This term, a group of introductory math students have seen their classroom “flipped,” with theories and formulas taught through online Khan Academy videos and class time reserved for discussion. The class — professor Scott Pauls’s Math 3 section — is part of the Gateway Initiative, a three-year program that will redesign 12 high-enrollment courses.
The initiative, a collaboration between the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning, Academic Computing and the Provost’s Office, aims to change how students learn. Whereas entry-level or “gateway” classes are typically thought of as large, impersonal lectures, the initiative seeks to use technology and other educational innovations to increase student engagement and learning.
Director of digital learning initiatives Joshua Kim said research shows that students learn more when they engage with material. He said the initiative aims to take introductory classes and give them the benefits of more personal seminars for which Dartmouth is known.
“We’re trying to figure out how to take a large lecture hall and make it feel like a small class,” he said.
In the winter, the initiative will work with Biology 13, on gene expression and inheritance, and a classics course.
Twelve classes submitted proposals, and four were selected for experimentation this year. Throughout the redesign process, professors will work with a team of pedagogy experts to redesign instruction, from individual learning activities to entire course structures, instructional designer Adrienne Gauthier said.
Gauthier emphasized the power of a student-based classroom, saying that although technology can make learning more efficient, clearer and less cumbersome, it is a means to help students learn.
She said the initiative aims to help students better understand material and get to know professors.
Interim DCAL director Lisa Baldez said that in the past two decades, there have been massive advancements in understanding how the brain works and learns. Active learning leads to better absorption and retention of material, she said.
“It turns out that the classic model of teaching in the university setting, the ‘sage on the stage,’ a professor standing front of a group of students lecturing, isn’t necessarily well-matched to the way that the brain learns and retains knowledge,” she said.
The initiative also aims to make large classes more accessible to a wider range of students, Baldez said.
Baldez emphasized the teamwork needed to change classroom procedures, including a video team to make pre-recorded lectures, instructional designers to help think through different techniques and library staff trained in information gathering.
Instructional designers like Gauthier work to implement innovations like “classroom flipping,” when students watch pre-recorded lectures or lesson videos before class, and focus in class on discussing, debating and writing about the material. In the trial math class, for instance, students watch Khan Academy videos at home so class time can focus on troubleshooting.
The Gateway Initiative will also see “backwards course design.” Kim said this strategy starts by determining what professors want their students to learn. Next, educators determine how to reach these goals, and add the material last.
In Gateway Initiative classes that are still lecture-based, in-class polling allows students to remotely answer questions via smartphone or clicker. After the data is collected, the professor instructs students to discuss and defend their responses among themselves, combining technology with interpersonal learning.
The Gateway Initiative will also expand the use of Canvas, an online management system that replaced Blackboard at the College this year. Kim said Canvas is especially useful for providing multimedia educational supplements, implementing “low-stakes quizzes” and making use of online discussion tools.
Dartmouth professors are eager to further improve their courses, Kim said, emphasizing the initiative’s role in the context of Dartmouth’s established strength in teaching.
“That’s what Dartmouth is all about — we are really the college that you go to if you care about teaching and learning, both as a professor and a student,” he said. “It’s really important for us to be innovative with learning and technology.”
He said, however, that redesigning courses comes with challenges. Kim said that students excel at traditional learning — memorizing material and reciting it back on a test, but some do not like the active participation required in these changed classes. Finding time to watch pre-recorded lectures in schedules that are already packed can also be difficult, he said.
Following the course redesign, a team will evaluate success based on professors’ stated objectives. Baldez said the initiative’s future expansion will be based on its current success, as determined by measures like academic performance, end-of-term student course evaluations and conversations with students.
