The Future of Education

Increasing space limitations, budget constraints, and competition for enrollments have placed pressure on institutions to innovate with instructional delivery methods. Many institutions have turned toward compressed or accelerated terms as one approach to addressing these problems [1]. These shortened terms promise to deliver equivalent instruction in eight weeks, six weeks, or even three weeks. While perhaps mitigating some institutional challenges, compressed and accelerated terms raise new challenges for faculty who are adapting course content or developing new course content within these shortened timeframes. What are the challenges—and opportunities—facing educators across disciplines as they design courses for compressed and accelerated terms? Such challenges and opportunities might be exacerbated within particular disciplines, course levels, and modes of assessment. Moreover, several pedagogical practices that have been identified as high impact for student graduation rates, quality of education, and learning outcomes pose unique complexities in compressed- and accelerated-term formats. These include practices that often seem to require longer-term investments, such as writing, collaborative learning, community-based learning, diversity/global learning, and undergraduate research [2]. How might educators across disciplines most effectively integrate these high-impact practices into compressed or accelerated terms? This presentation will address the structural landscapes around accelerated and compressed terms, review the scholarly literature about teaching and learning in compressed and accelerated terms, and identify the challenges and opportunities associated with these formats of instructional delivery. Emphasis will be placed on effective pedagogical strategies for course design, from a cross-disciplinary perspective, and strategies for integrating high-impact practices into these compressed or accelerated terms.

Keywords: Compressed Terms; Accelerated Terms; Pedagogy; High-Impact Practices;

References:
[1] Anderson, T. I., & Anderson, R. J. (2012). Time compressed delivery for quantitative college courses: The key to student success. Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, 16(S1), 55-62.
[2] Kuh, G. D. (2008). High-impact educational practices: What they are, who has access to them, and why they matter. Washington, DC: AAC&U. Retrieved from http://www.neasc.org/downloads/aacu_high_impact_2008_final.pdf