What can SIU learn from MIT?

It has been a while since the New York Times article about physics classes at M.I.T came out, but I’m still trying to figure out what I can learn from it.

A few observations and questions:

Attendance
“He won M.I.T.’s top teaching award and rave reviews from students. And yet, as each semester progressed, attendance in his introductory physics courses fell to 50 percent, as it did, he said, for nearly all of his colleagues.” If M.I.T. students are this bad about coming to class, SIUC students don’t seem any worse. Granted, M.I.T. students have an extra reason not to go to lecture because they can watch lectures on the Web. Are SIUC students unmotivated compared to students at other schools when students at one of the best schools in the country aren’t going to class? M.I.T. increased attendance by tying grades to it. This method is effective in getting students to come to class, but I suspect it damages student motivation. Every time students roll out of bed early for class, they can think to themselves that they will lose points if they don’t go to class rather than that they won’t learn the material if they don’t go to class.

Class size and Money
M.I.T. was able to drop the class size down from as high as 300 to around 80 students, thanks to a $10 million donation. The money also paid for undergraduate teaching assistants. These smaller classes and the extra help probably made it easier to institute homework three times a week. It’s hard to see how this change can be replicated without a similar infusion of money. Similarly, the extra class sessions in math classes for the College of Engineering at SIUC may not be sustainable after the grant money runs out.

Universities are in a bind here. They have built undergraduate education on large lectures because that was cheap, but with online courses, it’s hard to sell the advantage of in-person education based on large classes. Taking a class adds value over learning out of a book or a video in as much as the professor can offer things that a book can’t – structure for learning such as the deadlines provided by homework and tests; regular feedback including feedback in class and on homework; and personalization. Messages like, “This is hard, but I’m sure that you can do it if you work at it,” sound cliché in a book or on a video, but they can be encouraging if the person giving the message has seen what the student has done in the past and actually believes the message. In a large lecture, there are too many students to have a class-wide discussion or to deal with too much homework, and the most outgoing students are usually the only ones that the professor knows beyond a name, where they usually sit, and how much they seem to pay attention.

Clickers
Are the clickers a gimmick or a breakthrough? Their presence encourages faculty to ask questions during class and to plan those questions in advance, which both seem like good things. The clickers also force more of the students to answer, especially when participation is tied to a grade. I’ve seen plenty of classes where the student in the front row answers all the questions while everyone else looks at their feet. Getting everyone to participate should get students more involved and should give professors better feedback about whether the class understands. Could these good things be accomplished in a way that is less expensive?