Spillover Effects: A Comparison of Course and Institutional Outcomes for Traditional and Intensive Introductory Biology

Dayna Jean DeFeo, Brett Jordan Watson, Sarah Gerken and Trang C. Tran

The Journal of Higher Education, 2025, vol. 96, issue 4, 568-595

Abstract: We explore the restructuring of a 2-semester introductory biology course into a 1-semester intensive by comparing 1,457 and 908 students who took the first and second courses in the sequence, respectively, to 1,231 who took the intensive. We report outcomes before and after the restructure, including outcomes in the focal course, in concurrently enrolled courses, in subsequent biology courses, and in university retention. Overall, students in intensive courses perform comparably to their peers who attended traditional-length courses in all outcomes, challenging notions that students prioritize intensive courses to the detriment of other classes. We find intensive courses have a positive impact on the overall number of classes students take. However, as we only study outcomes observable in institutional databases, other potential non-academic spillover effects merit further inquiry.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/00221546.2024.2369041

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