Rensselaer is making deep, fundamental changes in the way it thinks about instruction, changes that have a profound impact on student learning, Twigg says. What RPI has done, probably more than any other school, is institutionalize innovation. In my mind, the greatest change at Rensselaer in the last decade has been our heightened interest in understanding how students learn versus concentrating on the amount of information we transfer to them, says Gary Gabriele, vice provost for administration and dean of undergraduate education. Small groups of Rensselaer faculty began responding to a growing national awareness that students particularly those in engineering, technology, and the sciences were not always learning what they needed to know. The change started with the faculty but because it was encouraged and nurtured by administrators who were convinced of its value, it took hold.
Creative faculty backed by supportive administrators make a powerful combination.
Innovation has been followed by implementation. Today, close to half of all undergraduate courses are taught with new interactive methods. And learning is spilling out of the classroom as Web-based instructional tools and online materials allow students with required laptop computers to work seamlessly anywhere, anytime. We didn t do things on a small scale, Gabriele says. Studio courses in the sciences, for example, are typically divided into sections of about 40 to 50 students each.