PROPOSAL FOR FACULTY PROFESSIONAL LEAVE, SPRING 1996

                                                   Prof.  Bruce A. Beatie
                                             Department of Modem Languages

                                                   November 28, 1994


                                                     Major Objectives

                  I am requesting professional leave for Spring quarter, 1996; 1 plan not to teach during the
           Summer of 1996, so that I will have a good five months without teaching obligations.  For this period,
           I have two unrelated major objectives: one having to do with curricular design, one having to do with
           research.

                  Latin FLEX Course Design.

                  In 1991, Professor James and Dr. Jane Barthelmess developed the Latin FLEX program as an
           alternative to the regular first-year Latin sequence, modeling it on the TADS (Teacher-Assisted
           Directed Study) approach that I had been using in MLA 201: Etymologies for many years.  Under the
           FLEX program, students could begin their study of Latin in any quarter, rather than just in the Fall;
           they worked largely on their own without regularly-scheduled classes; and they could to some extent
           proceed at their own pace.  Its goals were to provide greater convenience for students and to maximize
           enrollment in the Latin program.

                  During its first two years, the FLEX program was taught by Dr. Jane Barthelmess, and was
           remarkably successful.  However, it was cost-effective @l because Dr. Barthelmess received only a
           one-course part-time salary, and gave the program far more time than she was paid for.  During 1992-
           1993, we decided to restructure the FLEX sequence as six two-credit courses rather than three four-
           credit courses, to improve its FLEXibility and to allow better self-pacing by students.

                  The new structure was implemented in the Fall of 1993; but in the meantime Prof.
           Barthelmess had retired and, with his wife, moved to Montana.  As the only faculty member with
           experience in the TADS mode and enough training in Latin, I took over the FLEX program.  What
           Dr. Barthelmess had done to make the program effective, however, was impossible for a faculty
           member teaching the course as part of a regular full-time teaching load; to give it the same amount of
           time and energy Dr. Barthelmess had, the FLEX program would have had to count as at least two
           courses per quarter, and therefore would be prohibitive in terms of cost-effectiveness.

                  To make the FLEX program cost-effective as a part of my regular teaching load, I changed its
           structure, decreasing the instructor-student contact time and increasing the dependence on self-study.
           But my experience in 1993-1994 and again in 1994-1995 has made clear that, in order to be
           successful, the FLEX program needs major restructuring, including some additional learning
           materials; I would like to give the course a computer-aided component, ideally one that is partially or
           fully interactive.

                  The first objective of my professional leave is therefore to locate and/or develop new
           learning materials for the Latin FLEX program based on the textbook used in the regular
           classroom sequence, including an interactive-computer component, and to design a syllabus
           making effective use of these materials.  For further details, see under Project Outline and EXDected
           Outcomes.