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Preliminary Results of Recent Deadline Changes
As we reported in the Fall 2004 issue of the L&S Gazette, after extensive consultation and debate, the deadlines for undergraduates to add and drop courses and to change their grading option were adjusted effective fall 2005. The changes were designed to accomplish two goals:
- To use scarce teaching resources in the most efficient way possible by eliminating empty seats caused by students dropping a course at a point in the term when other students could not add the course. This goal was especially evident in a small set of Early Drop Deadline (EDD) courses.
- To enable instruction to settle down at an earlier point in the term, thus improving the classroom experience for both instructors and students.
Robert Holub, Dean of the Undergraduate Division in the College of Letters & Science, has just released a preliminary report summarizing the effects of the changed deadlines, based on data and analysis provided by both central campus and college sources. A full discussion of the findings can be found in Dean Holub’s report, whose main conclusions include the following:
- Efficiency (measured by dividing the enrollment at the end of the course by the number of seats in the course) in the EDD courses was quite high, reaching above 80% for most courses and above 90% in some cases.
- Gateway courses (i.e. courses required by two or more majors) were also more fully enrolled than they had been in the past.
- There was a slight drop in units attempted in fall 2005 as compared with the previous fall, but an increase in units completed. An increase in units completed, if the trend persists, can only lead to an improvement in time to degree.
- Fewer students dropped courses in fall 2005 than in fall 2004, and fewer of the students who did drop courses dropped multiple courses.
- Fewer students dropped reading and composition courses, gateway courses, and lower-division courses in general. This suggests that students were choosing more wisely and sticking to those courses that are most necessary for student progress.
- There were no apparent detrimental effects on the workload of advising staff.
- No adverse effects on student performance could be discovered: there were more A’s and fewer D’s and F’s in fall 2005 than in fall 2004, and there were fewer students on probation or subject to dismissal in fall 2005 as well.
The data also brought to light the fact that most of the undergraduates in Letters & Science were not affected by the change in drop deadline at all: in fall 2005 only 13% of L&S students dropped courses after census (compared with 18% the previous fall).
These preliminary findings suggest that the changed deadlines are indeed leading to the desired goals of increased access to courses and the ability of students and faculty to focus on the business of learning and teaching earlier in the term. The increased capacity in impacted and gateway courses in particular is expected to be of financial and educational benefit to students who can least afford to stay at Cal an extra semester, or attend summer school to take courses that were not accessible during the academic year.
Further analysis will be completed as spring 2006 data become available.
-Alix Schwartz, Director of Academic Planning
Spring 2006
