{"id":40111,"date":"2016-07-11T11:35:53","date_gmt":"2016-07-11T15:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=40111"},"modified":"2019-01-25T14:10:30","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T19:10:30","slug":"supercourses-offer-students-flexibility-without-compromising-on-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2016\/07\/supercourses-offer-students-flexibility-without-compromising-on-knowledge\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercourses offer students flexibility without compromising on knowledge retention"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zanab Jafry Shah accelerated towards her degree this spring, completing three supercourses in three weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou live it, you breathe it and you do learn it,\u201d said the third-year medical science student at Brock University.<\/p>\n

She earned one and a half credits in three weeks \u2013 taking intensive week-long \u201csupercourses\u201d each worth half a credit over three consecutive weeks.<\/p>\n

The format was extremely beneficial to learning.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt really is a semester\u2019s worth of work put into a week,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Jafry Shah said being able to take the accelerated courses was convenient and has put her in a good position for next semester.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw this as a really good opportunity to lessen my workload in the coming school year,\u201d she said. \u201cThe format was extremely beneficial to learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Offering accelerated courses allows more flexibility for students and can make getting a degree quicker and more accessible for some.<\/p>\n

Professors Brent Faught and Madelyn Law, from the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, brought accelerated courses to Brock in 2010 with two spring offerings. Now, there are more than 40 supercourses available to students.<\/p>\n

In the first year, the success rate was 100%.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one failed and no one dropped out,\u201d Law said.<\/p>\n

But, there were questions about the new teaching method.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was some constructive criticism by faculty \u2013 their biggest question was about knowledge retention,\u201d Faught said.<\/p>\n

The pair set out to find out how much information students were learning and retaining in the accelerated format, which can range from one to two weeks depending on the class.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tested it. There is no difference in knowledge retention after three months, six months and 12 months,\u201d Faught said.<\/p>\n

He said their research also indicated that no significant difference exists in the final class average when comparing traditional versus accelerated courses.<\/p>\n

The study examined 270 participating first- and fourth-year students at Brock who were enrolled in either a traditional or accelerated course format during the 2013-2014 academic year. One day in the accelerated course covered approximately two weeks’ worth of material in the traditional format.<\/p>\n

All of the class content and evaluation criteria, along with the instructors, were the same.<\/p>\n

When the course was finished, students were quizzed three, six and 12 months later to test their knowledge retention.<\/p>\n

Law and Faught, along with student Michelle Zahradnik, recently released their research through the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario with their paper \u201cHow much do students remember over time? Longitudinal knowledge retention in traditional versus accelerated learning environments.\u201d<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Now that the question of whether accelerated courses are effective learning tools has been answered, Law and Faught said post-secondary institutions should continue developing courses to meet student needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on this research, Brock\u2019s commitment to offering a diversity of pedagogic methods will continue,\u201d said Anna Lathrop, Vice Provost, Teaching, Learning and Student Success.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe anticipate that the University will continue to prioritize flexible teaching and learning strategies in our next Strategic Mandate Agreement. It\u2019s another way to put students first.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said Brock has embraced the accelerated format because it offers students more flexibility as they balance work, life and study.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Spring Summer survey conducted with students over the last two years indicates that it is what students want and it works,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zanab Jafry Shah accelerated towards her degree this spring, completing three supercourses in three weeks.
\n\u201cYou live it, you breathe it and you do learn it,\u201d said the third-year medical science student at Brock University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":40112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,3319,4052,1,4665],"tags":[3461,28,4283,2052,3086,4284,4282],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40111"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40111"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40115,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40111\/revisions\/40115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}