Chapter 10 – Southerland

Introduction

When I think about how quarters have influenced my life, I get very nostalgic. From my earliest thoughts, I can imagine quarters in very different genres:  quarters as money, quarters in measurements, and of course quarters in education where I got my first taste of technology in the late 1970s.  What kept coming to mind was where I grew up and how education has influenced my life and career choice.  I guess being born at the tail end of the ‘baby boomers era’ had instilled in me a drive to seek a valued college education.  Well, either that or the fact that my sister was my inspiration after she got a college education; I would be following in her footsteps.

Until recently, my entire earlier college education consisted of quarters. I can remember how structured the courses were and how evenly distributed the curriculum was divided over three quarters (Fall, Winter, and Spring) excluding the summer unless there was a class that needed to be taken.  I had heard about semesters, but really did not know anything about them.  Other universities were starting to think about converting but had not taken the plunge yet.  Throughout this time of discovery, by the early 1980s, the technology continued to blossom with the CD-ROM Revolution with Bill Gates and Microsoft.

In 2010, the thought of converting quarters into semesters became a reality at Columbus State Community College (CSCC). There were many trials and tribulations with the conversion and in the fall of 2012, semesters began at CSCC.  Technology continued to grow as well with the beginning of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) in the mix.

I always wondered if the students benefited from the switch from quarters to semesters and how technologies effected that change. Certain questions came to mind:  So where are we today?  How are the students learning?  Was it worth the effort to convert?

In this chapter we will seek some answers to those questions with this main question at the forefront, “How has the change from quarters to semesters at Columbus State changed how students learn with technology?”

Let’s dive in, shall we?

History

When I attended school for my undergraduate degree, Youngstown State University (YSU) and CSCC were on quarters. For many colleges in the late 1970s, quarters were the norm.  In some cases quarters vary in length, although the typical quarter lasts 10 or 11 weeks (Tilus, G., September 27, 2012). It wasn’t until the early 2000s, YSU converted to semesters. Their philosophy on the semester system was ‘semesters are fifteen weeks in length, plus a sixteenth week for final exams.  Many colleges and universities in the U.S. are on some form of the semester or quarter system.  When transferring from one system to the other, most U.S. colleges and universities agree that 1 semester hour equals 1.5 quarter hours’ (YSU, General Information).  Meanwhile, in a semester system students typically attend classes for two “semesters” each year, typically a fall semester and a spring semester (Tilus, G., September 27, 2012).

It was in 2008 when Eric Fingerhut, Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor for the University System of Ohio, told 17 public colleges that “they had to have semesters in place by fall 2012” (Farkas, K., May 30, 2012). By 2012, Jim Petro, current Chancellor, stated that the reason for the conversion was to “align the institutions with one another and private colleges in the state” (Farkas, K., May 30, 2012) to ‘create a common calendar’ (Smith, M., February 7, 2012).

In the fall of 2012, CSCC transitioned from quarters to semesters. For the Veterinary Technology program, the conversion allowed for 73 credit hours to be used for graduating with an Associate degree from CSCC.  Since then, the governing body for Community Colleges has reduced the credit hours needed for graduation even further.  As of Autumn Semester 2016, CSCC reduced their credit hours from 73 to 65 in order to graduate students with an Associate degree from their Veterinary Technology program.  In order to fulfill this requirement, contact hours with students were reduced.  Now the students in lab have less time for hands-on experiences but the requirements for the classes have not changed.

Have the students benefited from the switch from quarters to semesters? In that sense, has technologies effected the change?  So “How has the change from quarters to semesters at Columbus State changed how students learn with technology?”

Participants

The participants for this chapter were gathered from the Veterinary Technology program at CSCC: instructors and students. The main requirement for each was the fact that both were a part of CSCC before the conversion from quarters to semesters.  This requirement was very important because if they were not a part of CSCC before the conversion, then no other questions would need to be asked.  Unfortunately, the program is only a 2-3 year program depending on if the students are in the daytime or evening programs.  Since the conversion happened five years ago, I had to ask students who attended CSCC before the conversion, not necessarily in the Veterinary Technology program.  There were other requirements that each had to satisfy.  For the instructors, they had to have been involved in the conversion in some way.  After the conversion, they had to have witnessed how the students are coping with the change and how students learn with technology.  For the students, the use of technology before and after is important to see if the conversion has changed their learning curve with technology.  The requirements for the instructors and students did not include age, gender, or time spent in the program.  With everything in place, there were five instructors and six students who agreed to take part.

Data Collection Introduction

There are different data collection methods to choose from, such as, surveys, interviews, social network analysis, focus groups, observations, tests, and less common methods like “document studies, key informants and case studies” (Westat et al, 2010, p 69). From the selections listed above, the main method chosen for this chapter was a survey.  Surveys are typically selected when information is to be collected from a large number of people or when answers are needed to a clearly defined set of questions (Westat et al, p 59).  The structure of the survey was formulated in Qualtrics, the basic tool used for surveys at The Ohio State University.  The questions were developed in an open- and closed-ended format to gather the opinions of the target audience about technology used in the conversion from quarters to semesters.  Due to this method there are advantages and disadvantages that have to be considered as stated by Westat et al (2010).  One of the advantages for using a survey is that it is “good for gathering descriptive data” (p 59).  An added bonus is that surveys “are relatively inexpensive to use” (p 59).  The main disadvantage that would be concerning is that self-reported data can “lead to biased reporting” (p 59).  Since opinions will be the main gathering material for this survey, biased reporting would be at the forefront of concerns.  This in turn could cause the data to “provide a general picture but lack depth” (p 59) coming from their answers.

Interviews and focus groups were also in the mix for data collection processing too. Interviewing was used to gather information for clarity and the focus groups were the instructors and students of the Veterinary Technology program at CSCC.  The instructor (Appendix A) and the student (Appendix B) had their own surveys to take and the results are listed in Appendix C (Instructor’s survey results) and Appendix D (Student’s survey results).

Data Results and Findings

The goal of this chapter was to see if the change from quarters to semesters has changed how students learn with technology. In the first part of the results of the instructor’s survey, open-ended questions displayed good results for the use of technology.  Most of the instructor’s taught their courses with some type of technology:  PowerPoint presentations, recorded lectures, Study Mate review games, and clicker technology.  One instructor went on to say,

‘With the college converting to the semester system and the mandate from the state to reduce contact hours, the program has changed to putting most of the lectures on a educational application called Blackboard.  This was by instructor choice until just recently when the college recommended that all lectures be put “on-line”.’

During the conversion each instructor redesigned the courses improving on the curriculum, implementing the distant learning format, and instituting new technology, such as, Respondus, Camtasia, and Soft Chalk. Each instructor poured their hearts into developing a better flow for the students to learn from within the new requirements set up by the governing authorities for virtual classroom.  Currently, everyone is continuing to teach with the same technologies as before with some additional learning objects and implementing cooperative learning within the course.  When asked do they see a change in how students are learning since the change from quarters to semesters, there is mixed feelings on this particular subject.  Most of the instructor’s say students are learning.  One instructor in particular noted,

‘Yes, they are learning more via the distance and hybrid courses and less from the traditional classroom setting.  There is less teacher to student interaction and opportunities for questions in person.’

Some believe the students are experiencing some difficulty adjusting to the new length of the semesters. What has saved most students is the development of eight week terms within the 16 week semesters.  This proved extremely beneficial for the clinical applications courses where students engage in hands-on experiences for the technology.

In the first part of the results for the student’s survey, the students that participated were not in the Veterinary Technology program before the conversion. Since the conversion happened in 2012 and the program ranges from 2-3 years for completion, all of the students who took the survey were in other programs either at CSCC or OSU.  Most of the students used different types of technology before the conversion: YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Instagram, Dropbox, Microsoft Office, and Blackboard (their current computer system similar to OSU’s Carmen/Canvas).  After the conversion the students continued to use the technologies already mentioned with Study Mate thrown in the mix.  None of the students noticed any changes in course technologies since they were not in the program before the conversion.  What they did notice is that more information is crammed into a semester and a lot more classes are online now.   For those who answered yes to ‘technologies has changed courses taught after the conversion in the program’, they all mentioned that it is due to less personal contact between instructors and students;  less personal touch.

For the second part of the survey, closed-ended questions were used for the instructors and the students. They each were asked similar questions pertaining to technology after the conversion.  When asked if teaching technologies in the course have been effective and appropriate, both agreed that the technologies were appropriate but the students were undecided if the technologies were effective.  Both groups agreed that the class work required was appropriate for technologies used, but when asked if exams or other assessments measured the student’s learning/understanding, majority of the students agreed but the instructors were walking the fence between agree and disagree.  The instructors also were not sure if the technologies helped the students interact with each other and majority of the students disagreed with this statement too.  Overall, majority of the instructors believed that the conversion was successful but the majority of the students neither agreed nor disagreed.

For the third part of the survey, open-ended questions were used again for ‘What Worked Well’, ‘Even Better Yet’ and finally, ‘Reality Check: Would you return back to quarters?’.  First, for what worked well for both instructors and students was the use of Blackboard.  For instructors, they can utilize Blackboard for various learning applications and technologies such as, YouTube, Slide share, Quizlet, and Study Blue.  For students Blackboard worked well for them for quizzes, exams, and grades.  Where some of the students do miss the interaction of the instructor-student contact, most have adjusted to the online teaching methods and the further use of technologies:  Study Mate and grade access online.  Another area the instructors reported worked well was with online lectures/technology.  One instructor emphasized,

‘I think weekly assessment online with Respondus help to keep the student abreast of the material.  I like studymate games for larger review for like midterms and final exams.  I still believe there is a great deal of tech log out there that we are not utilizing that could help all students learn material in a [m]ore appropriate manner.

The use of mobile devices was also mentioned in discussions and one instructor went on to say the use of ‘mobile friendly application use of “flipped classroom” can be used so that students are ready to perform skills when they come to lab.’ However, one instructor in particular stressed this point,

 ‘Online lectures are a double edged sword.  They work well because students can repeatedly review information.  The[y] are a hindrance because the presentation is static.’

This is a valid point considered when structuring online lectures: not to long but very factual.

For students, besides the use of Blackboard working well for them, one student had concerns about time management due to classes being online. Another student stressed this point,

‘I can’t think of anything that has worked well, course wise, from the change to semesters.  I feel like the longer time with a teacher allows for a stronger bond and/or  understanding with the students.  They are spending more time and therefore becomes a little more comfortable in my opinion.  Getting new teachers every 16 weeks could be a good thing if you have a good teacher, but could also be bad if the instructor is bad.’

Having a “bad teacher” could change the dynamics of the course and the learning curve for the students involved.

Second, for suggestions for making the conversion even better yet, majority of the instructors would like to improve on what they already know. They also can dive into new material that will help the students learn more.  One suggestion was to take courses offered by the college to learn more about how to utilize current and new emerging technologies in their courses.  One instructor also stated they would like,

‘Weekly in class review time.  The blended courses are such that they are packed with information in the laboratory and not much time allotted for Q & A.’

One instructor would like all students to have an up-to-date computer that is compatible with technology expectations of the course. Another instructor would like more interactive games and more pre-lesson quizzes and one other instructor agreed with the their peer and stated,

‘Develop interactive labeling games with captivate for diagrams, procedures and anatomical review.  Develop interactive models that would allow student to simulate setting up an anesthesia machine.’

As for the students, there is mixed feelings about it all. Two are happy with semesters and one other would like the long 16 weeks semester shortened and less course work crammed into the semester.  As for the majority, they would like more hands-on experiences, face-to-face learning, easier access to instructors for questions, team work for laboratories, and more classroom time for courses.  Of course one student had no suggestions because they had no problems at all.

Finally, when asked would you like to go back to quarters, majority of the instructors said no. The two that said yes believe that the students would have less burn out and both instructors and students would experience less stress with quarters.  For the students, four of the six said yes to converting back to quarters.  They believe that the semesters are too long and that you lose the newness of the course as time goes by.  One student went into detail,

‘Quarters are nice because you were able to study new material, and experience new  classes within a year, more than you can with semesters.  16 weeks is too long of a time for one class, it is easy to get burnt out on material, and lose interest in something that you were actually interested in at the start.’

The other students also stated quarters were shorter, you could experience more classes in a year’s time, and there was better face-to-face access with instructors.

Would the change ever occur? The governing body of the University System of Ohio can answer that question.