Abstract:
High enrollment university courses (500 or more) limit interaction between students and the instructor, with teaching targeted to the group rather than the individual. Smaller summer class sizes allow for the use of assignments that better target interaction and individuals. To take advantage of this, students enrolled in a summer introductory nutrition course were given a choice among four short projects in addition to the usual course load. Each project was designed to target different learning styles. They included accountability to both the students' peers in the classroom as well as to the instructor. It was hypothesized that the short project would increase motivation in the class and that students would feel the class better applied to their lives. The effect of the short project was evaluated through a qualitative post-semester survey as well as end-of-semester quantitative evaluations. The post-semester survey indicated that quality of the course, motivation, participation, internalizing of the project, thinking about it ahead of time, and value outside the course increased as a result of the short project design and implementation. End-of-semester course ratings suggested the short project contributed to improved attentiveness, development of new viewpoints, interest in the course, course quality and course content over the previous summer when no short project was required. It is recommended that a choice and learning style-based project be incorporated into future courses.
Keywords:
course quality, summer nutrition course, learning style
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