General Education and Outcomes That Matter in a Changing World

2006 Conference Description, Program, and Resources

AAC&U's 2006 General Education Conference took place March 9-11 in Phoenix, Arizona. Over 550 participants from more than 240 colleges and universities contributed to the conference dialogue on what students need to know and be able to do in the context of our information rich, technologically advanced, and globally connected society and how campuses across the country are advancing and assessing these key outcomes.

The IDEA (Individual Development & Educational Assessment) Center and Multi-Health Systems contributed to the conference as sponsors. American Sociological Association, CAGLS - Council for Administration of General and Liberal Studies, National Academic Advising Association, Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education, and University Leaders for a Sustainable Future were Academic Partners for the conference.

The full conference schedule appears below with links to many of the presentations and resources from the conference.

Conference Pathways

Outcomes that Matter
Sessions in this pathway will focus on learning outcomes that foster in students the disciplinary and practical knowledge, complex abilities, and interpersonal skills they will need to succeed in our information-rich, technologically advanced, and globally interdependent society. Participants will also discuss the implications of AAC&U’s new report, Liberal Education Outcomes: A Preliminary Report on Student Achievement in College.

Using Research on Learning to Foster Student Achievement
Sessions in this pathway will provide new and emerging findings from research about today’s students. They will examine enduring as well as new theories on intellectual and emotional development and ways in which educators can apply these findings to new designs for general education programs.

Curricular Structures and Cocurricular Collaborations that Support Today's Students, Today's Outcomes
Sessions in this pathway will describe and examine course, curricular, and cocurricular designs that cultivate key outcomes and ways of knowing, and introduce participants to new content and teaching methods that interact and complement each other to enhance learning.

Evolving Faculty, Staff, and Advisor Roles
Sessions in this pathway will address who is responsible for helping students achieve general education outcomes, for developing education programs, and for creating institutional structures that support them.

Assessment of and for Student Learning
Sessions in this pathway will provide tools, rubrics, and strategies for using assessment to directly benefit students, faculty, and administrators by providing feedback about student achievement of key outcomes as well as the educational effectiveness of programs.

Program and Resources

Thursday, March 9, 2006

2:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Pre-conference Workshops

WK1:  Assessing Value Added Through General Education
Prior knowledge assessment is a logical first step in a cognitive perspective on learning, and is perhaps the only way to know the content and procedural knowledge of today’s diverse group of college students. Some aspects of knowledge are culturally situated and learners bring aspects of these ways of knowing, as well as content, to the instructional setting.  They construct their knowledge based on what they already know, and therefore what they already know should be a part of the instructional design. Assessing students’ prior knowledge gives us important information about their readiness for instruction, as well as the attitudes and misconceptions they may have.  It provides a baseline for measuring value added to the students’ learning at the course and program levels. The participants in this workshop will explore several models of prior knowledge assessment.
Sonia Gonsalves, Professor of Psychology, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

WK2:  Assessment Practices that Lead to Genuine Improvement in General Education
In this workshop, participants will consider various processes for general education assessment and discuss ways in which assessment data from the individual student, course, and institution level can foster curriculum change.  Participants will develop a process for identifying objectives and outcomes for general education, prepare assignments that allow students to demonstrate achievement of general education goals/objectives, and discuss the role of faculty in developing course-level outcomes.  They also will conceptualize methods and strategies for assessing general education outcomes while attempting to maximize campus involvement.
Marilee J. Bresciani, Assistant Vice President for Institutional Assessment, Texas A&M University; Teresa Flateby, Director of Evaluation and Testing, University of South Florida; and Allen DuPont, Director of Assessment, University of North Carolina

WK3:  Creating Curricular Continuity: Integrating General Education Outcomes with the Learning Goals of Academic Departments
In addition to addressing broad institutional goals for liberal learning, most general education programs also seek to prepare students for study “in the major.” However, few colleges and universities present a clear understanding of ways in which liberal education should anticipate and support study within (and among) particular disciplines. In the context of refining a provisional consensus regarding desirable general education outcomes, participants will actively (a) explore the role departments should play in defining both liberal education and pre-disciplinary competencies, (b) weigh strategies for addressing broad educational outcomes defined by the institution while honoring departmental educational goals, and (c) consider useful tactics for navigating likely political issues.
Paul Gaston, Provost, Kent State University

WK 4:  Leadership for Change and Curriculum Development
Individuals in leadership positions in higher education walk a fine line when it comes to changing the curriculum. Although many expect them at some level to help guide curriculum development, the curriculum has long been the purview of the faculty. What, then, is the administrator’s role in curriculum development? How do administrators who see a need for change help that change occur? What are the change strategies that work effectively in colleges and universities? Participants in this workshop will address these questions and, working with the session facilitators, develop strategies and methods for promoting change on their own campuses. 
Ginny Coombs, Provost, University of Wisconsin – River Falls; Karen Pugliesi, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies, Northern Arizona University; Geoffrey Chase, Dean of Undergraduate Studies, and Patricia Patterson, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies, San Diego State University
Sponsored by the American Conference of Academic Deans

WK 5:  Exploring the Intersections of Faculty Culture and General Education
This workshop invites faculty and academic administrators to explore the intersection of faculty culture with general education programs through such questions as:Is general education less valued than other areas by prevailing faculty culture? What evidence is there of this? Why do you think this might occur? How can academic administrators encourage and support faculty efforts to engage in developing and teaching general education programs and courses? In what new ways might faculty integrate their own research, experience, and interests into general education courses? The workshop facilitators will set the framework for conversations among participants that will draw primarily from their experiences and explore these and other questions related to the quality of learning in general education. 
Jerry G. Gaff, Senior Scholar, AAC&U; and Laurie Fathe, Associate Provost for Educational Improvement and Innovation, George Mason University

WK 6:  Understanding Our Students: Measuring Non-cognitive, Social, and Emotional Abilities
The evaluation of student success within postsecondary settings has focused on cognitive abilities and academic performance.  Emerging evidence, however, suggests that a more comprehensive approach that addresses students’ non-cognitive, social, and emotional abilities is directly linked to individual student learning outcomes.  This workshop will introduce a new, non-cognitive, validated measure of social and emotional functioning-the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i)- that will provide participants a way to enrich and broaden their institutions’ curriculum and the co-curriculum, while fostering dialogue about student learning in dynamic ways.  Participants will be asked to complete the EQ-i prior to attending this workshop and will work with facilitators to explore a conceptual framework for defining non-cognitive abilities and gain insights on how the use of this instrument can help improve student learning outcomes.
Geff Marczyk, Assistant Professor and Director, Graduate Clinical Psychology, Widener University; James Parker, Associate Vice President for Research, Trent University; and Jon Duffy, Education Market Specialist, Multi-Health Systems Sponsored by Multi-Health Systems

7:00 - 8:30 p.m.

Keynote Address

Improving Undergraduate Education
Podcast Recording
Dr. Bok will provide a candid examination of the progress students in four-year colleges are making toward the generally accepted goals of undergraduate education.  His research points out that, notwithstanding considerable progress in a number of important dimensions, the accomplishments of undergraduates would be even greater if institutions used the increasing knowledge on teaching and learning to improve the quality of their educational programs.  He will conclude by describing what colleges can do to become effective "learning organizations" and thereby institute a continuing process of improvement in educating their students.
Derek Bok, Professor, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

8:30 - 9:30 p.m.

Poster Sessions

Analyzing General Education Course Syllabi for Alignment with Defined Core Skills
Over the past few years, much work has been done at Northern Arizona University (NAU) to develop ways of assessing what undergraduate students really know at the completion of their degree, in terms of the skills valued in the Liberal Studies Program. This poster will report findings from a content analysis of course syllabi that was conducted to determine alignment between three core general education skills and general education designated courses at NAU.  This analysis is the first step in a comprehensive assessment plan which is aimed at gathering assessment data via embedded assignments as well as creating a more cohesive curriculum.
Cynthia Conn, Associate Director for the Office of Academic Assessment and Federica Barbieri, Graduate Research Assistant for the Office of Academic Assessment, Northern Arizona University 

General Education Curriculum Alignment: Mapping Process, Tools, and Outcomes
Accreditation agencies increasingly call for institutions and programs to ensure, document, and demonstrate that their general education curricula embody coherent courses of study that reflect statements of intended learning outcomes. This poster will present a curriculum mapping model that will help campus planners evaluate how well and how intentionally a general education curriculum can advance expected learning outcomes.  The model is designed to help students receive appropriate instruction and assignments in the desired order so that learning outcomes are achieved.
Alexei G. Matveev, Associate Director, Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment, Norfolk State University

Citizens and Stewards: Transforming Education at Augsburg
In preparing students “to become effective, informed, and ethical citizens,” Augsburg College’s Core Curriculum seeks to cultivate students’ transformative discovery of, and appreciation for, their places of leadership and service in a diverse world. It strives to unite liberal and practical education, connect general education with the major, and help students enact their learning in the community. This is accomplished most explicitly and visibly in two bookend requirements, Engaging Minneapolis and the Augsburg Experience.  This poster will describe these structures and the collaboration between staff and faculty in creating them.  The presenters will talk about the lessons learned from these experiential opportunities for first-semester and advanced students.
Lois A. Olson, Director, Center for Service, Work, and Learning and Joan L. Griffin, Professor of English/Director of General Education, Augsburg College

Alternative Models of First-Year General Education Programming
This poster will describe a new program model for a first-year general education curriculum and assesses its effectiveness in comparison with alternative program models. The First Seminar/Learning Community initiative is the cornerstone of the plan to revamp Millersville’s general education program and includes special Student Affairs programming, a service learning requirement, and the use of peer mentors.  Conference participants will examine practical issues in implementing new models for general education programming and consider both successful strategies and potential pitfalls in the implementation process.
Frederick S. Foster-Clark, Coordinator of General Education and Associate Professor of Psychology; John R. Ward, Associate Professor of Educational Foundations; co-authors, not presenting:  Linda L. McDowell, Coordinator of Freshman Year Experiences and Associate Professor of Educational Foundations; Daniel F. O’Neill, Assistant Professor of Counseling and Human Development; and Daniel Weinstein, Assistant Provost for Institutional Planning and Assessment, Millersville University

Measuring Student’s Value of Literacy in Science and Math
Do students value math and science? Do they find these subjects interesting, or useful? Is the time and effort of achieving literacy reasonable? With the support of the National Science Foundation, we have developed the Science and Math Values Inventories (SaM-VI), which measure the value students place on science and math literacy. The development of this project involved expert evaluators and over 6,000 undergraduates, and provided evidence that both inventories are psychometrically sound.  Session facilitators will discuss gender-related differences in value, and consider how these inventories may be used as a tool for curricular reform.
Donald Deeds, Professor of Biology; Bruce Callen, Professor of Physics; Vickie Luttrell, Associate Professor of Psychology; Mark Wood, Associate Professor of Chemistry; and Charles Allen, Advisor, Drury University

General Education Assessment: An Emphasis on Writing and Thinking
The University of South Florida recently completed a review of its general education curriculum.  Based upon reviews of assessment data and literature, the curriculum was revised consciously to foster understanding of human and cultural diversity within a global society, effective communication skills, and critical and higher-order thinking skills.  This poster will explain assessment strategies from the previous general education curriculum and the revised curriculum, as well as the process undertaken to revise such curricula.   This new system to assess writing and higher-order thinking—critical to an effective general education curriculum, both in the classroom and for program or institutional assessment—will be highlighted, and an online version will be demonstrated.
Teresa L. Flateby, Director of Assessment, University of South Florida

Using Assessment to Identify Non-Cognitive Variables that May Be Liked to Student Attrition
There is a growing body of evidence that success in college is connected to strong emotional intelligence.  Parker, Summerfeldt, Hogan and Majeski (2004) found that students with GPA’s of 3.0 or higher had significantly higher scores on most of the emotional intelligence dimensions than students with GPA’s below 2.0.  Specifically, they found that the intrapersonal, adaptability, and stress management abilities of students were important in contributing to student success.   This poster will feature two separate assessment tools (The First Year Initiative and the  EQ-i:Short Bar-On) to assess and target these skills.
Catherine F. Andersen, Director of the First-Year Experience and William Moses, Professor of Art and Theater, Gallaudet University

Arts and Humanities Assessment within a Distributional General Education Program
Resource: Paper
The assessment of student learning in the areas of the arts and humanities is notoriously difficult – a problem often compounded by the nature of distributional general education programs.  This poster will present the development of an assessment program for the arts and humanities while navigating general education reform, a distributional curriculum, and the methodological challenges of measuring the goals related to the arts and humanities.  The presenters will describe the process for developing such an assessment plan and an assessment tool that aims to measure core objectives while accommodating a diversity of student experiences.
Roy Barnes, Assistant Dean, College of Arts and Sciences and Coordinator of Assessment and Bonnie Heckard, Assistant Provost for Academic Assessment and Institutional Accreditation, University of Michigan Flint

Melding Content and Skills in a General Education Curriculum
Resource: Paper
This poster will introduce an initiative to breakdown the discipline silos within the College of the Southwest's general education curriculum.  Problem based learning is used to infuse basic life long learning skills into content courses.
W. Patrick Leonard, Vice President for Academic Services, College of the Southwest

Joining a Global Conversation:  The UN Millennium Goals and General Education
This poster will highlight the UN Millennium Goals, which are a signature piece of Otterbein College's part in the General Education for Global Learning project. The discussion will also includeinformation aboutcampus activities in the project so far.
Lyle Barkhymer, Chair and Director, Integrative Studies Program and Tammy Birk, Academic Teaching Staff, English and Integrative Studies, Otterbein College

Bringing the World to Mid-Missouri:  Stephens College’s Liberal Arts Program
This poster will present the structural and curricular revision of Stephens College’s general education program.  The session will highlight the ways this new program foregrounds international, cross-cultural, and global education in the freshman, sophomore, and senior years with courses in composition, cultural studies, literary studies, historical studies, the global village, and the ethics of globalization.
Tina Parke-Sutherland, Dean of Liberal Arts, Professor of English and Creative Writing and Leslie Willey, Associate Professor of Education, Stephens College

Intersections:  U.S. - Mexican Mosaic
This poster will present Dickinson College’s Mexican Migration Mosaic Program which supports student and faculty engagement in intensive fieldwork and service-learning in US and Mexican communities which lie on opposite ends of the continent, but stand connected through family, work, and circular migration. Through internships, interviewing, and ethnographic fieldwork, students increase awareness of issues including labor conditions, housing, education, and health care, as well as learn through teaching in a variety of settings.  
Brenda Bretz, Associate Provost and Susan Rose, Professor of Sociology, Dickinson College

Local and Global Perspectives on Being a Newcomer: Five Year Students, Study Abroad, and Immigrant Philadelphia
This poster will present a program at Arcadia University that links the global and the local. This first year student initiative involves study in England or Scotland followed by a seminar entitled "Study Abroad and Global Philadelphia." In the seminar, students reflect on their own experiences as newcomers in the UK and at the university while reading about and visiting immigrant communities in Philadelphia to explore the experiences of immigrant newcomers in the region. This poster addresses the promises and challenges of teaching the course in ways that encourage students to think globally while including the United States in their analysis.
Jeffrey Shultz, Associate Dean for Internationalization and Coordinator for General Education and Ellen Skilton-Sylvester, Associate Professor of Education, Arcadia University

Global Learning:  Educating Future Army Officers for a Changing World
Graduates of the United States Military Academy, will, as Army officers, confront situations that are nebulous, complex, and often dangerous.  To succeed, they must be able to anticipate and respond effectively to the uncertainties of a changing technological, social, political, and economic world. This poster will summarize the initiatives USMA has undertaken to respond to this challenge.  These initiatives include a comprehensive framework for managing and evolving curricular change, which underscores the importance of global learning outcomes; a focus on liberal education; and an assessment program to inform decision-makers about student achievement.
Bruce Keith, Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs; Lance Betros, Head, Department of History; and Frank Galgano, Principal Investigator, Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, The United States Military Academy

Friday, March 10, 2006

8:00 - 8:45 a.m.

Discussions

Liberal Education and America’s Promise Discussion
Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) is AAC&U’s new campus-action and advocacy initiative to engage the public with what really matters in college.  This session will introduce participants to the initiative’s goals and activities.  It will provide participants with an overview and introduction to the resources the initiative is developing, and the principles and practices guiding the campus action component of the campaign.  Participants will discuss how their own institutions can get involved and use the campaign and the emerging national consensus around important liberal education outcomes to guide educational planning and practice on their own campuses.
Carol Geary Schneider, President, AAC&U

Pathways to College Network Discussion
The Pathways to College Network is a collaborative of organizations and foundations whose mission is to focus research and resources on improving college preparation, access, and success for underserved populations. AAC&U staff will discuss AAC&U’s role as the lead partner in gathering research and promising practices tocreate tools that help campuses improve these students’ learning outcomes.
Alma R. Clayton-Pedersen, Vice President, Office of Education and Institutional Renewal, AAC&U

Helping Outcomes Happen:  Inclusive Processes and Institutional Effects
While Prescott College comprises distinct units offering resident degree programs, as well as limited-residency, community-based adult and graduate programs, the college shares a commitment to student-centered, experiential pedagogies that develop critical and ethical engagement with both the human community and the biosphere.  Identifying, developing, and building consensus around core learning outcomes involved the creation of inclusive, integrative processes involving faculty, staff and students from across the college.  Discussion facilitators will present key elements, relations, and effects of these processes to set the stage for an interactive exploration of practical strategies to develop and implement core learning outcomes in diverse institutions.
Paul Burkhardt, Dean of Adult and Graduate Degree Programs and Gret Antilla, Dean of Resident Degree Programs, Prescott College 

General Education Assessment: An Emphasis on Writing and Thinking
The University of South Florida recently completed a review of its general education curriculum.  Based upon reviews of assessment data and literature, the curriculum was revised consciously to foster understanding of human and cultural diversity within a global society, effective communication skills, and critical and higher-order thinking skills.  This discussion will address assessment strategies from the previous general education curriculum and the process undertaken to revise such curricula.   This new system to assess writing and higher-order thinking—critical to an effective general education curriculum in the classroom and for program or institutional assessment—will be discussed.
Teresa L. Flateby, Director of Assessment, University of South Florida

Arts and Humanities Assessment within a Distributional General Education Program
The assessment of student learning in the areas of the arts and humanities is notoriously difficult – a problem often compounded by the nature of distributional general education programs.  This discussion will focus on the development of an assessment program for the arts and humanities while navigating general education reform, a distributional curriculum, and the methodological challenges of measuring the goals related to the arts and humanities.  The facilitators will initiate the discussion with a description of the process for developing such an assessment plan and an assessment tool that aims to measure core objectives while accommodating a diversity of student experiences.
Roy Barnes, Assistant Dean, College of Arts and Sciences and Coordinator of Assessment and Bonnie Heckard, Assistant Provost for Academic Assessment and Institutional Accreditation, University of Michigan Flint

Structuring a Comprehensive Assessment Program:  Pitfalls and Promise
Over the past six years, Queensborough Community College, CUNY has developed and implemented a comprehensive student learning assessment plan, linking individual course assessment and academic program review to assessment of general education. How useful are the assessment results collected so far for helping faculty and administrators know how students are learning? How can a set of general education objectives engage faculty in a discussion of student learning? Can assessment of common general education objectives across a variety of courses help students integrate their learning? Participants will receive sample assessment results and general education objectives as part of the discussion.
Karen B. Steele, Dean for Academic Affairs and Robert Becker, Associate Professor of English, City University of New York Queensborough Community College

Anchoring Student Learning in Collaborative Efforts
Resources: Action Plan, Rating Action Plan, System Rating Sheet
This discussion will focus on the alignment of multiple campus initiatives for student learning. Participants will dialogue and share effective ways to integrate campus-wide initiatives to support student learning by integrating a campus vision for student learning through use of a proposed framework and identifying practical strategies to align student learning at the institution level. 
Carleen M. Vande Zande, Director of Assessment and Associate Dean, School of Education and Sheryl K. Ayala, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Marian College of Fond du Lac

Public Programs in the Humanities             
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent grant-making agency of the United States government dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. This discussion will provide useful information and guidance for faculty and administrators interested in strengthening their humanities programs.               Frederick A. Winter, Senior Program Officer, Office of Challenge Grants, National Endowment for the Humanities

Toward a Coherent General Education Experience: Facilitating Transfer between Two- and Four-year Colleges
Articulation between two- and four-year colleges at the City University of New York has been an imperative of the General Education working group at Queensborough Community College.  The Bridge to Transfer program is an initiative designed to provide a coherent general educational experience for the students in the program and to facilitate transfer.  This discussion will examine a program based on educational models designed around a series of learning communities that begin with a cornerstone experience and progress in complexity to a capstone experience.
Margaret J. Reilly, Associate Professor of Nursing and Paul Marchese, Assistant Professor of Physics, City University of New York Queensborough Community College

Closing the Assessment Loop
This roundtable discussion will focus on how to "close the loop" by using assessment in general education programs for educational improvement.  The presenters will use their experiences in the well-established general education program at St. Edward's University in Texas to stimulate discussion on a variety of topics related to assessment.  A main focus will be on sharing strategies that can be used to evaluate courses, programs, and faculty and how the results of these assessments can be used to improve these areas.
Susan Loughran, Capstone Director and Robert W. Strong, Post Doctoral Associate/Capstone & Cultural Foundations, St. Edward's University

“So what has changed?”  Professing General Education
Too often imaginative general education programs settle down into “business as usual”—the “new bottle, old wine” syndrome.  To create significant change, how can colleges and universities develop citizens of general education as well as citizens of departments and disciplines?  How do we get faculty teaching disciplinary courses that meet general education requirements to think about the larger public purposes of their disciplines?  In short, this discussion will focus on what it means to profess general education and how to create a faculty that does so.
Joan L. Griffin, Director of General Education, Augsburg College

Planning Assessments to Meet Evolving External Standards
As general education faces more pressure from external sources to measure student outcomes, institutions must determine not only what kinds of outcomes they want for their students, but also what kinds of expectations will be placed upon them by external accreditation sources.  This discussion will give us the opportunity to develop lists of questions that may come from these sources, and develop ways our institutions may effectively respond to these questions.
Stephen Earl Braye, Director, General Studies Program; Nancy S. Midgette, Associate Provost; and Janet L. Warman, Professor of English and Education, Elon University

Integrating Successful Service Learning Projects into General Education Curricula
Integrating service learning projects into courses designed to explore diversity issues enables students to develop inter-cultural competence, ethical reasoning skills, and become life-long learners.  This roundtable discussion will bring together faculty and administrators who wish to implement service learning projects and those who have implemented successful ones to collaboratively explore promising practices for developing successful models and building community-based partnerships to sustain them.  Participants will receive handouts detailing the project model that Aurora University is implementing.  Discussion will focus on concerns related to integrating service learning projects into core curricula and assessing students’ achievement of ways of living the outcomes.
Kathleen L. Carroll, Director of General Education and Associate Professor of English and Andre Meeks, Wackerlin Fellow for the Aurora University Center for Faith and Action, Aurora University 

“Gen. Ed.” to “All College Curriculum”: An Integrated Approach to General Education
This discussion will address the ongoing evolution of Mount Ida College’s General Education program into the more comprehensive and integrated All College Curriculum (ACC). Evolving from a campus-wide dialogue on the question, “What skills and knowledge should our graduates possess?” the ACC reorganization recognizes that learning takes place in all contexts: courses inside and outside the major, co-curricular programming, off-campus internships, and service experiences.  This discussion will address the requirements of the ACC and explain past and current challenges in implementing the new curriculum, particularly in professional programs with competing requirements for accreditation. Participants will be encouraged to discuss their own experiences in developing a general education program that meets the needs of all students.
Steven C. Eames, All College Curriculum Coordinator and Ellen J. Goldberger, Professor, School of Arts and Science, Mount Ida College 

Building Structures into Classes to Enhance Student Learning
Resource: Case study
Providing students with the support they need to meet academic expectations has a significant effect on student success and retention.  At this roundtable we will discuss various mechanisms for faculty to provide this academic support.  The discussion leaders will describe one such set of mechanisms from an interdisciplinary calculus and physics course.  Participants will be asked to contribute their work as well.  We will try to determine the common elements that make such support successful for students, and how to convince more faculty members to provide this support to their students.
Laurie Fathe, Associate Provost for Educational Improvement and Innovation, George Mason University; and Lars Kjeseth, Professor of Mathematics, El Camino College

Inter-professional Leadership for the 21st Century
This facilitated discussion will provide participants with a framework and tools to assist in developing a curriculum assessment and outcomes-based design process.  The successful implementation of a competency-based undergraduate health and human services degree program and a graduate public policy degree program will be used to illustrate.  The presenter will outline the process of developing inter-professional learning outcomes derived from a DELPHI assessment of community stakeholders, potential employers, and practitioners, and creating a new curriculum model that emphasizes outcomes of service as well as learning.
Kim Judson, Associate Professor, Department of Health, Human Services & Public Policy, California State University Monterey Bay

9:00 – 10:15 a.m.                   

Plenary

Critical Factors Affecting the Outcomes of Liberal Education
Dr. Blaich's Presentation, Dr. King's Presentation
The Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education identifies critical factors affecting liberal education outcomes by carefully examining both the kinds of institutional practices and the kinds of student experiences that are associated with the achievement of these outcomes. Drs. King and Blaich will discuss two sets of findings from their research: 1) the pedagogies and practices that support the development of liberal education outcomes; and 2) the kinds of experiences students report as relevant to their learning and development. In each case, the interpretations will be grounded in the dual concepts of wisdom and citizenship as defining goals of liberal arts education.
Patricia M. King, Professor and Director for the Center for Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education, University of Michigan and Charles F. Blaich, Director of Inquiries, Wabash College

10:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.         

Concurrent Sessions

Making the Case for Liberal Education: Responding to Challenges
This session will draw on public opinion research conducted to inform AAC&U’s campaign, Liberal Education and America’s Promise. Participants will be introduced to language and approaches to making an effective case for liberal education and responding to common challenges to the premise that all students need and deserve a liberal education. The session will also draw from institutional efforts to make the case for and redefine liberal education in a particular institutional context—institutions in the Association of New American Colleges.
Debra Humphreys, Vice President, Office of Communications and Public Affairs, AAC&U and John Ross, Principal, RossWrites

An Interactive Teaching Circle: Measuring Learning Outcomes in a Core Curriculum
In this interactive seminar, Pace University will present a year-long assessment project which brings faculty and departments into the process of identifying, measuring, and assessing core learning outcomes and enables students to reflect on their educational and personal development. As assessment results are presented and enhanced with handouts of assessment tools, participants will share results at their institutions for comparison and discussion. The audience will learn how effective assessment strategies in general education can engage various stakeholders in collaborative activities that support student learning while changing the institutional culture.
Adelia V. Williams, Associate Dean, Dyson College of Arts and Sciences; Linda Anstendig, Professor of English, Director of Writing and Writing Across the Curriculum; and Barbara Pennipede, Assistant Vice President for Planning, Assessment and Research, Pace University

Towards a Definition of Global Learning
What is global learning? This session will engage participants with foundational ideas and questions regarding global learning, its importance, and its key outcomes for all graduates.  Panelists will focus on conceptual framings and “definitions” of global learning, addressing questions such as “why global?” and “what do we mean by global?”  More specifically, Arcadia University will explore the ways in which diversity and global learning are linked, Marquette University will discuss what it means to pursue global learning initiatives on a religious campus, and Hawai‘i Pacific University will examine the ways in which the local context can be framed as global.
Christine Krueger, Director of Core of Common Studies, Marquette University; Jeffrey Shultz, Associate Dean for Internationalization & Coordinator for General Education, Arcadia University; Micheline Soong, Assistant Professor in English, Hawai‘i Pacific University; and Natalie Jellinek, Program Assistant, AAC&U
Sponsored by AAC&U’s General Education for Global Learning Curriculum and Faculty Development Network

It's All About Learning
As the focus in higher education shifts from “teaching oriented” to “learning oriented” experiences, it is imperative that research regarding the brain and learning and the characteristics of student development be understood and applied.   During this seminar, a discussion of current research on the biology of the brain and learning will include the impact of how this research should inform the development of learning experiences. Participants will engage in activities that will provide information regarding characteristics of today’s students, effective learning experiences, and how this information can influence course and curriculum development.
Stephane Elise Booth, Associate Provost, Academic Quality Improvement; and Mark Kretovics, Professor of Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Studies, Kent State University

Designed to Change: Intentional Problem Solving and the General Education Curriculum
Some design processes are more likely than others to produce intentional and cohesive general education curricula.   Key to the success of any curricular reform is an understanding of the needs to be met, the problems to be solved, and the potential problems that may be created by any proposed structure. Three questions that can help guide the process include: What institutional and intellectual problems can general education design solve? What are actual examples of solutions to problems? Can creative design make a general education system self-correcting? Participants will learn a new approach to general education design, engage and critique substantive illustrations from Augsburg College's new AugCore curriculum, and collaborate with colleagues to apply session ideas to their institution’s practices.
Diane L. Pike, Director of Center for Teaching and Learning and Dallas Liddle, Associate Professor of English, Augsburg College

New Findings on Students' Perceptions of General Education
In 2000, a team of faculty members at the University of North Dakota began a longitudinal study of student perceptions of their learning as it relates to the institution’s general education goals. So far, over 500 student interview transcripts have been analyzed. In this session, we provide an overview of the study and its findings (with handouts), along with an opportunity for participants to think about students’ perceptions of general education, the implications of differences between student and faculty perceptions, and opportunities faculty have to make a difference in students’ experience of general education.
Joan I. Hawthorne, Writing Across the Curriculum Coordinator and Anne V. Kelsch, Assistant Professor of History, University of North Dakota 

Going Beyond: Portfolio Assessment for Student Learning and Curricular Exploration
Resource: Reading Matrix
Portfolios are established, direct measures of student learning but they are also labor intensive for the students who create them, faculty who score them, and institutions that support them. What can we get in return for this considerable investment? Must portfolios be measures of a single student learning outcome or are they flexible enough to tell us about other learning initiatives on our campuses? Portfolio scoring has told us much about how students are writing, where they are writing (which courses), and for whom they are writing (which courses, which faculty.) Because of the range of courses represented, portfolios can be used as portals into the curriculum, examining student writing for evidence of quantitative reasoning, critical thinking, and interdisciplinary learning. Participants will have a chance to work with actual student writing to explore how portfolio assessment can address a variety of needs.  They will explore how different components of assessment can be used and serve as baselines against which to measure change.
Jacqulyn Lauer-Glebov, Assistant Director of Institutional Research and Coordinator of Educational Research, Carleton College

Critical Thinking: How Can You Know It When You See It?
This session will focus on the challenges of constructing a definition of and an assessment approach to critical thinking as a core skill in a liberal studies program.  Successful assessment efforts at Northern Arizona University include developing definitions and assessment approaches for three liberal studies skills: critical reading, effective written communication, and effective oral communication.  Session facilitators will describe this process with a set of “lessons learned” and an assessment framework for critical thinking. This session will provide an opportunity for  discussion about critical thinking and assessment that address the key questions: 1) What is critical thinking and how can you know it when you see it? 2) What are the characteristics of critical thinking and how can you measure it?
Bruce Fox, Director, Honors Program, and Katie Desmond, Graduate Assistant, Office of Academic Assessment, Northern Arizona University

1:30 – 2:30 p.m. 

Concurrent Sessions

Just What Do They Know? Assessing Student Technology Skills
Technology is recognized by higher education as vitally important. However, do colleges really know what technology skills their students need and possess? When seeking reaccredidation, institutions indicate that students have learned technology skills, but can they prove it? Participants in this session will explore a community college’s technology assessment process and discuss the development and implementation of an effective assessment instrument. Be among the first to examine the results of Carroll Community College’s assessment, including lessons learned along the way. Join in a discussion about how faculty’s technology skills and opinions shape the overall effectiveness of a college’s technology investment.
Mary Beth Graham, Associate Professor and Coordinator of Management Information System, Carroll Community College

General Education and Disciplinary Majors Program: The Case of Sociology
This session examines efforts undertaken by the American Sociological Association (ASA) to examine the relationship between general education and sociology. Beginning with a definition of general education drawn from the AAC&U Greater Expectations Report whereby, "general education is the part of a liberal education curriculum shared by all students, " we report on the extent to which sociological applications of various skill sets (analytical literacy, communication, critical thinking) and intellectual capacities (global, cultural, and historical awareness; social responsibility; social organization) contribute developmentally and/or cumulatively to general education.  Additionally, we report on the extent to which general education applications of these skills and capacities contribute developmentally and/or cumulatively to the sociology major. Illustrations will be provided that attend to variations among institutional contexts, particularly the way in which articulation and transfer agreements within selected state higher educational systems structure the notion of general education.
Carla B. Howery, Deputy Executive Director, American Sociological Associations; Bruce Keith, Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, United States Military Academy; Carol Jenkins, Faculty – Sociology, Glendale Community College; and Nancy Greenwood, Program Director, Health and Aging and Professor of Sociology, Indiana University Kokomo
Sponsored by the American Sociological Association

Reading Deficiency Remedies at the College Level
Increasingly, students are arriving at the college level with literacy skills below the levels required for advanced work.  When under prepared students arrive at the college levels, professors are faced with a dilemma.  The presenters in this session will (a) briefly explain why and how students arrive at college with extensive reading deficiences, and (b) demonstrate practical, informational strategies that can identify deficiencies and increase reading proficiencies significantly in a limited time.
Pat A. Doran, Author/Course Instructor/Educational Consultant, Rio Salado College

“The 5th Hour”: A Curricular Structure for Co-Curricular Learning
At Valparaiso University all first year students complete a two-semester, ten credit course called “The Human Experience.” Though students earn five credits each semester in this writing-intensive interdisciplinary course, they meet each week for the equivalent of four hours in the classroom and one hour out of the classroom, as do their instructors. The existence of this out-of-the-classroom element, the “5th Hour” as it has come to be called, creates great occasions for acculturation and socialization, for interdisciplinary and co-curricular teaching and learning, and for effective academic and student affairs collaborative programming. In this session academic leaders of the program will explain how it works, what benefits have accrued, and what challenges and possibilities remain.
John R. Ruff, Associate Professor of English and Director, Valparaiso Core and Joseph S. Goss, Assistant Director, Valparaiso Core, Valparaiso University 

Curricular Coherence for Transfer Students:  The Faculty Role
Most of the 50 states specify minimum general requirements that all students receiving undergraduate degrees must meet, but very few are specific about the purposes of those requirements. The result is a lack of curricular coherence for students transferring between institutions, who encounter programs with quite different purposes at each institution.  What is the role of faculty in translating state requirements into intentional learning outcomes in their courses and contributing to a coherent learning experience for both native and transferring students? This session will explore the challenges that faculty experience in transferring state-level determinations for general education requirements into a coherent curriculum for student learning.
Robert Shoenberg, Senior Fellow, Association of American Colleges and Universities

Integrating Global Learning into the General Education Curriculum
How can global learning be infused in the general education curriculum?  This session will provide participants with concrete examples from Wheaton Collegeand Drury University.  Wheaton College's commitment to global learning is incorporated into its general education curriculum through an integrated architecture including Foundations, Infusion, and Connections. The central strategy is not to just require sets of relevant courses, but to transform both the curriculum and co-curriculum to address diversity and its global context. Drury University has developed a core general education program, entitled "Global Perspectives for the 21st Century,"required of every student, all of whom graduate with a minor in global studies.  The Global Studies program helps students synthesize the perspectives and insights of many disciplines into a coherent understanding of the world, its peoples, and future possibilities.
Richard Schur, Assistant Professor and Director, Interdisciplinary Studies Center, Drury University; Kersti Yllö, Professor of Sociology, Associate Provost, Director of the College Learning Center, Wheaton College; and Natalie Jellinek, Program Assistant, AAC&U
Sponsored by AAC&U’s General Education for Global Learning Curriculum and Faculty Development Network

At the Intersection of General Education and Undergraduate Research
The Bridging Disciplines Program at the University of Texas Austin provides a framework for integrating general education, coursework in the major, and undergraduate research. This session will describe the process of developing learning outcomes for undergraduate research experiences in the context of an interdisciplinary program.  Participants will explore the use of electronic portfolios as tools for evaluating undergraduate research experiences and enhancing student learning.
Paige E. Schilt, Bridging Disciplines Program Director and Lynda Gonzales, Bridging Disciplines Program Research Coordinator, University of Texas Austin

Learning-Centered General Education Reform for Inclusive Excellence: A Success Story in Progress
Resources: Responsibilities, Mapping
Is your campus looking at general education reform? Do you use assessment data to ensure all students leave your institution with the skills they will need to succeed as intentional, life-long learners? Do you struggle with obtaining campus buy-in for changing the campus from a teaching-centered culture to one that is learning-centered? This session will be framed by a brief presentation of successes and challenges at San José State University in reforming general education programs as a lead in for small group discussions.  Participants will then summarize the processes and strategies they have found to work and consider new approaches that might prove useful for future innovations.
Gail G. Evans, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies and Director of General Education and Sally Veregge, Academic Senate Chair and Professor of Biology, San Jose State University

3:00 – 4:30 p.m.                     

Plenary 

From the High School Curriculum to a Changing Global Environment:  Implications for the Design and Content of 21st Century General Education
Recent AAC&U focus groups with students across the country reveal that students consider global issues, science, civic engagement, and diversity to be the least important outcomes of their college education.  Given these findings what can educators do to bring these issues of central importance to every student’s undergraduate education in a meaningful way?  This panel will discuss ways in which general education programs must change to meet the educational goals and needs of students with backgrounds more varied than ever before and in preparation for life in an information-rich and globally interdependent society.  Following the panel discussion, each of the discussants will continue the conversations in separate break-out sessions.
Femi I. Ajanaku, Bonnie and Chapman Smith Professor in the Social Sciences and Director of the Center for African and African American Studies, LeMoyne-Owen College; Michael Geyer, Samuel N. Harper Professor of German and European History, University of Chicago; Jay Labov, Senior Advisor for Education and Communication, Center for Education, National Research Council; and Debra Rowe, Professor of Renewable Energies and Energy Management, Oakland Community College and Senior Fellow, University Leaders for a Sustainable Future
Moderator: Carol Geary Schneider, President, AAC&U

4:45 – 5:30 p.m.                     

Discussion Sessions   

Working with Faculty to Develop Collaborative Thematic Courses
Femi I. Ajanaku, Bonnie and Chapman Smith Professor in the Social Sciences and Director of the Center for African and African American Studies, LeMoyne-Owen College

Preparing Students for a Global and Interconnected World
Michael Geyer, Samuel N. Harper Professor of German and European History, University of Chicago

Invigorating and Integrating STEM in Liberal Education
Jay Labov, Senior Advisor for Education and Communication, Center for Education, National Research Council

Resources and Strategies for Successful Change at Your Institution
Debra Rowe, Professor of Renewable Energies and Energy Management, Oakland Community College and Senior Fellow, University Leaders for a Sustainable Future

Saturday, March 11

8:00 – 8:45 a.m.                     

Roundtable Discussions by Institution Type

AAC&U Discussion: Making Excellence Inclusive
Conference participants are invited to discuss the recently launched Making Excellence Inclusive Initiative and respond to a draft definition of inclusive excellence.  Making Excellence Inclusive seeks to build upon AAC&U’s Greater Expectations and American Commitments initiatives by tying together the association’s long-standing commitments to educational quality in the undergraduate curriculum; diversity and civic engagement; and preparing faculty to deepen student learning.  You can learn more about this initiative on our Web site at http://www.aacu.org/inclusive_excellence/index.cfm. Alma R. Clayton-Pedersen, Vice President and Misha Charles, Program Assistant, Office of Education and Institutional Renewal, AAC&U

9:00 – 10:15 a.m.                  

Concurrent Sessions

Administrative Problem-Solving for New General Education Administrators
This session will provide strategies, discussion, and promising practices for new administrators in general and liberal studies. Session facilitators will assist participating administrators in the development of techniques and strategies needed to effectively engage in an academic environment. Following an introduction, participants will form teams and solve specific administrative problems that concern those attending the session. The teams will then analyze, with all session participants, their ideas for resolving their particular challenges. William D. Jenkins, Coordinator of General Education, Youngstown State University; Emily J. Johnson, Director of General Education, University of Wisconsin Lacrosse; Jake Jakaitis, Coordinator of General Education, Indiana State University; and William Badley, Assistant Provost and Director of General Education at Middle Tennessee State University
Sponsored by the Council for the Administration of General and Liberal Studies

Reforming General Education Programs: Moving to a Culture of Acceptance
This seminar will focus on a process of general education revision that has successfully initiated significant institutional change. The session facilitators will describe the process used to design a new program including how to gain support from across the campus, the inter-disciplinary aspects of the revised program, and some of its early outcomes. The seminar will facilitate discussion and learning among participants about how to develop an inclusive process for general education revision and move from questions, challenges, and doubts to compromise and a culture of broad acceptance.
Marilyn Smith, Director of General Education; Marilyn S. Sarow, Associate Professor of Mass Communication; and Thomas F. Moore, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Winthrop University

Curricular Design for Global Learning: Matching Good Intentions with Good Practice
Despite widespread agreement among colleges and universities about the importance of global learning, strategies to educate for an interdependent world often remain unfocused. Matching curricular design and assessment strategies can help institutions construct well-defined pathways through which students can acquire knowledge, both theoretical and experiential, about their place in the world. This session is designed to help institutions embed global learning goals in the entire general education design, instead of one or two courses, institutions can create multiple pathways for student development while also creating a framework for curricular coherence and integrity.
Caryn McTighe Musil, Senior Vice President and Kevin Hovland, Director of Global Initiatives, AAC&U              
Sponsored by AAC&U’s General Education for Global Learning Curriculum and Faculty Development Network

Working from the Ground Up: Supporting and Rewarding Faculty as Change Agents for General Education Assessment
Resources: Bibliography, Rubric, Course Design Process
In this session, participants will identify the essential characteristics of a plan that encourages and supports faculty to undertake assessment in general education courses.   They will outline a method for assessing one objective in a general education course that includes appropriate activities and rubrics for evaluating them.  Session facilitators will help to identify and encourage discussion about the various roles that those who support faculty can play in leading and facilitating the creation of course-based assessment in general education.
Peter Felten, Director, Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning/Associate Professor of History, Elon University; and Catherine Frerichs, Director, Pew Faculty Teaching and Learning Center and Professor of Writing, Grand Valley State University
Sponsored by the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education

Academic Advisors as Allies in Meeting General Curriculum Outcomes
This session will offer discussion on how academic advisors can become critical allies in meeting your institution's general education outcomes while implementing various academic advising strategies in their everyday advising roles.  Academic advisors (faculty or professional)serve as the primary communication link to students on many campuses; what rolesshould academic advisors play in communicating the value of general education to students and parents? How are academic advisorsincluded in your campus procedures for determining general education classes? Are academic advisors making general curriculum decisions on transfer courses? What training is provided for academic advisors on general curriculum issues for your campus?  Session participantswill beencouraged to share experiences from their campusesregarding the role of academic advisors in meeting general curriculumoutcomes.
Casey Self, Executive Director, Center for Academic Advising, University College and Sandra Voller, Director, University College Academic Advising, Arizona State University
Sponsored by the National Academic Advising Association

Anatomy of a Collaboration: The Roles of Faculty, Administrators, and Advisement Staff in Designing a New General Education Project
This seminar will describe a multi-unit collaboration involving faculty, staff, and administrators to develop a pilot project for the implementation of e-portfolios and individualized academic plans for a highly diverse student body.  While this particular project took place in an urban community college, participants will discuss how the process might transfer to situations in other settings.  Participants will share in brainstorming solutions for some of the related issues including coordinating the collaborative effort, and faculty and student buy-in.
Belle Gironda, Director, The Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning, and Assistant Professor of English; Mark McColloch, Vice President for Academic Affairs; and Brian Kerr, Director of Academic Advisement, City University of New York Queensborough Community College

Oral Communication: It’s Not Just About Speeches Anymore
Resource: Scenarios
Participants will be challenged to expand their understanding and operational definition of oral communication by incorporating fundamental communication principles along with encoding and decoding elements into this definition. Facilitators will discuss the rationale for this expanded definition of oral communication, and discuss the development of a new computer-based instrument that is designed to assess behavioral outcomes and augment classroom-based assessment tools.  Discussion will address how this assessment instrument will be useful to those that may be facing time and resource constraints and are looking for a way to assess student learning and performance in addition to developing information about educational effectiveness.
Timothy C. Ball, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies; Gretchen A. Hazard, Cluster One Coordinator, General Education Program; and Steve L. Wise, Senior Assessment Specialist, James Madison University

Using Student Ratings to Assess Student Learning and Motivation in General Education Courses
Research based on the IDEA Student Ratings of Instruction System can provide some insightful information about student experiences in general education courses. Used in nearly 100,000 classes each year, both student and faculty feedback is provided about student learning, student and course characteristics, and teaching methods. This session will discuss some of the Center’s research about classes identified by instructors as general education courses.  It will address the learning objectives instructors typically emphasize and the teaching methods that facilitate that learning.  Other issues that will be discussed include how general education courses compare to those in the majors in terms of student progress on specific learning objectives and student motivation; if students’ attitudes toward the field of study improve over time; and the implications of these results for general education courses and curricula.
Bill Pallett, Director, The IDEA Center
Sponsored by The IDEA Center

10:45 a.m. – Noon                 

Concurrent Sessions

Assessing What Faculty Value in General Education in Light of Competing State Board Values
What would happen if your state board required you to provide evidence that your students have learned a set of general education outcomes which your faculty do not buy into? This question is not a hypothetical, but a real and daunting occurrence on America’s campuses as the agendas of educators and legislators/accreditors appear to collide. This session will provide techniques for reaching synergy between faculty and influential external agencies to work toward improved general education outcomes from both perspectives.
Marilee J. Bresciani, Assistant Vice President for Institutional Assessment, Texas A&M University

Crossing Boundaries: Collaborating to Assess Information Literacy
Sponsored by the Midwest Instructional Technology Center (MITC), the First Year Information Literacy in the Liberal Arts Assessment (FYILLAA) is a collaboration among faculty, librarians, assessment professionals, and IT staff from eight liberal arts colleges. The collaboration developed a survey instrument measuring information literacy along five dimensions that is flexible enough to be used across class years. Presenters will discuss the process used to articulate student learning outcomes and to design appropriate survey items, share preliminary findings from the project, and discuss possible uses of these results to improve teaching and learning.
Jacqulyn M. R. Lauer-Glebov, Assistant Director of Institutional Research and Coordinator of Educational Assessment and Carolyn Sanford, Head of Reference and Instruction, Carleton College;  David Lopatto, Professor of Psychology, Grinnell College; and Jo Beld, Professor of Political Science, Director of Academic Research and Planning, St. Olaf College

Integrating Emotional Intelligence into Program Outcomes and Campus Culture
Adopting a case study approach, this session will focus on the integration of emotional intelligence (EQ) into the campus culture of Widener University.  The discussion will focus on four main components that influence student and program outcomes through EQ assessment.  First, the session will focus on how to incorporate emotional intelligence into a university’s strategic plan.  Discussion will then turn to how the strategic plan guided the development of various grassroots programs and initiatives designed to target and foster emotional intelligence at all levels of the university.  Session facilitators will discuss specific outcome data from these programs; specific intervention strategies; and how these strategies might improve a wide range of student and faculty outcomes. Finally, participants will discuss the role of ongoing research and program evaluation in this area and ways in which it relates to ongoing organizational development and revitalization.
Geff Marczyk, Assistant Professor and Director, Graduate Clinical Psychology, Andrea Borek, MA, Raquel Serouya, MA, Widener University; and Jon Duffy, Education Market Specialist, Multi-Health Systems
Sponsored by Multi-Health Systems

Prompting Global Citizenship through Interdisciplinary Earth Resources Courses
Resources: Diagram, Literacies, Schedule
Dissatisfaction with science education that abjures social context and social science education that avoids scientific understanding motivated the development of two interdisciplinary, Earth resources courses. Labs involve students in problem-based group learning using global resource case studies from Nigeria, South Africa, France, and Japan. Three-week case studies integrate geology, economics, and social impact, and promote decision-making and deliberation within different global contexts. The courses’ goals of preparing students for active citizenship and involvement in Earth resource decisions, as well as institutional obstacles to developing and delivering interdisciplinary courses, will be discussed. The challenges include departmental resistance and/or ambivalence; issues of recognition, reward, and resources; workloads and job descriptions; and the status of the scholarship of teaching and learning.
James D. Myers, Professor of Geology and Geophysics and Garth M. Massey, Director International Studies Program, University of Wyoming

Student Ratings as a General Education Assessment Tool: The Baldwin-Wallace Experience
Baldwin-Wallace College recently modified its Core Curriculum. The revision integrated the features and goals of the core into a coherent program that, consistent with the institution’s Mission Statement, would responsibly and effectively prepare students for the demands and challenges of the 21st century, as experienced in both theirprofessional and personal lives. Baldwin-Wallace College is exploring ways to aggregate results from the IDEA Student Ratings of Instruction System across core-curriculum courses. Because the IDEA System provides feedback about student learning on specific objectives, the results can be used for both curricular review and accreditation processes. Both the revised curriculum and the use of student ratings to review the core will be described.
Teddi A. Joyce, Director of Academic Planning & Research, Associate Academic Dean, Baldwin-Wallace; and Bill Pallett, Director, The IDEA Center
Sponsored by The IDEA Center

Using Student Work to Transform Teaching and Assessment
The session facilitators will describe and engage participants in a collaborative model of assessing student work in an outcomes-based environment and transforming pedagogies to foster student achievement of specific learning outcomes. Through collaborative processes (involving the review of specific outcomes, related assignments, and student work) participants will use evidence about student learning to deconstruct and reframe their own pedagogies, and share learning strategies with one another. These collaborative and constructivist processes foster new insights about outcomes and effective ways to facilitate student achievement of them.
Betty J. McEady, Director of the Center for Teaching, Learning and Assessment and Daniel Shapiro, Assistant Professor of Science and Environmental Policy, California State University-Monterey Bay

Assessing Student Learning and Learning Experiences
Can institutions effectively assess general education programs and individual student learning in a context of accountability and continual improvement? Should they? The session facilitator will present an assessment model that centers on student learning beyond measuring individual student learning. Participants will analyze the premise that faculty grading of students in context is still the best approach to measuring student learning as they grapple with the challenges of and strategies for assessing general education.  The session will conclude with discussion of the future of assessment with respect to regional accreditation, and state and federal legislatures.
Susan L. Bosworth, Associate Provost for Planning and Assessment, College of William and Mary

1:30 – 2:15 p.m. 

Plenary

Levels of Assessment: Students, Courses, and Programs
Presentation, Comments
This two-part workshop will explore the process of assessing general education outcomes using a variety of methods. The first part of the workshop will engage all participants in examining the assumptions and questions used to develop the assessment strategy.  The second part will provide an opportunity for participants to break out into groups each focused on one particular level of assessment.  The conversations will cover tools, rubrics, and data aggregation to assist with analysis and use of the findings.
Ross Miller, Director of Programs, Office of Curriculum and Assessment Initiatives, AAC&U

2:30 – 3:30 p.m.

Break-out Sessions

Assessment of Individual Student Learning Outcomes in Courses
Resources: Objectives, Alignment
Michael Strait, Director of Assessment, University of San Diego

Assessment of Individual Student Learning Across Courses
Betty McEady, Director of the Center for Teaching, Learning and Assessment, California State University-Monterey Bay

Using Student Learning to Assess General Education Courses
Resource
Cynthia Conn, Associate Director for the Office of Assessment, Northern Arizona University

Using Student Learning to Assess General Education Programs
Stephen Bowen, Dean, Oxford College, Emory University