Story

UMCP is in their second year of partnership with Coursera to offer MOOCs ranging from Quantum Physics to Women and Civil Rights. With over 800,000 students registered and ~13,000 signed up for the verified “signature track” option (for a fee), they are not only showing our educational leadership, but also directly improving their on-campus classes.

UMBC participates in Learning Analytics (LA) primarily by focusing on student and faculty use of the Learning Management System (LMS). Since 2007, the University has observed that students earning a final grade of D or F use the LMS 40% less than students earning higher grades. While correlation does not equal causation, UMBC has built a "Check My Activity" (CMA) feedback tool that allows students to compare their own activity against an anonymous summary of course peers earning the same, higher or lower grade for any assignment -- provided the instructor uses the online grade book.

The University of Baltimore (UB) is working with Pulitzer-prize winning historian Taylor Branch and the USMCAI to offer the course “Citizenship and Freedom: The Civil Rights Era” in an innovative, online, for-credit format. Unlike MOOCs, this course is based on a seminar format that promises synchronous interactivity. Also unlike MOOCs, this course features a blend of lecture, panels, and real-time Q&A with the virtual audience.

In 2013, the USM entered into an agreement with Ithaka S+R (with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) to explore the viability of repurposing MOOCs to be used as part of regular undergraduate programs at degree granting institutions. Given the momentum already established by the USM’s Maryland Course Redesign Initiative, faculty interest in MOOCs was robust. We ended up with 22 trials –many more than the 5-7 originally projected. So, as the highly controversial MOOC model continues to generate much national press –both positive and, more recently, negative– our side-by-side experimental MOOC-augmented courses are currently being tested (2013-14).

Curricular transformation/innovation in STEM takes several forms. Among the many courses being redesigned at UMBC, the Departments of Biological Sciences and Mathematics and Statistics have redesigned courses based on the pedagogical model known as Team-Based Learning (TBL). TBL is a specifically structured format that promotes student learning and self-efficacy through frequent readiness quizzes (both individual and team-based) and team projects and applications.

The following interview is with MJ Bishop, director of the Center for Academic Innovation with the University System of Maryland. Innovation is top of mind for administrators across the higher education space, but in the public system, the roles of systems and institutions in achieving this change become a little cloudier. In this interview, Bishop shared her thoughts on where their respective roles and responsibilities lie, and discusses the similarities in the innovative vision of both institutions and systems.

Ithaka S+R collaborated with the University System of Maryland to test the use of interactive online learning platforms in seventeen courses across seven universities. Fourteen of these tests used Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on the Coursera platform, almost all embedded in hybrid course formats, and three used courses from the Open Learning Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University (OLI).

Living Learning Communities (LLC) and specialized living options offer first year students the opportunity to live with other first year students who have a similar interest. LLC students have the opportunity to be part of an engaged learning community that goes beyond the traditional classroom experience.

As a leader in higher education focused on the unique needs of adult learners, University of Maryland University College (UMUC) has long been a pioneer in the area of learning analytics.