February 1998
Complementary Projects Target
Early Learning at IU
Two ambitious projects now underway aim to make it easier for IU undergraduates
to learn and succeed early in college. "The Road to the Baccalaureate"
project, funded by a grant from the Lilly Endowment, fosters connections
between freshmen living and learning environments, and strengthens students'
initial academic foundation by investing in difficult courses and improving
advising. The Freshman Learning Project, supported by the Strategic Directions
Charter, helps faculty fellows from selected departments develop and apply
active-learning principles and discipline-specific strategies to freshman
education. W. Raymond Smith, Assistant Vice Chancellor in the Office of
Academic Affairs and Director of Instructional Support Services, emphasizes
the complementary nature of both undertakings: "in the Lilly project,
we're investing in courses that are difficult for our students; in the Freshman
Learning Project, we're investing in faculty as they revise courses designed
expressly for freshmen."
I. Lilly Retention Project
Part of the Lilly Endowment's statewide initiative to support academic
achievement and raise graduation rates, the five-year "Road to the
Baccalaureate" project covers seven of the eight IU campuses (the Ft.
Wayne campus is included in the Purdue University project). Bloomington
will receive approximately $2.5 million for the period starting September
1, 1997, and ending August 31, 2002.
Fortunately, the project coordinators for the IU Bloomington plan, Assistant
Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Pamela B. Walters and Associate
Dean of the Faculties George Kuh, did not have to begin from scratch. In
1996 Vice Chancellor Deborah A. Freund initiated the Bloomington Retention
Task Force, which laid the groundwork for determining the most fruitful
activities for the Lilly Project.
"If students don't get a solid academic foundation in the first
year, they are more likely to stumble and struggle later on. And if they
don't get connected socially, they're much less likely to come back."
The focus is on early intervention. "The biggest drop-off in retention
is after the freshman year, which, in an academic and a social sense, is
really foundational for everything else," Walters explains.
With the help of suggestions from students, faculty, and administrators,
Walters and Kuh determined the biggest stumbling blocks for new students.
Mathematics instruction is one area they decided to target. "Many people
have a phobia about math," Walters points out. "And there is a
lot of variability from high school to high school in terms of coverage."
In order to assist the many students who have difficulty with math, the
Lilly Project will help the Mathematics Department enhance Finite Mathematics
(M118). In addition to the current one-semester, three-credit-hour course,
a two-course sequence--D116 and D117--will cover the material at a less
accelerated rate. And starting in the fall of 1998, greater reliance will
be placed on math skills assessment scores in placing students in math courses.
Plans also call for expanding math tutorial services on campus. Beginning
in fall 1998, Math TV--which combines the watchability of MTV with instruction
in basic math skills--will dovetail with students' nighttime study habits
and their reticence to seek out instructors for individual help. In two
live shows a week sent to the residence halls through the campus cable system,
a teacher of D116 and D117 will summarize the most recent class lecture
and text material for the students, who will be able to interact live via
telephone or e-mail. The shows will be recorded for replay during the remainder
of the week.
Freshman Interest Groups (FIGs), another key feature of the Lilly Project,
link IU living and learning spheres to create a smaller, more personal social
and intellectual environment for freshmen. Each FIG will consist of twenty
students who have voluntarily co-enrolled, for the fall semester of their
freshman year, in a set of three courses linked by a broad theme, such as
environmentalism or women in literature. A decision to enroll in a FIG is
also a housing decision; all members of a given FIG will live in close proximity
to each other in the residence halls.
Peer advising augments the interaction provided by the linked courses
and the group theme. Every FIG will attend a weekly one-credit integrative
seminar, led by an upperclass peer advisor assigned specifically to that
FIG. In the seminar, FIG members will discuss their courses and focus topic,
as well as study methods, library resources, campus resources and strategies
for successfully making the transition to college. Peer advisors will live
in the residence halls with their FIGs, further enabling the link between
living and learning environments. Twenty Freshman Interest Groups will be
established for 1998 and 1999; this number will gradually expand each year
until 2001, the fifth year of the Lilly grant.
Other "tried and true" strategies are being expanded. Study
skill courses and supplemental instruction will increase, a second Academic
Support Center opens this January, and a math learning center is planned
for the Mathematics Department. The Lilly Project will also establish a
new peer mentoring program for minority students, run out of the Office
of Under-represented Groups and Campus Diversity. Mentors will act as facilitators
who put students in touch with campus resources. Students can turn to peer
mentors for anything from brainstorming for class projects to advice about
campus activities.
These programs and others will be coordinated by Walters and Kuh, who
are charged with ensuring that all those involved in project interventions
communicate with each other to avoid working at cross purposes. Walters
emphasizes the broad scope of the project and its cooperative nature. "This
effort, coupled with what has already gone on with the Bloomington retention
Task Force, brings together people from all over the campus who don't usually
talk to each other, but are coming together now to solve problems."
"What I think is best about the grant," Walters sums up, "is
that it's not 112 distinct and independent things going on. It's a coordinated
effort to make a difference, especially at the front end of the student's
academic career."
II. Freshmen Learning Project
Through intensive activity with faculty who teach large first-year courses,
the Freshman Learning Project (FLP) will establish a laboratory for improving
freshman learning and teaching at IU Bloomington, facilitate interaction
with faculty on other campuses, and communicate its efforts to the public.
Over the course of three years, the FLP will work with twenty-four faculty
fellows. Each year the focus will be on a different disciplinary area.
At the core of the FLP are the faculty fellows, who serve as points of
proliferation for curricular innovations. FLP Project Director and Associate
Professor of History A. David Pace describes the characteristics he and
co-director Joan Middendorf (Director of Teaching Resources Center) look
for in fellows: "It's necessary to have a fellow who is both open to
new teaching methods and also respected on campus, who will be a real force
for introducing new ideas." Fellows will be selected from departments
that have already shown interest in teaching not only as an individual activity,
but as a collaborative process.
A. David Pace, FLP Project Director
The first eight fellows were chosen from a pool of applicants who had
submitted a preliminary plan for course development, along with a statement
of pedagogical goals and a plan for spreading the results. In preparation
for the 1998 Summer Institute seminar, fellows will work with a team of
instructional consultants to create a concept map of the course to be developed,
and a preliminary list of the basic skills required for student success.
During the two-week intensive seminar, fellows will study the freshman
experience on the Bloomington campus and explore a broad array of contemporary
teaching methods employed both at IU and at other universities.
Discussion will then move to a consideration of teaching methods in relation
to the fellows' specific disciplines and specific course plans. By the end
of the seminar, participants will have tailored a set of discipline-specific
strategies for meeting the goals of their courses. After the seminar, fellows,
working closely with consultants, will further develop course plans for
presentation to their departments next fall.
During the year following the Summer Institute, monthly luncheons will
enable fellows to present brief progress reports on their courses and their
efforts at outreach. In addition, pairs of fellows will visit each other's
courses throughout the semester in which they are taught. Fellows will be
encouraged to publish papers or give conference talks on the application
of new ideas about freshman learning to their disciplines. They will also
be required to give at least one presentation to a high school or civic
group outside Bloomington.
Active learning is a major focus of the FLP. "There are indications
in the literature that students who are actively involved are more likely
to comprehend and be motivated to work than those who are passively receiving
things," says Pace. "If students aren't actively reconstructing
knowledge in their heads, they don't retain the information long. Connections
between students can be used to facilitate student learning. Classrooms
are communities. Students who know the material can more thoroughly learn
it when they help someone else."
This isn't simply a question of applying universal strategies, however.
"In different disciplines this will look very, very different,"
Pace points out. Even definitions of such basic tasks as "reading"
or "studying" vary greatly from discipline to discipline. Hence
the FLP's emphasis on tailoring methods by discipline.
Paces stresses that the FLP is "not just another course development
grant." While many projects focus simply on the instructional paradigm,
the FLP will also stress the learning paradigm--students' cognitive and
practical skills, as well as the environment in which they learn. "We're
very concerned with what and how students learn. This involves not only
questions of subject matter and pedagogy, but also questions of campus life,
of social changes, and of diversity among students. There are no generic
students. How can we present material in ways that enable different groups
of students to learn effectively? By studying these issues, we are helping
faculty maintain their standards."
From the start, the FLP has been conceived as a campus-wide, coordinated
effort. "We have the full backing of all the teaching agencies on campus,"
Pace says. "The Teaching Resources Center, the Campus Writing Program,
the Teaching and Learning Technologies Lab--all will be working with us
on this project. In addition to the SDC grant, support for the FLP has come
from the College of Arts and Sciences and Dean of the Faculties, both of
which provided matching sums. "Every faculty and department we've approached
has been enthusiastically supportive."
Ray Smith captures the enthusiasm of all those involved in both the Lilly
Project and the Freshman Learning Project: "I'm expecting something
really revolutionary to come out of this." | 
