Summer Conference 2003

1
Summer Conference 2003

• Stephen T. Holmes, Ph.D.
• Raymond Surette, Ph.D.Criminal Justice and Legal
  Studies

2
1. The Problem

• For years there has been a disconnect between
  instructors teaching different levels of the same
  course.
• Graduate and undergraduate syllabi may cover the
  same topic areas for example.
• This is particularly a problem with courses that
  cover historical developments and events.

Professor A
Professor B
Requisite Content
Under-Graduate
Graduate
3
Problem continued

• The result of this problem is an unacceptable
  amount of overlap between the undergraduate and
  graduate curriculum (assigning the same books for
  both levels for example).
• And a general lack of articulation for students
  going from the undergraduate version of a course
  into the graduate versions.
• In the worse case scenario, undergrad courses can
  be more in-depth and demanding than their
  graduate counterparts.

4
2. The Purpose

• The purpose of this project is to bridge this
  divide.
• To develop a seamless curriculum by bridging the
  material between professors across levels for one
  specific substantive area.
• To develop, in essence, one course with one
  knowledge base that runs from the undergraduate
  to graduate level.

5
Three Objectives

• Coordinate the undergraduate and graduate
  Origins of Criminal Justice courses.
• Take existing undergraduate course and make it a
  fully deliverable web based course.
• Design complimentary graduate course that
  eventually will also be fully deliverable on the
  web.

6
3. Curriculum Changes Required Traditional
Classroom

• Professors will arrange their courses on one
  master syllabus
• Books and discussion topics will be coordinated
• And professors will be cross-trained to teach
  either course in any given semester

7
Curriculum changes continued

• Undergraduate course will be developed along a
  criminal justice system components approach
  police, courts, and corrections and the
  development of the role of the state in social
  control.
• Undergraduate students will be given a foundation
  of the basic facts about the major trends and
  events.

8
Curriculum Changes continued

• Graduate course will be developed along
  conceptual models (for example, family versus
  factory models) that can be used to critically
  analyze major criminal justice trends and events.
• Graduate students will be given the skills to be
  lower-case criminal justice historians and
  directed to primary source materials and
  historically based research projects.

9
Curriculum Changes continued

• Thus, the facts from the undergraduate course
  will be utilized to plan and conduct research in
  the graduate course.

10
Curriculum Changes Web Versions

• Webct sections will be developed so that
  students can share ideas across classrooms and
  levels.
• Lectures from both classes will be available to
  all students

11
Curriculum Changes Web Versions continued

• Discussion questions will be designed for both
  professors and students from each class to read
  and comment on

12
Curriculum Changes

• Professors are currently working together to plan
  the undergraduate Origins course
• Next step will be to co-develop the graduate
  section.

13
Curriculum Changes continued

• Graduate students will be assigned as team
  leaders/mentors to groups of undergraduates to
  develop research projects.

14
Curriculum Changes continued

• Combined graduate/under-graduate project
  presentations will be developed and delivered to
  both graduate and undergraduate students.

15
4. Assessing Outcomes

• Outcomes will be assessed to determine the
  effects of the interaction between graduate and
  undergraduate students.
• A survey instrument will be developed and
  administered to measure if course integration was
  a positive experience for students at both the
  graduate and undergraduate levels.

16
Assessing Outcomes continued

• Employing the University teacher/course
  evaluation process, student assessments of the
  traditional and web-based versions of the courses
  will be compared.

17
5. Future Plans

• 1. Develop undergraduate classroom version.
• 2. Simultaneously develop web-based
  undergraduate course and classroom graduate
  versions.
• 3. Develop web-based graduate version.
• 4. Deliver final Report to FCTL

18
Future Plans

• As a demonstration project, it is hoped that
  other faculty in the department will work to
  coordinate and link parallel undergraduate and
  graduate courses.