AAC&U Conference
Chicago, March 3-5, 2011
Session notes prepared by Kim Jarvis
1. Learner Centered Assessment (Virginia Tech)
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Virginia Tech offers grants for faculty to use for assessment projects. These projects are
seen as scholarship, as a way to engage faculty in assessment, and as a way to
demonstrate the usefulness of assessment to faculty.
Effective assessment will align course outcomes, content, and context. It will reference
students’ prior knowledge and experience, institutional strategies and resources, and be
geared towards institutional improvement and accountability.
Use e-portfolios as an opportunity for students to collect information, to select what are
the best representations of their work, to reflect on that work, and to connect their work to
their education as a whole. The English department at Virginia Tech requires an eportfolio of all students and has created a detailed how-to guide that students receive as
early as their first year; students in the master’s in education program develop a
comprehensive portfolio for their program and for certification. The challenges of eportfolios include the cost of software programs; in order to create an effective program,
it will be necessary to develop an evaluation process that guides students through the
portfolio development process and provides guidelines for faculty evaluation of portfolio
materials as well. Virginia Tech started with a pilot program.
2. University of Chicago’s Core
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The Core was first implemented in the 1930s. The courses that were part of the Core
needed to be completed before major courses were started and therefore were limited to
the first and second year only.
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Chicago is on a quarter system and students take seminar-style Core courses from a range
of disciplines: humanities, the arts, social sciences, natural sciences and mathematics.
While first-year students may begin courses in their major, seniors are not allowed to take
Core courses. Faculty who teach Core courses meet once a week.
3. Fostering Faculty Engagement with General Education (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
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Encourage faculty investment in general education by integrating outcomes into a range
of courses (example: teach writing within disciplines).
Assessment of general education program includes how it reflects the identity of the
campus.
4. Visioning General Education for the 21st Century
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Questions to ask: what does it mean to be a graduate of your particular college and what
do you want your students to be?
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Make sure to link proposed changes to mission statement, strategic plan, accreditation
requirements, and to other campus initiatives; determine the impact of changes on
existing policies and procedures.
Engage faculty in the process; provide a roadmap/timeline that addresses goals and
outcomes to ensure that resources are committed and in place to support changes.
Value of general education program needs to be promoted and supported on campus.
Evaluate general education programs often (every 4-5 years) – avoid letting the general
education program get too static.
5. Building a Better Capstone Course: Assessing Writing and Learning (Bates College and
California State University Monterey Bay)
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At Bates College: capstone course is the last of a three course writing sequence. 98% of
seniors complete a senior thesis, which is the focus of the capstone course.
As part of a pilot study, Bates evaluated senior thesis program in Anthropology major,
aligning program and learning goals.
Monterey Bay evaluated the business major capstone course, where students were
introduced to business writing for the first time in a significant way. Other courses in the
major needed to include writing to make sure that students were developing writing skills
as they went along and not waiting until the capstone course to do so.
6. Give Students, and Faculty, a Compass (St. Joseph’s College, IN)
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Core courses taken over four years (quarter system). First year begins with contemporary
issues (United States) and modern world issues.
Courses are interdisciplinary (taught by multiple faculty) with two lecture session and
one discussion section each week.
Courses integrate a sense of community, of awareness, of values and moral reasoning, as
well as working towards the development and refinement of research, communication,
and critical thinking skills.
Students and faculty alike are aware of the intentional development of skills from course
to course.
Faculty work in teams (one for each core area); participation in core courses counts as
one three credit course; 80% of St. Joseph’s faculty participate in core program.