General Education and Assessment 3.0: Next-Level Practices Now
Network for Academic Renewal Conference
March 3-5, 2011
Westin Chicago
Call for Proposals
The deadline for submitting proposals has passed and we are not accepting late proposals. For additional information please contact Siah Annand at annand@aacu.org.
General Education and Assessment 3.0: Next-Level Practices Now
Conference Themes
Session Formats
Become a LEAP Featured Session
Writing a Strong Proposal
How to Submit a Proposal
Dates to Remember
Without a clear sense of what we want students to learn through general education, reform efforts can fall prey to the latest fad, seem arbitrary, and remain disconnected from the teaching and learning that is done through academic departments and in student affairs units. Promising practices may be used, but in a haphazard way that misses many of today’s students. Assessment, if done at all, may center on counting student participation in courses and activities rather than meaningfully evaluating student achievement of learning outcomes over time. Not surprisingly, this can result in a push to eliminate general education and to downsize the college experience.
Yet significant numbers of campuses have moved away from haphazard approaches to general education toward outcomes-based, engaged learning models that provide a keystone to students’ educational experiences. These models are helping students integrate their learning from general education, the majors, and co-curricular experiences; moving students toward important learning outcomes; and creating institutional synergy—between 2 year and 4 year institutions, academic and student affairs, and professional programs and arts & sciences.
AAC&U believes that the best way to “push back” against efforts to downsize general education is to demonstrate the impact of these innovative models. Today more than ever, we need college graduates who possess well-developed intellectual and practical skills, knowledge of multiple disciplines, ethical sensitivity and judgment, and understanding and appreciation of diverse perspectives. Nationally and internationally, we need college graduates who can generate fresh approaches to solving both perennial problems and the unanticipated, unscripted challenges of the future. These are the goals of strong general education programs, and AAC&U invites campuses to share, and reflect on, their most promising and innovative models of both general education and assessment.
General Education and Assessment 3.0: Next-Level Practices Now invites proposals that focus on “3.0” approaches to general education and assessment. The conference will feature significant “next-level” reform undertaken by college and universities in recent years to highlight consensus around essential 21st century learning goals; build greater alignment across state systems and student transfer; infuse diversity, global, and civic learning and scientific and quantitative literacy into general education; and address educational inequities faced by historically underserved students. The conference will also feature campuses’ and AAC&U’s more recent work to develop authentic forms of assessment, where results are used to improve curricular and co-curricular designs and integration, identify topics for faculty and staff development, and guide the allocation of resources to support student learning.
Finally, the conference will draw on AAC&U’s signature initiative, Liberal Education and America’s Promise, to engage key external stakeholders in dialogue about educational quality, cost, and completion rates. “Faster and cheaper” approaches to college may seem to provide short-term solutions, but absent of greater expectations for student learning, they risk shortchanging our nation’s future at a time when graduates need the skills and abilities that derive from a strong general education.
Conference Themes
Conference themes grew out of a planning meeting with AAC&U member campuses in February 2010. The questions that follow each theme are suggestive and are not meant to cover the range of topics that can be proposed under each theme.
General Education Models that Make a Difference. This theme focuses on robust, integrative models of general education keyed to essential learning outcomes. Proposals might highlight innovations in: general education curricular pathways; 2-year and 4-year articulation plans; upper-division general education; high-impact educational and active learning pedagogies practices in general education; and models that connect general education with the majors and the co-curriculum.
- What kinds of general education designs show promise for helping students develop essential learning over time, along general education “pathways” as well as across general education, the majors, and co-curricular experiences?
- How are campuses addressing the challenges of newer general education designs? For example, how are campuses with large transfer or “swirling” student populations weaving these students into integrative or sequenced general education programs?
- What are examples of low-cost or no-cost active learning pedagogies that facilitate student learning in redesigned general education? How have campuses developed high-impact practices within general education with little or no new resource allocation?
- How are state systems and 2-year and 4-year institutions partnering to design general education models that span multiple institutions?
- How are newer general education models being explicit about the role of cross-cutting outcomes and multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary perspectives within the overall educational experience, especially with students? How might academic advising and orientation programs promote and facilitate the learning outcomes articulated in general education “3.0”?
Faculty Engagement in General Education. This theme addresses how campuses can generate faculty interest in, and support of, general education reform and teaching.
- What would attract faculty to want to teach in general education? How can general education become a laboratory for innovative teaching and learning, partnerships, and cross-disciplinary collaboration?
- What challenges exist vis-à-vis faculty investment in general education across the disciplines? How have campuses addressed these challenges?
- How are campuses engaging different groups of faculty (e.g., early/middle/late career faculty, faculty from arts & sciences and professional programs) in general education? What particularly have campuses done to help meaningfully engage contingent and part-time faculty in general education reform and teaching?
- What kinds of programs, structures, and rewards (e.g., faculty development, faculty learning communities, mini-grants) support faculty involvement in general education design? How can programs, structures, and rewards help equip faculty to teach toward broader or cross-cutting outcomes?
- How are faculty being supported to reinforce broad learning outcomes in the majors as well as disciplinary knowledge and skills in general education?
Assessment to Document Achievement and Deepen Learning at Multiple Levels. This theme focuses on designing and implementing robust assessment mechanisms to help students chart their own progress and to inform learning-centered educational change.
- What are the cutting-edge ways in which campuses are assessing student learning in general education? In particular, what new methods are campuses employing to assess more “ineffable” outcomes like critical thinking, ethical reasoning, civic engagement, and global and intercultural learning?
- How are campuses effectively “closing the loop” by using data to guide curricular and co-curricular improvements and alignment?
- How are campuses tying assessment of student learning to program evaluation, campus climate assessment, and other forms of institutional self-reflection? How are campuses “packaging” findings for use in local contexts (e.g., program improvement) as well as for use with broader audiences (e.g., accreditors, legislators, parents, etc.)?
- Given all of the attention placed on assessment in recent years, what is the story that campuses can tell about student learning and educational practice at this moment? What seems to be working? Where is there work left to do?
- What kinds of assessments are helping campuses fulfill their commitment to the public good as well as to individual student gains?
Institutional Leadership and Capacity for Learning-Centered Reform. This theme highlights how institutions have carried out successful general education reform, sustained and scaled-up changes, and developed a campus culture where general education and cross-cutting learning outcomes are valued across different constituents.
- What kinds of processes have campuses undertaken to avoid “gen. ed. battles” and build consensus and trust around general education reform?
- What kinds of leadership models (e.g., centralized/decentralized, temporary committee/permanent director) make sense for general education reform at different types of institutions?
- How are campuses creatively financing and supporting general education programs in a time of restricted resources? In what ways have campuses used the economic downturn to focus reform and move it forward?
- How are campuses articulating the value of general education to students, to faculty, and to key external groups, such as parents and legislators? What evidence can help demonstrate the value of general education?
- How have campuses worked to ensure that general education revisions withstand common challenges (e.g., leadership turnover, fluctuations in resources) so that reform is sustained into the future?
Session Formats
There are four session formats from which to choose: (1) Hands-On Workshop, (2) Promising Practices/Rubric Analysis, (3) Poster Demonstration, and (4) Facilitated Discussion. Please select the format that will advance participants’ understanding and potential use of your work.
One way to effectively engage participants across the different formats is to have them explore ways to apply your information and resources to their own institutional and professional settings.
In an effort to conserve resources, applicants are asked to minimize the use of audio visual equipment and extensive handouts. Electronic resources will be provided to participants both before and after the conference.
Format 1: Hands-On Workshop (90 min.; 2-3 facilitators; room set in round tables)
Workshops provide an opportunity for the facilitators to significantly engage participants in active learning about the session topic. Workshops should begin with a brief framing of the topic and an overview of intended activities and goals for the session. Facilitators should introduce one or more models or strategies employed in their own work and provide data/findings related to the topic, benchmarks for success, common challenges, and practical examples that enhance participants’ learning. Facilitators should specifically take participants through one or more relevant exercises or activities (including in small groups) that will help them to move their own efforts forward upon returning to campus.
All sessions should include discussion of how participants might translate and adapt models and strategies to their institutional and professional settings. If the workshop is better suited to a particular type of institution (e.g., community college, research university) or level of expertise (novice, intermediate, advanced), please make that clear.
Hands-On Workshop proposals should:
- state the conference theme you have selected
- state the subject that your workshop addresses
- indicate how models or strategies that you plan to share have effectively addressed the matter
- describe the intended activities and outcomes of your session, noting how the activities will help participants achieve the outcomes
- describe the aspects of your work that can be applied to one or more sectors of higher education (i.e., large universities, liberal arts colleges, comprehensive institutions, community colleges)
- describe the level to which your session is geared (novice or advanced)
- include links to relevant Web sites or attachments of materials you will share, if available
- include time for participants to discuss how your models and strategies might translate to their own campus contexts and roles
Format 2: Promising Practices/Rubrics Analysis (75 min.; 2-3 facilitators; room set in round tables)
This session should allow for (a) 15-20 minutes for facilitators to describe the promising practice, rubric, or other innovation; (b) 35-40 minutes to work through practical applications of this work (e.g., to participant’s own work or cross campus integration); and (c) 15-20 minutes for general participant questions-and-answers. Promising practices should describe the vision, outcomes, challenges, and concrete examples and strategies for effecting change. Data, findings, and applications should be presented in ways that are accessible to participants and allow them to discuss implications. Rubric-focused proposals should briefly describe the tool, how it can be used, strategies for implementation and plans for using the data for assessing its effectiveness and advancing student learning.
NOTE: All sessions should engage participants in thinking about how they might translate and adapt the promising practice/rubric to their own institutional and professional settings. Facilitators are also welcome to solicit feedback that would inform their work. If the session is better suited to a particular department, program, discipline or level of expertise (novice, intermediate, advanced), please make that clear.
Promising Practice/Rubric Analysis proposals should:
- state the conference theme you have selected
- describe the promising practice or rubric
- describe briefly the methodology, goals, challenges, and strategies for overcoming challenges
- provide visual means of presenting practices, rubrics, and applications
- include links to relevant Web sites or attachments of materials you will share, if available
- include time throughout the session for participants to discuss the implications of the practice or rubric and practical applications
Format 3: Poster Sessions (60 min.; 1-2 facilitators; 6’x3’ skirted table; no internet access; electrical outlet and other supports as available, upon request)
Poster sessions lend themselves well to combining visual displays of key information with written materials and small group interaction to create a more individualized learning experience. These sessions provide an opportunity for you to share your work with the full conference audience, and they are a valuable way to initiate conversations with colleagues with similar interests. These sessions can include 3’x 4’ boards to display charts, diagrams, pictures, and/or graphs that depict program components, findings, samples of student work, participant testimony, and so on. You may also wish to present information through technological means or other types of visual displays that can be set-up on the 6’x3’ table provided.
Poster Session proposals should:
- state the conference theme you have selected
- state the problem or issue that your display will address
- indicate how your work has effectively addressed the issue
- describe the visual data, display, etc. that you will provide
- indicate how the data or information will be useful to a particular or multiple sectors of higher education
- include links to relevant Web sites or attachments of materials you will share, if available
- include students or student perspectives where relevant
NOTE: Our ability to provide technical assistance is limited, but if you have a project for which you need such assistance, we are happy to explore options with you. Poster boards are provided upon request.
Format 4: Facilitated Discussions (60 min.; 1-2 facilitators; room set in round tables; no audio-visual)
Facilitated discussions provide time for colleagues to share expertise and experiences on a topic of similar interest. They provide a valuable opportunity to network and reflect upon ideas, challenges, and possible solutions in a slightly more informal setting. Facilitated discussions may take one of the following approaches:
- Topical discussion: The facilitator briefly presents information on a topic related to one of the conference themes and assists the group in examining issues of concern and new ways of thinking about the topic.
- Practice/strategy discussion: The facilitator prefaces the discussion with a brief overview of a particular practice or strategy she/he is using and provides a handout that includes a longer description as well as a bibliography or other resources. She/he can then pose or invite a question to stimulate and focus the conversation so that others can share their own experiences using the particular practice or strategy.
Facilitated Discussion proposals should:
- state the conference theme you have selected
- describe the topic or practice/strategy that you will present for discussion and why it is important to address this issue
- indicate your experience in the topic area or in using the practice/strategy (including relevant theory, goals or purpose of the topic or practice being discussed, benchmarks of success, challenges, and findings, where applicable)
- indicate the outcomes participants should expect from the discussion and examples of how you will prompt and sustain conversation to achieve those outcomes
- include links to relevant Web sites or electronic copies of the materials you will share (electronic copies of materials can be provided later)
- include students or student perspectives where relevant
Become a LEAP Featured Session in the Conference Program
LEAP Featured Sessions are those that reflect the LEAP vision of a 21st century liberal education. The designation is intended to (1) highlight the innovative work of colleges and universities that are members of the LEAP Campus Action Network (CAN) and (2) shine a spotlight on the LEAP essential learning outcomes, principles of excellence, and related high-impact practices described in the 2007 report, College Learning for the New Global Century.
CAN is the campus-focused strand of the LEAP initiative, bringing together colleges, universities, and organizations committed to liberal education; helping them to improve their efforts to ensure that all students achieve essential outcomes; and highlighting their effective practices.
Any type of session—hands-on workshop, poster, or facilitated discussion—can be designated as a LEAP Featured Session in the conference program. If you would like your session to be considered for this designation, please review the eligibility section and session example, below. You will be able to check this option in the online proposal submission form.
Eligibility
- Session presenters must be from CAN member institutions. (To find out if your campus is a member, or to find out about signing up for CAN, click here.)
- Session proposals should refer to LEAP and directly address: (1) one or more of the LEAP essential learning outcomes and (2) one or more of the LEAP principles of excellence or high-impact practices identified as mechanisms for achieving the essential learning outcomes.
- Session proposals should explicitly state how the facilitators will weave LEAP elements directly into a session’s framing, discussion, or activities.
- Preference will be given to sessions that address how the campus practice/strategy engages a significant number of students or can be scaled to engage a significant number of students, particularly those students historically underserved by higher education.
LEAP Featured Session Example:
Giving Students a Compass: Making Liberal Education Explicit to First-Year Students
Institutions need to be much more intentional and explicit about the kinds of learning they seek to develop in their students. This session will describe a new initiative to orient all students in first-year seminars to Anywhere University’s campus-wide learning goals, which were developed using the LEAP essential learning framework. Students in the seminars now discuss and debate the University’s outcomes and are introduced to our e-portfolio system, which is keyed to these outcomes. In the session, the facilitator will first describe the alignment between our University’s outcomes and the LEAP essential outcomes, and then take participants through several of the activities used with first-year students to explore these outcomes. Participants will also review examples of student essays on the meaning of liberal education, which is the first “artifact” deposited into the e-portfolios, and consider how they might implement this kind of orientation at their own institutions.
About LEAP
Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) is AAC&U’s primary vehicle for advancing and communicating about the importance of undergraduate liberal education for all students. LEAP seeks to engage the public with core questions about what really matters in college, to give students a compass to guide their learning, and to make a set of essential learning outcomes the preferred framework for educational excellence, assessment of learning, and new alignments between school and college. For more information, click here.
Writing a Strong Proposal
The proposal should consist of a session title, a brief abstract, and a longer session description accompanied by presenter names, titles, and institutional/organizational affiliations. Your proposal should be clear and concise and your session title should accurately reflect your session content. Experts in the field and AAC&U staff will review all proposals. Reviewers will look favorably upon proposals that (1) offer practical models and/or innovative strategies that reflect one of the conference themes, (2) reflect sound theory or research, (3) include findings from evaluation and assessment, (4) identify the intended audience and active learning goals for the session (including what attendees will gain from going to the session), and (5) reflect a diversity of innovations, institutions, disciplines, programmatic areas, and individuals. Joint submissions from across campuses and campus-community partners are also encouraged, and we particularly welcome student perspectives on the featured models and strategies.
Tips
- Consider how your work might be useful to individuals at different types of institutions and/or those serving different student populations.
- Indicate if your session will: (1) combine the work of more than one institution, (2) illustrate perspectives of different organizational roles (e.g., faculty, department chairs, student affairs personnel, academic advisors, librarians, students), or (3) focus on a specific audience.
- Include facilitators who bring diverse perspectives and life experiences to the topic or issue your proposal addresses. AAC&U is committed to presenting conferences where sessions and the communities of participants reflect the diversity of our campuses.
- Show how your session will be interactive. AAC&U Network conferences strive to engage participants in reflection, discussion and application activities during sessions. Please do not plan to read a paper.
- Provide a clear sense of how your session will unfold and be prepared to discuss what worked, what did not, and how you addressed challenges along the way.
- “Show and tell” submissions that have little or no applicability to other institutions will not be considered.
- Present work that has proven effective and is well beyond the planning stages.
Below is a sample session title and abstract that clearly states the issue to be explored, provides supporting evidence, and discusses what participants should expect from their attendance. Your longer session description should provide greater detail about these aspects of the session.
Searching for Faculty of Color and Sustaining their Presence on Campus
Recent studies have shown that institutional context affects not only searches for faculty of color but also the socialization processes through which these faculty members negotiate their own cultural backgrounds alongside newly forged identities within the academy. In this session, the facilitators will: (a) highlight emerging practices at institutions that successfully recruit and sustain faculty of color; (b) recommend strategies for institutions to increase the presence of faculty of color; and (c) share a set of socialization experiences of linguistic-minority women faculty. Participants will explore implications for creating a “multi-contextual” campus culture that validates the importance of different ways of thinking and learning, and they will share their own institutional experiences and promising strategies related to the recruitment and success of faculty of color.
How to Submit a Proposal
Proposals should be submitted via online form. The deadline for proposal submission is June 30, 2010. Please direct any questions to annand@aacu.org.
Notification
You should receive an automatic message indicating receipt of your proposal when submitted. If you do not receive this message, we may not have received your proposal. Please e-mail Siah Annand at Annand@aacu.org to confirm receipt of proposal.
Acceptance
You will receive notification about the status of your proposal by early August.
Registration Fees
All session facilitators at the conference are responsible for the appropriate conference registration fees, travel, and hotel expenses. Please be sure all individuals in your proposal have this information and can be available to present at any time throughout the event. Presentation times range from Thursday, March 3, 2011 beginning at 8:30 p.m. through Saturday, March 5 at 12:00 noon.
Resources for Attendees of Your Session
Conference participants like to have resource materials to help them implement and/or share new ideas when they return to campus. In an effort to conserve natural resources, and increase the potential for active participation in your session, we strongly encourage facilitators to provide us with online resources one month in advance of the conference.
If your proposal pertains to a project, program, course, or other feature for which there is (or will be) descriptive materials available on the Web or electronically, please provide the URL address or e-document with your proposal, (or when they become available before the conference). AAC&U’s Web site will include these links when we post the program. After the conference, all presenters will be asked to provide additional electronic resources to make available to conference participants.
Final Reminders
Please complete all fields including information pertaining to all additional facilitators.
- Please include links to supplemental materials, if available.
- Please remember that by submitting a proposal, you agree to:
- Register and pay conference fees if the proposal is accepted
- Inform your co-facilitators about the proposal’s status and the need for all facilitators to pay the conference registration fees and be available throughout the event to present your work as scheduled.
Dates to Remember
- June 30, 2010: Proposals due to AAC&U
- Early August: Proposal acceptance notification
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