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Restructured Course Improves Learning

Higher education continually needs to innovate to recruit and retain its students while making education accessible to more people. Sometimes this involves new programming, scholarships and other resources. Other times, it is reimagining curriculum and standards.

Dr. Brooke Whisenhunt, professor of psychologyat Missouri State University, shares how the intro to psychology course was restructured in 2012 to better educate students and improve learning outcomes.

It had 167 students in each of 18 sections – making it a lecture class with very little opportunity for feedback or other assessments. The pre- and post-tests proved that students were not succeeding in learning the material in the course.An interview with Dr. Brooke Whisenhunt

This motivated Missouri State, and especially members of the psychology department, to propose a major change. The team worked for a year and a half to reimagine the general education psychology course. And while Whisenhunt notes that you might think some of the changes seem counter-intuitive, they have seen major improvements.

Copyright 2021 KSMU. To see more, visit KSMU.

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Nicki received a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Business Administration from Missouri State in marketing, in 2002 and 2004 respectively. After gaining experience in writing, marketing, special event planning, fundraising and public relations, she returned to the university to work as the public relations specialist in the office of university communications. There she tells the university’s story by sharing the stories of individuals at Missouri State.