the supplemental course redesign increased attendance from 67 percent in the traditional format to 90 percent, which also correlated significantly to performance on exams.

• Harper College: Harper College has used a blended learning format to deliver chemistry instruction effectively. In addition to a discussion board that fosters interaction between students and instructors, the course redesign also includes an array of audio and video teaching and learning materials that fit diverse learning styles and create a learning-centered environment.

Results: Grade comparisons show that students in blended chemistry courses receive a much higher percentage of ‘A’s (40 percent vs. 22 percent) than students in face-to-face chemistry courses.

Replacement Model

StructureThe replacement model reduces in-class meeting by replacing face-to-face time with online (or technology based) interactive learning activities. In contrast to the supplemental model, the replacement model reduces the class-meeting time. The replacement model works on the premise that certain learning activities can be better accomplished online than in a traditional classroom format.

Examples• Penn State University: At Penn State University, the traditional course delivery model for

Introductory Statistics did not serve student needs and was not cost effective. The university reduced

3ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

the number of weekly lectures from three to one, replacing two of the traditional lectures with computer-mediated interactive workshops. With a variety of online learning materials as well as computerized testing, the redesigned statistics course replaced class meetings with online activities while maintaining the lecture format in the remaining class meetings.

Results: Faculty and teaching assistants utilize these computer-mediated workshops to provide interactive and substantive feedback to students. The redesigned course provides a more interactive model of student learning and reduces costs, particularly in terms of TA support typically required in large, traditional lecture sections. Consequently, the replacement course model provided an overall 30 percent reduction in cost-per-student, from approximately $176 to $123. Annually, this means a savings of more than $115,000.

• Brigham Young University: Brigham Young University redesigned the Freshman Composition course to reduce the amount of time students spend in the classroom from three hours to one hour per week, allowing the faculty to spend more time in one-on-one student consultations. A series of interactive multimedia lessons and additional peer-to-peer sessions replace the time students previously spent in the campus classroom.

Results: The redesign leveraged online multimedia modules to teach students key concepts about reading and writing. Additionally, the university met its cost effectiveness goals as an answer to enrollment growth. The redesigned course shows an overall faculty time savings of 25 percent when compared to the traditional course.

• University of Tennessee-Knoxville: The University of Tennessee-Knoxville redesigned its introductory Spanish course by shifting many instructional activities to a technology-based learning environment while using class time to focus on activities that require face-to-face interaction. UTK’s online activites include grammer, vocabulary, and listening activities.

Results: Reducing the number of class meetings enhanced the potential for collaborative learning with peers and instructors. Because of more opportunities for oral communication, student grades and language competency increased. Institutionally, the course redesign increased the number of students who can be served with the same personnel resources.

• University of Southern Maine: For the Introductory Psychology course at the University of Southern Maine, the faculty-to-student ratio prohibited a desirable learning environment in which students could receive frequent feedback; faculty were primarily devoted to serving these large introductory course sections and spent less time on developing and revising upper-level course materials. Online resources and a variety of interactive computer activities were implemented to replace lecture time.

Results: Online computer lectures replaced class-meeting time and improved learning opportunities through more direct interaction and redeployment of key resources. The course redesign also provided an institutional solution to deal effectively with enrollment. As a result, lecture time was reduced by 50 percent while course sections increased in size from 75 to 125. Per-student costs were reduced from $113 per student in the traditional model to $58 per student in the redesigned replacement model.

4ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

Emporium Model

StructureThe emporium model eliminates all class meetings and replaces them with a learning resource center featuring online materials and on-demand personalized assistance. Because of the learning resource center, the emporium model requires a significant commitment of space and equipment. The emporium is staffed by faculty and trained peer tutors who assist students with the modularized online tutorials and quizzes. Consequently, by combining multiple sections of a course into one large course structure, the emporium model illustrates how information technology can address enrollment growth while overcoming financial constraints and improving student learning.

Examples• Virginia Tech: Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium is a learning laboratory adjacent to campus that

houses a web-based resource system (interactive tutorials, computation examples, an electronic text book, and online quizzes) for over 7,000 students in a dozen mathematics classes. The Math Emporium operates entirely online, with personal support by a staff of peer tutors and faculty available 24/7. Located in a 58,000-square foot space a twenty minute walk from campus, Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium holds nearly 550 iMac systems.

The Math Emporium environment accommodates several different learning styles. With break-out areas for one-on-one instruction and a presentation area where groups of students can work together, students have the opportunity to customize their learning environment by choosing to work individually, in groups of up to eight students, or one-on-one with one of the dozens of tutors and faculty in the emporium.

Students study course concepts, complete practice problems, and take assigned tests at a self-paced rate in a collaborative learning environment through the use of locally developed software and course materials. Built-in assessment programs allow faculty members to monitor each student’s progress and to intervene as problems arise. The Math Emporium is a technology-based solution to the problem of teaching more students with fewer faculty and less money.

Results: Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium exemplifies the potential for information technology to

address enrollment growth while overcoming financial constraints and improving student learning. While sustaining the quality of education offered in traditional courses, the Math Emporium significantly reduces costs and shifts university resources. A study of learning effectiveness concluded that test and grade results have been essentially the same as just before the redesign, except that retention and completion rates have clearly increased. The freedom to work at convenient times and for as long as needed probably makes the greatest contribution to student satisfaction.

Virginia Tech’s cost effectiveness goals were also met. By replacing 40-student sections with one large course structure in the Math Emporium, Virginia Tech reduced the labor requirement for the instructor to half-time. Time for tenure-track faculty was reduced to zero (a 100 percent decline). As a result, the per-student costs in the redesigned emporium model dropped from $91 to $21, with an annual cost savings of $140,000.

5ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

• University of Alabama: Based on the success of Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium, the University of Alabama created an emporium-style learning environment to reduce costs while retaining the individual focus of small sections. The Math Technology Learning Center is the University of Alabama’s 240-seat learning resource computer center for teaching introductory mathematics courses. The Math Technology Center offers a self-paced, computer-based active learning environment. Based on commercial software, the web-based interactive tutorials, exercises, and quizzes eliminate lectures and combine multiple sections into one large course structure.

Results: The University of Alabama combined 44 intermediate algebra sections of approximately 35 students each into one 1,500-student section. Student surveys indicate an overwhelming appreciation and satisfaction with the emporium-style learning environment.

• University of Idaho: The University of Idaho’s Polya Mathematics Center offers students a wide range of mathematical software/courseware and is staffed over 80 hours per week by instructors and teaching assistants. The study and consultation room provides space for individual and group study with the readily available assistance of instructors and teaching assistants. The Polya Center contains 72 computers with modularized online tutorials and interactive navigation.

Results: The University of Idaho shifted two pre-calculus courses, previously organized into 60 sections of 40 students each, into its Polya Center. The center’s web-based support system for students and counselors includes a screening process that enables instructors to track progress and determine the students’ risk of failure. By identifying at-risk students, the center allows for a case-management counseling approach for both new and current students, which results in a higher retention rate.

Blended Model

StructureThe blended model incorporates and customizes elements from supplemental, replacement, and emporium models. The blended model is based on the premise that learning success is achieved by customizing the learning environment for each discipline, course, and student.

Examples• Ohio State University: Ohio State University is redesigning its introductory statistics course to

offer students an assortment of interchangeable, technology-based paths that match their learning styles and abilities. OSU’s blended model includes lectures (reduced by more than half), individual and group discovery laboratories, live and remote reviews, small group study sessions, videos, training modules, oral and written presentations, active large group problem solving, homework assignments (TA graded or self-graded), and individual and group projects. Other course innovations include creating a “statistics help desk” using a tech support model, which will improve responses to students. OSU will also modularize course content, allowing students to earn variable credit based on successful module completion.

Results: OSU has eliminated one-fourth of course repetitions, thereby opening slots for an additional 150 students per year. OSU’s redesign reduced the cost-per-student from $190 to $132, a 31 percent reduction for an annual savings of $194,000.

6ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

The blended model also resulted in improved retention rates. The percentage of students who withdraw reduced from 11 percent to 8 percent and the percentage failing the course reduced from 7 percent to 3 percent.

• Florida Gulf Coast University: Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) has redesigned its required fine arts course into a single section using a common syllabus, textbook, set of assignments, and interactive course web-site. The redesigned course includes six modules with options of live lectures, taped lectures, commercially-produced videos, and/or web-based learning activities. Thus, FGCU meets the varying needs of students with different learning styles by providing student-centered options that strike a balance between traditional class structures and self-guided, technological learning environments.

Results: The course redesign consolidated 25 sections of 30 students into a single section, thus meeting the cost effectiveness goals of the course redesign. Additionally, the option to match learning environments with learning styles resulted in a reduction of D and F grades from 45 percent in the traditional course to 11 percent in the redesigned course.

Summary of Technology Models

Retains CourseRetains CourseStructureStructure

Reduces ClassReduces ClassMeeting TimeMeeting Time

Includes LearningIncludes LearningResource CenterResource Center

Supplemental Model �

Replacement Model � �

Emporium Model � �

Blended Model � �

ATLAS �� �� ��

1

Appendix: Technology-Based Platforms

OverviewTechnology has changed from a necessary administrative support, to a “mission critical” element of the modern learning environment, essential to the work of students, faculty, and staff. This shift places new burdens on the University’s technology infrastructure, not simply in its capacity, but in its design, since it must now serve the needs of a broad learning community. Any disruption in the infrastructure, particularly in the learning platform, is a disruption to the learning experience.

Traditional assumptions about teaching and learning are no longer adequate. Regardless of our approach or methodology, as educators we must take every advantage of both traditional methods and new approaches that offer exciting ways of using technology to enhance the teaching and learning process. We must take every advantage of the new media tools that are products of the technological advances of the past decade. These allow students to learn individually and through collaboration with others, and to learn at their own pace, sometimes exceeding the parameters of the course.

Many universities that manage large scale enrollments are actively exploring sophisticated and flexible technology-based learning platforms that improve the quality of education and reduce the costs of instruction. Four models emerge as the leading practices that capture how information technology, web-based materials, and course-management software supplement and/or replace traditional learning processes: the supplemental model, the replacement model, the emporium model, and the blended model.

Although all of the models discussed here have successfully improved the quality of student learning while reducing the costs of instruction, the rigidity of each model limits the scope of platform applicability. By employing all of these various models for the applications most appropriate to the particular discipline and scale of the situation, ATLAS will successfully synthesize both traditional methods and new technology-based approaches to learning. The dynamic and accommodating approach of the ATLAS platform will make students an intimate and active part of the learning process, thus enhancing a student’s ability to learn and achieve within a customized learning environment that has the flexibility to bridge disciplines and course structures.

Supplemental Model

StructureThe supplemental model retains the basic structure of the traditional course, maintaining the number of class meetings. The supplemental model strengthens functionality of the course by either a) adding technology-based, out-of-class activities, or b) changing what goes on in the class by integrating technology-based activities with traditional lecture, thus creating an active learning environment within a large lecture hall setting.

Examples• Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon University supplemented introductory statistics

lectures with SmartLab, an automated, interactive tutoring system that draws from artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology and computer science methodologies. SmartLab tracks and assesses the development of statistical inference skills, providing individualized assistance and a personal tutor for each student.

ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

2ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

Results: After introducing SmartLab to statistics courses, exams testing the skills and concepts of statistics significantly increased by 22.8 percent. Students also appreciate the integrated learning environment that blends traditional lectures with computerized learning activities.

• University of New Mexico: While maintaining the number of lectures for general psychology, the University of New Mexico provides students with a two-disc CD-ROM that contains quizzes, interactive activities, and movies supplementing in-class course content. The course requires that students complete three online mastery quizzes for credit.

Results: Since offering the supplemental CD-ROM, the drop-withdrawal-failure rate for general psychology courses has decreased from 42 percent in traditional lectures to 18 percent in the course redesign. Additionally, the percentage of students receiving a C or better has risen from 60 percent to 76 percent.

• University of Massachusetts-Amherst: The University of Massachusetts-Amherst has integrated technology with in-class activities as well as adding out-of-class technology-based supplements. The goal is to create an active learning environment within a large lecture hall setting supplemented by technology-based out-of-class activities. For the introductory biology courses, UMass created an interactive class website that equips students with the objectives, key concepts, and supplemental materials that prepare students before coming to lecture. Once in class, UMass uses ClassTalk—a commercially available, interactive technology that compiles students’ responses to problem-solving activities—to foster class interaction and small-group work.

Results: By facilitating a desirable learning environment, the supplemental course redesign increased attendance from 67 percent in the traditional format to 90 percent, which also correlated significantly to performance on exams.

• Harper College: Harper College has used a blended learning format to deliver chemistry instruction effectively. In addition to a discussion board that fosters interaction between students and instructors, the course redesign also includes an array of audio and video teaching and learning materials that fit diverse learning styles and create a learning-centered environment.

Results: Grade comparisons show that students in blended chemistry courses receive a much higher percentage of ‘A’s (40 percent vs. 22 percent) than students in face-to-face chemistry courses.

Replacement Model

StructureThe replacement model reduces in-class meeting by replacing face-to-face time with online (or technology based) interactive learning activities. In contrast to the supplemental model, the replacement model reduces the class-meeting time. The replacement model works on the premise that certain learning activities can be better accomplished online than in a traditional classroom format.

Examples• Penn State University: At Penn State University, the traditional course delivery model for

Introductory Statistics did not serve student needs and was not cost effective. The university reduced

3ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

the number of weekly lectures from three to one, replacing two of the traditional lectures with computer-mediated interactive workshops. With a variety of online learning materials as well as computerized testing, the redesigned statistics course replaced class meetings with online activities while maintaining the lecture format in the remaining class meetings.

Results: Faculty and teaching assistants utilize these computer-mediated workshops to provide interactive and substantive feedback to students. The redesigned course provides a more interactive model of student learning and reduces costs, particularly in terms of TA support typically required in large, traditional lecture sections. Consequently, the replacement course model provided an overall 30 percent reduction in cost-per-student, from approximately $176 to $123. Annually, this means a savings of more than $115,000.

• Brigham Young University: Brigham Young University redesigned the Freshman Composition course to reduce the amount of time students spend in the classroom from three hours to one hour per week, allowing the faculty to spend more time in one-on-one student consultations. A series of interactive multimedia lessons and additional peer-to-peer sessions replace the time students previously spent in the campus classroom.

Results: The redesign leveraged online multimedia modules to teach students key concepts about reading and writing. Additionally, the university met its cost effectiveness goals as an answer to enrollment growth. The redesigned course shows an overall faculty time savings of 25 percent when compared to the traditional course.

• University of Tennessee-Knoxville: The University of Tennessee-Knoxville redesigned its introductory Spanish course by shifting many instructional activities to a technology-based learning environment while using class time to focus on activities that require face-to-face interaction. UTK’s online activites include grammer, vocabulary, and listening activities.

Results: Reducing the number of class meetings enhanced the potential for collaborative learning with peers and instructors. Because of more opportunities for oral communication, student grades and language competency increased. Institutionally, the course redesign increased the number of students who can be served with the same personnel resources.

• University of Southern Maine: For the Introductory Psychology course at the University of Southern Maine, the faculty-to-student ratio prohibited a desirable learning environment in which students could receive frequent feedback; faculty were primarily devoted to serving these large introductory course sections and spent less time on developing and revising upper-level course materials. Online resources and a variety of interactive computer activities were implemented to replace lecture time.

Results: Online computer lectures replaced class-meeting time and improved learning opportunities through more direct interaction and redeployment of key resources. The course redesign also provided an institutional solution to deal effectively with enrollment. As a result, lecture time was reduced by 50 percent while course sections increased in size from 75 to 125. Per-student costs were reduced from $113 per student in the traditional model to $58 per student in the redesigned replacement model.

4ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

Emporium Model

StructureThe emporium model eliminates all class meetings and replaces them with a learning resource center featuring online materials and on-demand personalized assistance. Because of the learning resource center, the emporium model requires a significant commitment of space and equipment. The emporium is staffed by faculty and trained peer tutors who assist students with the modularized online tutorials and quizzes. Consequently, by combining multiple sections of a course into one large course structure, the emporium model illustrates how information technology can address enrollment growth while overcoming financial constraints and improving student learning.

Examples• Virginia Tech: Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium is a learning laboratory adjacent to campus that

houses a web-based resource system (interactive tutorials, computation examples, an electronic text book, and online quizzes) for over 7,000 students in a dozen mathematics classes. The Math Emporium operates entirely online, with personal support by a staff of peer tutors and faculty available 24/7. Located in a 58,000-square foot space a twenty minute walk from campus, Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium holds nearly 550 iMac systems.

The Math Emporium environment accommodates several different learning styles. With break-out areas for one-on-one instruction and a presentation area where groups of students can work together, students have the opportunity to customize their learning environment by choosing to work individually, in groups of up to eight students, or one-on-one with one of the dozens of tutors and faculty in the emporium.

Students study course concepts, complete practice problems, and take assigned tests at a self-paced rate in a collaborative learning environment through the use of locally developed software and course materials. Built-in assessment programs allow faculty members to monitor each student’s progress and to intervene as problems arise. The Math Emporium is a technology-based solution to the problem of teaching more students with fewer faculty and less money.

Results: Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium exemplifies the potential for information technology to

address enrollment growth while overcoming financial constraints and improving student learning. While sustaining the quality of education offered in traditional courses, the Math Emporium significantly reduces costs and shifts university resources. A study of learning effectiveness concluded that test and grade results have been essentially the same as just before the redesign, except that retention and completion rates have clearly increased. The freedom to work at convenient times and for as long as needed probably makes the greatest contribution to student satisfaction.

Virginia Tech’s cost effectiveness goals were also met. By replacing 40-student sections with one large course structure in the Math Emporium, Virginia Tech reduced the labor requirement for the instructor to half-time. Time for tenure-track faculty was reduced to zero (a 100 percent decline). As a result, the per-student costs in the redesigned emporium model dropped from $91 to $21, with an annual cost savings of $140,000.

5ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

• University of Alabama: Based on the success of Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium, the University of Alabama created an emporium-style learning environment to reduce costs while retaining the individual focus of small sections. The Math Technology Learning Center is the University of Alabama’s 240-seat learning resource computer center for teaching introductory mathematics courses. The Math Technology Center offers a self-paced, computer-based active learning environment. Based on commercial software, the web-based interactive tutorials, exercises, and quizzes eliminate lectures and combine multiple sections into one large course structure.

Results: The University of Alabama combined 44 intermediate algebra sections of approximately 35 students each into one 1,500-student section. Student surveys indicate an overwhelming appreciation and satisfaction with the emporium-style learning environment.

• University of Idaho: The University of Idaho’s Polya Mathematics Center offers students a wide range of mathematical software/courseware and is staffed over 80 hours per week by instructors and teaching assistants. The study and consultation room provides space for individual and group study with the readily available assistance of instructors and teaching assistants. The Polya Center contains 72 computers with modularized online tutorials and interactive navigation.

Results: The University of Idaho shifted two pre-calculus courses, previously organized into 60 sections of 40 students each, into its Polya Center. The center’s web-based support system for students and counselors includes a screening process that enables instructors to track progress and determine the students’ risk of failure. By identifying at-risk students, the center allows for a case-management counseling approach for both new and current students, which results in a higher retention rate.

Blended Model

StructureThe blended model incorporates and customizes elements from supplemental, replacement, and emporium models. The blended model is based on the premise that learning success is achieved by customizing the learning environment for each discipline, course, and student.

Examples• Ohio State University: Ohio State University is redesigning its introductory statistics course to

offer students an assortment of interchangeable, technology-based paths that match their learning styles and abilities. OSU’s blended model includes lectures (reduced by more than half), individual and group discovery laboratories, live and remote reviews, small group study sessions, videos, training modules, oral and written presentations, active large group problem solving, homework assignments (TA graded or self-graded), and individual and group projects. Other course innovations include creating a “statistics help desk” using a tech support model, which will improve responses to students. OSU will also modularize course content, allowing students to earn variable credit based on successful module completion.

Results: OSU has eliminated one-fourth of course repetitions, thereby opening slots for an additional 150 students per year. OSU’s redesign reduced the cost-per-student from $190 to $132, a 31 percent reduction for an annual savings of $194,000.

6ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

The blended model also resulted in improved retention rates. The percentage of students who withdraw reduced from 11 percent to 8 percent and the percentage failing the course reduced from 7 percent to 3 percent.

• Florida Gulf Coast University: Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) has redesigned its required fine arts course into a single section using a common syllabus, textbook, set of assignments, and interactive course web-site. The redesigned course includes six modules with options of live lectures, taped lectures, commercially-produced videos, and/or web-based learning activities. Thus, FGCU meets the varying needs of students with different learning styles by providing student-centered options that strike a balance between traditional class structures and self-guided, technological learning environments.

Results: The course redesign consolidated 25 sections of 30 students into a single section, thus meeting the cost effectiveness goals of the course redesign. Additionally, the option to match learning environments with learning styles resulted in a reduction of D and F grades from 45 percent in the traditional course to 11 percent in the redesigned course.

Summary of Technology Models

Retains CourseRetains CourseStructureStructure

Reduces ClassReduces ClassMeeting TimeMeeting Time

Includes LearningIncludes LearningResource CenterResource Center

Supplemental Model �

Replacement Model � �

Emporium Model � �

Blended Model � �

ATLAS �� �� ��

1

Appendix: Technology-Based Platforms

OverviewTechnology has changed from a necessary administrative support, to a “mission critical” element of the modern learning environment, essential to the work of students, faculty, and staff. This shift places new burdens on the University’s technology infrastructure, not simply in its capacity, but in its design, since it must now serve the needs of a broad learning community. Any disruption in the infrastructure, particularly in the learning platform, is a disruption to the learning experience.

Traditional assumptions about teaching and learning are no longer adequate. Regardless of our approach or methodology, as educators we must take every advantage of both traditional methods and new approaches that offer exciting ways of using technology to enhance the teaching and learning process. We must take every advantage of the new media tools that are products of the technological advances of the past decade. These allow students to learn individually and through collaboration with others, and to learn at their own pace, sometimes exceeding the parameters of the course.

Many universities that manage large scale enrollments are actively exploring sophisticated and flexible technology-based learning platforms that improve the quality of education and reduce the costs of instruction. Four models emerge as the leading practices that capture how information technology, web-based materials, and course-management software supplement and/or replace traditional learning processes: the supplemental model, the replacement model, the emporium model, and the blended model.

Although all of the models discussed here have successfully improved the quality of student learning while reducing the costs of instruction, the rigidity of each model limits the scope of platform applicability. By employing all of these various models for the applications most appropriate to the particular discipline and scale of the situation, ATLAS will successfully synthesize both traditional methods and new technology-based approaches to learning. The dynamic and accommodating approach of the ATLAS platform will make students an intimate and active part of the learning process, thus enhancing a student’s ability to learn and achieve within a customized learning environment that has the flexibility to bridge disciplines and course structures.

Supplemental Model

StructureThe supplemental model retains the basic structure of the traditional course, maintaining the number of class meetings. The supplemental model strengthens functionality of the course by either a) adding technology-based, out-of-class activities, or b) changing what goes on in the class by integrating technology-based activities with traditional lecture, thus creating an active learning environment within a large lecture hall setting.

Examples• Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon University supplemented introductory statistics

lectures with SmartLab, an automated, interactive tutoring system that draws from artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology and computer science methodologies. SmartLab tracks and assesses the development of statistical inference skills, providing individualized assistance and a personal tutor for each student.

ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

2ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

Results: After introducing SmartLab to statistics courses, exams testing the skills and concepts of statistics significantly increased by 22.8 percent. Students also appreciate the integrated learning environment that blends traditional lectures with computerized learning activities.

• University of New Mexico: While maintaining the number of lectures for general psychology, the University of New Mexico provides students with a two-disc CD-ROM that contains quizzes, interactive activities, and movies supplementing in-class course content. The course requires that students complete three online mastery quizzes for credit.

Results: Since offering the supplemental CD-ROM, the drop-withdrawal-failure rate for general psychology courses has decreased from 42 percent in traditional lectures to 18 percent in the course redesign. Additionally, the percentage of students receiving a C or better has risen from 60 percent to 76 percent.

• University of Massachusetts-Amherst: The University of Massachusetts-Amherst has integrated technology with in-class activities as well as adding out-of-class technology-based supplements. The goal is to create an active learning environment within a large lecture hall setting supplemented by technology-based out-of-class activities. For the introductory biology courses, UMass created an interactive class website that equips students with the objectives, key concepts, and supplemental materials that prepare students before coming to lecture. Once in class, UMass uses ClassTalk—a commercially available, interactive technology that compiles students’ responses to problem-solving activities—to foster class interaction and small-group work.

Results: By facilitating a desirable learning environment, the supplemental course redesign increased attendance from 67 percent in the traditional format to 90 percent, which also correlated significantly to performance on exams.

• Harper College: Harper College has used a blended learning format to deliver chemistry instruction effectively. In addition to a discussion board that fosters interaction between students and instructors, the course redesign also includes an array of audio and video teaching and learning materials that fit diverse learning styles and create a learning-centered environment.

Results: Grade comparisons show that students in blended chemistry courses receive a much higher percentage of ‘A’s (40 percent vs. 22 percent) than students in face-to-face chemistry courses.

Replacement Model

StructureThe replacement model reduces in-class meeting by replacing face-to-face time with online (or technology based) interactive learning activities. In contrast to the supplemental model, the replacement model reduces the class-meeting time. The replacement model works on the premise that certain learning activities can be better accomplished online than in a traditional classroom format.

Examples• Penn State University: At Penn State University, the traditional course delivery model for

Introductory Statistics did not serve student needs and was not cost effective. The university reduced

3ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

the number of weekly lectures from three to one, replacing two of the traditional lectures with computer-mediated interactive workshops. With a variety of online learning materials as well as computerized testing, the redesigned statistics course replaced class meetings with online activities while maintaining the lecture format in the remaining class meetings.

Results: Faculty and teaching assistants utilize these computer-mediated workshops to provide interactive and substantive feedback to students. The redesigned course provides a more interactive model of student learning and reduces costs, particularly in terms of TA support typically required in large, traditional lecture sections. Consequently, the replacement course model provided an overall 30 percent reduction in cost-per-student, from approximately $176 to $123. Annually, this means a savings of more than $115,000.

• Brigham Young University: Brigham Young University redesigned the Freshman Composition course to reduce the amount of time students spend in the classroom from three hours to one hour per week, allowing the faculty to spend more time in one-on-one student consultations. A series of interactive multimedia lessons and additional peer-to-peer sessions replace the time students previously spent in the campus classroom.

Results: The redesign leveraged online multimedia modules to teach students key concepts about reading and writing. Additionally, the university met its cost effectiveness goals as an answer to enrollment growth. The redesigned course shows an overall faculty time savings of 25 percent when compared to the traditional course.

• University of Tennessee-Knoxville: The University of Tennessee-Knoxville redesigned its introductory Spanish course by shifting many instructional activities to a technology-based learning environment while using class time to focus on activities that require face-to-face interaction. UTK’s online activites include grammer, vocabulary, and listening activities.

Results: Reducing the number of class meetings enhanced the potential for collaborative learning with peers and instructors. Because of more opportunities for oral communication, student grades and language competency increased. Institutionally, the course redesign increased the number of students who can be served with the same personnel resources.

• University of Southern Maine: For the Introductory Psychology course at the University of Southern Maine, the faculty-to-student ratio prohibited a desirable learning environment in which students could receive frequent feedback; faculty were primarily devoted to serving these large introductory course sections and spent less time on developing and revising upper-level course materials. Online resources and a variety of interactive computer activities were implemented to replace lecture time.

Results: Online computer lectures replaced class-meeting time and improved learning opportunities through more direct interaction and redeployment of key resources. The course redesign also provided an institutional solution to deal effectively with enrollment. As a result, lecture time was reduced by 50 percent while course sections increased in size from 75 to 125. Per-student costs were reduced from $113 per student in the traditional model to $58 per student in the redesigned replacement model.

4ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

Emporium Model

StructureThe emporium model eliminates all class meetings and replaces them with a learning resource center featuring online materials and on-demand personalized assistance. Because of the learning resource center, the emporium model requires a significant commitment of space and equipment. The emporium is staffed by faculty and trained peer tutors who assist students with the modularized online tutorials and quizzes. Consequently, by combining multiple sections of a course into one large course structure, the emporium model illustrates how information technology can address enrollment growth while overcoming financial constraints and improving student learning.

Examples• Virginia Tech: Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium is a learning laboratory adjacent to campus that

houses a web-based resource system (interactive tutorials, computation examples, an electronic text book, and online quizzes) for over 7,000 students in a dozen mathematics classes. The Math Emporium operates entirely online, with personal support by a staff of peer tutors and faculty available 24/7. Located in a 58,000-square foot space a twenty minute walk from campus, Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium holds nearly 550 iMac systems.

The Math Emporium environment accommodates several different learning styles. With break-out areas for one-on-one instruction and a presentation area where groups of students can work together, students have the opportunity to customize their learning environment by choosing to work individually, in groups of up to eight students, or one-on-one with one of the dozens of tutors and faculty in the emporium.

Students study course concepts, complete practice problems, and take assigned tests at a self-paced rate in a collaborative learning environment through the use of locally developed software and course materials. Built-in assessment programs allow faculty members to monitor each student’s progress and to intervene as problems arise. The Math Emporium is a technology-based solution to the problem of teaching more students with fewer faculty and less money.

Results: Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium exemplifies the potential for information technology to

address enrollment growth while overcoming financial constraints and improving student learning. While sustaining the quality of education offered in traditional courses, the Math Emporium significantly reduces costs and shifts university resources. A study of learning effectiveness concluded that test and grade results have been essentially the same as just before the redesign, except that retention and completion rates have clearly increased. The freedom to work at convenient times and for as long as needed probably makes the greatest contribution to student satisfaction.

Virginia Tech’s cost effectiveness goals were also met. By replacing 40-student sections with one large course structure in the Math Emporium, Virginia Tech reduced the labor requirement for the instructor to half-time. Time for tenure-track faculty was reduced to zero (a 100 percent decline). As a result, the per-student costs in the redesigned emporium model dropped from $91 to $21, with an annual cost savings of $140,000.

5ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

• University of Alabama: Based on the success of Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium, the University of Alabama created an emporium-style learning environment to reduce costs while retaining the individual focus of small sections. The Math Technology Learning Center is the University of Alabama’s 240-seat learning resource computer center for teaching introductory mathematics courses. The Math Technology Center offers a self-paced, computer-based active learning environment. Based on commercial software, the web-based interactive tutorials, exercises, and quizzes eliminate lectures and combine multiple sections into one large course structure.

Results: The University of Alabama combined 44 intermediate algebra sections of approximately 35 students each into one 1,500-student section. Student surveys indicate an overwhelming appreciation and satisfaction with the emporium-style learning environment.

• University of Idaho: The University of Idaho’s Polya Mathematics Center offers students a wide range of mathematical software/courseware and is staffed over 80 hours per week by instructors and teaching assistants. The study and consultation room provides space for individual and group study with the readily available assistance of instructors and teaching assistants. The Polya Center contains 72 computers with modularized online tutorials and interactive navigation.

Results: The University of Idaho shifted two pre-calculus courses, previously organized into 60 sections of 40 students each, into its Polya Center. The center’s web-based support system for students and counselors includes a screening process that enables instructors to track progress and determine the students’ risk of failure. By identifying at-risk students, the center allows for a case-management counseling approach for both new and current students, which results in a higher retention rate.

Blended Model

StructureThe blended model incorporates and customizes elements from supplemental, replacement, and emporium models. The blended model is based on the premise that learning success is achieved by customizing the learning environment for each discipline, course, and student.

Examples• Ohio State University: Ohio State University is redesigning its introductory statistics course to

offer students an assortment of interchangeable, technology-based paths that match their learning styles and abilities. OSU’s blended model includes lectures (reduced by more than half), individual and group discovery laboratories, live and remote reviews, small group study sessions, videos, training modules, oral and written presentations, active large group problem solving, homework assignments (TA graded or self-graded), and individual and group projects. Other course innovations include creating a “statistics help desk” using a tech support model, which will improve responses to students. OSU will also modularize course content, allowing students to earn variable credit based on successful module completion.

Results: OSU has eliminated one-fourth of course repetitions, thereby opening slots for an additional 150 students per year. OSU’s redesign reduced the cost-per-student from $190 to $132, a 31 percent reduction for an annual savings of $194,000.

6ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

The blended model also resulted in improved retention rates. The percentage of students who withdraw reduced from 11 percent to 8 percent and the percentage failing the course reduced from 7 percent to 3 percent.

• Florida Gulf Coast University: Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) has redesigned its required fine arts course into a single section using a common syllabus, textbook, set of assignments, and interactive course web-site. The redesigned course includes six modules with options of live lectures, taped lectures, commercially-produced videos, and/or web-based learning activities. Thus, FGCU meets the varying needs of students with different learning styles by providing student-centered options that strike a balance between traditional class structures and self-guided, technological learning environments.

Results: The course redesign consolidated 25 sections of 30 students into a single section, thus meeting the cost effectiveness goals of the course redesign. Additionally, the option to match learning environments with learning styles resulted in a reduction of D and F grades from 45 percent in the traditional course to 11 percent in the redesigned course.

Summary of Technology Models

Retains CourseRetains CourseStructureStructure

Reduces ClassReduces ClassMeeting TimeMeeting Time

Includes LearningIncludes LearningResource CenterResource Center

Supplemental Model �

Replacement Model � �

Emporium Model � �

Blended Model � �

ATLAS �� �� ��

1

Appendix: Technology-Based Platforms

OverviewTechnology has changed from a necessary administrative support, to a “mission critical” element of the modern learning environment, essential to the work of students, faculty, and staff. This shift places new burdens on the University’s technology infrastructure, not simply in its capacity, but in its design, since it must now serve the needs of a broad learning community. Any disruption in the infrastructure, particularly in the learning platform, is a disruption to the learning experience.

Traditional assumptions about teaching and learning are no longer adequate. Regardless of our approach or methodology, as educators we must take every advantage of both traditional methods and new approaches that offer exciting ways of using technology to enhance the teaching and learning process. We must take every advantage of the new media tools that are products of the technological advances of the past decade. These allow students to learn individually and through collaboration with others, and to learn at their own pace, sometimes exceeding the parameters of the course.

Many universities that manage large scale enrollments are actively exploring sophisticated and flexible technology-based learning platforms that improve the quality of education and reduce the costs of instruction. Four models emerge as the leading practices that capture how information technology, web-based materials, and course-management software supplement and/or replace traditional learning processes: the supplemental model, the replacement model, the emporium model, and the blended model.

Although all of the models discussed here have successfully improved the quality of student learning while reducing the costs of instruction, the rigidity of each model limits the scope of platform applicability. By employing all of these various models for the applications most appropriate to the particular discipline and scale of the situation, ATLAS will successfully synthesize both traditional methods and new technology-based approaches to learning. The dynamic and accommodating approach of the ATLAS platform will make students an intimate and active part of the learning process, thus enhancing a student’s ability to learn and achieve within a customized learning environment that has the flexibility to bridge disciplines and course structures.

Supplemental Model

StructureThe supplemental model retains the basic structure of the traditional course, maintaining the number of class meetings. The supplemental model strengthens functionality of the course by either a) adding technology-based, out-of-class activities, or b) changing what goes on in the class by integrating technology-based activities with traditional lecture, thus creating an active learning environment within a large lecture hall setting.

Examples• Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon University supplemented introductory statistics

lectures with SmartLab, an automated, interactive tutoring system that draws from artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology and computer science methodologies. SmartLab tracks and assesses the development of statistical inference skills, providing individualized assistance and a personal tutor for each student.

ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

2ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

Results: After introducing SmartLab to statistics courses, exams testing the skills and concepts of statistics significantly increased by 22.8 percent. Students also appreciate the integrated learning environment that blends traditional lectures with computerized learning activities.

• University of New Mexico: While maintaining the number of lectures for general psychology, the University of New Mexico provides students with a two-disc CD-ROM that contains quizzes, interactive activities, and movies supplementing in-class course content. The course requires that students complete three online mastery quizzes for credit.

Results: Since offering the supplemental CD-ROM, the drop-withdrawal-failure rate for general psychology courses has decreased from 42 percent in traditional lectures to 18 percent in the course redesign. Additionally, the percentage of students receiving a C or better has risen from 60 percent to 76 percent.

• University of Massachusetts-Amherst: The University of Massachusetts-Amherst has integrated technology with in-class activities as well as adding out-of-class technology-based supplements. The goal is to create an active learning environment within a large lecture hall setting supplemented by technology-based out-of-class activities. For the introductory biology courses, UMass created an interactive class website that equips students with the objectives, key concepts, and supplemental materials that prepare students before coming to lecture. Once in class, UMass uses ClassTalk—a commercially available, interactive technology that compiles students’ responses to problem-solving activities—to foster class interaction and small-group work.

Results: By facilitating a desirable learning environment, the supplemental course redesign increased attendance from 67 percent in the traditional format to 90 percent, which also correlated significantly to performance on exams.

• Harper College: Harper College has used a blended learning format to deliver chemistry instruction effectively. In addition to a discussion board that fosters interaction between students and instructors, the course redesign also includes an array of audio and video teaching and learning materials that fit diverse learning styles and create a learning-centered environment.

Results: Grade comparisons show that students in blended chemistry courses receive a much higher percentage of ‘A’s (40 percent vs. 22 percent) than students in face-to-face chemistry courses.

Replacement Model

StructureThe replacement model reduces in-class meeting by replacing face-to-face time with online (or technology based) interactive learning activities. In contrast to the supplemental model, the replacement model reduces the class-meeting time. The replacement model works on the premise that certain learning activities can be better accomplished online than in a traditional classroom format.

Examples• Penn State University: At Penn State University, the traditional course delivery model for

Introductory Statistics did not serve student needs and was not cost effective. The university reduced

3ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

the number of weekly lectures from three to one, replacing two of the traditional lectures with computer-mediated interactive workshops. With a variety of online learning materials as well as computerized testing, the redesigned statistics course replaced class meetings with online activities while maintaining the lecture format in the remaining class meetings.

Results: Faculty and teaching assistants utilize these computer-mediated workshops to provide interactive and substantive feedback to students. The redesigned course provides a more interactive model of student learning and reduces costs, particularly in terms of TA support typically required in large, traditional lecture sections. Consequently, the replacement course model provided an overall 30 percent reduction in cost-per-student, from approximately $176 to $123. Annually, this means a savings of more than $115,000.

• Brigham Young University: Brigham Young University redesigned the Freshman Composition course to reduce the amount of time students spend in the classroom from three hours to one hour per week, allowing the faculty to spend more time in one-on-one student consultations. A series of interactive multimedia lessons and additional peer-to-peer sessions replace the time students previously spent in the campus classroom.

Results: The redesign leveraged online multimedia modules to teach students key concepts about reading and writing. Additionally, the university met its cost effectiveness goals as an answer to enrollment growth. The redesigned course shows an overall faculty time savings of 25 percent when compared to the traditional course.

• University of Tennessee-Knoxville: The University of Tennessee-Knoxville redesigned its introductory Spanish course by shifting many instructional activities to a technology-based learning environment while using class time to focus on activities that require face-to-face interaction. UTK’s online activites include grammer, vocabulary, and listening activities.

Results: Reducing the number of class meetings enhanced the potential for collaborative learning with peers and instructors. Because of more opportunities for oral communication, student grades and language competency increased. Institutionally, the course redesign increased the number of students who can be served with the same personnel resources.

• University of Southern Maine: For the Introductory Psychology course at the University of Southern Maine, the faculty-to-student ratio prohibited a desirable learning environment in which students could receive frequent feedback; faculty were primarily devoted to serving these large introductory course sections and spent less time on developing and revising upper-level course materials. Online resources and a variety of interactive computer activities were implemented to replace lecture time.

Results: Online computer lectures replaced class-meeting time and improved learning opportunities through more direct interaction and redeployment of key resources. The course redesign also provided an institutional solution to deal effectively with enrollment. As a result, lecture time was reduced by 50 percent while course sections increased in size from 75 to 125. Per-student costs were reduced from $113 per student in the traditional model to $58 per student in the redesigned replacement model.

4ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

Emporium Model

StructureThe emporium model eliminates all class meetings and replaces them with a learning resource center featuring online materials and on-demand personalized assistance. Because of the learning resource center, the emporium model requires a significant commitment of space and equipment. The emporium is staffed by faculty and trained peer tutors who assist students with the modularized online tutorials and quizzes. Consequently, by combining multiple sections of a course into one large course structure, the emporium model illustrates how information technology can address enrollment growth while overcoming financial constraints and improving student learning.

Examples• Virginia Tech: Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium is a learning laboratory adjacent to campus that

houses a web-based resource system (interactive tutorials, computation examples, an electronic text book, and online quizzes) for over 7,000 students in a dozen mathematics classes. The Math Emporium operates entirely online, with personal support by a staff of peer tutors and faculty available 24/7. Located in a 58,000-square foot space a twenty minute walk from campus, Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium holds nearly 550 iMac systems.

The Math Emporium environment accommodates several different learning styles. With break-out areas for one-on-one instruction and a presentation area where groups of students can work together, students have the opportunity to customize their learning environment by choosing to work individually, in groups of up to eight students, or one-on-one with one of the dozens of tutors and faculty in the emporium.

Students study course concepts, complete practice problems, and take assigned tests at a self-paced rate in a collaborative learning environment through the use of locally developed software and course materials. Built-in assessment programs allow faculty members to monitor each student’s progress and to intervene as problems arise. The Math Emporium is a technology-based solution to the problem of teaching more students with fewer faculty and less money.

Results: Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium exemplifies the potential for information technology to

address enrollment growth while overcoming financial constraints and improving student learning. While sustaining the quality of education offered in traditional courses, the Math Emporium significantly reduces costs and shifts university resources. A study of learning effectiveness concluded that test and grade results have been essentially the same as just before the redesign, except that retention and completion rates have clearly increased. The freedom to work at convenient times and for as long as needed probably makes the greatest contribution to student satisfaction.

Virginia Tech’s cost effectiveness goals were also met. By replacing 40-student sections with one large course structure in the Math Emporium, Virginia Tech reduced the labor requirement for the instructor to half-time. Time for tenure-track faculty was reduced to zero (a 100 percent decline). As a result, the per-student costs in the redesigned emporium model dropped from $91 to $21, with an annual cost savings of $140,000.

5ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

• University of Alabama: Based on the success of Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium, the University of Alabama created an emporium-style learning environment to reduce costs while retaining the individual focus of small sections. The Math Technology Learning Center is the University of Alabama’s 240-seat learning resource computer center for teaching introductory mathematics courses. The Math Technology Center offers a self-paced, computer-based active learning environment. Based on commercial software, the web-based interactive tutorials, exercises, and quizzes eliminate lectures and combine multiple sections into one large course structure.

Results: The University of Alabama combined 44 intermediate algebra sections of approximately 35 students each into one 1,500-student section. Student surveys indicate an overwhelming appreciation and satisfaction with the emporium-style learning environment.

• University of Idaho: The University of Idaho’s Polya Mathematics Center offers students a wide range of mathematical software/courseware and is staffed over 80 hours per week by instructors and teaching assistants. The study and consultation room provides space for individual and group study with the readily available assistance of instructors and teaching assistants. The Polya Center contains 72 computers with modularized online tutorials and interactive navigation.

Results: The University of Idaho shifted two pre-calculus courses, previously organized into 60 sections of 40 students each, into its Polya Center. The center’s web-based support system for students and counselors includes a screening process that enables instructors to track progress and determine the students’ risk of failure. By identifying at-risk students, the center allows for a case-management counseling approach for both new and current students, which results in a higher retention rate.

Blended Model

StructureThe blended model incorporates and customizes elements from supplemental, replacement, and emporium models. The blended model is based on the premise that learning success is achieved by customizing the learning environment for each discipline, course, and student.

Examples• Ohio State University: Ohio State University is redesigning its introductory statistics course to

offer students an assortment of interchangeable, technology-based paths that match their learning styles and abilities. OSU’s blended model includes lectures (reduced by more than half), individual and group discovery laboratories, live and remote reviews, small group study sessions, videos, training modules, oral and written presentations, active large group problem solving, homework assignments (TA graded or self-graded), and individual and group projects. Other course innovations include creating a “statistics help desk” using a tech support model, which will improve responses to students. OSU will also modularize course content, allowing students to earn variable credit based on successful module completion.

Results: OSU has eliminated one-fourth of course repetitions, thereby opening slots for an additional 150 students per year. OSU’s redesign reduced the cost-per-student from $190 to $132, a 31 percent reduction for an annual savings of $194,000.

6ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

The blended model also resulted in improved retention rates. The percentage of students who withdraw reduced from 11 percent to 8 percent and the percentage failing the course reduced from 7 percent to 3 percent.

• Florida Gulf Coast University: Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) has redesigned its required fine arts course into a single section using a common syllabus, textbook, set of assignments, and interactive course web-site. The redesigned course includes six modules with options of live lectures, taped lectures, commercially-produced videos, and/or web-based learning activities. Thus, FGCU meets the varying needs of students with different learning styles by providing student-centered options that strike a balance between traditional class structures and self-guided, technological learning environments.

Results: The course redesign consolidated 25 sections of 30 students into a single section, thus meeting the cost effectiveness goals of the course redesign. Additionally, the option to match learning environments with learning styles resulted in a reduction of D and F grades from 45 percent in the traditional course to 11 percent in the redesigned course.

Summary of Technology Models

Retains CourseRetains CourseStructureStructure

Reduces ClassReduces ClassMeeting TimeMeeting Time

Includes LearningIncludes LearningResource CenterResource Center

Supplemental Model �

Replacement Model � �

Emporium Model � �

Blended Model � �

ATLAS �� �� ��

1

Appendix: Technology-Based Platforms

OverviewTechnology has changed from a necessary administrative support, to a “mission critical” element of the modern learning environment, essential to the work of students, faculty, and staff. This shift places new burdens on the University’s technology infrastructure, not simply in its capacity, but in its design, since it must now serve the needs of a broad learning community. Any disruption in the infrastructure, particularly in the learning platform, is a disruption to the learning experience.

Traditional assumptions about teaching and learning are no longer adequate. Regardless of our approach or methodology, as educators we must take every advantage of both traditional methods and new approaches that offer exciting ways of using technology to enhance the teaching and learning process. We must take every advantage of the new media tools that are products of the technological advances of the past decade. These allow students to learn individually and through collaboration with others, and to learn at their own pace, sometimes exceeding the parameters of the course.

Many universities that manage large scale enrollments are actively exploring sophisticated and flexible technology-based learning platforms that improve the quality of education and reduce the costs of instruction. Four models emerge as the leading practices that capture how information technology, web-based materials, and course-management software supplement and/or replace traditional learning processes: the supplemental model, the replacement model, the emporium model, and the blended model.

Although all of the models discussed here have successfully improved the quality of student learning while reducing the costs of instruction, the rigidity of each model limits the scope of platform applicability. By employing all of these various models for the applications most appropriate to the particular discipline and scale of the situation, ATLAS will successfully synthesize both traditional methods and new technology-based approaches to learning. The dynamic and accommodating approach of the ATLAS platform will make students an intimate and active part of the learning process, thus enhancing a student’s ability to learn and achieve within a customized learning environment that has the flexibility to bridge disciplines and course structures.

Supplemental Model

StructureThe supplemental model retains the basic structure of the traditional course, maintaining the number of class meetings. The supplemental model strengthens functionality of the course by either a) adding technology-based, out-of-class activities, or b) changing what goes on in the class by integrating technology-based activities with traditional lecture, thus creating an active learning environment within a large lecture hall setting.

Examples• Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon University supplemented introductory statistics

lectures with SmartLab, an automated, interactive tutoring system that draws from artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology and computer science methodologies. SmartLab tracks and assesses the development of statistical inference skills, providing individualized assistance and a personal tutor for each student.

ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

2ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

Results: After introducing SmartLab to statistics courses, exams testing the skills and concepts of statistics significantly increased by 22.8 percent. Students also appreciate the integrated learning environment that blends traditional lectures with computerized learning activities.

• University of New Mexico: While maintaining the number of lectures for general psychology, the University of New Mexico provides students with a two-disc CD-ROM that contains quizzes, interactive activities, and movies supplementing in-class course content. The course requires that students complete three online mastery quizzes for credit.

Results: Since offering the supplemental CD-ROM, the drop-withdrawal-failure rate for general psychology courses has decreased from 42 percent in traditional lectures to 18 percent in the course redesign. Additionally, the percentage of students receiving a C or better has risen from 60 percent to 76 percent.

• University of Massachusetts-Amherst: The University of Massachusetts-Amherst has integrated technology with in-class activities as well as adding out-of-class technology-based supplements. The goal is to create an active learning environment within a large lecture hall setting supplemented by technology-based out-of-class activities. For the introductory biology courses, UMass created an interactive class website that equips students with the objectives, key concepts, and supplemental materials that prepare students before coming to lecture. Once in class, UMass uses ClassTalk—a commercially available, interactive technology that compiles students’ responses to problem-solving activities—to foster class interaction and small-group work.

Results: By facilitating a desirable learning environment, the supplemental course redesign increased attendance from 67 percent in the traditional format to 90 percent, which also correlated significantly to performance on exams.

• Harper College: Harper College has used a blended learning format to deliver chemistry instruction effectively. In addition to a discussion board that fosters interaction between students and instructors, the course redesign also includes an array of audio and video teaching and learning materials that fit diverse learning styles and create a learning-centered environment.

Results: Grade comparisons show that students in blended chemistry courses receive a much higher percentage of ‘A’s (40 percent vs. 22 percent) than students in face-to-face chemistry courses.

Replacement Model

StructureThe replacement model reduces in-class meeting by replacing face-to-face time with online (or technology based) interactive learning activities. In contrast to the supplemental model, the replacement model reduces the class-meeting time. The replacement model works on the premise that certain learning activities can be better accomplished online than in a traditional classroom format.

Examples• Penn State University: At Penn State University, the traditional course delivery model for

Introductory Statistics did not serve student needs and was not cost effective. The university reduced

3ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

the number of weekly lectures from three to one, replacing two of the traditional lectures with computer-mediated interactive workshops. With a variety of online learning materials as well as computerized testing, the redesigned statistics course replaced class meetings with online activities while maintaining the lecture format in the remaining class meetings.

Results: Faculty and teaching assistants utilize these computer-mediated workshops to provide interactive and substantive feedback to students. The redesigned course provides a more interactive model of student learning and reduces costs, particularly in terms of TA support typically required in large, traditional lecture sections. Consequently, the replacement course model provided an overall 30 percent reduction in cost-per-student, from approximately $176 to $123. Annually, this means a savings of more than $115,000.

• Brigham Young University: Brigham Young University redesigned the Freshman Composition course to reduce the amount of time students spend in the classroom from three hours to one hour per week, allowing the faculty to spend more time in one-on-one student consultations. A series of interactive multimedia lessons and additional peer-to-peer sessions replace the time students previously spent in the campus classroom.

Results: The redesign leveraged online multimedia modules to teach students key concepts about reading and writing. Additionally, the university met its cost effectiveness goals as an answer to enrollment growth. The redesigned course shows an overall faculty time savings of 25 percent when compared to the traditional course.

• University of Tennessee-Knoxville: The University of Tennessee-Knoxville redesigned its introductory Spanish course by shifting many instructional activities to a technology-based learning environment while using class time to focus on activities that require face-to-face interaction. UTK’s online activites include grammer, vocabulary, and listening activities.

Results: Reducing the number of class meetings enhanced the potential for collaborative learning with peers and instructors. Because of more opportunities for oral communication, student grades and language competency increased. Institutionally, the course redesign increased the number of students who can be served with the same personnel resources.

• University of Southern Maine: For the Introductory Psychology course at the University of Southern Maine, the faculty-to-student ratio prohibited a desirable learning environment in which students could receive frequent feedback; faculty were primarily devoted to serving these large introductory course sections and spent less time on developing and revising upper-level course materials. Online resources and a variety of interactive computer activities were implemented to replace lecture time.

Results: Online computer lectures replaced class-meeting time and improved learning opportunities through more direct interaction and redeployment of key resources. The course redesign also provided an institutional solution to deal effectively with enrollment. As a result, lecture time was reduced by 50 percent while course sections increased in size from 75 to 125. Per-student costs were reduced from $113 per student in the traditional model to $58 per student in the redesigned replacement model.

4ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

Emporium Model

StructureThe emporium model eliminates all class meetings and replaces them with a learning resource center featuring online materials and on-demand personalized assistance. Because of the learning resource center, the emporium model requires a significant commitment of space and equipment. The emporium is staffed by faculty and trained peer tutors who assist students with the modularized online tutorials and quizzes. Consequently, by combining multiple sections of a course into one large course structure, the emporium model illustrates how information technology can address enrollment growth while overcoming financial constraints and improving student learning.

Examples• Virginia Tech: Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium is a learning laboratory adjacent to campus that

houses a web-based resource system (interactive tutorials, computation examples, an electronic text book, and online quizzes) for over 7,000 students in a dozen mathematics classes. The Math Emporium operates entirely online, with personal support by a staff of peer tutors and faculty available 24/7. Located in a 58,000-square foot space a twenty minute walk from campus, Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium holds nearly 550 iMac systems.

The Math Emporium environment accommodates several different learning styles. With break-out areas for one-on-one instruction and a presentation area where groups of students can work together, students have the opportunity to customize their learning environment by choosing to work individually, in groups of up to eight students, or one-on-one with one of the dozens of tutors and faculty in the emporium.

Students study course concepts, complete practice problems, and take assigned tests at a self-paced rate in a collaborative learning environment through the use of locally developed software and course materials. Built-in assessment programs allow faculty members to monitor each student’s progress and to intervene as problems arise. The Math Emporium is a technology-based solution to the problem of teaching more students with fewer faculty and less money.

Results: Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium exemplifies the potential for information technology to

address enrollment growth while overcoming financial constraints and improving student learning. While sustaining the quality of education offered in traditional courses, the Math Emporium significantly reduces costs and shifts university resources. A study of learning effectiveness concluded that test and grade results have been essentially the same as just before the redesign, except that retention and completion rates have clearly increased. The freedom to work at convenient times and for as long as needed probably makes the greatest contribution to student satisfaction.

Virginia Tech’s cost effectiveness goals were also met. By replacing 40-student sections with one large course structure in the Math Emporium, Virginia Tech reduced the labor requirement for the instructor to half-time. Time for tenure-track faculty was reduced to zero (a 100 percent decline). As a result, the per-student costs in the redesigned emporium model dropped from $91 to $21, with an annual cost savings of $140,000.

5ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

• University of Alabama: Based on the success of Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium, the University of Alabama created an emporium-style learning environment to reduce costs while retaining the individual focus of small sections. The Math Technology Learning Center is the University of Alabama’s 240-seat learning resource computer center for teaching introductory mathematics courses. The Math Technology Center offers a self-paced, computer-based active learning environment. Based on commercial software, the web-based interactive tutorials, exercises, and quizzes eliminate lectures and combine multiple sections into one large course structure.

Results: The University of Alabama combined 44 intermediate algebra sections of approximately 35 students each into one 1,500-student section. Student surveys indicate an overwhelming appreciation and satisfaction with the emporium-style learning environment.

• University of Idaho: The University of Idaho’s Polya Mathematics Center offers students a wide range of mathematical software/courseware and is staffed over 80 hours per week by instructors and teaching assistants. The study and consultation room provides space for individual and group study with the readily available assistance of instructors and teaching assistants. The Polya Center contains 72 computers with modularized online tutorials and interactive navigation.

Results: The University of Idaho shifted two pre-calculus courses, previously organized into 60 sections of 40 students each, into its Polya Center. The center’s web-based support system for students and counselors includes a screening process that enables instructors to track progress and determine the students’ risk of failure. By identifying at-risk students, the center allows for a case-management counseling approach for both new and current students, which results in a higher retention rate.

Blended Model

StructureThe blended model incorporates and customizes elements from supplemental, replacement, and emporium models. The blended model is based on the premise that learning success is achieved by customizing the learning environment for each discipline, course, and student.

Examples• Ohio State University: Ohio State University is redesigning its introductory statistics course to

offer students an assortment of interchangeable, technology-based paths that match their learning styles and abilities. OSU’s blended model includes lectures (reduced by more than half), individual and group discovery laboratories, live and remote reviews, small group study sessions, videos, training modules, oral and written presentations, active large group problem solving, homework assignments (TA graded or self-graded), and individual and group projects. Other course innovations include creating a “statistics help desk” using a tech support model, which will improve responses to students. OSU will also modularize course content, allowing students to earn variable credit based on successful module completion.

Results: OSU has eliminated one-fourth of course repetitions, thereby opening slots for an additional 150 students per year. OSU’s redesign reduced the cost-per-student from $190 to $132, a 31 percent reduction for an annual savings of $194,000.

6ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

The blended model also resulted in improved retention rates. The percentage of students who withdraw reduced from 11 percent to 8 percent and the percentage failing the course reduced from 7 percent to 3 percent.

• Florida Gulf Coast University: Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) has redesigned its required fine arts course into a single section using a common syllabus, textbook, set of assignments, and interactive course web-site. The redesigned course includes six modules with options of live lectures, taped lectures, commercially-produced videos, and/or web-based learning activities. Thus, FGCU meets the varying needs of students with different learning styles by providing student-centered options that strike a balance between traditional class structures and self-guided, technological learning environments.

Results: The course redesign consolidated 25 sections of 30 students into a single section, thus meeting the cost effectiveness goals of the course redesign. Additionally, the option to match learning environments with learning styles resulted in a reduction of D and F grades from 45 percent in the traditional course to 11 percent in the redesigned course.

Summary of Technology Models

Retains CourseRetains CourseStructureStructure

Reduces ClassReduces ClassMeeting TimeMeeting Time

Includes LearningIncludes LearningResource CenterResource Center

Supplemental Model �

Replacement Model � �

Emporium Model � �

Blended Model � �

ATLAS �� �� ��

1

Appendix: Technology-Based Platforms

OverviewTechnology has changed from a necessary administrative support, to a “mission critical” element of the modern learning environment, essential to the work of students, faculty, and staff. This shift places new burdens on the University’s technology infrastructure, not simply in its capacity, but in its design, since it must now serve the needs of a broad learning community. Any disruption in the infrastructure, particularly in the learning platform, is a disruption to the learning experience.

Traditional assumptions about teaching and learning are no longer adequate. Regardless of our approach or methodology, as educators we must take every advantage of both traditional methods and new approaches that offer exciting ways of using technology to enhance the teaching and learning process. We must take every advantage of the new media tools that are products of the technological advances of the past decade. These allow students to learn individually and through collaboration with others, and to learn at their own pace, sometimes exceeding the parameters of the course.

Many universities that manage large scale enrollments are actively exploring sophisticated and flexible technology-based learning platforms that improve the quality of education and reduce the costs of instruction. Four models emerge as the leading practices that capture how information technology, web-based materials, and course-management software supplement and/or replace traditional learning processes: the supplemental model, the replacement model, the emporium model, and the blended model.

Although all of the models discussed here have successfully improved the quality of student learning while reducing the costs of instruction, the rigidity of each model limits the scope of platform applicability. By employing all of these various models for the applications most appropriate to the particular discipline and scale of the situation, ATLAS will successfully synthesize both traditional methods and new technology-based approaches to learning. The dynamic and accommodating approach of the ATLAS platform will make students an intimate and active part of the learning process, thus enhancing a student’s ability to learn and achieve within a customized learning environment that has the flexibility to bridge disciplines and course structures.

Supplemental Model

StructureThe supplemental model retains the basic structure of the traditional course, maintaining the number of class meetings. The supplemental model strengthens functionality of the course by either a) adding technology-based, out-of-class activities, or b) changing what goes on in the class by integrating technology-based activities with traditional lecture, thus creating an active learning environment within a large lecture hall setting.

Examples• Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon University supplemented introductory statistics

lectures with SmartLab, an automated, interactive tutoring system that draws from artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology and computer science methodologies. SmartLab tracks and assesses the development of statistical inference skills, providing individualized assistance and a personal tutor for each student.

ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

2ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

Results: After introducing SmartLab to statistics courses, exams testing the skills and concepts of statistics significantly increased by 22.8 percent. Students also appreciate the integrated learning environment that blends traditional lectures with computerized learning activities.

• University of New Mexico: While maintaining the number of lectures for general psychology, the University of New Mexico provides students with a two-disc CD-ROM that contains quizzes, interactive activities, and movies supplementing in-class course content. The course requires that students complete three online mastery quizzes for credit.

Results: Since offering the supplemental CD-ROM, the drop-withdrawal-failure rate for general psychology courses has decreased from 42 percent in traditional lectures to 18 percent in the course redesign. Additionally, the percentage of students receiving a C or better has risen from 60 percent to 76 percent.

• University of Massachusetts-Amherst: The University of Massachusetts-Amherst has integrated technology with in-class activities as well as adding out-of-class technology-based supplements. The goal is to create an active learning environment within a large lecture hall setting supplemented by technology-based out-of-class activities. For the introductory biology courses, UMass created an interactive class website that equips students with the objectives, key concepts, and supplemental materials that prepare students before coming to lecture. Once in class, UMass uses ClassTalk—a commercially available, interactive technology that compiles students’ responses to problem-solving activities—to foster class interaction and small-group work.

Results: By facilitating a desirable learning environment, the supplemental course redesign increased attendance from 67 percent in the traditional format to 90 percent, which also correlated significantly to performance on exams.

• Harper College: Harper College has used a blended learning format to deliver chemistry instruction effectively. In addition to a discussion board that fosters interaction between students and instructors, the course redesign also includes an array of audio and video teaching and learning materials that fit diverse learning styles and create a learning-centered environment.

Results: Grade comparisons show that students in blended chemistry courses receive a much higher percentage of ‘A’s (40 percent vs. 22 percent) than students in face-to-face chemistry courses.

Replacement Model

StructureThe replacement model reduces in-class meeting by replacing face-to-face time with online (or technology based) interactive learning activities. In contrast to the supplemental model, the replacement model reduces the class-meeting time. The replacement model works on the premise that certain learning activities can be better accomplished online than in a traditional classroom format.

Examples• Penn State University: At Penn State University, the traditional course delivery model for

Introductory Statistics did not serve student needs and was not cost effective. The university reduced

3ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

the number of weekly lectures from three to one, replacing two of the traditional lectures with computer-mediated interactive workshops. With a variety of online learning materials as well as computerized testing, the redesigned statistics course replaced class meetings with online activities while maintaining the lecture format in the remaining class meetings.

Results: Faculty and teaching assistants utilize these computer-mediated workshops to provide interactive and substantive feedback to students. The redesigned course provides a more interactive model of student learning and reduces costs, particularly in terms of TA support typically required in large, traditional lecture sections. Consequently, the replacement course model provided an overall 30 percent reduction in cost-per-student, from approximately $176 to $123. Annually, this means a savings of more than $115,000.

• Brigham Young University: Brigham Young University redesigned the Freshman Composition course to reduce the amount of time students spend in the classroom from three hours to one hour per week, allowing the faculty to spend more time in one-on-one student consultations. A series of interactive multimedia lessons and additional peer-to-peer sessions replace the time students previously spent in the campus classroom.

Results: The redesign leveraged online multimedia modules to teach students key concepts about reading and writing. Additionally, the university met its cost effectiveness goals as an answer to enrollment growth. The redesigned course shows an overall faculty time savings of 25 percent when compared to the traditional course.

• University of Tennessee-Knoxville: The University of Tennessee-Knoxville redesigned its introductory Spanish course by shifting many instructional activities to a technology-based learning environment while using class time to focus on activities that require face-to-face interaction. UTK’s online activites include grammer, vocabulary, and listening activities.

Results: Reducing the number of class meetings enhanced the potential for collaborative learning with peers and instructors. Because of more opportunities for oral communication, student grades and language competency increased. Institutionally, the course redesign increased the number of students who can be served with the same personnel resources.

• University of Southern Maine: For the Introductory Psychology course at the University of Southern Maine, the faculty-to-student ratio prohibited a desirable learning environment in which students could receive frequent feedback; faculty were primarily devoted to serving these large introductory course sections and spent less time on developing and revising upper-level course materials. Online resources and a variety of interactive computer activities were implemented to replace lecture time.

Results: Online computer lectures replaced class-meeting time and improved learning opportunities through more direct interaction and redeployment of key resources. The course redesign also provided an institutional solution to deal effectively with enrollment. As a result, lecture time was reduced by 50 percent while course sections increased in size from 75 to 125. Per-student costs were reduced from $113 per student in the traditional model to $58 per student in the redesigned replacement model.

4ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

Emporium Model

StructureThe emporium model eliminates all class meetings and replaces them with a learning resource center featuring online materials and on-demand personalized assistance. Because of the learning resource center, the emporium model requires a significant commitment of space and equipment. The emporium is staffed by faculty and trained peer tutors who assist students with the modularized online tutorials and quizzes. Consequently, by combining multiple sections of a course into one large course structure, the emporium model illustrates how information technology can address enrollment growth while overcoming financial constraints and improving student learning.

Examples• Virginia Tech: Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium is a learning laboratory adjacent to campus that

houses a web-based resource system (interactive tutorials, computation examples, an electronic text book, and online quizzes) for over 7,000 students in a dozen mathematics classes. The Math Emporium operates entirely online, with personal support by a staff of peer tutors and faculty available 24/7. Located in a 58,000-square foot space a twenty minute walk from campus, Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium holds nearly 550 iMac systems.

The Math Emporium environment accommodates several different learning styles. With break-out areas for one-on-one instruction and a presentation area where groups of students can work together, students have the opportunity to customize their learning environment by choosing to work individually, in groups of up to eight students, or one-on-one with one of the dozens of tutors and faculty in the emporium.

Students study course concepts, complete practice problems, and take assigned tests at a self-paced rate in a collaborative learning environment through the use of locally developed software and course materials. Built-in assessment programs allow faculty members to monitor each student’s progress and to intervene as problems arise. The Math Emporium is a technology-based solution to the problem of teaching more students with fewer faculty and less money.

Results: Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium exemplifies the potential for information technology to

address enrollment growth while overcoming financial constraints and improving student learning. While sustaining the quality of education offered in traditional courses, the Math Emporium significantly reduces costs and shifts university resources. A study of learning effectiveness concluded that test and grade results have been essentially the same as just before the redesign, except that retention and completion rates have clearly increased. The freedom to work at convenient times and for as long as needed probably makes the greatest contribution to student satisfaction.

Virginia Tech’s cost effectiveness goals were also met. By replacing 40-student sections with one large course structure in the Math Emporium, Virginia Tech reduced the labor requirement for the instructor to half-time. Time for tenure-track faculty was reduced to zero (a 100 percent decline). As a result, the per-student costs in the redesigned emporium model dropped from $91 to $21, with an annual cost savings of $140,000.

5ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

• University of Alabama: Based on the success of Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium, the University of Alabama created an emporium-style learning environment to reduce costs while retaining the individual focus of small sections. The Math Technology Learning Center is the University of Alabama’s 240-seat learning resource computer center for teaching introductory mathematics courses. The Math Technology Center offers a self-paced, computer-based active learning environment. Based on commercial software, the web-based interactive tutorials, exercises, and quizzes eliminate lectures and combine multiple sections into one large course structure.

Results: The University of Alabama combined 44 intermediate algebra sections of approximately 35 students each into one 1,500-student section. Student surveys indicate an overwhelming appreciation and satisfaction with the emporium-style learning environment.

• University of Idaho: The University of Idaho’s Polya Mathematics Center offers students a wide range of mathematical software/courseware and is staffed over 80 hours per week by instructors and teaching assistants. The study and consultation room provides space for individual and group study with the readily available assistance of instructors and teaching assistants. The Polya Center contains 72 computers with modularized online tutorials and interactive navigation.

Results: The University of Idaho shifted two pre-calculus courses, previously organized into 60 sections of 40 students each, into its Polya Center. The center’s web-based support system for students and counselors includes a screening process that enables instructors to track progress and determine the students’ risk of failure. By identifying at-risk students, the center allows for a case-management counseling approach for both new and current students, which results in a higher retention rate.

Blended Model

StructureThe blended model incorporates and customizes elements from supplemental, replacement, and emporium models. The blended model is based on the premise that learning success is achieved by customizing the learning environment for each discipline, course, and student.

Examples• Ohio State University: Ohio State University is redesigning its introductory statistics course to

offer students an assortment of interchangeable, technology-based paths that match their learning styles and abilities. OSU’s blended model includes lectures (reduced by more than half), individual and group discovery laboratories, live and remote reviews, small group study sessions, videos, training modules, oral and written presentations, active large group problem solving, homework assignments (TA graded or self-graded), and individual and group projects. Other course innovations include creating a “statistics help desk” using a tech support model, which will improve responses to students. OSU will also modularize course content, allowing students to earn variable credit based on successful module completion.

Results: OSU has eliminated one-fourth of course repetitions, thereby opening slots for an additional 150 students per year. OSU’s redesign reduced the cost-per-student from $190 to $132, a 31 percent reduction for an annual savings of $194,000.

6ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

The blended model also resulted in improved retention rates. The percentage of students who withdraw reduced from 11 percent to 8 percent and the percentage failing the course reduced from 7 percent to 3 percent.

• Florida Gulf Coast University: Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) has redesigned its required fine arts course into a single section using a common syllabus, textbook, set of assignments, and interactive course web-site. The redesigned course includes six modules with options of live lectures, taped lectures, commercially-produced videos, and/or web-based learning activities. Thus, FGCU meets the varying needs of students with different learning styles by providing student-centered options that strike a balance between traditional class structures and self-guided, technological learning environments.

Results: The course redesign consolidated 25 sections of 30 students into a single section, thus meeting the cost effectiveness goals of the course redesign. Additionally, the option to match learning environments with learning styles resulted in a reduction of D and F grades from 45 percent in the traditional course to 11 percent in the redesigned course.

Summary of Technology Models

Retains CourseRetains CourseStructureStructure

Reduces ClassReduces ClassMeeting TimeMeeting Time

Includes LearningIncludes LearningResource CenterResource Center

Supplemental Model �

Replacement Model � �

Emporium Model � �

Blended Model � �

ATLAS �� �� ��

1

Appendix: Technology-Based Platforms

OverviewTechnology has changed from a necessary administrative support, to a “mission critical” element of the modern learning environment, essential to the work of students, faculty, and staff. This shift places new burdens on the University’s technology infrastructure, not simply in its capacity, but in its design, since it must now serve the needs of a broad learning community. Any disruption in the infrastructure, particularly in the learning platform, is a disruption to the learning experience.

Traditional assumptions about teaching and learning are no longer adequate. Regardless of our approach or methodology, as educators we must take every advantage of both traditional methods and new approaches that offer exciting ways of using technology to enhance the teaching and learning process. We must take every advantage of the new media tools that are products of the technological advances of the past decade. These allow students to learn individually and through collaboration with others, and to learn at their own pace, sometimes exceeding the parameters of the course.

Many universities that manage large scale enrollments are actively exploring sophisticated and flexible technology-based learning platforms that improve the quality of education and reduce the costs of instruction. Four models emerge as the leading practices that capture how information technology, web-based materials, and course-management software supplement and/or replace traditional learning processes: the supplemental model, the replacement model, the emporium model, and the blended model.

Although all of the models discussed here have successfully improved the quality of student learning while reducing the costs of instruction, the rigidity of each model limits the scope of platform applicability. By employing all of these various models for the applications most appropriate to the particular discipline and scale of the situation, ATLAS will successfully synthesize both traditional methods and new technology-based approaches to learning. The dynamic and accommodating approach of the ATLAS platform will make students an intimate and active part of the learning process, thus enhancing a student’s ability to learn and achieve within a customized learning environment that has the flexibility to bridge disciplines and course structures.

Supplemental Model

StructureThe supplemental model retains the basic structure of the traditional course, maintaining the number of class meetings. The supplemental model strengthens functionality of the course by either a) adding technology-based, out-of-class activities, or b) changing what goes on in the class by integrating technology-based activities with traditional lecture, thus creating an active learning environment within a large lecture hall setting.

Examples• Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon University supplemented introductory statistics

lectures with SmartLab, an automated, interactive tutoring system that draws from artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology and computer science methodologies. SmartLab tracks and assesses the development of statistical inference skills, providing individualized assistance and a personal tutor for each student.

ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

2ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

Results: After introducing SmartLab to statistics courses, exams testing the skills and concepts of statistics significantly increased by 22.8 percent. Students also appreciate the integrated learning environment that blends traditional lectures with computerized learning activities.

• University of New Mexico: While maintaining the number of lectures for general psychology, the University of New Mexico provides students with a two-disc CD-ROM that contains quizzes, interactive activities, and movies supplementing in-class course content. The course requires that students complete three online mastery quizzes for credit.

Results: Since offering the supplemental CD-ROM, the drop-withdrawal-failure rate for general psychology courses has decreased from 42 percent in traditional lectures to 18 percent in the course redesign. Additionally, the percentage of students receiving a C or better has risen from 60 percent to 76 percent.

• University of Massachusetts-Amherst: The University of Massachusetts-Amherst has integrated technology with in-class activities as well as adding out-of-class technology-based supplements. The goal is to create an active learning environment within a large lecture hall setting supplemented by technology-based out-of-class activities. For the introductory biology courses, UMass created an interactive class website that equips students with the objectives, key concepts, and supplemental materials that prepare students before coming to lecture. Once in class, UMass uses ClassTalk—a commercially available, interactive technology that compiles students’ responses to problem-solving activities—to foster class interaction and small-group work.

Results: By facilitating a desirable learning environment, the supplemental course redesign increased attendance from 67 percent in the traditional format to 90 percent, which also correlated significantly to performance on exams.

• Harper College: Harper College has used a blended learning format to deliver chemistry instruction effectively. In addition to a discussion board that fosters interaction between students and instructors, the course redesign also includes an array of audio and video teaching and learning materials that fit diverse learning styles and create a learning-centered environment.

Results: Grade comparisons show that students in blended chemistry courses receive a much higher percentage of ‘A’s (40 percent vs. 22 percent) than students in face-to-face chemistry courses.

Replacement Model

StructureThe replacement model reduces in-class meeting by replacing face-to-face time with online (or technology based) interactive learning activities. In contrast to the supplemental model, the replacement model reduces the class-meeting time. The replacement model works on the premise that certain learning activities can be better accomplished online than in a traditional classroom format.

Examples• Penn State University: At Penn State University, the traditional course delivery model for

Introductory Statistics did not serve student needs and was not cost effective. The university reduced

3ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

the number of weekly lectures from three to one, replacing two of the traditional lectures with computer-mediated interactive workshops. With a variety of online learning materials as well as computerized testing, the redesigned statistics course replaced class meetings with online activities while maintaining the lecture format in the remaining class meetings.

Results: Faculty and teaching assistants utilize these computer-mediated workshops to provide interactive and substantive feedback to students. The redesigned course provides a more interactive model of student learning and reduces costs, particularly in terms of TA support typically required in large, traditional lecture sections. Consequently, the replacement course model provided an overall 30 percent reduction in cost-per-student, from approximately $176 to $123. Annually, this means a savings of more than $115,000.

• Brigham Young University: Brigham Young University redesigned the Freshman Composition course to reduce the amount of time students spend in the classroom from three hours to one hour per week, allowing the faculty to spend more time in one-on-one student consultations. A series of interactive multimedia lessons and additional peer-to-peer sessions replace the time students previously spent in the campus classroom.

Results: The redesign leveraged online multimedia modules to teach students key concepts about reading and writing. Additionally, the university met its cost effectiveness goals as an answer to enrollment growth. The redesigned course shows an overall faculty time savings of 25 percent when compared to the traditional course.

• University of Tennessee-Knoxville: The University of Tennessee-Knoxville redesigned its introductory Spanish course by shifting many instructional activities to a technology-based learning environment while using class time to focus on activities that require face-to-face interaction. UTK’s online activites include grammer, vocabulary, and listening activities.

Results: Reducing the number of class meetings enhanced the potential for collaborative learning with peers and instructors. Because of more opportunities for oral communication, student grades and language competency increased. Institutionally, the course redesign increased the number of students who can be served with the same personnel resources.

• University of Southern Maine: For the Introductory Psychology course at the University of Southern Maine, the faculty-to-student ratio prohibited a desirable learning environment in which students could receive frequent feedback; faculty were primarily devoted to serving these large introductory course sections and spent less time on developing and revising upper-level course materials. Online resources and a variety of interactive computer activities were implemented to replace lecture time.

Results: Online computer lectures replaced class-meeting time and improved learning opportunities through more direct interaction and redeployment of key resources. The course redesign also provided an institutional solution to deal effectively with enrollment. As a result, lecture time was reduced by 50 percent while course sections increased in size from 75 to 125. Per-student costs were reduced from $113 per student in the traditional model to $58 per student in the redesigned replacement model.

4ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

Emporium Model

StructureThe emporium model eliminates all class meetings and replaces them with a learning resource center featuring online materials and on-demand personalized assistance. Because of the learning resource center, the emporium model requires a significant commitment of space and equipment. The emporium is staffed by faculty and trained peer tutors who assist students with the modularized online tutorials and quizzes. Consequently, by combining multiple sections of a course into one large course structure, the emporium model illustrates how information technology can address enrollment growth while overcoming financial constraints and improving student learning.

Examples• Virginia Tech: Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium is a learning laboratory adjacent to campus that

houses a web-based resource system (interactive tutorials, computation examples, an electronic text book, and online quizzes) for over 7,000 students in a dozen mathematics classes. The Math Emporium operates entirely online, with personal support by a staff of peer tutors and faculty available 24/7. Located in a 58,000-square foot space a twenty minute walk from campus, Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium holds nearly 550 iMac systems.

The Math Emporium environment accommodates several different learning styles. With break-out areas for one-on-one instruction and a presentation area where groups of students can work together, students have the opportunity to customize their learning environment by choosing to work individually, in groups of up to eight students, or one-on-one with one of the dozens of tutors and faculty in the emporium.

Students study course concepts, complete practice problems, and take assigned tests at a self-paced rate in a collaborative learning environment through the use of locally developed software and course materials. Built-in assessment programs allow faculty members to monitor each student’s progress and to intervene as problems arise. The Math Emporium is a technology-based solution to the problem of teaching more students with fewer faculty and less money.

Results: Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium exemplifies the potential for information technology to

address enrollment growth while overcoming financial constraints and improving student learning. While sustaining the quality of education offered in traditional courses, the Math Emporium significantly reduces costs and shifts university resources. A study of learning effectiveness concluded that test and grade results have been essentially the same as just before the redesign, except that retention and completion rates have clearly increased. The freedom to work at convenient times and for as long as needed probably makes the greatest contribution to student satisfaction.

Virginia Tech’s cost effectiveness goals were also met. By replacing 40-student sections with one large course structure in the Math Emporium, Virginia Tech reduced the labor requirement for the instructor to half-time. Time for tenure-track faculty was reduced to zero (a 100 percent decline). As a result, the per-student costs in the redesigned emporium model dropped from $91 to $21, with an annual cost savings of $140,000.

5ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

• University of Alabama: Based on the success of Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium, the University of Alabama created an emporium-style learning environment to reduce costs while retaining the individual focus of small sections. The Math Technology Learning Center is the University of Alabama’s 240-seat learning resource computer center for teaching introductory mathematics courses. The Math Technology Center offers a self-paced, computer-based active learning environment. Based on commercial software, the web-based interactive tutorials, exercises, and quizzes eliminate lectures and combine multiple sections into one large course structure.

Results: The University of Alabama combined 44 intermediate algebra sections of approximately 35 students each into one 1,500-student section. Student surveys indicate an overwhelming appreciation and satisfaction with the emporium-style learning environment.

• University of Idaho: The University of Idaho’s Polya Mathematics Center offers students a wide range of mathematical software/courseware and is staffed over 80 hours per week by instructors and teaching assistants. The study and consultation room provides space for individual and group study with the readily available assistance of instructors and teaching assistants. The Polya Center contains 72 computers with modularized online tutorials and interactive navigation.

Results: The University of Idaho shifted two pre-calculus courses, previously organized into 60 sections of 40 students each, into its Polya Center. The center’s web-based support system for students and counselors includes a screening process that enables instructors to track progress and determine the students’ risk of failure. By identifying at-risk students, the center allows for a case-management counseling approach for both new and current students, which results in a higher retention rate.

Blended Model

StructureThe blended model incorporates and customizes elements from supplemental, replacement, and emporium models. The blended model is based on the premise that learning success is achieved by customizing the learning environment for each discipline, course, and student.

Examples• Ohio State University: Ohio State University is redesigning its introductory statistics course to

offer students an assortment of interchangeable, technology-based paths that match their learning styles and abilities. OSU’s blended model includes lectures (reduced by more than half), individual and group discovery laboratories, live and remote reviews, small group study sessions, videos, training modules, oral and written presentations, active large group problem solving, homework assignments (TA graded or self-graded), and individual and group projects. Other course innovations include creating a “statistics help desk” using a tech support model, which will improve responses to students. OSU will also modularize course content, allowing students to earn variable credit based on successful module completion.

Results: OSU has eliminated one-fourth of course repetitions, thereby opening slots for an additional 150 students per year. OSU’s redesign reduced the cost-per-student from $190 to $132, a 31 percent reduction for an annual savings of $194,000.

6ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

The blended model also resulted in improved retention rates. The percentage of students who withdraw reduced from 11 percent to 8 percent and the percentage failing the course reduced from 7 percent to 3 percent.

• Florida Gulf Coast University: Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) has redesigned its required fine arts course into a single section using a common syllabus, textbook, set of assignments, and interactive course web-site. The redesigned course includes six modules with options of live lectures, taped lectures, commercially-produced videos, and/or web-based learning activities. Thus, FGCU meets the varying needs of students with different learning styles by providing student-centered options that strike a balance between traditional class structures and self-guided, technological learning environments.

Results: The course redesign consolidated 25 sections of 30 students into a single section, thus meeting the cost effectiveness goals of the course redesign. Additionally, the option to match learning environments with learning styles resulted in a reduction of D and F grades from 45 percent in the traditional course to 11 percent in the redesigned course.

Summary of Technology Models

Retains CourseRetains CourseStructureStructure

Reduces ClassReduces ClassMeeting TimeMeeting Time

Includes LearningIncludes LearningResource CenterResource Center

Supplemental Model �

Replacement Model � �

Emporium Model � �

Blended Model � �

ATLAS �� �� ��

1

Appendix: Technology-Based Platforms

OverviewTechnology has changed from a necessary administrative support, to a “mission critical” element of the modern learning environment, essential to the work of students, faculty, and staff. This shift places new burdens on the University’s technology infrastructure, not simply in its capacity, but in its design, since it must now serve the needs of a broad learning community. Any disruption in the infrastructure, particularly in the learning platform, is a disruption to the learning experience.

Traditional assumptions about teaching and learning are no longer adequate. Regardless of our approach or methodology, as educators we must take every advantage of both traditional methods and new approaches that offer exciting ways of using technology to enhance the teaching and learning process. We must take every advantage of the new media tools that are products of the technological advances of the past decade. These allow students to learn individually and through collaboration with others, and to learn at their own pace, sometimes exceeding the parameters of the course.

Many universities that manage large scale enrollments are actively exploring sophisticated and flexible technology-based learning platforms that improve the quality of education and reduce the costs of instruction. Four models emerge as the leading practices that capture how information technology, web-based materials, and course-management software supplement and/or replace traditional learning processes: the supplemental model, the replacement model, the emporium model, and the blended model.

Although all of the models discussed here have successfully improved the quality of student learning while reducing the costs of instruction, the rigidity of each model limits the scope of platform applicability. By employing all of these various models for the applications most appropriate to the particular discipline and scale of the situation, ATLAS will successfully synthesize both traditional methods and new technology-based approaches to learning. The dynamic and accommodating approach of the ATLAS platform will make students an intimate and active part of the learning process, thus enhancing a student’s ability to learn and achieve within a customized learning environment that has the flexibility to bridge disciplines and course structures.

Supplemental Model

StructureThe supplemental model retains the basic structure of the traditional course, maintaining the number of class meetings. The supplemental model strengthens functionality of the course by either a) adding technology-based, out-of-class activities, or b) changing what goes on in the class by integrating technology-based activities with traditional lecture, thus creating an active learning environment within a large lecture hall setting.

Examples• Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon University supplemented introductory statistics

lectures with SmartLab, an automated, interactive tutoring system that draws from artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology and computer science methodologies. SmartLab tracks and assesses the development of statistical inference skills, providing individualized assistance and a personal tutor for each student.

ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

2ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

Results: After introducing SmartLab to statistics courses, exams testing the skills and concepts of statistics significantly increased by 22.8 percent. Students also appreciate the integrated learning environment that blends traditional lectures with computerized learning activities.

• University of New Mexico: While maintaining the number of lectures for general psychology, the University of New Mexico provides students with a two-disc CD-ROM that contains quizzes, interactive activities, and movies supplementing in-class course content. The course requires that students complete three online mastery quizzes for credit.

Results: Since offering the supplemental CD-ROM, the drop-withdrawal-failure rate for general psychology courses has decreased from 42 percent in traditional lectures to 18 percent in the course redesign. Additionally, the percentage of students receiving a C or better has risen from 60 percent to 76 percent.

• University of Massachusetts-Amherst: The University of Massachusetts-Amherst has integrated technology with in-class activities as well as adding out-of-class technology-based supplements. The goal is to create an active learning environment within a large lecture hall setting supplemented by technology-based out-of-class activities. For the introductory biology courses, UMass created an interactive class website that equips students with the objectives, key concepts, and supplemental materials that prepare students before coming to lecture. Once in class, UMass uses ClassTalk—a commercially available, interactive technology that compiles students’ responses to problem-solving activities—to foster class interaction and small-group work.

Results: By facilitating a desirable learning environment, the supplemental course redesign increased attendance from 67 percent in the traditional format to 90 percent, which also correlated significantly to performance on exams.

• Harper College: Harper College has used a blended learning format to deliver chemistry instruction effectively. In addition to a discussion board that fosters interaction between students and instructors, the course redesign also includes an array of audio and video teaching and learning materials that fit diverse learning styles and create a learning-centered environment.

Results: Grade comparisons show that students in blended chemistry courses receive a much higher percentage of ‘A’s (40 percent vs. 22 percent) than students in face-to-face chemistry courses.

Replacement Model

StructureThe replacement model reduces in-class meeting by replacing face-to-face time with online (or technology based) interactive learning activities. In contrast to the supplemental model, the replacement model reduces the class-meeting time. The replacement model works on the premise that certain learning activities can be better accomplished online than in a traditional classroom format.

Examples• Penn State University: At Penn State University, the traditional course delivery model for

Introductory Statistics did not serve student needs and was not cost effective. The university reduced

3ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

the number of weekly lectures from three to one, replacing two of the traditional lectures with computer-mediated interactive workshops. With a variety of online learning materials as well as computerized testing, the redesigned statistics course replaced class meetings with online activities while maintaining the lecture format in the remaining class meetings.

Results: Faculty and teaching assistants utilize these computer-mediated workshops to provide interactive and substantive feedback to students. The redesigned course provides a more interactive model of student learning and reduces costs, particularly in terms of TA support typically required in large, traditional lecture sections. Consequently, the replacement course model provided an overall 30 percent reduction in cost-per-student, from approximately $176 to $123. Annually, this means a savings of more than $115,000.

• Brigham Young University: Brigham Young University redesigned the Freshman Composition course to reduce the amount of time students spend in the classroom from three hours to one hour per week, allowing the faculty to spend more time in one-on-one student consultations. A series of interactive multimedia lessons and additional peer-to-peer sessions replace the time students previously spent in the campus classroom.

Results: The redesign leveraged online multimedia modules to teach students key concepts about reading and writing. Additionally, the university met its cost effectiveness goals as an answer to enrollment growth. The redesigned course shows an overall faculty time savings of 25 percent when compared to the traditional course.

• University of Tennessee-Knoxville: The University of Tennessee-Knoxville redesigned its introductory Spanish course by shifting many instructional activities to a technology-based learning environment while using class time to focus on activities that require face-to-face interaction. UTK’s online activites include grammer, vocabulary, and listening activities.

Results: Reducing the number of class meetings enhanced the potential for collaborative learning with peers and instructors. Because of more opportunities for oral communication, student grades and language competency increased. Institutionally, the course redesign increased the number of students who can be served with the same personnel resources.

• University of Southern Maine: For the Introductory Psychology course at the University of Southern Maine, the faculty-to-student ratio prohibited a desirable learning environment in which students could receive frequent feedback; faculty were primarily devoted to serving these large introductory course sections and spent less time on developing and revising upper-level course materials. Online resources and a variety of interactive computer activities were implemented to replace lecture time.

Results: Online computer lectures replaced class-meeting time and improved learning opportunities through more direct interaction and redeployment of key resources. The course redesign also provided an institutional solution to deal effectively with enrollment. As a result, lecture time was reduced by 50 percent while course sections increased in size from 75 to 125. Per-student costs were reduced from $113 per student in the traditional model to $58 per student in the redesigned replacement model.

4ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

Emporium Model

StructureThe emporium model eliminates all class meetings and replaces them with a learning resource center featuring online materials and on-demand personalized assistance. Because of the learning resource center, the emporium model requires a significant commitment of space and equipment. The emporium is staffed by faculty and trained peer tutors who assist students with the modularized online tutorials and quizzes. Consequently, by combining multiple sections of a course into one large course structure, the emporium model illustrates how information technology can address enrollment growth while overcoming financial constraints and improving student learning.

Examples• Virginia Tech: Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium is a learning laboratory adjacent to campus that

houses a web-based resource system (interactive tutorials, computation examples, an electronic text book, and online quizzes) for over 7,000 students in a dozen mathematics classes. The Math Emporium operates entirely online, with personal support by a staff of peer tutors and faculty available 24/7. Located in a 58,000-square foot space a twenty minute walk from campus, Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium holds nearly 550 iMac systems.

The Math Emporium environment accommodates several different learning styles. With break-out areas for one-on-one instruction and a presentation area where groups of students can work together, students have the opportunity to customize their learning environment by choosing to work individually, in groups of up to eight students, or one-on-one with one of the dozens of tutors and faculty in the emporium.

Students study course concepts, complete practice problems, and take assigned tests at a self-paced rate in a collaborative learning environment through the use of locally developed software and course materials. Built-in assessment programs allow faculty members to monitor each student’s progress and to intervene as problems arise. The Math Emporium is a technology-based solution to the problem of teaching more students with fewer faculty and less money.

Results: Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium exemplifies the potential for information technology to

address enrollment growth while overcoming financial constraints and improving student learning. While sustaining the quality of education offered in traditional courses, the Math Emporium significantly reduces costs and shifts university resources. A study of learning effectiveness concluded that test and grade results have been essentially the same as just before the redesign, except that retention and completion rates have clearly increased. The freedom to work at convenient times and for as long as needed probably makes the greatest contribution to student satisfaction.

Virginia Tech’s cost effectiveness goals were also met. By replacing 40-student sections with one large course structure in the Math Emporium, Virginia Tech reduced the labor requirement for the instructor to half-time. Time for tenure-track faculty was reduced to zero (a 100 percent decline). As a result, the per-student costs in the redesigned emporium model dropped from $91 to $21, with an annual cost savings of $140,000.

5ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

• University of Alabama: Based on the success of Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium, the University of Alabama created an emporium-style learning environment to reduce costs while retaining the individual focus of small sections. The Math Technology Learning Center is the University of Alabama’s 240-seat learning resource computer center for teaching introductory mathematics courses. The Math Technology Center offers a self-paced, computer-based active learning environment. Based on commercial software, the web-based interactive tutorials, exercises, and quizzes eliminate lectures and combine multiple sections into one large course structure.

Results: The University of Alabama combined 44 intermediate algebra sections of approximately 35 students each into one 1,500-student section. Student surveys indicate an overwhelming appreciation and satisfaction with the emporium-style learning environment.

• University of Idaho: The University of Idaho’s Polya Mathematics Center offers students a wide range of mathematical software/courseware and is staffed over 80 hours per week by instructors and teaching assistants. The study and consultation room provides space for individual and group study with the readily available assistance of instructors and teaching assistants. The Polya Center contains 72 computers with modularized online tutorials and interactive navigation.

Results: The University of Idaho shifted two pre-calculus courses, previously organized into 60 sections of 40 students each, into its Polya Center. The center’s web-based support system for students and counselors includes a screening process that enables instructors to track progress and determine the students’ risk of failure. By identifying at-risk students, the center allows for a case-management counseling approach for both new and current students, which results in a higher retention rate.

Blended Model

StructureThe blended model incorporates and customizes elements from supplemental, replacement, and emporium models. The blended model is based on the premise that learning success is achieved by customizing the learning environment for each discipline, course, and student.

Examples• Ohio State University: Ohio State University is redesigning its introductory statistics course to

offer students an assortment of interchangeable, technology-based paths that match their learning styles and abilities. OSU’s blended model includes lectures (reduced by more than half), individual and group discovery laboratories, live and remote reviews, small group study sessions, videos, training modules, oral and written presentations, active large group problem solving, homework assignments (TA graded or self-graded), and individual and group projects. Other course innovations include creating a “statistics help desk” using a tech support model, which will improve responses to students. OSU will also modularize course content, allowing students to earn variable credit based on successful module completion.

Results: OSU has eliminated one-fourth of course repetitions, thereby opening slots for an additional 150 students per year. OSU’s redesign reduced the cost-per-student from $190 to $132, a 31 percent reduction for an annual savings of $194,000.

6ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

The blended model also resulted in improved retention rates. The percentage of students who withdraw reduced from 11 percent to 8 percent and the percentage failing the course reduced from 7 percent to 3 percent.

• Florida Gulf Coast University: Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) has redesigned its required fine arts course into a single section using a common syllabus, textbook, set of assignments, and interactive course web-site. The redesigned course includes six modules with options of live lectures, taped lectures, commercially-produced videos, and/or web-based learning activities. Thus, FGCU meets the varying needs of students with different learning styles by providing student-centered options that strike a balance between traditional class structures and self-guided, technological learning environments.

Results: The course redesign consolidated 25 sections of 30 students into a single section, thus meeting the cost effectiveness goals of the course redesign. Additionally, the option to match learning environments with learning styles resulted in a reduction of D and F grades from 45 percent in the traditional course to 11 percent in the redesigned course.

Summary of Technology Models

Retains CourseRetains CourseStructureStructure

Reduces ClassReduces ClassMeeting TimeMeeting Time

Includes LearningIncludes LearningResource CenterResource Center

Supplemental Model �

Replacement Model � �

Emporium Model � �

Blended Model � �

ATLAS �� �� ��

1

Appendix: Technology-Based Platforms

OverviewTechnology has changed from a necessary administrative support, to a “mission critical” element of the modern learning environment, essential to the work of students, faculty, and staff. This shift places new burdens on the University’s technology infrastructure, not simply in its capacity, but in its design, since it must now serve the needs of a broad learning community. Any disruption in the infrastructure, particularly in the learning platform, is a disruption to the learning experience.

Traditional assumptions about teaching and learning are no longer adequate. Regardless of our approach or methodology, as educators we must take every advantage of both traditional methods and new approaches that offer exciting ways of using technology to enhance the teaching and learning process. We must take every advantage of the new media tools that are products of the technological advances of the past decade. These allow students to learn individually and through collaboration with others, and to learn at their own pace, sometimes exceeding the parameters of the course.

Many universities that manage large scale enrollments are actively exploring sophisticated and flexible technology-based learning platforms that improve the quality of education and reduce the costs of instruction. Four models emerge as the leading practices that capture how information technology, web-based materials, and course-management software supplement and/or replace traditional learning processes: the supplemental model, the replacement model, the emporium model, and the blended model.

Although all of the models discussed here have successfully improved the quality of student learning while reducing the costs of instruction, the rigidity of each model limits the scope of platform applicability. By employing all of these various models for the applications most appropriate to the particular discipline and scale of the situation, ATLAS will successfully synthesize both traditional methods and new technology-based approaches to learning. The dynamic and accommodating approach of the ATLAS platform will make students an intimate and active part of the learning process, thus enhancing a student’s ability to learn and achieve within a customized learning environment that has the flexibility to bridge disciplines and course structures.

Supplemental Model

StructureThe supplemental model retains the basic structure of the traditional course, maintaining the number of class meetings. The supplemental model strengthens functionality of the course by either a) adding technology-based, out-of-class activities, or b) changing what goes on in the class by integrating technology-based activities with traditional lecture, thus creating an active learning environment within a large lecture hall setting.

Examples• Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon University supplemented introductory statistics

lectures with SmartLab, an automated, interactive tutoring system that draws from artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology and computer science methodologies. SmartLab tracks and assesses the development of statistical inference skills, providing individualized assistance and a personal tutor for each student.

ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

2ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

Results: After introducing SmartLab to statistics courses, exams testing the skills and concepts of statistics significantly increased by 22.8 percent. Students also appreciate the integrated learning environment that blends traditional lectures with computerized learning activities.

• University of New Mexico: While maintaining the number of lectures for general psychology, the University of New Mexico provides students with a two-disc CD-ROM that contains quizzes, interactive activities, and movies supplementing in-class course content. The course requires that students complete three online mastery quizzes for credit.

Results: Since offering the supplemental CD-ROM, the drop-withdrawal-failure rate for general psychology courses has decreased from 42 percent in traditional lectures to 18 percent in the course redesign. Additionally, the percentage of students receiving a C or better has risen from 60 percent to 76 percent.

• University of Massachusetts-Amherst: The University of Massachusetts-Amherst has integrated technology with in-class activities as well as adding out-of-class technology-based supplements. The goal is to create an active learning environment within a large lecture hall setting supplemented by technology-based out-of-class activities. For the introductory biology courses, UMass created an interactive class website that equips students with the objectives, key concepts, and supplemental materials that prepare students before coming to lecture. Once in class, UMass uses ClassTalk—a commercially available, interactive technology that compiles students’ responses to problem-solving activities—to foster class interaction and small-group work.

Results: By facilitating a desirable learning environment, the supplemental course redesign increased attendance from 67 percent in the traditional format to 90 percent, which also correlated significantly to performance on exams.

• Harper College: Harper College has used a blended learning format to deliver chemistry instruction effectively. In addition to a discussion board that fosters interaction between students and instructors, the course redesign also includes an array of audio and video teaching and learning materials that fit diverse learning styles and create a learning-centered environment.

Results: Grade comparisons show that students in blended chemistry courses receive a much higher percentage of ‘A’s (40 percent vs. 22 percent) than students in face-to-face chemistry courses.

Replacement Model

StructureThe replacement model reduces in-class meeting by replacing face-to-face time with online (or technology based) interactive learning activities. In contrast to the supplemental model, the replacement model reduces the class-meeting time. The replacement model works on the premise that certain learning activities can be better accomplished online than in a traditional classroom format.

Examples• Penn State University: At Penn State University, the traditional course delivery model for

Introductory Statistics did not serve student needs and was not cost effective. The university reduced

3ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

the number of weekly lectures from three to one, replacing two of the traditional lectures with computer-mediated interactive workshops. With a variety of online learning materials as well as computerized testing, the redesigned statistics course replaced class meetings with online activities while maintaining the lecture format in the remaining class meetings.

Results: Faculty and teaching assistants utilize these computer-mediated workshops to provide interactive and substantive feedback to students. The redesigned course provides a more interactive model of student learning and reduces costs, particularly in terms of TA support typically required in large, traditional lecture sections. Consequently, the replacement course model provided an overall 30 percent reduction in cost-per-student, from approximately $176 to $123. Annually, this means a savings of more than $115,000.

• Brigham Young University: Brigham Young University redesigned the Freshman Composition course to reduce the amount of time students spend in the classroom from three hours to one hour per week, allowing the faculty to spend more time in one-on-one student consultations. A series of interactive multimedia lessons and additional peer-to-peer sessions replace the time students previously spent in the campus classroom.

Results: The redesign leveraged online multimedia modules to teach students key concepts about reading and writing. Additionally, the university met its cost effectiveness goals as an answer to enrollment growth. The redesigned course shows an overall faculty time savings of 25 percent when compared to the traditional course.

• University of Tennessee-Knoxville: The University of Tennessee-Knoxville redesigned its introductory Spanish course by shifting many instructional activities to a technology-based learning environment while using class time to focus on activities that require face-to-face interaction. UTK’s online activites include grammer, vocabulary, and listening activities.

Results: Reducing the number of class meetings enhanced the potential for collaborative learning with peers and instructors. Because of more opportunities for oral communication, student grades and language competency increased. Institutionally, the course redesign increased the number of students who can be served with the same personnel resources.

• University of Southern Maine: For the Introductory Psychology course at the University of Southern Maine, the faculty-to-student ratio prohibited a desirable learning environment in which students could receive frequent feedback; faculty were primarily devoted to serving these large introductory course sections and spent less time on developing and revising upper-level course materials. Online resources and a variety of interactive computer activities were implemented to replace lecture time.

Results: Online computer lectures replaced class-meeting time and improved learning opportunities through more direct interaction and redeployment of key resources. The course redesign also provided an institutional solution to deal effectively with enrollment. As a result, lecture time was reduced by 50 percent while course sections increased in size from 75 to 125. Per-student costs were reduced from $113 per student in the traditional model to $58 per student in the redesigned replacement model.

4ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

Emporium Model

StructureThe emporium model eliminates all class meetings and replaces them with a learning resource center featuring online materials and on-demand personalized assistance. Because of the learning resource center, the emporium model requires a significant commitment of space and equipment. The emporium is staffed by faculty and trained peer tutors who assist students with the modularized online tutorials and quizzes. Consequently, by combining multiple sections of a course into one large course structure, the emporium model illustrates how information technology can address enrollment growth while overcoming financial constraints and improving student learning.

Examples• Virginia Tech: Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium is a learning laboratory adjacent to campus that

houses a web-based resource system (interactive tutorials, computation examples, an electronic text book, and online quizzes) for over 7,000 students in a dozen mathematics classes. The Math Emporium operates entirely online, with personal support by a staff of peer tutors and faculty available 24/7. Located in a 58,000-square foot space a twenty minute walk from campus, Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium holds nearly 550 iMac systems.

The Math Emporium environment accommodates several different learning styles. With break-out areas for one-on-one instruction and a presentation area where groups of students can work together, students have the opportunity to customize their learning environment by choosing to work individually, in groups of up to eight students, or one-on-one with one of the dozens of tutors and faculty in the emporium.

Students study course concepts, complete practice problems, and take assigned tests at a self-paced rate in a collaborative learning environment through the use of locally developed software and course materials. Built-in assessment programs allow faculty members to monitor each student’s progress and to intervene as problems arise. The Math Emporium is a technology-based solution to the problem of teaching more students with fewer faculty and less money.

Results: Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium exemplifies the potential for information technology to

address enrollment growth while overcoming financial constraints and improving student learning. While sustaining the quality of education offered in traditional courses, the Math Emporium significantly reduces costs and shifts university resources. A study of learning effectiveness concluded that test and grade results have been essentially the same as just before the redesign, except that retention and completion rates have clearly increased. The freedom to work at convenient times and for as long as needed probably makes the greatest contribution to student satisfaction.

Virginia Tech’s cost effectiveness goals were also met. By replacing 40-student sections with one large course structure in the Math Emporium, Virginia Tech reduced the labor requirement for the instructor to half-time. Time for tenure-track faculty was reduced to zero (a 100 percent decline). As a result, the per-student costs in the redesigned emporium model dropped from $91 to $21, with an annual cost savings of $140,000.

5ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

• University of Alabama: Based on the success of Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium, the University of Alabama created an emporium-style learning environment to reduce costs while retaining the individual focus of small sections. The Math Technology Learning Center is the University of Alabama’s 240-seat learning resource computer center for teaching introductory mathematics courses. The Math Technology Center offers a self-paced, computer-based active learning environment. Based on commercial software, the web-based interactive tutorials, exercises, and quizzes eliminate lectures and combine multiple sections into one large course structure.

Results: The University of Alabama combined 44 intermediate algebra sections of approximately 35 students each into one 1,500-student section. Student surveys indicate an overwhelming appreciation and satisfaction with the emporium-style learning environment.

• University of Idaho: The University of Idaho’s Polya Mathematics Center offers students a wide range of mathematical software/courseware and is staffed over 80 hours per week by instructors and teaching assistants. The study and consultation room provides space for individual and group study with the readily available assistance of instructors and teaching assistants. The Polya Center contains 72 computers with modularized online tutorials and interactive navigation.

Results: The University of Idaho shifted two pre-calculus courses, previously organized into 60 sections of 40 students each, into its Polya Center. The center’s web-based support system for students and counselors includes a screening process that enables instructors to track progress and determine the students’ risk of failure. By identifying at-risk students, the center allows for a case-management counseling approach for both new and current students, which results in a higher retention rate.

Blended Model

StructureThe blended model incorporates and customizes elements from supplemental, replacement, and emporium models. The blended model is based on the premise that learning success is achieved by customizing the learning environment for each discipline, course, and student.

Examples• Ohio State University: Ohio State University is redesigning its introductory statistics course to

offer students an assortment of interchangeable, technology-based paths that match their learning styles and abilities. OSU’s blended model includes lectures (reduced by more than half), individual and group discovery laboratories, live and remote reviews, small group study sessions, videos, training modules, oral and written presentations, active large group problem solving, homework assignments (TA graded or self-graded), and individual and group projects. Other course innovations include creating a “statistics help desk” using a tech support model, which will improve responses to students. OSU will also modularize course content, allowing students to earn variable credit based on successful module completion.

Results: OSU has eliminated one-fourth of course repetitions, thereby opening slots for an additional 150 students per year. OSU’s redesign reduced the cost-per-student from $190 to $132, a 31 percent reduction for an annual savings of $194,000.

6ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

The blended model also resulted in improved retention rates. The percentage of students who withdraw reduced from 11 percent to 8 percent and the percentage failing the course reduced from 7 percent to 3 percent.

• Florida Gulf Coast University: Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) has redesigned its required fine arts course into a single section using a common syllabus, textbook, set of assignments, and interactive course web-site. The redesigned course includes six modules with options of live lectures, taped lectures, commercially-produced videos, and/or web-based learning activities. Thus, FGCU meets the varying needs of students with different learning styles by providing student-centered options that strike a balance between traditional class structures and self-guided, technological learning environments.

Results: The course redesign consolidated 25 sections of 30 students into a single section, thus meeting the cost effectiveness goals of the course redesign. Additionally, the option to match learning environments with learning styles resulted in a reduction of D and F grades from 45 percent in the traditional course to 11 percent in the redesigned course.

Summary of Technology Models

Retains CourseRetains CourseStructureStructure

Reduces ClassReduces ClassMeeting TimeMeeting Time

Includes LearningIncludes LearningResource CenterResource Center

Supplemental Model �

Replacement Model � �

Emporium Model � �

Blended Model � �

ATLAS �� �� ��

1

Appendix: Technology-Based Platforms

OverviewTechnology has changed from a necessary administrative support, to a “mission critical” element of the modern learning environment, essential to the work of students, faculty, and staff. This shift places new burdens on the University’s technology infrastructure, not simply in its capacity, but in its design, since it must now serve the needs of a broad learning community. Any disruption in the infrastructure, particularly in the learning platform, is a disruption to the learning experience.

Traditional assumptions about teaching and learning are no longer adequate. Regardless of our approach or methodology, as educators we must take every advantage of both traditional methods and new approaches that offer exciting ways of using technology to enhance the teaching and learning process. We must take every advantage of the new media tools that are products of the technological advances of the past decade. These allow students to learn individually and through collaboration with others, and to learn at their own pace, sometimes exceeding the parameters of the course.

Many universities that manage large scale enrollments are actively exploring sophisticated and flexible technology-based learning platforms that improve the quality of education and reduce the costs of instruction. Four models emerge as the leading practices that capture how information technology, web-based materials, and course-management software supplement and/or replace traditional learning processes: the supplemental model, the replacement model, the emporium model, and the blended model.

Although all of the models discussed here have successfully improved the quality of student learning while reducing the costs of instruction, the rigidity of each model limits the scope of platform applicability. By employing all of these various models for the applications most appropriate to the particular discipline and scale of the situation, ATLAS will successfully synthesize both traditional methods and new technology-based approaches to learning. The dynamic and accommodating approach of the ATLAS platform will make students an intimate and active part of the learning process, thus enhancing a student’s ability to learn and achieve within a customized learning environment that has the flexibility to bridge disciplines and course structures.

Supplemental Model

StructureThe supplemental model retains the basic structure of the traditional course, maintaining the number of class meetings. The supplemental model strengthens functionality of the course by either a) adding technology-based, out-of-class activities, or b) changing what goes on in the class by integrating technology-based activities with traditional lecture, thus creating an active learning environment within a large lecture hall setting.

Examples• Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon University supplemented introductory statistics

lectures with SmartLab, an automated, interactive tutoring system that draws from artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology and computer science methodologies. SmartLab tracks and assesses the development of statistical inference skills, providing individualized assistance and a personal tutor for each student.

ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

2ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

Results: After introducing SmartLab to statistics courses, exams testing the skills and concepts of statistics significantly increased by 22.8 percent. Students also appreciate the integrated learning environment that blends traditional lectures with computerized learning activities.

• University of New Mexico: While maintaining the number of lectures for general psychology, the University of New Mexico provides students with a two-disc CD-ROM that contains quizzes, interactive activities, and movies supplementing in-class course content. The course requires that students complete three online mastery quizzes for credit.

Results: Since offering the supplemental CD-ROM, the drop-withdrawal-failure rate for general psychology courses has decreased from 42 percent in traditional lectures to 18 percent in the course redesign. Additionally, the percentage of students receiving a C or better has risen from 60 percent to 76 percent.

• University of Massachusetts-Amherst: The University of Massachusetts-Amherst has integrated technology with in-class activities as well as adding out-of-class technology-based supplements. The goal is to create an active learning environment within a large lecture hall setting supplemented by technology-based out-of-class activities. For the introductory biology courses, UMass created an interactive class website that equips students with the objectives, key concepts, and supplemental materials that prepare students before coming to lecture. Once in class, UMass uses ClassTalk—a commercially available, interactive technology that compiles students’ responses to problem-solving activities—to foster class interaction and small-group work.

Results: By facilitating a desirable learning environment, the supplemental course redesign increased attendance from 67 percent in the traditional format to 90 percent, which also correlated significantly to performance on exams.

• Harper College: Harper College has used a blended learning format to deliver chemistry instruction effectively. In addition to a discussion board that fosters interaction between students and instructors, the course redesign also includes an array of audio and video teaching and learning materials that fit diverse learning styles and create a learning-centered environment.

Results: Grade comparisons show that students in blended chemistry courses receive a much higher percentage of ‘A’s (40 percent vs. 22 percent) than students in face-to-face chemistry courses.

Replacement Model

StructureThe replacement model reduces in-class meeting by replacing face-to-face time with online (or technology based) interactive learning activities. In contrast to the supplemental model, the replacement model reduces the class-meeting time. The replacement model works on the premise that certain learning activities can be better accomplished online than in a traditional classroom format.

Examples• Penn State University: At Penn State University, the traditional course delivery model for

Introductory Statistics did not serve student needs and was not cost effective. The university reduced

3ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

the number of weekly lectures from three to one, replacing two of the traditional lectures with computer-mediated interactive workshops. With a variety of online learning materials as well as computerized testing, the redesigned statistics course replaced class meetings with online activities while maintaining the lecture format in the remaining class meetings.

Results: Faculty and teaching assistants utilize these computer-mediated workshops to provide interactive and substantive feedback to students. The redesigned course provides a more interactive model of student learning and reduces costs, particularly in terms of TA support typically required in large, traditional lecture sections. Consequently, the replacement course model provided an overall 30 percent reduction in cost-per-student, from approximately $176 to $123. Annually, this means a savings of more than $115,000.

• Brigham Young University: Brigham Young University redesigned the Freshman Composition course to reduce the amount of time students spend in the classroom from three hours to one hour per week, allowing the faculty to spend more time in one-on-one student consultations. A series of interactive multimedia lessons and additional peer-to-peer sessions replace the time students previously spent in the campus classroom.

Results: The redesign leveraged online multimedia modules to teach students key concepts about reading and writing. Additionally, the university met its cost effectiveness goals as an answer to enrollment growth. The redesigned course shows an overall faculty time savings of 25 percent when compared to the traditional course.

• University of Tennessee-Knoxville: The University of Tennessee-Knoxville redesigned its introductory Spanish course by shifting many instructional activities to a technology-based learning environment while using class time to focus on activities that require face-to-face interaction. UTK’s online activites include grammer, vocabulary, and listening activities.

Results: Reducing the number of class meetings enhanced the potential for collaborative learning with peers and instructors. Because of more opportunities for oral communication, student grades and language competency increased. Institutionally, the course redesign increased the number of students who can be served with the same personnel resources.

• University of Southern Maine: For the Introductory Psychology course at the University of Southern Maine, the faculty-to-student ratio prohibited a desirable learning environment in which students could receive frequent feedback; faculty were primarily devoted to serving these large introductory course sections and spent less time on developing and revising upper-level course materials. Online resources and a variety of interactive computer activities were implemented to replace lecture time.

Results: Online computer lectures replaced class-meeting time and improved learning opportunities through more direct interaction and redeployment of key resources. The course redesign also provided an institutional solution to deal effectively with enrollment. As a result, lecture time was reduced by 50 percent while course sections increased in size from 75 to 125. Per-student costs were reduced from $113 per student in the traditional model to $58 per student in the redesigned replacement model.

4ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

Emporium Model

StructureThe emporium model eliminates all class meetings and replaces them with a learning resource center featuring online materials and on-demand personalized assistance. Because of the learning resource center, the emporium model requires a significant commitment of space and equipment. The emporium is staffed by faculty and trained peer tutors who assist students with the modularized online tutorials and quizzes. Consequently, by combining multiple sections of a course into one large course structure, the emporium model illustrates how information technology can address enrollment growth while overcoming financial constraints and improving student learning.

Examples• Virginia Tech: Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium is a learning laboratory adjacent to campus that

houses a web-based resource system (interactive tutorials, computation examples, an electronic text book, and online quizzes) for over 7,000 students in a dozen mathematics classes. The Math Emporium operates entirely online, with personal support by a staff of peer tutors and faculty available 24/7. Located in a 58,000-square foot space a twenty minute walk from campus, Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium holds nearly 550 iMac systems.

The Math Emporium environment accommodates several different learning styles. With break-out areas for one-on-one instruction and a presentation area where groups of students can work together, students have the opportunity to customize their learning environment by choosing to work individually, in groups of up to eight students, or one-on-one with one of the dozens of tutors and faculty in the emporium.

Students study course concepts, complete practice problems, and take assigned tests at a self-paced rate in a collaborative learning environment through the use of locally developed software and course materials. Built-in assessment programs allow faculty members to monitor each student’s progress and to intervene as problems arise. The Math Emporium is a technology-based solution to the problem of teaching more students with fewer faculty and less money.

Results: Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium exemplifies the potential for information technology to

address enrollment growth while overcoming financial constraints and improving student learning. While sustaining the quality of education offered in traditional courses, the Math Emporium significantly reduces costs and shifts university resources. A study of learning effectiveness concluded that test and grade results have been essentially the same as just before the redesign, except that retention and completion rates have clearly increased. The freedom to work at convenient times and for as long as needed probably makes the greatest contribution to student satisfaction.

Virginia Tech’s cost effectiveness goals were also met. By replacing 40-student sections with one large course structure in the Math Emporium, Virginia Tech reduced the labor requirement for the instructor to half-time. Time for tenure-track faculty was reduced to zero (a 100 percent decline). As a result, the per-student costs in the redesigned emporium model dropped from $91 to $21, with an annual cost savings of $140,000.

5ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

• University of Alabama: Based on the success of Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium, the University of Alabama created an emporium-style learning environment to reduce costs while retaining the individual focus of small sections. The Math Technology Learning Center is the University of Alabama’s 240-seat learning resource computer center for teaching introductory mathematics courses. The Math Technology Center offers a self-paced, computer-based active learning environment. Based on commercial software, the web-based interactive tutorials, exercises, and quizzes eliminate lectures and combine multiple sections into one large course structure.

Results: The University of Alabama combined 44 intermediate algebra sections of approximately 35 students each into one 1,500-student section. Student surveys indicate an overwhelming appreciation and satisfaction with the emporium-style learning environment.

• University of Idaho: The University of Idaho’s Polya Mathematics Center offers students a wide range of mathematical software/courseware and is staffed over 80 hours per week by instructors and teaching assistants. The study and consultation room provides space for individual and group study with the readily available assistance of instructors and teaching assistants. The Polya Center contains 72 computers with modularized online tutorials and interactive navigation.

Results: The University of Idaho shifted two pre-calculus courses, previously organized into 60 sections of 40 students each, into its Polya Center. The center’s web-based support system for students and counselors includes a screening process that enables instructors to track progress and determine the students’ risk of failure. By identifying at-risk students, the center allows for a case-management counseling approach for both new and current students, which results in a higher retention rate.

Blended Model

StructureThe blended model incorporates and customizes elements from supplemental, replacement, and emporium models. The blended model is based on the premise that learning success is achieved by customizing the learning environment for each discipline, course, and student.

Examples• Ohio State University: Ohio State University is redesigning its introductory statistics course to

offer students an assortment of interchangeable, technology-based paths that match their learning styles and abilities. OSU’s blended model includes lectures (reduced by more than half), individual and group discovery laboratories, live and remote reviews, small group study sessions, videos, training modules, oral and written presentations, active large group problem solving, homework assignments (TA graded or self-graded), and individual and group projects. Other course innovations include creating a “statistics help desk” using a tech support model, which will improve responses to students. OSU will also modularize course content, allowing students to earn variable credit based on successful module completion.

Results: OSU has eliminated one-fourth of course repetitions, thereby opening slots for an additional 150 students per year. OSU’s redesign reduced the cost-per-student from $190 to $132, a 31 percent reduction for an annual savings of $194,000.

6ATLAS: Application for Technology-Based Learning and Support

The blended model also resulted in improved retention rates. The percentage of students who withdraw reduced from 11 percent to 8 percent and the percentage failing the course reduced from 7 percent to 3 percent.

• Florida Gulf Coast University: Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) has redesigned its required fine arts course into a single section using a common syllabus, textbook, set of assignments, and interactive course web-site. The redesigned course includes six modules with options of live lectures, taped lectures, commercially-produced videos, and/or web-based learning activities. Thus, FGCU meets the varying needs of students with different learning styles by providing student-centered options that strike a balance between traditional class structures and self-guided, technological learning environments.

Results: The course redesign consolidated 25 sections of 30 students into a single section, thus meeting the cost effectiveness goals of the course redesign. Additionally, the option to match learning environments with learning styles resulted in a reduction of D and F grades from 45 percent in the traditional course to 11 percent in the redesigned course.

Summary of Technology Models

Retains CourseRetains CourseStructureStructure

Reduces ClassReduces ClassMeeting TimeMeeting Time

Includes LearningIncludes LearningResource CenterResource Center

Supplemental Model �

Replacement Model � �

Emporium Model � �

Blended Model � �

ATLAS �� �� ��