The STEM Course Redesign Program
“Grades” as we know them originated as the Industrial Revolution got under way, and they still have the unfortunate effect of training students’ attention on themselves (the grades) instead of on learning. As one student said, “Grades don’t measure understanding. They measure compliance.”
The STEM course redesign program, funded by the California Learning Lab, is a cross-campus program (UC Irvine, Cal Poly Pomona, and San Jose State University). The goal is to boost up STEM student’s learning confidence by redesigning the course grading structure. For more questions, contact your campus liaison for further assistance.
Three primary components are designed to facilitate the course redesign process:
The Boot Camp (July 6 - 19, 2021)
A two-week remote synchronous working meeting is scheduled, from 1:00 to 2:30 PM during the week to onboard participating instructors. They will get started with the course redesign process by working in small groups to complete daily assigned tasks assigned by the master trainers.
Course Redesign and Implementation
Participating instructors will continue the course redesign work after the boot camp. A faculty peer coach from each institution providing teaching consultation and support will be available during the course redesign and implementation process (Summer 2021 – Fall 2022).
The Faculty Learning Community
The bi-weekly faculty peer support meeting is scheduled for the participating instructors to exchange teaching ideas, challenges, and solutions. The purpose is to cultivate a faculty learning community among three funding institutions to foster a peer support network.
Program Requirements
Join the Summer Boot Camp scheduled from July 6 to 19, 2021.
- Daily remote synchronous working meeting from 1:00 to 2:30 PM PT
- Asynchronous activities to work toward the course redesign milestone
Attend the monthly FLC cohort meeting
Exchange teaching ideas, discuss issues and solutions, and generally support each other in the TEA Faculty Learning Community (FLC).
Required Deliverables
The level of course transformation is up to you. Transform part of your course or the entire thing. The minimum requirement is a partial course transformation. To be eligible for the faculty stipend, a participating instructor will:
- Complete 20% of the course’s graded work redesigned around mastery learning and specifications grading
- Revise class activities to support the graded work
- Revise course syllabus
Program Participants
Biology
Chemistry
Computer Science
Engineering
Math & Statistics
Meteorology
