The UMBC English department’s composition course redesign was recently profiled by the Chronicle of Higher Education. “In an age when many educators are promoting active learning by “flipping” classrooms, instructors here are rotating them instead. In a novel twist, they are providing composition instruction in three distinct venues. Previously the classes, of 24 students each, met twice a week in a classroom for 75-minute sessions. The instruction was lecture-based, with time allotted for small-group activities. Now each section, of two dozen students, meets as a group only once a week. On the other day of class, a dozen students gather …