(This information was in a Word document on my computer and presented in class December 2. I have posted it here in case you needed proof that I had updated my plan.)
- Project Outline: It is pretty much guaranteed your project plan/design/outline will change as you start working on it. Either provide your updated outline and/or provide an annotated version of your original outline that discusses what changes you are making and how/why you have completed sections and/or made changes.
| Visual Concept | Audible Texts | (Rhetorical Situation) |
| Image of the main academic building on campus | We all agree that Liberty University offers a unique opportunity for students, especially with our emphasis on reaching students where they are and helping them get to the next level. | Warrants – pride in school; we all want the same thing: successful environments for successful students |
| Photo of large classrooms full of students (300+): Towns Alumni Hall and DeMoss 4040. What are students doing? What meaning does their posture convey? | The “2014-2017 Strategic Plan” lists as one specific objective to ‘increase student success in gen ed classes, especially those that have been historically challenging for students” (p. 11). For many students, the more challenging classes are their Gen Ed English classes. | Introducing the topic |
| Student interview snippets | What do students want / expect from education? | Reminding my audience about the tertiary audience |
| Transition | Benefits of large class: consistent instruction, cost-effective | Finding more common ground so my argument is not immediately dismissed |
| Research Overview – what are other schools doing? Why? What successes are they having? What problems? | Introducing the problem | |
| Our problems with large classrooms: students get lost in the crowd; passive reception of information; feels like church | Focusing the problem on our school and our students | |
| Student interview snippets | Student perceptions of large classrooms and their effectiveness; what do they notice about themselves? About others in class? | |
| Survey images / charts / graphs | Survey results | |
| To maintain consistency, have a master teacher / collaborative model for instruction but not for class itself | Proposed solution | |
| Return to the small-classroom environment for ENGL 102 and 200-levels | ||
| Other Gen-Ed classes may still benefit from this large-lecture format since the content is more “lecture-focused.” The ENGL classes require more “hands-on” interaction as students work on their writing skills and obtain feedback. | ||
| Smiling faces – students and faculty | ||
- Timeline: Include a revised timeline that tracks what work you have completed (list dates, times, and notes about what was completed) as well as the updated timeline from when you submit this until the final project deadline.
- Oct 28:
- (Oct 31) Meeting with 200-level professors; ask about concerns, questions, what works, what doesn’t, desires, etc.
- Continue to work on questions for survey
- Begin building survey
- Check with IRB
- See if Shawn or Susan (CTE) has run across any research on the matter
- Nov 4:
- Create / print consent forms (not needed per conversation with Dr. Heady)
- Finalize survey in digital format
- Nov 11:
- Distribute survey to current students (if possible and ready)
- If not ready, perhaps distribute to practice group as a “dry run” to see what glitches pop up, what questions students have, etc.
- (Nov 16) Complete update assignment
- Nov 18: Project update
- Tie up loose ends
- Nov 25:
- Prepare presentation for viewing by peers
- Dec 2: Project in progress presentation
- Of the 82 respondents so far, 7 have left contact information so that I can interview them
- The responses so far are indicating that students either like the professor’s personality or the subject matter. This could mean that students are not bothered by the large class sizes as much as we thought OR it could mean that only the students who enjoy the class for one reason or another are responding to the survey
- Dec 9: Project submission and final reflection
- Use final project as rough draft to present to department chair
- Find out what additional input she has
- Make adjustments as needed per her instructions
- Revise project to be presented to administrators
- Oct 28:
- Victories: Share what struggles you have had and how you have overcome them; celebrate your victories!
- Some of my Google Survey links have not worked; I’ve emailed the link to professors and asked them to forward the links to their students, but they are probably having to use the Blackboard email and the link is being broken when they are copying and pasting. Since I only have a class of 24 students, I am able to forward email to my students using the Outlook Group (Distribution List), but professors for larger classes don’t have that luxury (or don’t take the time to create such group lists). I’ve been able to overcome this by emailing students directly when they have questions, but not all students are reporting the problem.
- I’ve visited a couple classrooms personally and passed out candy to those students who self-reported that they had completed the survey. I’ll be making a few more visits this week.
- This has been a great exercise! Collecting and interpreting data is not as easy as I had imagined. Putting the presentation together will be easy, but determining the content to go into the presentation will take much more work!
- Concerns: What concerns do you have about your project? What do you think you might need help with? What are some of your initial ideas in overcoming your concerns?
- Besides my concern regarding my grade on the assignment (am I demonstrating enough effort?), I’m concerned that I haven’t asked the correct questions or asked them in the correct way.
- I’m concerned that I’m only capturing data from those students who like the class
- I’m concerned that I will not be able to interpret the data properly; I can probably set up an appointment with Dr. Volk for help since Dean Heady is so busy.