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Welcome to the
UHD Quality
Enhancement Plan
Home Page
Student Engagement Through Active Learning Strategies |
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Background
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| QEP Staff: | Active Learning Strategies: | Supplemental Instruction (SI): | Bottleneck Courses: | Transition Programs: |
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| • Bill Waller, Director (S603A, 713-221-8404) | • The QEP Teaching and Learning Blog (discussion and email about teaching and learning issues at UHD, updated frequently) | • What is SI? | • ENG 1302 - Freshman Comp II (classroom stuff) |
• Freshman Summer Success Program |
| • Steven Maranville, Active Learning Faculty Specialist (S634, 713-221-8524) | • Calendar of events (2008-2009) |
• Fall 2007 SI Leader Schedule (S405) |
• MATH 1301 - College Algebra (classroom stuff) | • Your First College Year Survey 2007 (UHD's numbers) |
• Some Short Articles/Presetations About Student Engagement/Active Learning:
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| • Robin Davidson, Interim Director of Supplemental Instruction (S1075, 713-221-2716) | • UHD Library "Active Learning" Collection: | • SI stats: | • HIST 1305 -U.S. History I (classroom stuff) | |
| • Mayra Rodriguez, QEP Administrative Assistant (S655, 713-223-7926) | • Curriculum Development Grant Announcement 2007 (download) | • Tips from faculty for encouraging student participation in SI sessions | • Course and learning outcomes: | |
| • Ken Luke, , Assistant Director of Supplemental Instruction (S405, 713-221-8985) | • First-Day Student Questionnaire (download) • Tips for using the Questionnaire |
• Tips from faculty for utilizing the SI leader in the classroom | • Active Learning Classroom Survey (Spring 2007 results): | |
| • Nghia Tran, Student Programmer Emeritus | • Q-Tube (Video clips of active learning in the classroom at UHD and special events. Requires RealPlayer.) |
• Jon Harned, ENG 1302 Lead Teacher | ||
| • Edgar Gatica, Student Programmer Emeritus | • National Survey of Student Engagement 2003 (UHD's numbers) • National Survey of Student Engagement 2008 (UHD's numbers) |
• SI Leader Recruitment Flyer (download and help us recruit good SI leaders!) | • Linda Becerra, MATH 1301 Lead Teacher |
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| • Austin Allen, HIST 1305 Lead Teacher | ||||
• QEP reports |
QEP Teaching and Learning Blog
"THE VIRTUAL HALLWAY"
One of the really cool things about teaching at UHD is participating in those off-the-cuff, informal converstions about teaching and learning that seem to pop up nearly every day in the hallway or the lunch room or via email or wherever, for any number of reasons: someone inadvertantly leaves a test copy laying about and others get to critique or streal it, or someone wants to brag or commiserate about their latest grades, or someone spots an article somewhere and sends the link around, or a student has distinguished him or her self (for good things, of course) and you want to compare notes with a colleague. I could go on and on ... which is exactly the purpose of this blog. When we share our knowledge and experience of teaching at UHD in informal settings (like the hallway), usually only a few persons get to benefit. OK, sometimes this is a good thing, but I think a lot of the time these conversations would be of interest of the entire UHD community. So if you have any comments, tips, advice, questions, suggestions, etc. about teaching and learning you would like to share, email me at wallerw@uhd.edu and submit them to "The Virtual Hallway." In fact, the next time you have a really good hallway converstaion, post a sysnopsis to the blog. Or if you find a good article or blog link, cc me a copy when you send it to your colleagues. If you don't send me any stuff, you will just have to read my comments - think about how boring that will be. And I'm not just talking about faculty: hey, staff is crucial to this teaching and learning thing! I read blogs often - and bloggers always caution about the need to update frequently. I will try to keep this caveat in mind.
Stat of the Week
09/24/2007
Gene Preuss has some interesting data on faculty diversity, at UHD and various nearby schools, courtesy of Chronicle of Higher Education. I can't get the table to copy, so email me and I will forward you Gene's email.
There's Always the Clothing Optional Niche
09/05/2007
Gene Preuss writes "Paul Quinn College in Dallas, a Historically Black College, has a new president and he's instituted a 'business casual' dress code for students. He calls this a way of 'branding' the college and instilling pride in students, many of whom are low income." Gene also sends the op-ed piece from the Dallas Morning News. I'm not sure if this is the way we want to go, but it does raise the important issue of UHD's "brand." What fundamental strengths, features or hallmarks do we want students to associate with UHD? Put another way, what is UHD about? The answer to such a question seems to be a vital piece of the retention puzzle.
Stat of the Week
09/04/2007
The national "Achieving the Dream" initiative (ATD) that it appears UHD is going to be participating in starting this year has been very diligently collecting data on student success at community colleges, primarily at the lower level. This data may be useful to UHD for comparison purposes because our FTIC cohort is probably similar to those of community colleges. Anyway, ATD reports that according to their data, of all students referred to developmental math, only about 7% of these (!) will attempt a college level math course within four years (based on the 2003-2004 FTIC cohort). Well, here's an instance where UHD really shines. Using the Fall 2003 FTIC cohort, at least 45% of the students referred to developmental math at UHD attempted a college level math course within THREE years. Here is the link to the article in Community College Week about ATD that mentions this statistic (the article starts on page 6):
http://www.ccweek.com/news/articlefiles/85-CCW082707-Pg1-22.pdf
Stat of the Week III
08/29/2007
Gene Preuss sends a statistic from Chronicle of Higher Education stating that about 70% of students who entered college (either four-year or two-year) in 2003-2004 as part-time will have left without a degree within three years. UHD's corresponding numbers are somewhat worse: Based on the Fall 2003 FTIC cohort, of the students who started UHD part-time, 19.2% remained in Fall 2006. Of the full-time students, 30.1% remained in Fall 2006. Of course, some of these students will have transferred, so we cannot say how many left college without a degree. But virtually none of these students will have graduated in this time frame.
Stat of the Week II
08/28/2007
Your First College Year is a survey University College gave last Spring to a pseudo-random sample of UHD freshmen completing their first college year. It was no easy chore, but we got about 88 students to take the survey, which is fairly lengthy. The survey was designed and tabulated by some good folks at UCLA. We just got the results back. Eventually we will provide a link to the full results in the master table above, but in the meantime Gary Greer notes this item: 66.1% of female students and 42.9% of male students reported feeling "unsafe on campus since entering this college." And the survey was conducted before we opened the Shea Street Building. Gulp. I'm not liking those numbers.
Hispanics and the Federal Govt.
08/28/2007
A story in the The Houston Chronicle today reports that the federal government is seeking to hire more Hispanics, since this group remains underrepresented in the federal workforce. Hey, Federal Government, look over here! About 29% of the 1,882 undergraduate degrees we awarded last year went to Hispanic students. Our six-year graduation rate for full-time FTIC Hispanic students (19.1%) is one of the few instances where we exceed the state-determined target (16.2%). However, since Hispanics are 37.4% of our total undergraduate student body, it seems they are underrepresented in our graduating class as well.
Stat of the Week
08/26/2007
Here is your weekly pop quiz: Disaggregated by race and gender, what is the least prepared cohort of FTIC (first time in college) students at UHD? The answer may not be all that surprising: Hispanic females enroll in developmental courses (math, English, or reading) at a rate of 92.3%, more than any other FTIC cohort. (The rate for the total FTIC cohort is 85.9%, based on the Fall 2003 cohort.) Here is question #2: Disaggregated by race and gender, what FTIC cohort is most successful at completing core math, English, and history at UHD, courses that follow-up developmental math, English, and reading. You guessed it – Hispanic females, who complete this portion of the core at a rate of 34.6%, actually quite a bit better than any other cohort. Thus in some sense, the least prepared group of students becomes the most successful. Any speculation as to why?
UHD in a Straightjacket?
08/26/2007
Here is another interesting article link from Gene Preuss and Inside Higher Ed. A pretty apt description of some of UHD’s challenges. (I’m trying to stay away from using terms like “problems” or “difficulties.” I’m going completely PC.)
http://insidehighered.com/views/2007/07/17/jordan
Are We Failing Our Geniuses?
08/26/2007
No, I’m not talking about the faculty (I think there are far fewer “geniuses” among us than some of our colleagues would like to believe). But some of you probably saw the recent Time cover article “The Genius Problem” and may have wondered the same thing some faculty around the QEP office did, namely, is UHD guilty of a similar oversight? Here is the link:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1653653,00.html
By focusing so much of our energy on at-risk students, especially in the lower-division courses (surely a noble cause), do we neglect to provide enough academic challenge to students with exceptional or even above average ability? Do we set expectations too low to stimulate this group, thereby turning them off and exacerbating our retention problem? I do feel sometimes I've had to hold up the progress of a class to keep as many students as possible within striking distance of a passing grade, often at the expense of the stronger students in the class. Is this really fair, and in the long run, is it even a useful strategy, given that few of the underperforming students are statistically likely to graduate? Just asking.
Student Finances and Retention
08/26/2007
Gene Preuss sends along this article link from Inside Higher Ed with some interesting ramifications for UHD. Gene writes, “A new report suggests that financial constraints are not the only factor affecting low-income and minority students in regards to retention. I think this is something we have all discussed, but now there is some data to support the impression.”
http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/08/24/credit
In some sense, this article could be interpreted as a hopeful sign for UHD. Whatever the factors are that affect retention, student finances is one over which faculty and staff have little or no control. And UHD seems unlikely to ever be an affluent university. Thus, if retention is merely a function of student finances, there would not appear to be much we can do to improve retention (which is a serious problem at UHD almost any way you look at it). But this article suggests retention is largely influenced by factors which we may in fact be able to affect. Of course, the major open question is, “What are those factors?” Any suggestions?
Worst Universities in the U.S.
08/26/2007
OK, you can breathe a sigh of relief – UHD is not on this list from Radar magazine. (Delicate Sensibilities Alert: This is a parody of the U.S. News list – funny but a little crude.) However, the depressing stat on the number of Michigan State students arrested last year does raise the uncomfortable question: How many UHD students were arrested last year? And faculty?
Active Learning?
08/26/2007
I’m not sure this qualifies as “active learning,” but there is some kind of lesson about engagement to be had in this famous viral video.
NSSE Analysis
07/13/2007
NSSE is the acronym for the National Survey of Student Engagement, which is one of the instruments we will be using to measure the imapct of the QEP. The NSSE has received a lot of national attention lately because it has been suggested as a possible nationwide accountability measure for comparing the effectiveness of universities. Anyway, the following lengthy analysis of NSSE results gives some insights into the relationship between student engagement and student success. Pages 36-38 and 70-71 are particularly interesting.
UHD: What Higher Education Is, Not What It Once Was
07/12/2007
Our inaugural posting is an article from the inimitable Chronicle of Higher Education (Volume 53, Issue 44, Page B16) sent to us by the inimitable Gary Greer, Asst. Dean of University College. It's a wonderful reminder of the importance of the mission of a university like ours. Sometimes UHD gets a bum rap in state performance measures, but this article points out the pitfalls of these measures. I can't reprint the whole article, so I'll furnish just a teaser. Email Gary and he'll send you the link.
Distorted Statistics on Graduation Rates
By PAUL ATTEWELL and DAVID E. LAVIN
Undergraduate enrollments have grown sixfold in the last half-century and continue to boom; today more than 80 percent of high-school graduates go to college within approximately eight years of graduation. One might expect those accomplishments to be celebrated, but the expansion of higher education has been accompanied by ambivalence, anxiety, and opposition. As enrollments continue to climb, the intensity of criticism grows ever louder.
We are told that public colleges admit inadequately prepared students, that graduation rates are scandalously low, that students take too long to graduate, and that university graduates lack appropriate job skills. Last fall's report by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings' Commission on the Future of Higher Education followed suit in calling for more institutional accountability for what students learn and for graduating them faster and at less cost.
Many of the questions policy makers ask are distorted by conceptual blinders that evaluate today's undergraduate experience against a norm from an earlier era when students entered college immediately after high school, attended college full time, lived in dormitories, and rarely worked for pay because they were financially dependent on their parents. But such traditional students, whose needs and experiences still drive public policy, make up less than a quarter of today's undergraduate population. We need to focus on what higher education is, not what it once was ...