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The Experience One story proves that dramatic and effective change is possible in higher education.

In the mid-nineties, Montana Western needed to change or close. Enrollment had
dipped into the 900s. The situation was urgent.

A group of faculty, aware of Colorado College’s success with the block schedule, where
students take one course at a time, began to pursue this possibility for UMW. Their interest
was driven by "the block" as an opportunity for sustained field-work and experiential learning.
Changing the entire curriculum was not an easy process. It took ten years of dogged
persistence to overcome the skepticism on campus, in the community, and at the state level.

Once the Board of Regents approved this grand experiment, more hard work was required.
Administrators and staff met for hours every morning to tackle the logistics involved in
transforming every single aspect of a tradition-bound institution. (UMW was founded in 1893
as Montana’s Normal School.)

The results have been impressive. Experience One, experiential learning one course at a time,
works. Students take one four-credit course for 18 days, either in the morning or afternoon,
with a four-day break before starting the next course. The semester consists of four courses
totaling 16 credits.

Montana Western now boasts twelve years of increasing levels of student success. A
combination of small class sizes and engaged and active learning for concentrated blocks of
time creates a unique teaching and learning experience. Our student success metrics have
dramatically improved and are frequently the best in the Montana University System, rivaling
those of private colleges in our state.

Perhaps most impressive is the fact that this model works for students who typically struggle
to complete a college education. Our students are, on average, 70% Pell eligible, TRiO eligible,
and/or first generation. Our TRiO students achieve an 83% persistence rate and a six-year
51% graduation rate.

We find ourselves now in both an enviable and challenging position. In a higher education
environment searching for answers, our story is compelling. We innovated. We are markedly
different from our peers. Our students are succeeding.
Innovation and Student Success: The "Experience One" Program,
Only at the University of Montana Western
We believe that what we are doing could work for others. At this point, though, we can barely
afford to share our story. We receive frequent requests to help others explore this successful
model, but have to tell them that we implemented this on a shoe string, with the lowest
tuition and lowest state allocation per student in Montana, that the transformation is not a
simple process, and that we are too thinly staffed to be able to devote the necessary resources
to assist and mentor others.

We believe that we have developed a model that could be of great value to students across
our nation and beyond. We believe that our model could, for example, improve the success
rates of students at our tribal colleges. Montana Western is the only public university in the
United States engaged in this innovative educational delivery model and we have a 12-year
track record of extraordinary results.

We are seeking funds to support the creation of an Experience One Institute. The mission
would be to research why Experience One works, build on what we are currently doing, and
create opportunities for others to explore the potential of the model. We hope that you will
explore with us the opportunity to fulfill the promise of Experience One.

Beth Weatherby,
Chancellor of the University of Montana Western

[email protected]

406.683.7151

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