Doubling the Numbers Report: Teaching & Learning

Doubling the Numbers

Teaching and Learning Task Force

Report

May 7, 2004

IUPUI has been at the forefront of American higher education in its attention to student learning and means for enhancing student academic achievement so as to increase persistence and completion of baccalaureate degrees. In his recent book The Learning Paradigm College, John Tagg states that “What sets IUPUI apart from many other highly decentralized universities is a determination to convert its weaknesses into strengths and a clarity of purpose unusual even in much smaller institutions. The impetus of much of IUPUI’s innovation over the past several years has been to create a whole from the parts in a way that will extend the time horizon of learning for its students” (p. 231). Maintaining this focus on student learning is the key to successfully doubling the baccalaureate degrees awarded.

Task Force Methodology

To achieve our goals for this Task Force, the approach included the following activities:

· Outlined its work in accord with the Chancellor’s charge (Appendix A)

· Called for campus participation through an interim report (Appendix B)

· Commissioned an IMIR report, Special Report: Factors Impacting Bachelor’s Degree Completion at IUPUI, which presents analyses on trends in degrees at IUPUI (Appendix C)

· Reviewed an earlier report on retention which includes very thoughtful recommendations (Appendix D)

· Interviewed each IUPUI dean (Appendix E). In addition, we asked each IUPUI dean to make specific numerical projections, based on school-specific projections, on a website developed by IMIR. These reports are forthcoming from the deans.

· Met with the Faculty Council and with the Staff Council as well as with a focus group of staff and received a set of recommendations from the Staff Council (Appendix F).

· Requested and summarized feedback from the campus as a whole, http://double.iupui.edu (Appendix G)

· Reviewed the report of retention initiatives (Appendix H)

The Data

The continuing identification and analysis of data are fundamental to our work. Sustained attention to enrollment patterns is critical. The campus has centered on point-in-cycle

analysis for several years, and our need for both data and the interpretation of those data will continue as fundamental to the doubling effort. We urge a holistic view of campus data so that the interschool effects of increasing or decreasing enrollments can be fully understood. In addition, data analysis can aid campus recruitment efforts. According to the 2000 U.S. census, almost one of three Central Indiana adult residents (age 25 to 64) have attained a bachelor’s degree or higher. This rate is considerably higher than for the rest of the state, but it varies considerably within the region (from a high of over 50% in Hamilton County to only 14% in Morgan County). The percentage of adult residents with some college but no degree averages 21% in the region and the rest of the state. Over one half of regional residents with some college but no degree reside in Marion County. One quarter

of all Indiana adult residents who have some college but no degree reside in the eight county Central Indiana region. How might the schools attract more of these students to IUPUI? With the increase of admissions standards and expansion of the Community College of Indiana, IUPUI has been losing its market share of area college-bound high school graduates. The declines are especially notable for the Marion County Township schools and Hamilton County. These areas include the highest proportions of students whose parents have college degrees. Although somewhat offset by the increasing number of high school graduates expected over the next four years, if the trend continues, IUPUI will attract significantly fewer traditional first-time freshmen from our primary service region. The challenge will be to attract larger numbers of well-prepared students from these areas, and to work with students deferred to Ivy Tech to help them succeed there and subsequently transfer to IUPUI.

Goals

The Task Force suggests the following goals as we move toward doubling the number of baccalaureate degrees:

1. Attend to the mission of IUPUI. Has our message of “Why Not Both” now achieved its goal of helping persons understand that IU and Purdue degrees are awarded at IUPUI? Can the mission differentiation project be the time for IUPUI to define our mission in a comprehensible and inviting way? We once were known as the campus for returning adults with Weekend College, Learn and Shop, and other innovative programs to serve returning adults. With our move to a more traditional student body (at least in the first year of study), we look toward those students in defining our mission. How might we define our mission in an inclusive way—celebrating the diversity of programs and students and expectations that make IUPUI such a vital community? How might we attend to our image in a way that would help the community understand and celebrate the excellence in civic engagement and research and scholarship that characterizes our campus? How might we help persons see the important linkages between teaching and research and not define false dichotomies when we talk about teaching and research? How do we market IUPUI to prospective students and their family members?

2. Expand our definition of doubling with teaching and learning. Doubling the number of baccalaureate degrees is of primary importance, given the relationship between the success of a metropolitan area and the proportion of baccalaureate degree graduates in an area. Yet, other programs such as graduate/professional degrees and specialized certificate programs (such as Education’s Transition to Teaching and Nursing’s RN to BSN), particularly those that support the Central Indiana targeted areas of Life Sciences, Advanced Manufacturing, Logistics, Information Technology, and Non-for-Profit Management, are also critical to the economic development of Central Indiana. Other programs in (such as the internationally-focused LL.M. program) can aid in the recruitment of international students. Given our location, our excellence with technology, our widest range of degrees of any campus in the state, and our leadership in health areas, IUPUI should become the nexus for lifelong learning in Indiana, providing increased and easy access to programs that meet the needs of prospective students and of our communities. We have a particularly important role, as Central Indiana’s public campus, to expand master’s and other graduate and professional degrees to serve students and our region. The Task Force also believes that it is imperative that we find other indices of quality (e.g., increased numbers of students passing licensure examination on their first attempt) to address in concert with increased numbers of graduates.

3. Define the capacity for IUPUI. IUPUI’s enrollment is hovering toward 30,000. We have been changing the “mix” of our entering students, seeing more traditional aged, better-prepared and full-time students. An analysis by IMIR suggests that IUPUI will not double our number of baccalaureate degrees with our current number of students (full report available in Appendix C). Among its official peers and the rest of the Urban 13 consortium, IUPUI has the third largest undergraduate enrollment, the lowest 6-year graduation rate for first-time full-time freshmen (21%), and the lowest degree per enrollment ratio. If IUPUI matched Temple University’s highest graduation rate in this group, it would offer only 50% more baccalaureate degrees; similarly, if IUPUI matched the University of Illinois, Chicago’s highest degree per enrollment ratio, it would offer just over 4000 baccalaureate degrees, which would still not be double the number. We will not double the number of degrees without increasing the enrollment for the campus. What is our capacity?

4. Define a “learning corridor” across Central Indiana, emphasizing collaboration and seamlessness with the Bloomington and West Lafayette campuses just as we talk of a research corridor. We now have artificial barriers to student movement across campuses and institutions. In particular, students experience difficulties transferring credit within the IU system, especially at the upper levels (although transfers to Purdue happen more smoothly). IUPUI and Ivy Tech of Central Indiana have a “model” partnership in serving students; we must support and expand our collaboration with Ivy Tech. Should Ivy Tech teach on our campus? Should we teach at Ivy Tech? The role of IUPU Columbus as a partner with the Indianapolis campus, both in being the place where students start their study and as a baccalaureate-awarding campus, should be expanded.

5. Strengthen our work with diversity. The Diversity Cabinet has developed an exemplary set of indicators on our campus efforts to have a diverse student body, served by a diverse faculty and staff, in a supportive culture characterized by multicultural approaches to the curriculum. Despite this, we have made little progress in retaining and graduating a diverse student body. The Task Force underscores the critical nature of continuing attention to these efforts, and recommends increasing attention to work/life issues. Since national data suggest that minority students often have notably high family obligations, addressing “life” needs should support retention of these students.

6. Continue as leaders in P-16 approaches. IUPUI has played a leadership role in the development of innovative middle school programs coordinated by Enrollment Services, tiered mentoring programs and Upward Bound programs within University College, Project SEAM led by faculty, and other efforts to form a P-16 system. Given attrition rates of over 50% in IPS schools, Central Indiana will not succeed without effective partnerships across P-16. IUPUI has taken bold steps in admitting students as a function of their performance in high school in line with Adelman’s research. Yet, it is critical that we expand partnerships with the schools, connecting students with the campus so that they see (and achieve) pathways to graduation. We should encourage electronic transcripts from high schools and automated course transfer within Indiana as well as a K-16 portfolio.

7. Find ways to more fully engage students, faculty, and staff with the city. Students value IUPUI’s presence in the city—living here, taking advantage of exciting neighborhoods, and finding job and internship possibilities. The Task Force affirms the recommendations of the Civic Engagement Task Force in doubling the following: Service Learning courses, community-based learning courses, internships and practica (both traditional types of internships and practica

as well as stipended service such as AmeriCorp). The “value added” for many students in coming to IUPUI is Indianapolis itself; let’s celebrate and strengthen our being an urban university.

Implementation Issues: GRAD

The Task Force groups its implementation issues as follows:

· Graduate students. Doubling the number of baccalaureate degrees calls attention to the importance of supporting existing students in their completing their degrees.

· Retain students. IUPUI has developed exemplary programs, the effectiveness of which are confirmed by program evaluations of the interventions for entering students. We have an exhaustive inventory of retention initiatives (Appendix H). IUPUI has been front-loading resources, basing its interventions in large part on research that emphasizes the critical importance, for retention, of the student’s first weeks on campus. Strategic Directions funding, support from the Lilly Endowment, and other campus resources have provided the foundation for faculty, staff, and student leadership in University College in collaboration with the schools in supporting our entering students.

· Attract students. IUPUI has implemented new admissions guidelines, stressing the importance of the Core 40 curriculum for success in higher education. We call for increased ties with K-12 education and for increasing our marketing and recruiting efforts.

· Develop programs and services. The Task Force recommends particular programs to support doubling the number of baccalaureate graduates.

Specific implementation steps are grouped within each phase of this GRAD program for IUPUI.

Graduate Existing Students

We have grouped implementation steps with these four key areas; most could be listed in all four. We stress, however, the most important impact on graduation here.

· Stress learning, not seat time. The Task Force recommends expanding pilot programs and innovative approaches in teaching and learning, moving away from “seat time” in a lecture being the measure of our efforts as the campus provides more online course offerings as an alternative to face-to-face class meetings. Similarly, we should strengthen our Principles of Undergraduate Learning approach, particularly with the electronic portfolio. Psychology B104 is a good model for the campus, in moving from seat time to learning and in providing a wide array of student supports.

· Focus on seniors. We recommend attention to the ePort, capstone courses, senior seminars, repeated contacts with seniors, support for interviewing skills, placement, tuition discounts for seniors, and concern for “bottleneck” courses. How do seniors move to graduation? Are our seniors running out of financial aid? Can we help?

· Define markets of new seniors. Can we strengthen degree completion options? What are the market segments out there where students could finish sooner? Could undergraduate Education students who want to transfer to IUPUI, for example, be served by evening classes?

· Provide support for the increased use of technology to enhance instruction. The use of technology provides an important pathway to achieving the goal of doubling. Office for Professional Development grant programs assist faculty in transforming their courses through the innovative use of instructional technology. The course transformation program provides funding to redesign large, multi-section courses, with the goal to improve student learning while also making more efficient use of faculty time and university resources—including the use of classroom space. With a focus on inclusive teaching, these course transformation projects provide increased access for all students including minority students and students with disabilities. A second program, Jump Start, provides funding and support for faculty to create high quality online courses that fall within three categories: 1) gateway courses, 2) general studies degree completion courses, and 3) professional degrees and/or certificates. These courses can increase student enrollment by providing students with increased access to high quality instruction, which in turn, increases the likelihood that they will complete their baccalaureate degrees at IUPUI.

· Expand online and other distance education options, courses, and programs. According to Judy Dahl, in a 2003 article in Distance Education Report, distance education can be the salvation of public institutions and “the answer to state cutbacks…Distance education can enable universities to increase student numbers without adding buildings, technology, or instructors.” IUPUI undergraduate and graduate students should have increased distance education options that allow them to be flexible with their time and enroll in more credit hours in order to progress to graduation at a faster rate. In addition the institution should commit to developing options that deliver more undergraduate and graduate programs completely at a distance.

Distance education can provide better service to students, (including 24 hour access—from any computer—to course materials, student records, technical assistance, and libraries); better monitoring and assessment of student progress through online tracking of attendance, class participation, and assignments; the ability to add courses without additional technology investment; and the ability to add students without adding infrastructure.

While IUPUI has made great strides in the use of distance learning technologies and pedagogies, there is still much work to be done. Many units routinely offer courses, certificates, and, in some cases, degrees online. Indeed, there is a growing expectation and anticipation that more online offerings will continue to emerge. Retarding the ability to offer a total solution to students seeking programs-of-study at-a-distance, however, is the lack of planning and delivery of courses that comprise a general education experience for students. Simply put, many needed courses are not regularly and consistently available online. This prohibits units from being able to offer students a holistic, coordinated approach to their IUPUI online course experience.

Retain Existing Students

We recommend that we re-double our efforts with the retention of first-year students as we do more with transfer students and attend to the retention of all students.

· Expand powerful pedagogies and academic and student support programs to increase retention, targeting transfer students as well as first-year students. Learning Communities, the Thematic Learning Communities, the ePort, continued attention to the Principles of Undergraduate Learning, academic support programs, the Gateway program, and powerful pedagogies (study abroad, internships, service learning, problem-based learning, capstone experiences, and undergraduate research) are critical in moving students to graduation. George Kuh, in his keynote address at the Edward C. Moore Symposium this year, highlighted the critical roles of experience with diversity and learning communities in increasing student engagement.

· Strengthen our program of faculty development. How might we redefine faculty roles in a way that will strengthen faculty leadership without adding work? How do we support lecturers? What about the clinical ranks? We encourage school review of faculty work. We should review faculty workload issues in light of efforts to increase the availability, throughout the school year and through traditional and distance modes, of courses that count toward degree completion. As the campus differentiates faculty roles, we should find means to accommodate many more non-tenure track faculty in important teaching/learning activities. This review should build on IUPUI’s strong program of faculty development stressing inclusive teaching and multicultural curriculum development.

· Strengthen the co-curriculum and its link with the classroom. We have a strong base with Oncourse and look to the ePort to make major contributions in linking co-curricular programs with the curriculum.

· Leverage Advising to play a key role in retention. Richard Light’s research stresses the critical role of advising. How do we support advisors in helping students define alternate paths if they are not admitted to capped programs? How might we provide more support for faculty who do advising? Increasing the number of professional advisors will be critical as we expand the student population; the joint advisor model has served IUPUI well. Can we move to more electronic advising?

Attract New Students

It is critical, to increase the number of graduates, that we attract more and better prepared new students. We note that it is more productive to retain a student than to recruit a new student, but we must attend to our recruiting of students.

· Attract an increased number of out-of-state students and international students. The Task Force recommends consideration of tuition discount programs. We need to determine how such a program would equitably be launched in the RCM environment. The campus is immensely attractive to international and other out of state students, and we often enhance our diversity with such students. With the availability of new housing, what other incentives are appropriate and possible to attract more non-resident students?

· Develop an enrollment management plan for IUPUI. University College is the home for all entering students, and, in partnership with Enrollment Services and all the schools, IUPUI now has coherence for its entering students in a way that most campuses do not. But, we have not developed the comprehensive enrollment management plan that will move us toward doubling degrees. University College and Enrollment Services, in partnership with the schools, should be charged with the development, implementation, and assessment of a comprehensive enrollment management plan for the campus.

· Develop new curricula that are academically rigorous, but meet growing demand. For example, forensic and investigative science, which will be considered by the IUPUI in May, has a tremendous following in the state. Our biotechnology program is moving forward. Informatics has attracted many students. Are there new graduate programs (daytime or executive MBA) that would serve the city well?

· Tell IUPUI’s story. We have a safe campus, good neighbors, and terrific academic and research programs. How can we, in general, get that story to prospective students and their families?

Develop Programs and Services

The Task Force has identified a wide range of issues and programs that impact the doubling initiative.

· Review the impact on retention of Bursar policies and procedures. Consider issues such as flat fee for tuition, an extended payment plan, the appropriateness of washout, policies on application of out-of-state fees for new residents, graduate rates for undergraduate courses, and tuition for distance education courses.

· Review the impact of environmental issues. The retention of students at IUPUI has been primarily a function of working with what happens in and around the classroom, and that will continue. However, other factors such as better parking, more housing, better public transportation, improved formal and informal learning environments, increased view of the city as “the” place for students to study, and positive treatment of students by all units and programs on campus will play key roles in retaining students through graduation. Shops and restaurants on the canal, reduced rates at NIFS, and other amenities will connect our students with our neighborhood. Parking is always an issue. Can we provide special lots for carpoolers or find other innovative means to “solve” this issue for students; it is often an even bigger problem in perception than in reality. Traffic patterns (e.g., left turn lane when wanting to turn north on West Street from Indiana Avenue) are often very frustrating to students. How might we collaborate more with the city in the management of traffic?

· Increase attention to and partnership with parents, family members, employers, and the community in general. Tuition remission plans, support for IUPUI staff who also study here, and increasing student employment are examples of such enhancement. Surveys of employers, recognition of employers who pay employees’ tuition, and other ties with employers will enhance retention. Parents are critical partners in supporting their students. IUPUI now does an excellent job of including parents in orientation, but we should expand those partnerships.

· Expand student financial aid. Increasing the enrollment and graduation of highly talented and diverse students will be impacted by IUPUI’s ability to increase financial support for all students but especially for highly talented and diverse students.

· Attend to the role of staff. The Staff Council has made helpful recommendations (Appendix F). Supporting staff as students and encouraging students to become staff will have major impact. We might, for example, offer alternative work options (flextime, etc.) and secure the kind of support from the university administration that makes it clear that supervisors/managers (whether faculty or staff) are expected to give serious consideration to requests for flexibility. We should review the fee courtesy program, particularly given the increase in cost since many fees are not covered. We should explore whether drop-in and after hours child care would help non-traditional students stay in school. We should do a better job of marketing what types of “support” options are available. We should continue to explore innovative ways to address “life” issues of students. The research shows among the larger group of ‘stopouts,’ over one-half cited work related factors as contributing to their decision not to re-enroll at IUPUI,” and “one third cited family related factors [as a contribution to their decision not to reenroll]. As staff are students, they have better understandings of improving life for students. How can we help every staff member to attend to students, to put them first? How might we provide more cross-training? We want to ensure that students do not get the “run-around.” Might our staff join faculty and committee members in a mentoring program for students, particularly those reflecting diversity?

· Identify and coordinate Library issues associated with increasing enrollments and degrees. There will be some impact on collections, but it will not be proportional to the increase in students. There are some electronic resources that base their fees to us on the number of student FTEs and this will require us to pay larger fees. But more often the fee structures are stepped and the increases we might expect from this initiative will not change our prices. There may be some need for additional book or journal purchasing, but in most of the areas where this might be the case we already have graduate programs, so the needs here should not be large. The library can extend access to resources with only a small marginal increase in costs. This does not reflect the continuing problem of the excessive rates of inflation for research materials, but that is a different problem. The library has been actively engaged in integrating information literacy and library skills into the freshman program. Librarians are now working to extend this engagement to gateway and upper level courses. This effort will require that we at least maintain the current levels of staff that support these activities and may require additional staff depending on the success of this initiative. Working with upper level students requires more subject expertise and often requires individual consultation, so it can require more librarian time. The Library will be able to stretch to meet this demand for a time, but there are limits. The University Library is the central space on campus where informal academic work takes place. It is a good facility that has in general met the needs of students – our gate count is over one million per year, over 500,000 people log into our computers each year, and students have high satisfaction with our hours. An increase in students, especially upper level students, may push the capacity of our current space. The Library is seeking for external funding to provide an "information commons" which will add better group work spaces and add computer capacity. Some additional investment in upgrading library user spaces may also be required. It may also be necessary to extend our hours, especially as more residential students come to campus.

Resources

The Task Force perceives that we will achieve increased numbers of graduates without the provision of significant new monies beyond additional fee income from students, which should be significant, particularly if we expand capacity and retain more students. The campus has developed an excellent foundation with support from the Lilly Endowment. The Commitment to Excellence projects are designed to make significant contributions to teaching and learning. The Solution Center has enormous potential for enhancing teaching and learning and civic engagement. Ryan (2004) in a study on the relationship between institutional expenditures and degree attainment rates found a “positive and significant relationship between instructional and academic support expenditures and cohort graduation rates.” Resources will be needed.

We highlight considerations of space. The loss of classrooms in the Cable Building will exacerbate an already troubling lack of classroom space on the campus. The Learning Environment Committee is making important strides in studying classroom utilization at IUPUI, and the Task Force commends that work. We do not use our classrooms in the early morning or on Friday. How might incentives make it more likely that we would offer and students would take classes so as to maximize our use of space? We have unused capacity in many upper-division classes, and we need to determine means to fill those seats. We should also investigate off-campus sites including partnerships with Ivy Tech in the use of space and expanded on-site classes for employers. Can we use Carmel and Glendale better? Should there be more Centers? Our largest impact will come from hybrid courses where seat-time is reduced due to student’s use of technology and students working with one another in study sessions. Our consideration of space should not neglect informal learning environments. Much of the work at IUPUI with entering students has been specifically designed to increase students’ time on task with learning and students forming a peer culture centered on learning. Ensuring that culture defines the new housing and the Campus Center is critical to our graduating more students. The informal learning environments can be even more important that the formal learning environments.

The campus might consider the creation of incentives for schools to participate in programs that increase retention and degree/certificate completion. We should consider whether appropriations to schools should be linked to increases in the numbers of graduates, and whether student credit hour income might be allocated to students’ the home academic unit and/or the graduating unit in addition to teaching units. We should evaluate whether the tax structure for Science and Liberal Arts (who teach the entering students who are housed in University College) supports or detracts from the teaching and learning mission of IUPUI.

A Concluding Word

The article on "Accommodating Student Swirl" that appeared in the March/April 2004 edition of Change magazine was significantly shaped by experiences at IUPUI. As a result, the concluding recommendations are closely matched with many of ongoing efforts here. However, the recommendations do suggest further developments. For example, we can do better work at monitoring student progress throughout our programs, particularly at the program level. Individual departments can take it on themselves to track the progress of students and take action on individual students who appear to be facing barriers. While we have developed an excellent orientation program for first-year students, we need to extend the idea of orientation throughout our administrative services and, most importantly, academic programs. Departments should consider having a brief student orientation at the beginning of each fall and possibly each spring semester, where students who are new to the major can be introduced to key people and each other. IUPUI has participated in many national efforts to define student learning outcomes in both specific areas and more generally. We can further these efforts by involving more and new faculty in existing efforts and encouraging and providing incentives for faculty to join in such efforts through their disciplinary associations. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there are many things we can do to develop further the assessment of competencies throughout our programs. This will become increasingly important as more individuals come to IUPUI with knowledge, skills, and abilities attained through a wide variety of formal and informal experiences. This is one area where a complete re-engineering of current processes may be profitable. This would include: transfer credit evaluation; General Studies credit for life experience, DANTES and CLEP exams, and, most importantly, department level assessment of prior credit eligibility.

The Task Force considered presenting our recommendations in terms of the person or office responsible for implementation. There are clearly recommendations that are the province of the General Assembly (financial aid), the President (student movement across campuses), the Chancellor (allocation of resources and campus policies and procedures), the Dean of Faculties (faculty leadership and academic collaboration), Deans (school leadership with issues, support of faculty, program development), and the individual faculty, staff, administrators and students who make up this campus community. Perhaps the Dean of Faculties, for example, might designate a single coordinating point to develop distance education plans and strategies. Feedback to the Task Force has been very helpful, and we hope we have captured the recommendations of so many across campus.

We also note that there will be very difficult decisions. How do we reallocate resources to enhance retention and graduation? How do ensure that we continue to see teaching and research as mutually supportive missions and not in conflict? How do we become the “model” campus for civic engagement as we also increase student ties to the campus itself? How might we ensure that our faculty, staff, administrators, students, and graduates reflect the diversity that characterizes our city and state?

We recommend that the reports of the four task forces be linked. Undergraduate research participation is a key strategy for improving teaching and learning, for example, and is an important link with the research mission. We also recommend that IUPUI’s excellent planning and budgeting process continue to include specific attention to the recommendations on doubling. We have included the deans’ reports in Appendix E, and we will continue to request that the schools provide feedback on their numerical projections on the website developed by IMIR.

Members of the Teaching and Learning Task Force:

David Bivin

Scott Evenbeck, Chair

Susanmarie Harrington

Stephen Hundley

Pamela Jeffries

Andy Klein

Bill Kulsrud

Stacy Morrone

Jeff Watt

Appendices

Appendix A: Memorandum of Charge from Chancellor Bantz

Appendix B: Teaching and Learning Task Force Plan

Appendix C: Special Report: Factors Impacting Bachelor’s Degree Completion at IUPUI