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Cornell University Arts & Sciences Active Learning Initiative

One way in which Cornell University has empowered departments to improve teaching and learning across dimensions of their undergraduate curriculum is through the Active Learning Initiative (ALI). ALI allows departments to submit proposals and receive grant funding from the institution to “encourage and facilitate high-impact learning practices, technology enhanced learning, and a culture of educational excellence at the departmental and college levels.” 

ALI’s initial efforts began five years ago with the conversion of four large course sequences in physics and biology, changes that have led to increased student learning gains, especially from students who had been receiving poor grades. Earlier in 2017, the university announced a $2.7 million expansion of the initiative, funded by a gift from two alumni.

One of the two donors, Alex Hanson, noted that donors and volunteers want to make a positive impact, and “Laura [the other donor] and I have been impressed with the game-changing quantitative and qualitative results so far [of the ALI],” he said. “The College has demonstrated both a large treatment effect and a statistically significant improvement.”

This second iteration involves six new projects in the Departments of Music, Classics, Economics, Mathematics, Physics, and Sociology. These new projects will impact thousands of students each year.

For example, the mathematics project will change how courses are taught that reach students at critical transition points in their mathematical development. Goals for the project include increasing student confidence in their own mathematical abilities and improving student perception of mathematics as an inquiry-based discipline. The physics project will focus on rethinking how labs work to develop students’ scientific reasoning, critical thinking, and experimentation skills.

According to Peter Lepage, Director of Education Innovation and Goldwin Smith Professor of Physics, “The projects chosen outline clear ideas that will improve student learning in ways that can be measured, and therefore propagated to other courses and departments. And they involve teams of faculty that will generate new energy and thought around pedagogy in the departments and the rest of the college.”