Under
pressure from state and federal legislators to graduate more students in a
shorter period of time, colleges and universities are searching for ways to
remove barriers to student success. Some of their efforts might have an impact
on course materials.
Coordinated
by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities with funding from the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Transformational Planning Grant
project gave money to seven urban universities for new initiatives to bump up
grad rates. The University of Akron in Ohio is using its grant to explore how
to award credits to students for their personal experience or knowledge,
possibly by testing out of course content. In Oregon, part of Portland State
University’s project also involves giving credit for previous learning.
“These
different approaches to credentialing knowledge could theoretically speed up
students’ time to graduation and knock off semesters of tuition,” noted Government Technology magazine. With
fewer courses to take, students could also knock off a number of textbooks.
Georgia
State University is looking to build off its successful mathematics program,
which uses online adaptive-learning software to engage students and help them
complete the course. Using only traditional textbooks, as many as 40% of
enrollees failed or dropped out of introductory math. The school wants to try
using adaptive-learning software with accounting and introductory chemistry
classes, which also have high withdrawal rates.
