By Mark Muckenfuss

A new grant will allow researchers in CSU Monterey Bay’s Kinesiology Department to analyze whether increased time with an instructor outside of the classroom will improve student performance.

California State University's Creating Respon​sive, Equitable, Active Teaching and Engagement (CREATE) Awards Program recently announced that professors Trish Sevene and Eric Martin would receive $150,000 to conduct a one-year study measuring the impact of having students meet regularly in small groups with their anatomy and physiology instructor.

“We really were surprised,” Sevene said of the award. “I thought it was a long shot.”

The study will look at rates of poor performance and determine if more personal time with an instructor improves those rates. CREATE administrators, Sevene said, told her and Martin that they liked the idea of the study, particularly because it had a measurable outcome. 

Sevene said that grades of D, F and W (withdrawal) for Anatomy and Physiology 1 and 2 had typically been between 15% and 20% prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, when online learning was mandated, those rates rocketed to nearly 40%. The courses are a requirement for kinesiology and biology majors. 

“Even when we came back to face-to-face learning,” Sevene said, “the numbers did not drop significantly.”

For Fall 2022, the rates ranged from 41% to 46%. Sevene thinks the separation experienced by students during California’s lockdown and subsequent months of social distancing is key. Students, she said, became disengaged during the pandemic. It did not improve when they returned to campus.

“Coming back in Fall 2022, they were completely shell-shocked,” she said. “I’m hoping they’re getting back into the groove.”

To help with that, this fall semester students will be asked to take an additional unit of the course, which will consist of the extra meeting time. As an incentive, those who do will have their textbooks paid for, which is where most of the grant money will be spent, Sevene said. The remainder will be used to lessen her academic load so she has the time to meet with the students. She expects to work with about 280 students over the course of the year. 

Figures will be analyzed after Spring 2024 to determine if the strategy was effective. 

“The hope is that there is significant improvement and we can go to our administration and see if we can get the funding maintained,” Sevene said. 

“We’re super proud of getting the award,” she added. “We’re hoping it makes the difference we think it can.”