The National Center for Academic Transformation (NCAT), formerly housed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is an independent non-profit organization dedicated to the effective use of information technology to improve student learning outcomes and reduce the cost of higher education. NCAT’s initial proof-of-concept, The Program in Course Redesign (PCR), involved 50,000 students (annually) at 30 diverse institutions and showed how technology can be used to achieve both quality enhancements and cost savings. The program focused on introductory courses, those that are crucial to student success and that most students take. Results showed improved student learning in 25 of the 30 projects, with the remaining 5 showing learning equivalent to traditional formats. Of the 24 that measured retention, 18 showed noticeable increases. All 30 institutions reduced their costs by 37% on average (ranging from 20% to 77%) and produced a collective annual savings of $3.1 million. Other qualitative outcomes included better student attitudes toward the subject matter and increased student satisfaction with the mode of instruction.

NCAT is now building on these promising results through a number of projects designed to scale the successes of the PCR using a transferable methodology. The Roadmap to Redesign initiative (funded by FIPSE) is partnering 20 new institutions with experienced PCR participants to streamline the course redesign methodology and introduce the ideas and practices from the PCR to additional institutions. NCAT has also partnered with Lumina Foundation for Education to examine the results of the PCR to determine which course redesign techniques were particularly effective in improving learning for underserved students— students of color, low-income students and adult students. In July, NCAT will issue a monograph detailing these results and techniques, featuring 15 institutions that were able to increase the performance of traditionally underserved students using NCAT’s course redesign methodology. More information on this effort can be found later in this publication.

Since NCAT has been able to show how to create better learning environments more cost effectively, its goal now is to significantly increase the number of

Continued on page 3