Course Redesign Takes Root in Psychology Departments

“Without a doubt, course redesign has hit psychology departments,” says Colleen Kochannek, Executive Marketing Manager in Pearson’s Results and Peer Market Development group, after attending a day-long workshop in Boston focusing on maximizing the benefits of technology in the psychology classroom. The workshop, held on March 9, 2012 in Pearson’s Boston office was attended by 34 instructors working in either Introductory Psychology or Developmental Psychology.

The keynote speaker, Carolyn Jarmon from the National Center for Academic Transformation (NCAT) delivered a presentation on course redesign in psychology. The rest of the day included New Design Demos of MyPsychLab and MyDevelopmentLab and course redesign case study presentations.

Demos were done by Amber Chow, Psychology Acquisitions Editor, Beth Stoner, Digital Editor, and Peter Sabatini, Senior Digital Editor. While the whole new design was demoed for MyPsychLab and MyDevelopmentLab, the new writing assessment feature stole the show.

Course Redesign case studies were presented by Frank Corapi from Jamestown Community College, Diane Finley from Prince George’s Community College, and Sue Spaulding from University of North Carolina, Charlotte. After each presentation, a Q&A period followed. Each speaker covered the how, what, why, and results of each individual redesign. Corapi, a relatively new user of MyPsychLab (he’s in his second semester) really resonated with attendees who, according to Kochannek, “could really see the potential for adding MyPsychLab to their own courses because of Frank’s experiences.”

The next course redesign event focusing on maximizing the benefits of technology in the classroom is taking place in English on April 13, 2012 in Seattle, Washington. You can find out more information about this event here.

What sessions would you be interested in attending at a Course Redesign workshop?