The UMBC English department’s composition course redesign was recently profiled by the Chronicle of Higher Education.
“In an age when many educators are promoting active learning by “flipping” classrooms, instructors here are rotating them instead. In a novel twist, they are providing composition instruction in three distinct venues.
Previously the classes, of 24 students each, met twice a week in a classroom for 75-minute sessions. The instruction was lecture-based, with time allotted for small-group activities.
Now each section, of two dozen students, meets as a group only once a week. On the other day of class, a dozen students gather in the university’s new writing lab, where they work on short assignments or revisions, guided by a trained undergraduate writing tutor. Meanwhile, the other 12 meet four at a time with their instructor. The schedule rotates so all students have a regular small-group meeting every other week,” the Chronicle reports.
The full story can be read here.
