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President calls for sweeping changes in undergraduate education during address |
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Jim Winkler |
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Apr 7, 2008 |
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A radical new program to transform undergraduate education at The University of Toledo — one that gives students more freedom to develop their own customized learning programs and commits to “extreme student centeredness” — was envisioned Wednesday, April 2, by President Lloyd Jacobs at his annual address to the community in Doermann Theater.
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| Dr. Lloyd Jacobs talked about re-engineering undergraduate education to allow students to customize their own programs during his address. |
Jacobs offered his far-reaching blueprint to reinvigorate and personalize undergraduate education and to have students actively engage their own undergraduate academic experiences during an address titled “Re-Engineering the Undergraduate Academic Experience.”
Emphasizing that transforming the undergraduate experience at UT is one of his top priorities, Jacobs explained that a new, yet-to-be-named administrative unit reporting to Main Campus Provost Rosemary Haggett will be established “to organizationally house many of the functions essential to extreme student centeredness.”
“Extreme student centeredness founded on the principles of mass customization is the best single strategy for higher education and for the persistence of an educated and participative populace in America,” the president said.
He warned the audience of some 200 trustees, faculty and staff members, and students that the United States’ mass-model, assembly-line approach to higher education is failing because it ignores students’ unique learning styles.
“Higher education is failing in America, is on a collision course with bankruptcy, and its failure, ultimately, threatens our democracy,” Jacobs said.
The new unit to be headed by Dr. Haggett would include the First-Year Experience, Honors and Study-Abroad programs, a new Office of Student Solutions, and the student-supported portion of the Office of Global Initiatives, among other programs.
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| Some 200 people attended the president's annual address to the community. |
Incoming students undecided about their majors or career plans and conditionally admitted students who do not meet academic requirements would be assigned to the new unit. Conditionally admitted students would be permitted to take no more than 11 credit hours during the first semester so they can use support services to remedy academic deficiencies.
“A corollary of all conditionally admitted students going to the new entity will be that all other colleges will be encouraged to raise their admissions standards,” Jacobs said.
So that students have good information and advice about options available, the Career Center and the Office of Accessibility would be part of the new administrative division, and the Division of Student Affairs would provide on-site academic support and counselor-in-residence services in first-year residence halls. The Main Campus provost also would have administrative responsibility for college professional advisers and would work to improve their training.
In addition, degree-completion programs in University College, including the adult liberal studies and individualized programs, will be moved to the College of Arts and Sciences.
“The College of Arts and Sciences is itself in a period of reassessment and renewal,” Jacobs said. “This change fits wells with Dr. [Yueh-Ting] Lee’s goal for that college and fits wells with my and Dr. Haggett’s tremendous confidence in Dr. Lee.”
Jacobs pointed out the concept aligns with the University’s strategic plan, “Directions,” which was adopted last year by the Faculty Senate and the Board of Trustees and pledges “undergraduate academic programs at UT will be regionally distinguished and highly ranked nationally. The undergraduate experience will provide exceptional student-centeredness and a consumer-driven focus, which combine to ensure a personally satisfying and professionally relevant education.”
It also corresponds with the new 10-year strategic plan for higher education in the state released by Eric Fingerhut, chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents. The 140-page report includes dozens of recommendations to increase the number of Ohio residents with college degrees, from associate to doctorate, which could enhance entrepreneurship and attract businesses to the state.
“Mass customization” of courses and programs would allow the University to cater to more students’ individual needs instead of setting up inflexible requirements.
Instead of being homogeneous products, Jacobs stressed that courses should be crafted to meet the needs of different students, who should be able to assemble their own courses from the offerings of different professors and have more control over not only when and where they learn, but also how and what they learn. Information systems would be developed to track their progress through various formats and methods of learning such as online and in the classroom.
“Degree-completion requirements for every student with an associate’s degree will be custom-made,” Jacobs said. “Each student will understand the shortest, most frugal path from where he or she is to their desired goal. Computer-assisted instruction and peer instruction will become widespread and automated as evidence continues to accumulate that many students learn best where those tools are utilized. Students with unique intellectual accomplishments will be attracted to The University of Toledo by its commitment to customized programs that allow them to proceed at a pace which is intellectually rewarding to them.”
To become “extremely student centered,” UT plans to:
• Organize all undergraduate courses into modules and algorithms corresponding to the faculty’s themes and strengths. The work will be spearheaded by the Main Campus provost and members of her staff who will consult with faculty. The most important module will be the “common core curriculum,” the eight to 10 courses taken by more than 95 percent of the students. Additional modules will be assembled into traditional majors and minors.
• Require new faculty members to attend an enhanced orientation program that emphasizes peer instruction and computer-assisted learning.
• Assign all classroom time in the renovated Memorial Field House to maximize computer- assisted learning.
• Create an educational incubator on the third floor of the Memorial Field House to stress peer instruction and computer-assisted learning principles.
• Hire a chief information officer with particular skills in computer-assisted and distance learning.
• Study whether purchasing additional or supplemental computer-assisted and distance-learning programs from outside vendors makes sense.
• Consolidate computer-assisted and distance-learning operations and offer distance-learning courses to Northwest Ohio Higher Education Consortium members.
• Move administrative responsibility for the Center for Teaching and Learning, and the University’s computer-assisted and distance-learning operations to the Main Campus Provost’s Office.
• Adopt the College Learning Assessment test, which is intended to measure students’ critical thinking, analytical reasoning and written communication skills, and to improve university accountability.
During his talk, the president drew parallels between his plan and the multimillion-dollar renovation of Memorial Field House.
“A great university, like the Memorial Field House, must undertake to preserve that which is valuable and to replace what is outmoded,” he said. “To be at once an innovator and a preservationist. This university is great. It derives from the history of two great institutions. It will be greater for the future. But the same mix of preservation and innovation will be necessary for it to thrive and excel in the turbulent times we are facing. It is my hope that, like the interior of the field house, our undergraduate experience will be exciting, inviting and fulfilling.”
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