Lisa Coutu, a lecturer in the Department of Speech Communication, also wanted students to think on their own. But teaching an introductory course with up to 280 students and only one teaching assistant, she knew that even discussion sections were an impossibility. So she lectured five days a week.

“My evaluations were pretty good, but I was getting feedback from students that they wanted opportunities for discussion in small groups,” says Coutu, “and that just wasn’t possible.”

Lisa Coutu

During a collegium on large class instruction, offered by the UW Office of Undergraduate Education, Coutu heard dozens of good ideas about how to make things better in large classes. At the end of the retreat, George Bridges, associate dean of undergraduate education and associate vice provost, asked participants to make proposals for implementing something they had seen that weekend that inspired them. Coutu jumped at the chance.

“The folks from UWired had shown us what could be done with technology,” she recalls. “They had the tools and infrastructure to make student engagement of instruction online really easy. So I proposed using online exercises and discussion boards to encourage students to engage the material more actively.”

Based on Coutu’s proposal, the Office of Undergraduate Education funded two TAs for one quarter and provided a small stipend to help Coutu revise the course. “That was a huge gift,” she says. “It made me feel like the UW was supporting my efforts.”

Now Coutu’s introductory course meets four days each week. The fifth day is for students to complete assigned online exercises and discussions, which the TAs have been instrumental in designing and monitoring.

The exercises require students to apply concepts introduced in class. For example, after talking about ethos, pathos, and logos in class, the online exercise was to explain and apply those concepts to George W. Bush’s inauguration speech.

For the online discussion board, which Coutu describes as “sort of a virtual quiz section,” Coutu provides a question and requires that students discuss it online. She divides them into six groups with 40 students per group, with a TA monitoring each discussion.

“I give them guidelines about what constitutes a substantive answer and then I let them loose,” she says. “But they can’t just get on there, say what they think, and sign off. They have to evidence some knowledge of course concepts and they have to link their comments to what others have been saying and add to it. And they have to participate in each discussion board at least twice.”

Coutu has been impressed with the impact of the online assignments. “The students are really making an effort to link with each other and to learn from each other,” she says. “And I know students feel more engaged. They have commented about how much they have learned from doing this work online.”

While she was revising her course, Coutu figures she spent 40 hours per week on the class. Now her schedule is back to normal. “Setting this up was a huge amount of work,” admits Coutu, “but it was worth it. I’m no candidate for sainthood. I did this because it makes my life better. If I’m enjoying what I’m doing in the classroom and students are learning, then I’m doing my job well.”

And, Coutu emphasizes, she’s not alone. “A lot of faculty at the UW are putting in considerable time and effort to make students’ education richer,” she says. “I know people don’t always hear about their efforts. But the students know, and that’s what really matters.”

[Related Stories]

Gill Found His Own Voice--and a Talent for Teaching
When Political Science Professor Anthony Gill began teaching at the UW, his teaching evaluations were poor. But soon he found his own style and received a Distinguished Teaching Award in 1999.

Transforming the Curriculum to Reflect Diversity
Through the Curriculum Transformation Project, faculty and students work together to incorporate the study of race, class, gender, and ethnicity into UW courses.

[Winter/Spring 2001 - Table of Contents]