The Academic Efficiencies Project is a new initiative involving faculty from across the state system with the goal of identifying and implementing processes and practices that can increase learning productivity and the efficient use of limited state system resources. By working together, faculty from state system institutions can provide higher-quality learning experiences in more cost-effective ways without diminishing academic freedom or compromising individual creativity in the classroom. The outcome of this project will be toolkits of instructional methods and materials for voluntary use in specific subject areas — toolkits that can be used by faculty from across the state, across a wide spectrum of academic disciplines.
As a first step, the State Regents sponsored a two-day workshop for mathematics and ecology faculty on February 26-27, 2004, featuring presentations from leaders of national collaborative projects involving course redesign and learning communities. In follow-up sessions, these faculty members will resume discussions of current instructional materials and ideas, and potential application of academic efficiency principles.
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Materials
From the February 26-27 Workshop
Academic Efficiencies:
Creating
and Sustaining Benefits to
Students,
Faculty, and Institutions
With MERLOT (PPT,
98k)
Fairfield
University: The Redesign of
General Biology (PPT,
1.1m)
Improving Quality and Reducing
Costs: Redesigning Campus Learning Environments (PPT,
299k)
MERLOT Applications (PPT,
5.9m)
MERLOT Mathematics
and Academic Efficiency (PPT, 93k)
University of Idaho
POLYA Math Center (PPT,
197k) (also see related Real Media and QuickTime files and link below)
POLYA Math Center Tour (QuickTime
Movie, 18m)
POLYA Math Center: Sample Lecture 1 (Real Media, 8.4m)
POLYA Math Center: Sample Lecture 2 (Real Media, 17.9m)
POLYA
Math Center: Sample Task List
Related Materials and Links
Chancellor
Paul Risser's Memo Regarding Academic Efficiencies (PDF,
37k)
List of Workshop Participants (PDF,
108k)
Center for Academic Transformation
Educause
Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT)
Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET) Technology
Costing Methodology Project
For additional information, contact Dr. Phil Moss at 405.225.9170 or pmoss@osrhe.edu.
