Use of InTeGrate Materials to Engage Instructors and Encourage Curriculum Change in the El Paso Higher Education Community

Abstract

Over the past 5 years, the El Paso Higher Education Community implemented InTeGrate-based teaching materials to promote curricular and pedagogical change and alignment of courses between institutions. We introduced InTeGrate materials through a series of hands-on workshops, one-on-one consultations, and classroom observations. InTeGrate materials have reached over 3400 students from freshman to graduate level. Materials are predominantly used in face-to-face courses and laboratories, but 30–40% of online introductory courses also use the materials. Many senior instructors (>5 years teaching experience) were far less likely to adopt InTeGrate materials, citing lack of time, difficulty in using the active learning-based materials in large lecture sections, or misalignment of material with their courses. Over half the instructors using InTeGrate materials have been teaching assistants for Physical Geology laboratories at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). The success in the adoption of InTeGrate materials in these introductory laboratories indicates the optimum way to reach the most students at UTEP is through their use in a laboratory setting. Material adoption across the community has been slow, but a core group of ~12 instructors use the materials on a regular basis and ~5 new instructors try the materials each fall semester.