As you embark on developing a curricular approach for your division or your department there are a few key concepts that you should keep in mind. Think of these as a set of reminders and guiding principles. They represent the core of the philosophy behind the curricular approach. Curricular approaches are focused on learning. One... Continue Reading →
Moving to a curricular approach calls upon us to become better at assessing student learning. Although it may be common on a campus to have students respond to short surveys providing feedback about a program or service, it is often less common to assess student acquisition of knowledge and skills as a result of an... Continue Reading →
Before embarking on a curricular approach, it is important to conduct an audit, or archeological dig, to surface important characteristics and concepts that should be present and accounted for in your curriculum. As Siri Espy states, “Much like an archeological dig, your mission is to start with a set of bones and construct a skin... Continue Reading →
The folks over at the “Oh, No, It’s an Assessment Blog” posted this great little piece on the “messiness” of assessing student learning and distilled down five tips to help guide efforts in this area. They also include an excellent video (see below, highly recommended) form the folks at EDUCAUSE about why learning assessment can seem (and is) difficult.
My friends for the assessment revolution! My office is gearing up to take the next step in our learning outcomes assessment efforts. I’m VERY excited! It’s going to be fun, intellectually and professionally fulfilling, and (most importantly and hopefully) provide meaningful insight into the student experience. But in addition to excitement, I am also a bit nervous, because, as you’ve likely noticed, measuring for learning is messy – which is the largest part of its difficulty, but, also, its beauty. In my research about student learning and assessment over the past few years I’ve come to learn that it’s not just me who’s feeling this way:
In watching videos like the above and reading anything I can get my hands on, I’m hearing a few common themes (some old, some new) that I’m keeping in mind during this big year for our assessment efforts in the Career Center:
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There is a lot of fuss about grade inflation at colleges and universities, but are we correctly identifying the problem or just a symptom? I think that the real question we should be asking ourselves as educators is: What is the best way to measure and assess student learning? So what is grade inflation, exactly?... Continue Reading →
I'm excited to be the opening keynote at this year's #SATechBOS Unconference. The event utilizes as a unique format that encourages peer-to-peer learning and interaction. It's a pretty interesting concept and a new take on the sometimes stale traditional conference format. Wikipedia describes it as follows: An “unconference“ is a participant-driven meeting. The term “unconference” has... Continue Reading →
Last week, StudentAffairs.com published a piece I wrote entitled, An Experiment Using Twitter in Teaching a Student Affairs Practicum Course, in their Journal of Technology in Student Affairs. (Please check it out and let me know what you think!) In one of the later paragraphs of the piece, I wrote about my plans for teaching... Continue Reading →
I'm excited to have been invited to present during a Presidential Session at the American Educational Research Association Conference this coming week in San Francisco, CA. Many of you may be familiar with my previous work in organizing a PechaKucha session for the ACPA-College Student Educators, International Convention this past spring. For those of you... Continue Reading →
I had the privilege of giving two presentations at the 2013 Dalton Institute on College Student Values at Florida State University in Tallahassee. The theme of this year's institute was "Character in an Age of Self-Promotion: Exploring the Role of Social Media on College Student Development." Obviously, perfectly suited for me and my research passions. 🙂 The abstracts and... Continue Reading →
The terms “residential curriculum” or “curricular approach” are used to describe an intentional specifically-structured way of promoting learning in college and university student affairs programs. Borrowing from techniques utilized by classroom-based teachers, the curricular approach to student affairs designs a series of successive learning and engagement opportunities for students that are measurable against defined objectives.... Continue Reading →
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