The Realities of Competing For Student Time in the 21st Century

Now, more than ever, residence life professionals are competing for students’ time. Technological change has brought about a revolution of choice for self directing one’s learning and a multitude options for one’s use of free time. This is not a new phenomenon, but the competition has changed. Residence life and student activities have always had competition. In the past it was televisions, VHS and DVD movies, and video games. Now, however, with multiple online video streaming services, smartphones with apps and games that can be used on the go, a more mature internet… Read More
How To Develop Student Learning Rubrics For Student Affairs Practice

Rubrics are tools that are used by educators to help evaluate the learning and performance of students. They are written documents, often presented in a chart format, that help define progress and achievement levels towards various goals and performance indicators. When developing learning goals and their constituent outcomes in a residential curriculum, rubrics can help. Rubrics ensure that one is appropriately sequencing one’s learning opportunities. Rubrics also serve as an important assessment tool. Being familiar with “where students are” and “where you want to move students to” also allows one to structure learning strategies appropriately.
Feedback Versus Assessment: Questions to Ask

When evaluating programs and other educational interventions with students, it is important to make a distinction between two concepts: feedback and assessment. Although the types of questions you may ask in each of these categories may differ, the overall goal is how to design and execute effective experiences for students that are engaging and achieve educational outcomes. The following includes some distinctions that you may find useful, as well as some guiding questions that you could employ in reviewing your educational efforts. These questions can be used in the design of student surveys and assessments… Read More