Development Opportunities

Network for Academic Renewal: General Education and Assessment 3.0: Next-Level Practices Now

Sponsored by: AAC&U
Date: Thursday, March 3, 2011 - Saturday, March 5, 2011
Registration Deadline: March 3, 2011
Location: Westin Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Even in challenging financial times, colleges and universities must continue to help students develop the kind of innovative, “big-picture” thinking and creative problem-solving skills that excellent general education programs foster. AAC&U’s 2011 conference, General Education and Assessment 3.0: Next-Level Practices Now will help campus leaders do this, focusing on innovative and purposeful approaches to designing and financing general education and assessment.

Colleges and universities of all sizes and types are facing increasing pressure—from legislators, trustees, and the broader public—to reduce spending and curb tuition increases while also improving graduation rates and “time to degree.” Most recently, these demands have coalesced into calls to shorten the educational experience for students, by combining high school and college study or by reducing time spent in college. Not surprisingly, most calls for ‘shrinkage’ focus on the early part of college, traditionally the purview of general education.

At the same time, employers are calling on colleges and universities to help students excel in areas of innovation, creativity, and technology. Civic leaders are looking to colleges and universities to help educate students for active participation in a diverse democracy. Both groups are seeking graduates who are ethically astute, morally grounded, collaborative problem-solvers open to learning new perspectives. Students themselves express keen interest in solving some of the world’s thorniest problems, from poverty to pollution to pandemics.

In the face of pressure to do things “faster and cheaper,” colleges and universities will need similar big-picture thinking and problem-solving to address real concerns about cost and completion without sacrificing the broader learning that, combined with students’ chosen majors, form a robust, integrative liberal education.

The conference will feature a special forum, Pushing Back on the Push to Downsize College, which will engage representatives from key external “publics”—including legislators, funders, and policy experts—about the critical issues of college cost and completion rates and the concomitant drive to downsize college. At a time when more and more students, including large numbers of historically underserved students, are enrolling in college, it is worth examining the push to shrink the college experience and frame these strategies in a larger conversation about educational quality and meaningful access to opportunity.

The audience for the 2011 conference includes newcomers to, and veterans of, innovative general education reform and assessments that deepen learning. Faculty, student affairs educators, administrators, students, and others are invited to shape a national dialogue about the value of general education and to demonstrate its impact on student learning in the college years.

For more information, including the call for proposals, please visit the conference website, call 202-387-3760 or write to network@aacu.org.

• View Additional Information on the Network for Academic Renewal: General Education and Assessment 3.0: Next-Level Practices Now Development Opportunity

Call for Proposals

Proposals are invited for conference sessions highlighting “next-level” models and practices in general education and assessment that strengthen student learning of essential outcomes.

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 order to support faculty, student affairs educators, administrators and others who are new to general education redesign and assessment as well as those who are further along with reform or looking to close the loop to improve student learning with assessment data, applicants are asked to indicate whether their proposed session is geared toward NOVICE or ADVANCED levels.

• Sessions designed for NOVICE practitioners would address, for example, issues of start-up, communication and collaboration, initial funding and other forms of support, design and implementation of programs, and planning and assessment.
• Sessions designed for ADVANCED practitioners would address, for example, issues of scale-up, sustaining funding and other forms of support, broadening participation (among students, departments, etc.), institutionalization of the practice, and continuous cycles of planning, assessment, and improvement.

• 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.

How to Submit a Proposal
Proposals should be submitted online. The deadline for proposal submission is June 30, 2010. Proposal acceptance notification will take place in early August. Please direct any questions to annand@aacu.org.

Submission Deadline Wednesday, June 30, 2010

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