A student-centered teaching method that won praise in the 1970s for its effectiveness in promoting mastery of material--but fell out of favor partly because it required too much administrative time by instructors--is being revived in a UD psychology course.

The difference this time is that computer technology is alleviating many of the labor-intensive aspects of the Keller Method, freeing up the professor and teaching assistants for more interaction with students, says Mark Stanton, associate professor of psychology.

With a grant from the University's Center for Teaching Effectiveness and technical help from The PRESENT, Stanton is using a special computer lab and WebCT course-management program to teach a section of a course on learning and motivation. He says the software takes care of tracking students' progress, and the lab enables students to take periodic tests and re-tests whenever they feel ready to do so.

Such self-paced learning and on-demand testing is a hallmark of the method, named for psychologist Fred Keller, who developed it in the 1960s and called it PSI, or Personalized System of Instruction. Students read a textbook on their own and, when they feel they have mastered a particular section, they take a test on it. If the test score shows they have learned the material, they move on to the next section. Otherwise, they study some more and take a different version of the test, without penalty. They can continue to take tests, supplemented by tutoring if necessary, until they demonstrate that they have mastered the entire text.

"There's a lot of evidence that the Keller Method is a more effective way to learn certain kinds of material than by the traditional lecture method, and students tend to work harder than in a traditional course and to do very well," Stanton says. "But, you need a lot of versions of each test, which is time-consuming, and it can be an administrative and bookkeeping nightmare to keep track of each student's progress."

Technology is solving those problems, he says.

In Stanton's class at UD, students take tests in a secure, monitored computer lab that is open every afternoon. Within minutes of completing the test, they receive a printout that gives them their score and feedback about any areas of weakness. If they choose, they can seek help immediately from undergraduate and graduate tutors who are standing by in a room next to the test-taking lab.

Once students have mastered each section of the textbook, Stanton says, they have earned a grade of C for the course and are eligible to sign up for small seminars in which he teaches advanced material. They can choose one or two seminars to earn a B or take part in three or more to earn an A.

"I call what I'm doing a Modified Keller Method because of these optional class activities," Stanton says. "It gives the students and me an opportunity to interact and cover some very sophisticated material. And, the students like being in control of what grade they earn by choosing how much additional work they'll do."

Stanton says he believes students learn much more by mastering the textbook on their own instead of listening to lectures that merely duplicate the material in the book. In contrast, he says, his time and that of his graduate teaching assistants now can be used more effectively in individual tutoring sessions and the intensive small-group work in the seminars.

"I'm using technology to teach students the facts and the basics that are covered in the text," Stanton says. "Then, I can use my time for things that you can't do on the web, such as the kinds of discussions we have in the seminars. By the time students come to the seminars, they're prepared with the basics, and I've been very impressed with how well they understand and can use the concepts they've learned."