True Grit: Passion and persistence make an innovative course design work

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Higher Education Pedagogy

Background:

• Traditional lecturing in open-enrollment universities often fails to improve student performance.
• Significant achievement gaps persist for underrepresented minority students in conventional educational settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effectiveness of a high-structure course model in an open-enrollment university.
• To determine if an adapted course model can improve overall student performance and reduce achievement gaps.

Main Methods:

• Three experiments were conducted to adapt a high-structure course model.
• The successful model incorporated pre-class preparation videos, intensive in-class active learning, and weekly practice exams.

Main Results:

• Initial experiments yielded negative or null results.
• The third experiment demonstrated improved performance for all students.
• A significant achievement gap affecting underrepresented minority students was closed.

Conclusions:

• Evidence-driven pedagogical changes, including structured course design with active learning and formative assessments, can enhance student success.
• Faculty perseverance in implementing innovative teaching strategies is crucial for reducing educational inequalities.
• This approach led to decreased overall student study time while improving outcomes.