Academic 2-21-19

April 8, 2019

ACADEMIC COMMITTEE MINUTES                                                                    DATE 02/21/19

MEETING START TIME: 5:05PM

ATTENDANCE:

Committee: Chair Morabito, Vice Chair Nelson, Senator Menard

Absent: Senator McGrath (excused), Senator Barnes(excused), Senator D’Aguanno

Non-Committee: Provost DeHayes, Vice Provost Beauvais

DISCUSSION:

TOPIC 1: OER/ Affordable Course Materials

  • Sent out a survey to the faculty and 40-45% is open to considering using affordable course materials
    • About 200 responses, more faculty responses than the survey from the bookstore
  • Most of the professors currently use text books for at least one of their classes
  • Academic have tried to incentivize professors using affordable course materials through video statements of student experiences and a certificate program
  • There a student conference in May about affordable course materials
  • A lot of professors are not submitting their text book adoptions early enough to the bookstore to allow for them to buy less expensive used books as opposed to more expensive new books
  • We are interested in making an on-campus conference to show professors what OER resources there are and how they can use them to fit the learning goals of their classes
  • March 4th-9th is Open Education Week
  • We want to work together, the provost and student senate, to help continual promotion of OER materials
  • A lot of professors are requiring the newest edition of the book, which is more expensive, even if there are minimal changes between the editions
  • We are thinking about adding questions on whether you buy or use the book on the end of the semester class surveys that we already use
  • We could bring a list of concerns regarding Affordable and Effective Course Materials to the Dean’s Counsel
  • Contact the Teaching Advisement and Assessment Sub-Committee of Faculty Senate

TOPIC 2: LMS and Online Resources

  • We want to not use outside websites that cost money instead of our LMS
  • We want the new LMS to have good grading, homework, and quiz systems so that professors do not have to use outside websites for homework
  • We also want more professors to use the LMS for homework because it is easier to contact a professor to fix glitches in the system or grading mistakes than it is to contact large companies like Wiley Plus, Connect, McGraw Hill, or TopHat

TOPIC 3: Final Exams

  • They want to shorten the final exam period to 5-6 days in Fall of 2020
  • They want to make final exam 2 hours long instead of 3 hours

TOPIC 4: College Arts and Sciences

  • Would they ever consider splitting up this colleges into smaller more specific colleges?
    • Maybe but not soon

TOPIC 5: Shift from 50-minute Mo We Classes to 75 minutes

  • The provost wants to switch to all 75 min courses on MoFri and TuTh, leaving Wednesday open to schedule longer labs and recitations
  • We do not like 3 hours once a week classes because if you miss one class it’s equivalent to missing a week of classes, plus there is more homework with more time to procrastinate, and the gap between classes makes it easier to forget the information you learned in the last class
    • It’s not good for lecture classes because you can lose your students attention span very quickly
  • We are looking to increase the number of online courses

TOPIC 6: Expanding Majors and Minors

  • New major criminal justice in the past 2 years
  • Program in international studies and diplomacy
  • Neuroscience major available
  • Sports media and marketing is going through the approval process
  • New Masters program in health management

TOPIC 7: Math and Chemistry Departments

  • These departments have high fail rates and the instructors are still teaching those courses
  • We are looking at the D, W, and F rate of courses and departments to assure
  • We are looking at Rhode Island high schools to make sure they are teaching to prepare students for the next math class in
  • We want to add recitations to math courses just for problem solving once a week
  • They have added tutorials for the math placement tests and an option to retake the math placement tests in August

TOPIC 8: (URI)2

  • Undergraduate Research and Innovation at URI
  • Supports URI undergraduates in all disciplines and at all levels to think big in self-directed, hands-on way
  • Students conduct research, produce scholarly work, and create artistic innovations

TOPIC 9: Academic Testing Center

  • An office in Chaffee for testing accommodations and make-up exams

TOPIC 10: Building renovations/ New Buildings

  • FAC is the next on the list to be renovated or rebuilt
  • Chaffee is on the list

Extra:

MEETING ADJOURNMENT TIME: 6:40PM