At UM-Western, students can take it one at a time

[NOTE: MEA-MFT proudly represents the faculty working hard at the University of Montana-Western to make a difference in higher education, in fact, a unique difference.]


By PERRY BACKUS of the Missoulian - January 28, 2007
DILLON - Several years ago, Steve Mock attended one of those meetings of the mind where university types sit down and talk about all sorts of new and exciting ways to teach college-level courses.

As a chemistry professor at the University of Montana-Western in Dillon, he listened intently to a variety of innovations, including a virtual chemistry lab where students could perform experiments on their computer screen.

And then it was Mock's turn.

Over the next few minutes, he dutifully described Western's decision to take a radically different course. Traditionally, college students take four or five classes each semester. Western's plan was to offer students the chance to focus on one at a time.

The semester would be split into four 18-day blocks. Students would take one class per block, with class sessions of about three hours per day.

“I was met with stunned silence,” Mock said. “None of them believed it.”

After a few moments of contemplation, someone in the crowd finally spoke: “Has your faculty revolted yet?”

Montana's smallest university is turning tradition on its ear.

Western is the first - and so far only - public school in the nation where university students can focus on a single subject.

On a recent Monday, Taylor Stipe, a senior from Charlo, was carefully recording data during a laboratory experiment to synthesize the chemical compound found in insect repellants for Mock's organic chemistry class.

Peering out from protective goggles, Stipe said she started her studies in Missoula and then transferred to Western. She's taken classes under both formats.

“The block system has worked really quite well for me,” Stipe said. “I like the fact that you focus on one subject. I'm not distracted about having to worry about a test coming up in another class or finding time to study for a different subject.”

“My grades have improved because of it,” she said.

Classmate Mike Hynes of Missoula wanted to go to a smaller school when he graduated from Big Sky High.

“My wife's brother encouraged her to (attend) school here,” Hynes said. “I was madly in love and I would have followed her anywhere. ... I'm happy that's what we did. I love the block.”

Hynes said he likes the flexibility of the schedule. He can take one of the 18-day blocks off to focus on writing his thesis or to work in the laboratory.

“I wasn't a great student in high school,” he said. “The block helps me focus and I think I retain the material better.”

Mock - a 16-year veteran at UM-Western - has heard it before.

“One of the biggest things that I noticed was attendance in our lower-level classes,” Mock said. “Attendance in those classes is nearly 100 percent.”

Mock thinks there are several different reasons for that.

The first is fear, he said. If a student misses one day out of 18, there is a lot material that needs to be made up. Conversely, students only have one teacher to deal with to collect make-up work when they miss a class.

Class sizes at Western are also relatively small. The largest classes have about 25 or 30 students.

“There's no place to hide,” Mock said.

And finally, students don't have to choose between one class or another.

“Making decisions on whether to skip a class to write a history paper or to cram for an upcoming test isn't an issue for them,” Mock said. “They can focus on whatever class they're taking. They eat it, breathe it and sleep it.

“This isn't rocket science,” he said. “It's really all about focus. It's not magic.”

Mock's students today take the same tests others took before the block system was implemented. Under Experience One, as the schedule is called, students' grades have improved.

“The question of do we cover the same amount of material really misses the point,” Mock said. “I think most of us do cover the same material in our classes, but what's more important is what our students learn.

“By focusing their attention on one subject, they get so much more out of it that the end result is superior,” he said.

The idea of offering one class at a time isn't new. A handful of private universities have successfully offered the plan for years, but no one was sure if it could work at a public school.

In 2003, the federal Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education offered Western a $400,000 grant to see if that type of class scheduling could work in a public school.

Western started slow. The first year, 75 freshmen participated in a pilot program. That group included both traditional and nontraditional students. At the end of the first semester, nearly every one of the group signed a petition asking the school to continue offering the program.

Western is now in the middle of its second year of offering Experience One to its entire student body.

So far, the results have been encouraging. Student body numbers are growing. More freshmen are being retained. Grades are improving. Absenteeism is dropping.

“This really isn't an experiment any more,” said UM-W admissions director Catherine Redhead. “It's really a success.”

That's a far cry from the challenges facing Western just a few years ago.

The Dillon campus was established in 1893 as the state's normal school to train teachers. For years, that remained its primary mission. At the same time, other universities also began offering education degrees.

Western diversified and began offering a variety of degree paths, but decreases in state funding, competition and difficulties retaining freshmen were impacting the bottom line.

The school had already survived a number of statewide attempts to close its doors for good. Its boosters were nervous.

“Our retention of freshmen back then was among the lowest, both in the state and in the nation,” Mock said. “Under the old system, many of us didn't feel like we were serving our students very well. Many of us were fearful for our future.”

When the idea of radically changing the way classes are taught at Western first started circulating around campus and the town of Dillon, there was plenty of apprehension in both camps.

“We were all nervous about Western back then,” remembered Tom Welch, president of Pioneer Federal Savings and Loan in Dillon. “Many of us realized the college was stagnating, but this was such a big change and no one knew if it would work. It was right on the cutting edge. For the most part, I think the townspeople were opposed to it. There just wasn't a lot of support.”

That's certainly changed now, he said.

“I don't think there's any opposition now,” Welch said. “The numbers are up and there's stability. Things seem to be going very well, and that's really important for this community.”

UM-Western Chancellor Dick Storey spent 25 years working at one of the few private colleges using the one-class-at-a-time model - Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colo. Western's decision to pursue the same model - along with the opportunity to fish the nearby Beaverhead and Big Hole rivers - helped bring him to Dillon.

Storey is a believer.

“We know it's not for everybody,” Storey said. “We've probably lost a few professors who didn't want to teach under the program, and we've probably lost a few students as well.

“But those who do like it really thrive,” he said.

Word is getting out about Western's unique niche in the competitive market of higher education.

“Western has never been stronger academically or been more solid financially in its history than it is right now,” Storey said. “Experience One has done the kinds of things that people here once just dreamt about.”

“We have enough now to silence the critics and to make it essentially impossible for anyone to make another run on Western,” Storey said. “I think it would be extremely awkward for someone to try, but if they do, I have a quite a few arrows in my quiver now.”