By SUE LOUGHLIN

TERRE HAUTE – Ivy Tech Community College is increasingly expanding the number of eight-week course offerings, and the reason, officials say, is higher student success rates.

“It is more focused and faster to complete,” said Ivy Tech President Sue Ellspermann. “For working adults, that means less time for life to get in the way. Part-time students focus on just one class at a time. Full-time students focus on just two to three classes at a time.”

Charles Savio, center, works with his team members to program an industrial six-axis robot in Molly Joseph’s automation and robotics manufacturing class on Wednesday at Ivy Tech-Terre Haute. Savio is pursuing an associate degree in advanced automation and robotics technology and likes the shorter eight-week courses that Ivy Tech offers. With Savio are Michael Darden, assistant professor Molly Joseph and Rufus Pace. Photo by Joseph C. Garza, Tribune-Star.

Ivy Tech Community College already offers eight-week classes at the Fort Wayne and Warsaw locations, according to Jessica Neuenschwander, Ivy Tech Fort Wayne media relations and communications coordinator.

As of spring 2020, approximately 48 percent of classes are provided in an eight-week format. These classes range from introductory writing and mathematics to advance program-specific classes, like CNC machining, pharmacology and calculus.

Students at Fort Wayne and Warsaw have shown significant increases in retention and completion in eight-week classes. In Fall 2019, students taking first term eight-week classes retained at 91 percent and completed at 83 percent. Sixteen-week course students retained at 83 percent and completed at 73 percent, Neuenschwander said.

Among those taking eight-week courses at Ivy Tech Terre Haute is Charles Savio, who is pursuing an associate degree in advanced automation and robotics technology. He likes the format and the challenge.

“There is so much information you have to absorb and process and move on,” Savio said. “There is no opportunity to miss anything” as there might be for a traditional, 16-week [semester] course. “You have to be there every single day … If you miss a day, you can fall behind quickly.”

But he likes the pace. “I feel it keeps me going; there is no time to slow down,” said Savio, 40, who hopes to get a job in industry after graduation, although teaching is an option as well.

“It works well for me,” he said, noting that he has a 4.0 GPA. He’s taking two classes this eight-week session, and he will take another three for the eight-week session that starts in March.

An eight-week format doesn’t work for all classes, he said, which college officials acknowledge. “I also think a lot of classes are doing OK … Faculty have found how to make it work,” Savio said.

Statewide transition

Ivy Tech statewide now offers about 60% all courses in the eight-week format and students are passing at significantly higher rates and dropping fewer classes, Ellspermann said.

Another benefit to the change is that students can now enroll five times a year, not just three.

Why the change? “We observed over two years ago that our own experiences with students in eight-week courses always showed, primarily in summers, that students did better in that format,” Ellspermann said, and she commissioned a study.

“Was it anecdotal to Ivy Tech, or was it a national trend?” officials wanted to know.

“We found in every case community colleges that had moved to eight-week courses had seen greater student success,” she said. Ivy Tech then studied in detail changes made by Odessa College, which went from one of the lowest performers in Texas to the highest performing.

The changes are having expected results, Ellspermann said.

Last year and this fall, the college statewide saw about a 6% improvement in pass rates, a more than 2% percent reduction in withdrawal rates and a more than 2% reduction in students who just stop showing up to school, she said.

Within about a year, the expectation is 75% or more of courses will be eight-weeks, although that’s not an exact target. But the intent is not to make all courses eight weeks.

In some cases, 16 weeks makes more sense and may be necessary for clinical experiences or accreditation. “We will look at what is best for students … and use that to direct us as we go forward,” Ellspermann said.

The college will look to see if student performance improves — and if it doesn’t, Ivy Tech will reconsider the eight-week format for those courses.

Officials also say it’s better for students to take courses predominantly one way or the other — eight weeks or 16 weeks, and not a combination of the two.

Two-thirds of Ivy Tech students are part-time, and the changes enable those students to progress more quickly, if they choose. “I think with our students and their work schedules and commitments in life, it gives them flexibility,” Ellspermann said.

Faculty have spent the last two years redesigning courses, and she gave much credit to those efforts. “You don’t just fold the course over in half and teach twice as much,” she said. Faculty must look at learning objectives and there may be fewer assignments and tests.

The goal is how to help students show proficiency and competency, but probably with fewer assignments.

Many faculty are using a hybrid model, with 50 percent in-class and 50 percent online assignments.

Ivy Tech provide the following statewide data points:

• For fall 2019, passing grades for the first eight-week courses were 8.1% higher than for 16-week courses.
• There were 3.4% fewer withdrawals in fall 2019 for eight-week courses compared to 16-week courses.

Melanie Hurst, department chair for the Ivy Tech-Terre Haute school of information technology, said she was worried about the change, but “I went in with an open mind. I wanted to do what was best for students.”

She was “pleasantly surprised” with the results, as she saw grades improve. Initially, students also shared concerns about the fast pace, but after they got used to it, they told her they preferred the eight-week format. “Grades seem better because concentration stays better,” she said.

Redesigning courses was “a little bit challenging,” she said. “It took us a little longer to convert because we have very high contact hour classes” and lab-intensive classes.

Source: Tribune-Star

InkFreeNews Reporter Liz Shepherd contributed to this report.