Give Students a Compass: Liberal Learning, Educational Innovations, and the Global Commons The New American Colleges and Universities (NAC&U) 2013 Summer Institute June 19, 2013 Carol Geary Schneider

When Students Have No Compass A Cautionary Tale!

Overview  The Consensus on Quality and the Learning Students Need  Practices that Foster Learning—and Completion as well  The Digital Revolution and Key Choices Facing Educators (and Innovators Too)  Deeper Learning—Fostered, Integrated, Demonstrated

An Era of Widespread Initiative, Experimentation, and Evidence, That Has Identified….

…Key Elements in a 21 st Century Vision for High- Quality Learning  Consensus on Aims and Learning Outcomes  Practices that Foster Achievement AND Completion  Evidence on “What Works” for Underserved Students  Assessments that Deepen—and Demonstrate— the Level of Learning

Aims and Outcomes 80% of colleges, universities and community colleges have articulated intended learning outcomes

Consensus Aims and Outcomes There is very broad agreement across all parts of higher education – 2 year, 4 year, public and private – on the learning and skills students need most (See handouts)

See Learning and Assessment: Trends in Undergraduate Education—A Survey Among Members of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U and Hart Research Associates, 2009) for more information.

But What About Employers?

Employers Strongly Endorse the Aims and Outcomes Educators Prize And They Urge New Effort to Help All Students Achieve Them (See handouts)

See Raising the Bar: Employers’ Views on College Learning in the Wake of the Economic Downturn (AAC&U and Hart Research Associates, 2010) and It Takes More Than a Major: Employer Priorities for College Learning and Student Success (AAC&U and Hart Research Associates, 2013) for more information.

The LEAP Essential Learning Outcomes Frame the Consensus:  Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and Natural World  Intellectual and Practical Skills  Personal and Social Responsibility  Integrative and Applied Learning

The LEAP Outcomes Build Knowledge and Capacities Necessary to an Innovation- Fueled Economy—and to the Global Commons as Well

If These Are the Goals, How Do We Help Students Achieve the Expected Learning?

The Key Elements in a 21 st Century Vision for High- Quality Learning  The Consensus on Aims and Learning Outcomes  Practices that Foster Achievement AND Completion  Evidence on “What Works” for Underserved Students  Assessments that Deepen—and Demonstrate— the Level of Learning

The Proposed Degree Profile Builds From the Design for Quality that Higher Education Already Has Created—and That Employers Endorse

Integration and Application The Degree Profile emphasizes “the cumulative integration of learning from many sources and the application of learning in a variety of settings…” (DQP, p. 2)

What Kinds of Integrative Learning Are Included? Knowledge, Skills, and Applications –Across General Education Courses –General Education with Majors –Field-Based Learning with Academic Learning –Academic Learning and Civic Contexts AA; BA; MA

The Degree Profile Shifts Our Collective Attention to What Students Actually Do: Research, Projects, Papers, Performances, Creative Work…Applied Learning!

Practices That Foster Achievement AND Completion

The Central Role of High Impact Practices (HIPs)  First-Year Seminars and Experiences  Common Intellectual Experiences  Learning Communities  Writing-Intensive Courses  Collaborative Assignments and Projects  Undergraduate Research  Diversity/Global Learning  Service Learning, Community-Based Learning  Internships  Capstone Courses and Projects

High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter, by George D. Kuh (AAC&U, 2008)

Ensuring Quality & Taking High-Impact Practices to Scale, by George D. Kuh and Ken O’Donnell (AAC&U, 2013)

When Students are Engaged in High Impact Practices, They Are  More likely to complete  More likely to achieve intended outcomes  With particular benefit for underserved students

Impact of Educationally Purposeful Practices on the Probability of Returning for the Second Year of College by Race **From Kuh, High Impact Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter (AAC&U, 2008)

Impact of Educationally Purposeful Practices on First Academic Year GPA by Pre-College Achievement Level *From Kuh, High Impact Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter (AAC&U, 2008)

 Impact of Multiple HIPs on Percentage of Senior NSSE Respondents Graduating on Time by Racial & Ethnic Background Source: Does Participation in Multiple High Impact Practices Affect Student Success at Cal State Northridge? by Bettina Huber (unpublished paper on California State University, Northridge students, 2010).

High Impact Practices ALSO Develop Expected Learning Outcomes

Five High-Impact Practices: Research on Learning Outcomes, Completion, and Quality Jayne E. Brownell and Lynn E. Swaner (AAC&U, 2010)

So Why – and How – Do High Impact Practices Support Higher Level Learning?

Why HIPs Work  Create Engaged and Supportive Community  Involve Students in Purposeful Learning  Connect Learning with Larger Questions and Real-World Settings  Require Higher Order Inquiry, Exploration, Analysis, and Problem-Solving  Engage Diversity and Collaboration as Resources for Learning

Why HIPs Work… They Foreground Students’ Own Effortful Practice and Accomplishment, and, They Put Active Learning Ahead of Lectures

The High Impact Practices Also Offer Rich Opportunities to Make Civic Inquiry and Engagement PERVASIVE

Making Civic Learning Pervasive  First Year Seminars Can Explore “Big Societal Questions” Like Hunger, or Waste, or Democratic Justice  Learning Communities – Can Explore “Big Questions” Across Multiple Disciplines  Writing and Collaboration Deepen the Learning

Making Civic Learning Pervasive (cont.)  Service Learning Can Connect Courses to the Community – And Students with Community Problem-Solvers  Undergraduate Research Can Be Linked to Civic and Societal Challenges  HIPs Provide Many Opportunities for Engaging Difference and Fostering Both Deeper Learning AND Social Responsibility

What the HIPs Evidence Also Shows - The Students Who Could Benefit Most Are Least Likely to Participate in HIPs

How Campuses Are Using the HIPs Evidence They’re Mapping High Impact Practices Across the Required Curriculum (See handout)

The Key Elements in a 21 st Century Vision for High- Quality Learning  The Consensus on Aims and Learning Outcomes  Practices that Foster Achievement AND Completion  Evidence on “What Works” for Underserved Students  Assessments that Deepen—and Demonstrate— the Level of Learning

Authentic Assessments Students’ Actual Work is the Most Important Evidence We Have About Whether They Can Integrate and Apply Their Knowledge to New Contexts and New Challenges – Civic and Economic

When the Curriculum is Focused, Assessment Can Draw from High Impact Practices For example: papers, projects, exhibits, research, internships, service learning, global experience, capstones, and much more

This is the Core Point in the LEAP Approach to Quality Assurance Purposeful, Guided Practice is the Key to Learning and Assessment

The Proof Will Be in the Portfolio – and Institutions That Are Rich in High Impact Practices Are Poised to Lead the Way in Showing What Students Can Really Do With Their Education

The Digital Revolution and Key Choices for Educators and Innovators Will We Use Technology to “Flip the Classroom” – and Extend it As Well? e.g.: –More Time for Collaborative Projects, Inquiry, Research? –More Opportunities for Community-Based Learning? –More Opportunity for Faculty Engagement and Feedback on Learning? –More High Impact Practices for Underserved Students?

Or Will We Use Technology to Further Fragment the Curriculum—With Courses Coming from Everywhere and Anywhere—and High Impact Practices Even Less Common Than Now? The Digital Revolution and Key Choices for Educators and Innovators

Let’s Keep in Mind Our Cautionary Tale Students Need Guided Practice and “Intellectual Scaffolding” to Achieve the Intended Learning Outcomes

How We Can Use Generative Innovations to Help Students Deepen Their Learning and Demonstrate It As Well

E-Portfolios as a Framework for Intentional and Integrative Learning –Portfolios Emerged—in the 70s!—as a Strategy to Help Returning Adult Learners Organize, Document, and Demonstrate the Quality of their Learning From Courses Taken at Different Institutions From Experiential Learning at Work, in the Military, and in the Community

Today We Have E-Portfolios  Keyed to Expected Learning Outcomes  Keyed to National, Validated Rubrics for Essential Learning Outcomes—the LEAP VALUE Rubrics  Ideal for Capturing Students’ Demonstrated Accomplishments and Competencies

We Can Use This Innovation to Help Students Organize, Integrate, Document, and Demonstrate Their Learning From Diverse Contexts and Situations:  The Skills They Possess  The Big Questions They Have Pursued  Their Signature Accomplishments—  Their Overall Readiness for Work, Civic Life, Global Community—and Further Learning as Well

The E-Portfolio, in Short, Can Be Designed to Give Students That Compass—and to Provide a Transferable Record of Their Roadmap, Their Journey and Their Learning Across the Way

What It Will Take: Across All Programs, Courses That Count for Credit and Transfer Need to Spell Out Their Goals for Students’ Conceptual and Competency Development—and Tie Their Assignments to the Learning Outcomes and Competencies They Address.

What It Will Take: –Examinations are not enough (and never were!) –Students need active practice on key skills—e.g., Evidence-based Inquiry, Analysis, and Argumentation Collaborative Problem-solving Creative Projects and Research Civic Inquiry and Engagement

In Sum: Five Keys to An Educationally Generative Digital Revolution: 1) Expect and Ensure Purposeful and Structured Curricula, “Beginning, Middle, and Capstone” 2) Sequence Both Learning Outcomes and HIPs, at Progressively Higher Levels, Across-the- Curriculum 3) Align Courses (MOOCs, too) With Competencies and Levels of Work

In Sum: Five Keys to An Educationally Generative Digital Revolution: 4) Foreground Assessment Strategies—Assignments and Portfolios—That Integrate, Deepen, and Demonstrate Learning 5) Hold Innovation Accountable for Evidence on Students’ Demonstrated Accomplishment—Not Just in Majors but in the Full Array of Essential Learning Outcomes

When Goals, Practices, and Assessments Work Together, We CAN Teach Students to Integrate Their Learning – From Many Contexts– With the Needs of the Wider World