Summary Notes on "Does Size Matter?" by Carol A. Twigg, The Learning MarketSpace, Written monthly by Bob Heterick and Carol A. Twigg, Center for Academic Transformation, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, 1 January 2001. 

 

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Summarized by J. T. P. Yao (Called to my attention by Professor Lee L. Lowery, Jr.), 1/4/01

"Awareness of the Pew Grant Program in Course Redesign [for details see the website at http://www.center.rpi.edu] is beginning to grow. … Because of the Program's focus on large-enrollment introductory courses and because the majority of grant awards thus far have been made to relatively large institutions, many folks are under the impression that concepts and practices employed by the program are applicable only to large institutions and not to small ones, especially to small, residential liberal arts colleges. Let me try to correct that misimpression and describe the applicability of these redesign ideas to small institutions."

"The simple point here is that all institutions have large courses, regardless of institutional size and regardless of individual class size. Those large courses are the targets of redesign because of their relatively large impact on the institutions, again regardless of size."

"A second misconception about these redesigns is that because they use technology, they are 'distance learning' projects. … The reality is that only one of the twenty projects funded thus far is a redesign of a distance-learning course; the other 19 are on-campus efforts and all include a significant amount of face-to-face contact. Again, the strategies employed in these redesigns are unquestionably appropriate for residential students."

"A third point of misunderstanding is the idea that technology is being used in these redesigns mainly to improve communication within large… impersonal courses at large, impersonal institutions. … While improving communication is one aspect of many of the projects, their primary focus is on improving student learning. And the principles that are being employed to improve student learning are the same, whether at a large university or a small, residential institutions."

"Does size matter? Perhaps in some things, but when it comes to using technology to assist in improving student learning, I don't think so."

[Readers who are interested in this article are encouraged to read the original paper in its entirety. Other summary notes on faculty reward systems are available on the Internet at http://lohman.tamu.edu under the heading "Summaries of Papers..."]