Liberal Education and America's Promise

LEAP Campus Action Network Workshops and Breakfast Forums

Campus Action Network Workshops
LEAP Campus Action Network (CAN) workshops are organized around the topic of each Network for Academic Renewal (NAR) conference. These invitational workshops are designed to give CAN leaders information about the LEAP initiative and relate it the specific campus work in which they are engaged. The workshops draw on the promising practices of LEAP CAN partners that use LEAP resources as a framework to strengthen their campus efforts and feature exemplary policies and practices that advance the goals of liberal education. These workshops offer participants interactive discussion and exercises designed to produce strategies for action.

Campus Action Network Breakfast Forums
LEAP breakfast forums are held every year in conjunction with AAC&U’s annual meetings and feature several institutions engaged in LEAP work. The forums explore and include discussion about how CAN institutions can take advantage of LEAP partnership and work to advance educational change on campus.

Invitations for these workshops and forums are specifically sent to CAN members who are attending the topic-specific Network conference or Annual Meeting and to CAN members in the region of these conferences. However, all CAN members may enjoy this resource. If you are interested in attending a workshop or presenting at one, please contact Nakia Bell at bell@aacu.org or 202-884-7407.

Current LEAP Workshop and Forum Activities

LEAP CAN Workshop on General Education
February 18, 2010 | Seattle, WA
This workshop will focus on sustaining the innovative work around general education and assessment.

LEAP CAN Workshop on Faculty Roles
March 25, 2010 | Philadelphia, PA
More details about this workshop will be posted shortly.

Upcoming LEAP Campus Action Network workshops will be held at these Network for Academic Renewal Conferences:

Facing the Divides: Diversity, Learning, and Pathways to Inclusive Excellence
Houston, Texas—October 21-23, 2010

Creativity, Inquiry, and Discovery: Undergraduate Research In and Across the Disciplines
Durham, North Carolina—November 11-13 , 2010

Past LEAP CAN Workshop and Forum Highlights

2010 Breakfast Forum
AAC&U 2010 Annual Meeting
Washington, DC | January 23, 2010
This forum featured campus examples from Amanda Bernal-Carlo, Acting associate dean, Faculty Development and Curriculum, Hostos Community College (CUNY); Shila Garg, interim provost and William F. Harn professor of Physics, College of Wooster; Barry Falk, Honors Program director and professor of Economics, James Madison University; and Debra David, associate dean, Undergraduate Studies, San José State University.

Hostos Community College embarked on an ambitious initiative that incorporates general education revitalization and the LEAP initiative. Special emphasis is placed on “practical experience” and “applied learning," as well as “service learning practices” that will help students to become “intentional learners.” Several resulting initiatives reflect the infusion of LEAP essential learning outcomes, principles of excellence, and VALUE model rubrics across the curriculum.

At College of Wooster, faculty and students are co learners, collaborating in liberal inquiry. The faculty's commitment to excellence in teaching is nationally recognized for enabling students to realize their full potential as engaged scholars. Wooster embraces unique pedagogical principles that research and teaching are integrated forms of inquiry, and that faculty and students share a common purpose in their pursuits of knowledge, insight, and creative expression. Students engage in active inquiry in all disciplines, starting at a very early stage and culminating with the Senior Independent Study. An opportunity to develop intellectual and practical skills under expert faculty mentoring through the four years help students achieve several of the learning outcomes recommended by the LEAP report, College Learning for the New Global Century. Handout (PDF)

James Madison University’s Honors Program is in the initial stages of the development of a multi track curriculum for its honors students to increase customized student engagement. By the end of their freshman year, honors students will select one track from a set that is likely to include research, leadership, service, international study, and possibly others. The second year will include an introductory seminar and a mentored experience. The mentored experience will continue into the first semester of the third year and transition into a three-semester capstone honors project.

San José State University (SJSU) is partnering with a local community college, Evergreen Valley College (EVC), to create a “Transfer Year Experience” that combines an English composition course in the last semester before transfer with peer mentoring by SJSU students, advising, and co curricular activities both before and after transfer. The composition course focuses on liberal education themes through critical readings and writing assignments, including a service-learning component that pairs EVC students and elementary school students as “writing partners.” Handout (PDF)

Integrative Learning Workshop
Conference: Integrative Learning: Addressing the Complexities
Atlanta, GA
October 24, 2009
This workshop explored using the LEAP framework to create and sustain learning environments that develop students’ integrative capacities over time through the application of knowledge and skills to new settings and complex problems. The workshop included presentations from Adrienne Bloss,associate dean for Academic Affairs and General Education, Roanoke College; Michele Cuomo, assistant dean for Academic Affairs, CUNY Queensborough Community College; and Tanya Augsburg, assistant professor of Liberal Studies and Maggie Beers, director of Academic Technology—both of San Francisco State University.

Roanoke College's collaborative teaching grant (CTG) is awarded to faculty that seek to incorporate integrative classroom experiences, such as co teaching, linked courses, course clusters, or integrated lectures series. CTG is part of a larger FIPSE grant awarded to Roanoke College called "Preparing Faculty for Creating Integrative Learning Experiences". This project is designed to foster faculty development in interdisciplinary work. Other initiatives under the FIPSE project include faculty retreats and workshops, and e-portfolios (assessment).

Queensborough Community College's Freshman Academies are open to all first-year, full-time students. There are six academies related to the program of study. Each program is based on high-impact practices, called high-impact institutional strategies, such as cornerstone courses, e-portfolios, service learning, learning communities, and writing-intensive courses. The goals of the academy are to coordinate the student life and academic experience, improve persistence and graduation rates, build student commitment to lifelong learning, and ensure that students understand the importance of the student learning outcomes and developing integrated knowledge.

San Francisco State University (SFSU) is part of AAC&U’s Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education (VALUE) project. Specifically, SFSU has developed strategies to successfully use the VALUE project metarubrics in conjunction with e-portfolios to assess integrative learning experiences. Thus, SFSU was able to identify and link course, program, and university learning objectives.

Personal and Social Responsibilities Workshop
Conference: Educating for Personal and Social Responsibility: Deepening Student and Campus Commitment
Minneapolis, MN
October 1, 2009
Conversations centered on curricular and co curricular designs and pedagogies that foster personal and social responsibility in students and that use the LEAP framework to move this work to the center of institutional culture and academic practice. The workshop included presentations from Chelle Lyons-Hanson, assistant dean of Leadership Service, Concordia College-Moorhead; Amy Spring, assistant director of Community University Partnerships, Portland State University; and Vicki Englich, community liaison, Winona State University.

LeadNow, at Concordia College-Moorhead, is a leadership development program that challenges students to be productive citizens in the classroom, on campus, and in the community. The program features three sessions that are centered on honing in on strengths, working within a group, and impacting the global community. Students receive certification in personal perspectives, group perspectives, and global perspectives, which they can take with them as they progress in their academic and future careers.

Keeping with Portland State University’s commitment to “let knowledge serve,” the community-university partnerships provide an outlet for students, faculty, and community partners to address the pressing issues. These community-based learning and civic engagement opportunities come in different formats, such as research opportunities, service-learning courses, internships, senior capstones, etc. The Portland State University community-university partnerships serve as a national example of how institutions of higher education can effectively engage the campus in community service.

Faculty Workshop
Conference: Shaping Faculty Roles in a Time of Change
San Diego, California
April 2, 2009
Discussions centered on preparing faculty for academic leadership and institutional citizenship by enacting the LEAP vision. This workshop was set in the context of creating and sustaining structures and policies that support faculty in enacting the LEAP vision. The workshop included a presentation from Lou Matz, associate dean of General Education at the University of the Pacific (Pacific Seminars).
Workshop Handout (pdf)

University of the Pacific’s general education program consists of breadth program requirements, fundamental skills requirements, and a seminar series (Pacific Seminars), which fosters integrative learning and enables students to learn about topics beyond their discipline.
View the video about the University of the Pacific Pacific Seminars.

General Education Workshop
Conference: General Education and Assessment
Baltimore, Maryland
February 26, 2009
Conversations centered on faculty buy-in, state system-level participation, and starting and maintaining redesign efforts.This workshop was set in the context of remapping general education and three campus examples were highlighted. The workshop included presentations from Lisa Maxfield, general education coordinator at California State University-Long Beach; John M. Burney, associate provost for Curriculum, Faculty Development, and Assessment at Drake University; and Rita C. Kean, dean of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Workshop Handouts (pdf)

General education courses at California State University-Long Beach are related to learning outcomes that will help students develop the skills necessary for a twenty-first-century education. The program links general education to the major and empowers students to be responsible for the quality of their education.

Based on a larger commitment to build an exceptional learning environment for its students, Drake University’s curriculum draws on five objectives: (1) enhance the integration of liberal and professional education with a strong focus on reflective practice, ethics, and leadership; (2) focus the curriculum on achieving mission learning outcomes, with a strong focus on interdisciplinary and engaged citizenship competencies; (3) create and enhance global and interdisciplinary learning opportunities—including learning opportunities that bridge professional divides—for both undergraduate and graduate students; (4) expand collaborative, experiential, and international learning for students, faculty, and staff; and (5) strengthen the integration of academic and cocurricular experiences.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Achievement-Centered Education (ACE) program is an outcomes-based general education program that spans all eight undergraduate colleges at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Components include integrative learning, faculty development and assessment tools, and interdisciplinary foci.

2009 Breakfast Forum
AAC&U 2009 Annual Meeting
Seattle, Washington
January 24, 2009
This forum featured campus examples from Sukhwant Jhaj, director of University Studies at Portland State University; Susan Nuernberg, chancellor's assistant for Strategic Planning and Office Communications at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh; and James Sloat, associate dean for Assessment and New Initiatives at Washington and Jefferson College.

Portland State University’s University Studies program provides an integrated intellectual learning environment for students. It extends throughout students’ academic experience, encompassing critical thinking, communication, diversity of human experiences, and ethical and social programs.

The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh's Liberal Education Reform Team (LERT) led the campus-wide effort to establish a framework for institutional learning outcomes. LERT is charged with identifying where outcomes are being addressed in the curriculum and developing an assessment model.

Washington and Jefferson College’s Magellan Project assists students embarking on projects that complement their studies in a given major. The program is designed to help students in crafting and telling stories that will be useful throughout their college careers and beyond by offering funding, particularly to underserved students; mentoring; proposal design workshops; and referrals to other funding sources.

2008 Breakfast Forum
AAC&U 2008 Annual Meeting
Washington, DC
January 26, 2008
This forum featured campus examples from Devorah Lieberman, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at Wagner College; Norma Martin Goonen, provost for Academic and Student Affairs at Miami Dade College; and Nancy Westphal-Johnson, associate dean for Undergraduate Education and Academic Administration at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Wagner College’s Wagner Plan requires students to complete issue-centered integrative learning communities during the first year, the intermediate years, and the senior year. The communities are organized around a larger theme or problem, and include experiential as well as academic learning.

As a result of dialogue among faculty, students, alumni, employers, civic leaders, and community members, Miami Dade College celebrated a Learning Outcomes Covenant signing of 10 learning outcomes that are reinforced and assessed throughout the curriculum and in cocurricular activities.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has many initiatives linked to liberal education, including a first-year conference based on the LEAP essential learning outcomes, a general education Web site that displays LEAP’s presence on campus and in the curriculum, and an advising summit to facilitate the integration of liberal education goals into academic advising.