(Apologies in advance for the length of this post and for "preaching to the choir" J.)
For the last two and half years, I've served as the director for Penn State's office of Student Affairs Research and Assessment. On May 1st, I'll be starting a new adventure as a Senior Planning and Research Associate in Penn State's Office of Planning and Institutional Assessment. I am really looking forward to the chance to work in this office and to collaborate with old friends, but the change has also led me to reflect on what I have learned in Student Affairs.
I am not a natural "student affairs" type. As an undergraduate student I lived in a residence hall for only a few months, was never active in student organizations, and just generally didn't get involved in university-sponsored events outside of my academic major. As a student and researcher of higher education, I learned to value student affairs based on the research findings I studied that extolled the influence of cocurricular experiences (thanks Bob R. and Pat T.!) and on my interactions with friends and colleagues with student affairs backgrounds (thanks Jen D-G. and Emily J.!). But until I worked in Student Affairs and saw how hard its practitioners work, how closely they interact with students (many of whom will never have an extended conversation with a faculty member), how much they care, how much of themselves they give to their jobs, and how much students get out of the work that they do, I just didn't get it.
Student Affairs practitioners work to develop attitudes and skills that are important in developing the "whole student", but that doesn't mean that these are simply add-ons to the main academic goals of the university. In what discipline or what office are skills like leadership, teamwork, and ethical decision making not important? What workplace wants to hire a person with unhealthy habits that lead to excessive sick days and low energy? In what community are people who live sustainable lifestyles or become involved in community government and organizations not valued? Student affairs programs and staff are not just there to provide something productive for students to turn their energy towards between classes on the weekends - they are a key part of the learning experience in American higher education. Students may not know what "student affairs" is exactly, but if you ask a college graduate about the people that had the greatest influence on their educational experience, chances are a student affairs practitioner's name will come up.
Over the last couple of weeks, I've had the pleasure of watching the capstone presentations of graduating students in Penn State's College Student Affairs (CSA) program. What an amazing group of graduates! The CSA program is designed to bridge theory and practice and it requires/forces students to constantly reflect on their learning and their experiences to make the connections. Watching them inspired me and it reminded me how important and meaningful it can be to give one's self time to reflect. I hope that I will take that lesson with me to my new job and that I won't forget it again when things get busy in the future. Even though I will always be more at home on the analytical side, I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to engage so closely with student affairs practitioners and to have had the chance to observe first-hand how important they are in the academic enterprise.
Recently, I attended an excellent NASPA webinar entitled Powerful Data: The benefits of Direct Assessment in Student Affairs. Presenters Nathan Lindsay, Aimee Hourigan, and Jenn Smist did a great job of providing concrete examples that take some of the intimidation factor out of direct assessment.
Direct assessment is based on analysis of student behavior or artifacts (tests, papers, etc.) that demonstrate students' skills and abilities. Indirect assessment is based on reported perceptions of students' skills and abilities. So, for example, a Pulse survey that asks students to rate their ability to communicate effectively is an indirect assessment, and an evaluator's score of a student's presentation is a direct assessment.
But, only faculty can do direct assessment, right? Wrong! Admittedly it is easier to do direct assessment when you can require students to do something in order to pass a class, but it isn't impossible to do outside of the classroom. Let's start with the low-hanging fruit - those Student Affairs programs in which students are already required to meet certain requirements in order to participate. For example, resident assistants, peer educators, student employees, and student organization leaders all have to meet certain requirements in order to hold their positions. Direct assessment can be incorporated into these requirements. For example, peer educators need to have certain knowledge in order to do what they do effectively. A simple knowledge-based quiz administered before their training and after their training can provide direct evidence of knowledge gained. Further, you can go the extra mile and give them the quiz 3 months down the line to provide direct evidence of knowledge retention over time.
If you want to do direct assessment of an educational program or some other activity where you want to minimize student "work" in order to maximize student participation, you have some other options. For example, students are frequently asked to provide feedback about events via a short survey. It is possible to insert one or two questions (closed- or open-ended questions) that ask students to demonstrate what they learned or how a program affected their perspective. I believe it was Aimee who talked about this and when I inquired, she indicated that in her experience students were willing to complete these questions as long as they could be answered quickly and concisely.
Okay, but what if I want to assess higher-level skills, such as leadership ability among student organization leaders? Well, first you need to define the critical components of leadership ability. That's no small job, but you have some options. You might develop a rubric that could be used to do a 360-degree evaluation of a student leader. Members of the student organization, the organization's adviser, and other key people who interact with the leader might be asked to provide feedback using the rubric. Another option would be to require your student leaders to participate in reflective writing - probably not possible for every club president at Penn State, but perhaps with a few key leaders or with a group of RAs or peer educators you could make this work. For students that maintain an online portfolio, reflective writing about their experiences and learning can provide artifacts.
These are just a few ideas to get you thinking. What I took away from this session is that the key to direct assessment in Student Affairs is to focus in very tightly on critical or essential knowledge. This will help keep the task manageable.
Recently, I attended an excellent NASPA webinar entitled Powerful Data: The benefits of Direct Assessment in Student Affairs. Presenters Nathan Lindsay, Aimee Hourigan, and Jenn Smist did a great job of providing concrete examples that take some of the intimidation factor out of direct assessment.
Direct assessment is based on analysis of student behavior or artifacts (tests, papers, etc.) that demonstrate students' skills and abilities. Indirect assessment is based on reported perceptions of students' skills and abilities. So, for example, a Pulse survey that asks students to rate their ability to communicate effectively is an indirect assessment, and an evaluator's score of a student's presentation is a direct assessment.
But, only faculty can do direct assessment, right? Wrong! Admittedly it is easier to do direct assessment when you can require students to do something in order to pass a class, but it isn't impossible to do outside of the classroom. Let's start with the low-hanging fruit - those Student Affairs programs in which students are already required to meet certain requirements in order to participate. For example, resident assistants, peer educators, student employees, and student organization leaders all have to meet certain requirements in order to hold their positions. Direct assessment can be incorporated into these requirements. For example, peer educators need to have certain knowledge in order to do what they do effectively. A simple knowledge-based quiz administered before their training and after their training can provide direct evidence of knowledge gained. Further, you can go the extra mile and give them the quiz 3 months down the line to provide direct evidence of knowledge retention over time.
If you want to do direct assessment of an educational program or some other activity where you want to minimize student "work" in order to maximize student participation, you have some other options. For example, students are frequently asked to provide feedback about events via a short survey. It is possible to insert one or two questions (closed- or open-ended questions) that ask students to demonstrate what they learned or how a program affected their perspective. I believe it was Aimee who talked about this and when I inquired, she indicated that in her experience students were willing to complete these questions as long as they could be answered quickly and concisely.
Okay, but what if I want to assess higher-level skills, such as leadership ability among student organization leaders? Well, first you need to define the critical components of leadership ability. That's no small job, but you have some options. You might develop a rubric that could be used to do a 360-degree evaluation of a student leader. Members of the student organization, the organization's adviser, and other key people who interact with the leader might be asked to provide feedback using the rubric. Another option would be to require your student leaders to participate in reflective writing - probably not possible for every club president at Penn State, but perhaps with a few key leaders or with a group of RAs or peer educators you could make this work. For students that maintain an online portfolio, reflective writing about their experiences and learning can provide artifacts.
These are just a few ideas to get you thinking. What I took away from this session is that the key to direct assessment in Student Affairs is to focus in very tightly on critical or essential knowledge. This will help keep the task manageable.
At the last Cocurricular Learning Group meeting on Friday, March 23rd, Brianna Serrano presented the topic of Social Networking: Student Affairs Marketing.
I recently read an article in the Journal of Higher Education published in 2009 titled "Engaging with Difference Matters: Longitudinal College Outcomes of 25 Co-Curricular Service-Learning Programs." Among the findings that Keen and Hall reported was evidence that reflective writing guided by staff input added value to student learning during a formal service learning experience.
The program studied is one sponsored by the Bonner Foundation and the study measured the impact of a service learning program in a cocurricular setting. At Penn State, a service learning task force is soon likely to define 'service learning' as only possible within the context of the curriculum in a formal, classroom setting, but this study shows that a well-structured co-curricular setting can be effective as well.
It is noted in the article that service learning is often defined as having a curricular setting:
The National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (2005) defined service-learning as a "...teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities."
But the authors go on to point out the proven value of constructing service learning experiences in out-of-class settings as well:
A frequent tendency in the field is to use the phrase service-learning and assume the reference is to academic service-learning based in coursework. Giles and Eyler's (1999) seminal study of programs that linked academic study with service acknowledged the value of co-curricular learning and, in defining service-learning, also mentioned "non-course-based programs that include a reflective component and learning goals" (p. 5).
For more see: http://www.bonner.org/resources/assessment/EngagingWithDifference.pdf
For those interested in more information about using "clickers in your workshops", here is an announcement from the ITS Training Services listserv.
Faculty and staff interested in getting the most out of in-class use of student response systems (clickers) are invited to register for a clicker pedagogy workshop titled "Clickers in the Classroom: Pedagogical Best Practices" to be held November
9 at Foster Auditorium in Paterno Library from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The main speaker at the workshop will be Dr. Roger Freedman, Ph.D., lecturer in
physics at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). Several Penn State
faculty members who use clickers in their classes will also be on-hand to
discuss their use of technology and to answer any clicker implementation
questions from the audience. Among the subjects the workshop will cover are the following:
Writing good clicker questions
Utilizing "peer instruction" and other types of questions
Do's and don'ts when implementing clickers
Giving points for answering questions
At UCSB, Dr. Freedman has taught in both the Department of Physics and the College of Creative Studies, a branch of the university intended for highly gifted and
motivated undergraduates. He has published research in nuclear physics,
elementary particle physics, and laser physics. In recent years, he has helped
to develop computer-based tools for learning introductory physics and astronomy
and helped pioneer the use of classroom response systems and the "flipped"
classroom model at UCSB. He is co-author of three introductory textbooks:
"University Physics", "Universe", and "Investigating Astronomy".
To register and for more information, please go to: https://register4its.psu.edu/Public/ShowDetail.asp?scheduleid=109546.
Refreshments will be available after the presentation in Mann Assembly Room
located next to Foster Auditorium.
I am working on a survey designed to provide information about how students perceive their place in the larger State College community. One of the questions I am tweaking (which I borrowed from another survey - thank you, UNC Wilmington!), asks students to rate their level of agreement with the following statement: "I actively demonstrate respect for my peers". This seems pretty vague to me - how does one "actively demonstrate respect"? Perhaps it's in the "I know it when I see it" category? But I delved into the source of all information - Google - to explore this question. In my wanderings, I found a fairly simple list that I thought was a good start and it reminded me that I am not always the person I want to be when I don't model the examples on the list. Anyway, I thought I'd share the link: 10 Ways to Show Respect.
A colleague mentioned today that Mozilla had just announced an
Open Badges Project whereby people could earn 'badges' for significant
efforts in various areas of performance or learning. I thought right away of Student
Affairs using this as a strategy to find a way to package and 'certify' that a student had completed a significant experience
in some cocurricular outcome area.
Could something like this get more students involved than are involved already? Or, would it provide another level of motivation for those that are already involved?
Below are the next sessions for our Meeting@PennState
(Adobe Connect) demonstrations. The demonstrators plan to highlight the
simplified interface of the new version of Adobe Connect, including our recent
service pack upgrade, while displaying the standard features.No registration or RSVP necessary.
*Tuesday, July 12, 2011, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
*Monday, July 18, 2011, 1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
*Wednesday, July 27, 2011, 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Please come when you like, learn about the new enhanced
features, learn about different ways to use Meeting@PennState, and ask
questions.Feel free to pass this on to
friends and colleagues. Members of the Penn State community can arrange for an
on-site demonstration by contacting your ITS Consultant (https://myit.vmhost.psu.edu/node/72).
If you plan to join our demonstration sessions through
Meeting@PennState, please read through the Adobe Connect Version 8 information
at http://kb.its.psu.edu/meeting
and test your connection in advance with our generic test meeting room at https://meeting.psu.edu/testmeetingroom/.
If you have any questions or problems entering the test
meeting room, help is available by emailing meeting@psu.edu.
To help the Penn
State community transition to the latest version of Adobe Connect, which was
implemented in May 2011, several workshops have been added to the summer
training lineup. These sessions will highlight the new and improved features of
Adobe Connect 8 and provide best practices for using Adobe Connect to
facilitate meetings. Recordings of the sessions will be available at http://its.psu.edu/training/learnonline/
after the live sessions have run.
Other
resources available to the Penn State community include "Adobe Connect
Essential Training" on lynda.com (free to Penn State via http://its.psu.edu/training/lynda/)
and the Adobe Connect 8 section of the ITS Knowledge Base at http://kb.its.psu.edu/Meeting. ;
Title:
What's new in Adobe Connect Version 8
Date: July
14, 2011
Time: 1:
00-2:00 p.m. (Meeting opens at 12:45 p.m.)
Description:
This workshop will show you what's new in the latest version of Adobe's web
collaboration technology. With the release of Connect 8, Adobe's web
collaboration technology has taken a big step forward in both ease-of-use and
capability. In this session, you will see the new and improved features Adobe
Connect 8 has to offer. This workshop is intended for people transitioning to
the new version of Adobe Connect.
Objectives:
• Explore
new User Interface (UI) designed to make it easier for the absolute beginner to
take part in a virtual meeting
• View drag
and drop features that make it faster and more efficient to manage users
• Discover
new text and drawing features that allow for more precise communications
• Explore
how to use layouts to both manage a collection of meeting pods and to control
the flow of a meeting
Title: What
to Consider When Facilitating Meetings Using Adobe Connect (Lunchtime Session)
(via Adobe Connect)
Date: August
10, 2011
Time: Noon -
1:00 p.m. (Meeting opens at 12:45 p.m.)
Description:
Participants will discuss the unique considerations involved in facilitating
meetings using Adobe Connect, as opposed to other methods, such as face-to-face
or videoconferencing. Included in this discussion will be Adobe Connect meeting
configurations and best practices. Participants are welcome to share their
information and experiences during the session.
Objectives:
• Describe
the differences between Adobe Connect, face-to-face meeting, and
videoconferencing
• Summarize
the shared experiences in using Adobe Connect
Despite the number of large lecture courses we offer, Penn State has been a little slow to catch on to the "clicker craze" (in my humble opinion). However, after completion of a recent pilot test, the University has decided to adopt i>clicker. Instructors will be given the devices and students will be asked (required??) to purchase them at $35-40. But the impact they can have by providing instant feedback to an instructor in a large classroom (or student affairs practitioner in a similar setting) is pretty amazing. Check out this short video from local sociology professor, Sam Richards.
I'm a member of the ASSESS (Assessment in Higher Education) listserv and lots of good stuff comes across this discussion forum. In particular, I love how willing people are to share examples of their work in order to save others from recreating the wheel. Today, a link came across the a University of Conecticut webpage entitled "Assessment Primer: Curriculum Mapping". For those of you who are struggling to make the connection between your program-level outcomes and your department/division/university-level outcomes, this page contains a very nice explanation, complete with some great visuals. The focus on this page is on course/dept/university learning outcomes, but the methods it describes are fully applicable in the Student Affairs realm.
I'm intrigued by the "Rockstar Nutritionist" Jill Jayne's educational methods. She presents information about nutrition (which she knows as a registered dietician) via songs she has developed as a rockstar. Jayne, Penn State class of 2004 presented a lecture "Debunk the Junk" at the State Theatre last Thursday 3/31.
While I don't think I'll be able to present psychological information via a rock song I create (no talent here except maybe the "singing in the shower" variety), Jayne's work is a reminder to keep it simple and entertaining. As April Millet says "That's edutainment!" We all have to be able to "sing that tune" in order to get through to students, especially those who aren't already interested in our topics and messages.
If you want to learn more about Jayne's methods you can check out this link:
CAPS is participating as one of the presenting units along with Office of Disability Serives, Veterans Programs, Outreach and World Campus advisors, Financial Aid and Admissions in a system-wide live training using Adobe Connect as a way to provide an interactive workshop about Best Practices in the Recruitment and Retention of Veteran Students . The 5 session workshops will be conducted over a month long period and are open to all the campuses of Penn State. HRDC is assisting with technology practice sessions and providing a technology facilitator for sessions.
The Goal and Learning Objectives for the session about Disability and Psychological Support Services for Veteran Students (which CAPS and ODS are presenting) are:
Goal: To enable faculty and staff to recognize and respond to the needs of veteran students with physical and psychological issues and/or disabilities and to provide awareness of University and community resources and services.
Objectives: Upon completion of this seminar, participants will be able to:
Appreciate the common challenges facing veteran students who are transitioning from military experiences to civilian and academic life.
Recognize some common signs of veteran students in distress or experiencing a disability.
Identify university and community services and resources for referral and learn effective ways to make a referral.
This session will be offered on July 28, 2011 from 1:30-3.
This is my first blog entry and I am choosing to comment on Allison Subasic's entry because I like the idea of using this forum to communicate with each other.
During the summer Allison submitted a very interesting blog entry about a ruling by the Supreme Court that seems very promising as a trend for how religious groups in higher ed must be respectful of human rights issues for LGBT students and church members. I plan to pass this on to CAPS staff who I know will be interested in implications.
I recently attended the ACPA 2011 convention in Baltimore, MD, where I heard a number of interesting presentations.Three in particular stood out to me.The first, "Helping Students Discover 'the More': Pedagogies of Meaning-Making," presented by Michele Murray and Robert Nash, focused on the mentor/educator's role in guiding students toward purposeful living.Murray and Nash defined meaning as that which sustains, a sense of connection, a sense of purpose, deeply held values, and the "whys" for living. They identified a five-part cycle of meaning-making:1) I choose myself; 2) Choosing myself is scary; 3) I am not as free to choose as I thought; 4) I am becoming more cautious in my choices; and 5) I choose my meanings to the best of my ability and will try not to live a life of regret.While their research focuses mainly on "quarter-life" individuals, those in their teens and twenties, Murray and Nash noted that this cycle recurs throughout life.The presenters held up constructivist pedagogical practices as strategies for helping students develop reflective habits and a sense of purpose.These strategies include asking philosophical questions, connecting content to context, creating purposeful silence, tackling tough topics, and telling stories.
My first reaction to hearing these strategies was, "Yes, of course, these are common sense suggestions."So why is it so difficult to make room for such reflective practices when working with students?Some thoughts:The common view of education as a means to an end (a job) prevents many students and educators from engaging with the educational process as something of value in and of itself.We often do not take time to ask deeper questions -doing often takes precedence over reflecting, and it is easier to understand the "what" than the "why."It is too easy to devolve into a cable news-like screaming match when addressing tough topics without ground rules, so we avoid tough topics all together.Creating, allowing, and engaging with silence is incredibly difficult.We are used to constant stimulation and instant gratification; we do not know what to do with silence, so it makes us uncomfortable.Murray noted that silence is both "pause and process."It is in silence when we get to know ourselves better, but because silence is so hard to achieve and engage with fully, it is important to announce silence as a recognized time of reflection.To the last strategy, Nash said, "We need stories to survive."I tend to agree, and was reminded of narrative psychology, which holds that people make meaning of their lives by telling stories.
While Murray and Nash presented broad meaning-making concepts applicable across educational contexts, the other two presentations that stood out to me were narrower in focus. Paige Haber and Dan Tillapaugh presented on "Cultivating Student Learning Through Inquiry-Based and Student-Directed Approaches."They highlighted their experience teaching a leadership course focused on problem-based learning.Rather than give students a prescriptive and unchanging syllabus at the beginning of the course, they ask students to come up with their own readings and discussion topics, assignments, assessment methods, and course expectations.This educational agency creates a greater sense of engagement with the course material and fellow classmates.Through feedback and reflection, students gain a greater sense of self-awareness, and through the group process, students gain a broadening view of leadership.
Heather Wilhelm presented "Beyond Volunteerism: Facilitating Intercultural Maturity through Active Citizenship."Wilhelm linked intercultural maturity (King & Baxter Magolda, 2005) to the active citizen continuum through the lens of service-learning.Service-learning intentionally incorporates reflection to promote learning and development.Intercultural maturity incorporates cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal development into a three-tiered model of development.Moving through initial, intermediate, and mature levels, individuals learn to appreciate human differences, engage with diverse others in meaningful ways, and understand how individual and community practices affect social systems.In the active citizen continuum, individuals move through a four-stage model, starting with being a member not concerned with his/her/hir role in social problems to finally becoming an active citizen for whom community becomes important in values and life choices.During the presentation, audience members were encouraged to think about reflective questions one might ask students to promote development in both intercultural maturity and active citizenship.
I see the concepts highlighted in the latter presentations as ways of engaging with and expanding upon Murray and Nash's pedagogical strategies for making meaning.Although it might take more time to engage in these critical, reflective practices, the results--educational agency, engagement in pluralism, self-knowledge and a sense of purpose--are worth the effort.
Last Thursday, SARA presented the second session in our Spring 2011 Assessment Brown Bag series, entitled "To Survey of Not to Survey?" With the advent of web surveys (now an event of the long distant past by technology standards), surveys have become a pervasive part of our online existence. While surveys have many strengths, they also have significant weaknesses. The purpose of this session was to help participants think through whether a survey was the best tool for their assessment questions and if not, what other tools might better serve their needs. Materials from this brown bag can be accessed at http://studentaffairs.psu.edu/assessment/resources.shtml.
In case you were one of the few who missed it, or who couldn't squeeze into the packed room, Tuesday's Assessment Brown Bag "Writing Learning Outcomes" was well-attended by a very enthusiastic audience. Dr. Charles Brua, of the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellent, provided some very useful tips for writing learning outcomes and worked with participants on an activity designed to put those tips to good use.
Thirty-three people attended the session, including representatives from almost every unit in Student Affairs and CSA students. Of the 24 people who completed the session evaluation, 96% indicated that the session provided information that they would use in their work! One person wrote, "Thank you for this! We were able to think critically about our unit and some developmental opportunities."
A friend posted the following article to Twitter earlier today http://www.phillymag.com/articles/feature_is_it_just_us_or_are_kids_getting_really_stupid/page1. I was feeling burned out on what I was working on and needed a break, so I decided to give it a read. I don't think that there's anything necessarily ground breaking in the article, but the author did a great job of pulling a lot of ideas together that learning designers have come to understand at least in anecdotal ways for many years. In general, the article points out that today's kids are just different than kids of days gone by. Say what you will about the brain's physical structure and the synapses not changing (as some do), but something is different. Some broad ideas that I gleaned from the article about " today's kids" are:
They are wired differently.
They expect more faster.
They get bored easily.
They get distracted easily.
Not every kid fits the same mold.
As I read the article an example from my work came to mind. I believe I wrote about on my blog before. I piloted a new learning module on Basic Nutrition earlier this year. The feedback I received from some random students (18-24 years old) was that there were too many words to read, they wanted bullet points and they wanted more video and other animated visuals. Based on the ideas presented in this article, it makes sense why this is the feedback that I got. The information provided in the article and feedback like this will help inform my decisions on developing new learning modules in the future.
The following are a few things I changed based on that feedback. Some I am currently doing, others I am looking into how to do them.
Keep the modules a succinct as possible (add links to additional info for the curious)
Use short video segments for certain ideas
Use more visuals to convey ideas instead of words (most likely will require audio)
Segment the modules into much smaller chunks
Add module bookmarking
Reinforce ideas with activities more frequently versus Q&A at the end
Provide a text only option for the outliers
As 2010 ends, I must say that I learned a lot about learning design this year from my peers at Penn State and abroad through many different channels. Thank you everyone. I also learned from working with some great students on various project this year. From that experience, I'd have to say that our kids are not "getting really stupid." They just interact with the world and learn in much different ways than anyone before them and probably anyone after them too.
I was recently introduced to an interesting approach to program design and evaluation being practiced in the College of Engineering at Oklahoma State University. It may seem a little rigid for the average Student Affairs practitioner (they are engineers after all), but it is certainly interesting. I've pasted a blurb below, but it's worth checking out their web site at http://es21c.okstate.edu/resources/Engineering%20Taxonomy.html. They have developed quite a bit of material to assist those that want to use their approach.
"Do students in your program get the experiences that will help them develop into engineers? What is the balance between theory and application? Evaluating your program using a taxonomy can help you answer these questions. The resources below can help you to address these issues.
The Engineering Taxonomy is built from Bloom's Taxonomy. Although taxonomies, like any tool, can be misused, the Engineering Taxonomy is a tool that helps instructors learn about, frame, organize, and align learning outcomes in courses and programs. Taxonomies can be broadly applied to many courses since they are generally independent of specific curricular content. If you teach engineering, the material below can help you develop and evaluate enginering courses and programs."
For an interesting look at Penn State student organizations over the course of a hundred years, take a walk up to Pattee Library. This information is also available on live.psu.edu at http://live.psu.edu/story/49121
Exhibit, "Penn State Clubs: Then and Now"
Location: Main Exhibit Hall of Pattee Library
Details: "Penn State Clubs: Then and Now," an exhibit of images from the Penn State University Archives, is on display in the main exhibit hall of Pattee Library, October 8 through December 31st.
Today Penn State University Park students can choose to join from more than 850 clubs in 15 different areas of interest. Clubs and organizations give students the opportunity to interact with other students who have similar interests, develop intrapersonal skills, work together as a group, establish contacts for their careers and simply have fun.
However, Penn State once frowned upon the formation of clubs. Fraternities were forbidden and dancing was not allowed. In the time before President Atherton began his tenure in 1882, the only organizations allowed were the YMCA and Literary Societies.
But in 1887 student activities began to multiply--some of those clubs still exist, others like the literary clubs have gone for more than 100 years. Eating clubs, created to alleviate housing problems in Old Main, were the forerunners to fraternities that began to proliferate in the early 1900s.
Earlier this year, the results of a decade-long study of academic outcomes associated with study abroad experiences was published based on data collected from over 19,000 students in the University of Georgia system:
"In 2000, researchers began an ambitious effort to document the academic outcomes of study abroad across the 35-institution University System of Georgia. Ten years later, they've found that students who study abroad have improved academic performance upon returning to their home campus, higher graduation rates, and improved knowledge of cultural practices and context compared to students in control groups. They've also found that studying abroad helps, rather than hinders, academic performance of at-risk students." (source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/07/13/abroad )
I am actually struck by the fact that these findings don't really show the kind of high impact transformation that one would expect from experiences that often add significant expense to a student's education. And the findings don't speak at all to intentional learning outcomesbut rather to 'academic outcomes' -- after the fact findings about differences between those who studied abroad versus those who did not.
Intuitively, faculty who lead study abroad experiences often believe that the experiences are worthy and transformative - but it is not easy to find examples of programs that have very specific learning outcomes associated with them. I have come to believe that encouraging students to think and write reflectively about intended outcomes can also add powerfully to the learning experience. Penn State's AESEDA study abroad program has shown the effectiveness of this approach in their South Africa program. Are there other good examples out there?
Given the discussions surrounding the use of technology in assessing student learning at the last Cocurricular Learning Committee meeting, I thought others might be interested in a recent AIR conference paper entitled, Interactive Technology and Effective Educational Practices, presented by Allison BrckaLorenz and Amy Garver. The full paper can be accessed at http://cpr.iub.edu/uploads/AIR2010%20Interactive%20Tech%20FINAL.pdf, but here is the abstract.
Abstract: Using data from the 2009 National Survey of Student Engagement, this study explored the effect of students' general use of interactive technology tools on their engagement in effective educational practices. In particular, a range of demographic and academic variables were examined to better understand characteristics of students who tended to be frequent users of interactive tools (e.g., collaborative editing, on-line portfolio, blogging) for the purposes of learning. Results revealed differences in subpopulations of students, specifically, by major and among international students. Findings also confirmed that students using interactive technologies were engaging in more collaborative behavior with both their peers and instructors, with the largest effect sizes occurring for Student-Faculty Interaction among first-year students. Implications for future research and practice were discussed.
We have been trying to get individuals to blog and or comment on a couple of different community hubs for over a year for one and just a few months for another. I never understood why it is so difficult to get some momentum, so I started asking. What I found was that there were mainly two reasons. The first is that blogging is just not on peoples radar. They haven't done it, so they really don't think to do it unless they are reminded and half the time not even then.
Those of use at a certain age can remember that the same was true years ago when email was introduced, people didn't think to email something, they continued to hold meetings or write and mail memos or to just pick up the phone a call. That has changed over the years as email has become easier and easier to use and more and more people came to rely on it. The same change might be true of blogging, if it wasn't for the second reason--having to remember the URL for the dashboard to create and the url for the blog itself to read. As of this week, that barrier has been lifted! Why email something that you are sending to lots of people and need to have a conversation about unless it's confidential of course?
I am waiting patiently to see if blogging on these two hubs increases after the change is made and announced which will happen on Monday. This could be the tipping point that we've been waiting for than might change an existing habit and build a community. I don't think it ever will be a ubiquitous as email, especially in a high-touch organization like Student Affairs, but a girl can hope for some progress.
When I came across an Inside Higher Ed article entitled "Turning Surveys into Reforms" I was instantly intrigued. I thought the article would be a case study which demonstrated at least one way in which this might be done. But alas, this article simply focuses on the need to take action based on survey findings - particularly NSSE findings. Despite this dissapointment, it is still a timely article as PSU gears up for another NSSE administration in 2011. Just what have we done with the 2008 data??
The ruling came in a lawsuit by the Christian Legal Society, which challenged the anti-bias rules of the Hastings College of Law of the University of California. The Hastings policy bars discrimination based on sexual orientation and the Christian Legal Society bars gay people from becoming members. Hastings has argued - with backing from many in public higher education - that state universities have an obligation to adhere to strict anti-bias rules. But the Christian Legal Society - with backing from many religious groups - has argued that forcing it to comply with anti-bias rules amounts to infringing on its First Amendment right to freedom of religion.
Below are the next sessions for our Adobe Connect demonstrations. The sessions demonstrate the primary features of the meeting room and answers questions that you might have. No registration or RSVP necessary.
*Thursday, July 22, 2010, from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
*Wednesday, August 11, 2010, from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
*Tuesday, August 24, 2010, from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
Here is the link to the meeting room: https://breeze.psu.edu/r54559680/. Please come when you like, learn about the new features, different ways to use Adobe Connect, ask questions, stay for a few minutes. Feel free to pass this on to friends and colleagues. Members of the Penn State community can arrange for an on-site demonstration by contacting your ITS Consultant (https://myit.vmhost.psu.edu/node/72).
College students who have studied overseas often return home finding that their experiences transformed them. Many Penn State students' global education focuses on service-learning projects in developing nations. The results of their extended visits have transformed entire villages with improved quality of life. A Big Ten Network series premiering in July highlights several of these dual-benefit service-learning opportunities. "Global Penn State" debuts at 6 p.m. Sunday, July 25, on the Big Ten Network.
This week, the SAChat on Twitter will focus on Learning Outcomes. Join the chat today at Noon CST: Learning outcomes for Student Affairs programming. Here's the recap: http://thesabloggers.org/2010/07/2657/
Set up an account in Twitter to participate. Go to http://twitter.com and search for the tag #sachat to see what's been discussed previously. Use that tag again to follow or join the conversation.
What a surprise that I am trying this!!! I just received this advertisement for a new publication, and I encourage you to click on to the very interesting "Excerpt available online section". It's neat to see that the language we have used appear in other places.
Electronic Portfolios and Student Success: Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Learning By Helen L. Chen and Tracy Penny Light
This publicationpresents an overview of electronic portfolios and ways individuals and campuses can implement e-portfolios to enhance and assess student learning, recognizing that learning occurs in many places, takes many forms, and is exhibited through many modes of representation. It is organized around eight issues central to implementing an e-portfolio approach: defining learning outcomes; understanding your learners; identifying stakeholders; designing learning activities; including multiple forms of evidence; using rubrics to evaluate e-portfolios; anticipating external uses of evidence; and evaluating the impact of e-portfolios. This work is illustrated through multiple campus case study examples.
Last week I had an interesting conversation with Aaron Brower, the vice provost for teaching and learning at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Brower is also a professor of social work and he has been conducting research on the integration of curricular and cocurricular learning -- especially via residential learning communities.
At Penn State we thought it would be important for us to create a definition for what we mean to include within the scope of cocurricular learning. Here is the definition we came up with:
The COCURRICULUM at Penn State is defined as formal and informal
out-of-class
learning opportunities. These opportunities include involvement with
clubs and organizations,
workshops, lectures, internships, co-ops, interactions with faculty and
others students,
cultural events and study abroad. (See http://assess.psu.edu/CocurricularAssessment/ ).
I had called Dr. Brower to ask him about his work with the creation of the "Wisconsin Experience" and the Wisconsin Essential Learning Outcomes. He pointed me to a website that visually defines the coccuriculum at Wisconsin: www.learning.wisc.edu
Like Penn State, Wisconsin includes study abroad, workshops and student organizations. But they also include living-learning communities, undergraduate research opportunities, service learning, academic and career advising and intramurals and club sports. I think we likewise need to add those important learning experiences at Penn State. At Wisconsin, they may be adding internships and coops to their list.
Last week I was asked to present to the Cocurricular Learning Group on "assessment in student affairs" at Penn State. Certainly no small assignment for a newbie, but thinking about what I would like to say to this particular group on this topic gave me a chance to reflect on what I've observed in my five short months as the director of Student Affairs Research and Assessment.
So, let's start with the data. It is clear that Student Affairs staff members are providing a diverse and growing number of programs for Penn State students and we are spending more time assessing these programs. In the first half of 2009-11, Student Affairs offered approximately the same number of programs and conducted almost twice as many assessments as it did in the entire 2005-06 academic year (data from the Educational Programming Record). Assessment data being collected includes participation numbers, survey data, formal and informal feedback and document analysis (student journals, reflections, etc.)
And yet, despite this flurry of assessment activity, we still have a very hard time "telling our story" to the university community. It appears to me that part of the problem is that the data doesn't make it up the pipeline. While staff members may use the data to improve their programs, the data is not being aggregated or disseminated at a level that allows us to promote our positive impacts on student learning and development.
Many units are making great strides in developing their own unit-level outcomes and assessing their activities based on these outcomes. My hope that is that as SARA moves forward in the coming years, we can increase the educational opportunities we provide to Student Affairs staff. In doing so, we can build our assessment capacity in the units, allowing SARA to play a greater role in integrating data from across the Division. Then we can shout our successes from the rooftops and back them up with data.
I read about Acadia's effort at creating an official cocurricular document recently at their website (http://cct.acadiau.ca/). I began to wonder where the research is that is guiding universities to take this large and potentially expensive step. Several technology firms have created software tools to make this easier, but it still would be expensive; especially at a university like Penn State. Where is Penn State on this question? Are students creating their own in the 'blogs.psu.edu' site? Are students presenting them to employers at Career Fairs? Are they upload them into their Symplicity account?
Alison Subasic and her staff in the LGBTA Office did an amazing job of mapping the learning outcomes for the numerous activities that the office puts on each year. They also took another step by indicating which level of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives each outcome supports. Learn more about how to write outcomes using Bloom's Taxonomy here: https://www.sa.psu.edu/workshops/edprogram/index.htm
Check out the learning outcomes for the LGTBA programming here: http://www.sa.psu.edu/workshops/learningoutcomes/LGTBA.pdf. Please Note: The font is small so you will need to use the Zoom feature to magnify the text to be able to read it.
The following event may be of interest to some. It's not a large room though, and I have seen this posted to a number of campus listservs, so I recommend getting there early if you want to find a seat.
The Scholarship of Patrick Terenzini Friday, April 16th 403 Rackley Building, 3:15-5:15pm
The program will begin with a brief introduction by Karen Paulson who will serve as the facilitator/moderator. Alumni, Faculty, and students will consider the question: How has Pat Terenzini's research affected the study of higher education? Dr. Tereninzini will then have an opportunity to respond. The program will conclude with a group discussion.
For anyone interested in assessment, I found this resource from North Carolina State University that contains 1,100 links on Higher Education Outcomes Assessment. There are some very interesting resources on the list. http://www2.acs.ncsu.edu/UPA/assmt/resource.htm
Educating the Many, Not the Few: A Digital Model for Change
This event will be webcast live on Tuesday, April 13, 12:30 pm ET and archived on the Berkman Center for Internet and Society's site shortly after.
Shai Reshef's session will address barriers and bridges to education, the
impact of the Internet on learning platforms, University of the People (UoPeople) and the
challenges he faces implementing this model. How are students of
different cultures able to teach each other? How can a free university
be effective? What is the impact of the freedom of information over the
internet? What does UoPeople and similar education models mean for
traditional brick & mortar universities? For more information on
UoPeople, visit www.uopeople.org.
It's that time of year again. Flowers are blooming, love is in the air, and surveys are arriving in students in-boxes. Student Affairs Research and Assessment (SARA) is currently conducting two student surveys.
The 2010 Student Satisfaction Survey is underway. A sample of undergraduate students from across the Penn State system have been invited to take the survey. Invited participants have until April 28th to complete the survey. For more information about the survey and past results, visit http://www.sa.psu.edu/sara/satisfaction.shtml.
Changing campuses can be overwhelming. To help Penn State improve the transition for change-of-campus students, University Park students who began their Penn State career at another location have been invited to take the Change-of-Campus Pulse survey. Invited participants have until April 14th to complete the survey. Findings from this assessment will be posted at http://www.sa.psu.edu/sara/pulse.shtml.
Upcoming assessments include a survey of parents' needs and an evaluation of the new Link U.P. visititation day program.
I realized on Saturday that I have been to all of the TLT Symposiums throughout the years, at least I think so. Over the years the program and the conference itself have both changed for the better each year. One of the main changes that I've noticed is the increased number of faculty that are coming from not only University Park campus, but other campuses as well. For many of us who have been with the University for a long time, it's a sort of homecoming. We get to see peers we haven't seen in a few years to catch up, make new connections and see how different areas in the University have changed. The feeling of community is just amazing to me. Smiles and hugs all around.
Michael Wesch's presentation was as informative as it was entertaining. I took a lot away from the talk he gave as far as what students expect and what students know and what as educators we expect them to know that they might or might not know. The project that he had his class work on together was fantastic. It goes to show how a sense of community can makes students feel and work to a higher level even with distractions. His talk was streamed and recorded. If you get a chance to watch it, it's worth the 45 minutes of you day.
The lunchtime faculty panel was very interesting. The four panel members discussed how they used various Web 2.0 technologies within their teaching. I think that any other faculty member that was in the audience would certainly benefit from hearing all of their advice.
I thought the program this year was very good. I image that selecting the sessions was a very difficult task this year. I've been on that committee in years past and it was difficult to evaluate one project over another because they are all worth hearing more about. It was difficult to select just one for each slot. I am hoping to catch some of the others that were recorded later.
I attended two sessions on Digital Story Telling (one by Kira Baker-Doye, a Berks faculty member and one by Ellysa Cahoy and Chris Millet) mainly because a few of the new modules that I am develop could benefit from it and because story telling interests me personally. Both sessions were interesting and packed with nuggets of information that will be valuable as I begin to develop modules on Ethics and Leadership.
Sam Richards session on large enrollment classes was entertaining and eye opening. Some of the statistics he shared were not at all what I suspected as far as what student think of large enrollment classes versus small enrollment classes. This session was recorded, if you get the change to watch it once it is posted, you should. Good stuff.
The last session that I attended was on eportfolios. It was a interesting story of how Gabriela Alpirez, the Humphrey Fellow, took an idea that she first used in a small high school and has developed it over the years to incorporate open source and government resources. It will be interesting to see how she is able to integrate the feature from her previous eportfolio systems into Moveable Type. She was very hopeful that MT will be able to do what she needs it to do. Maybe next year, she'll present again about the results.
This afternoon at the TLT Symposium 2010, Cole Camplese (Dir of Educational Technology Services) and Scott McDonald (asst professor) delivered an engaging session titled "Disruptive Technologies in the Classroom". They described their adventures in offering a student-centered graduate class (C & I 597A) in 2008 and again in 2010. As an affiliate faculty member in the College Student Affairs masters program, I was interested to learn more about their findings in how students will use these technologies when they are unfettered and encouraged to do so. The students in the CSA program are required to use blogs to write reflections -- but so far, there has been no emergence of ongoing blog conversations either among the students or among students and faculty. I view this as an incredibly important next step and I know that Cole and Scott struggled with this in the beginning of their efforts.
During the first iteration of the class, students were encouraged to explore various Web 2.0 technologies - twitter, blogs, flickr, digg, etc ... Using the social aggregation site, pligg, they polled students about their perceptions of importance for topics that would be discussed in class. Cole reported that students began to game the system to get students to read their blog entries -- making them funny or giving them catch titles.
The also reported that the class made the head of their students 'hurt' in two ways. For the students more versed on learning theory, their heads hurt struggling with the technologies. For the technical students, grasping the learning theories likewise caused head hurt.
During the class, the presenters noted that helpful backchannel conversations were going on during the class via Twitter. For example, some students were validating each others questions via twitter. Quiet students were more involved in online conversations. Then, about five weeks into the class, one student tweeted "just found out thesis is due in five hours -- anyone care to read it and give feedback?" Eight students met that night in the library to work on their theses.
The Chronicle published a story that was critical of the class approach - there were over 100 comments -- including flames -- so the Chronicle took the comments down.
An analysis of the various comments on wordle.net showed an intense polarization of the opinions - Cole noted that this is an analogous to the same, longstanding dialog about the effectiveness of all new classroom technologies since pedagogy began. Students in the class reported intense intellectual transformation.
This semester (Spring 2010), the class was offered again -- but this time, teams of students were coalesced around themes, not around technology. Cole and Scott have been invited to publish an article in EDge.
They see trends as including the emergence of real time web, the one-button web and the implications of this course style for the social construction of the student's knowledge. The concept of the one-button web has created a seemless ability to flow from reading, thinking, researching and posting (or sharing).
As to the social construction of knowledge, Scott talked about the success they had with revealing the process of how students construct meaning about the course content. Students used google docs -- and the instructors were able to review the process of just how the students engaged in team conversations to complete their assignments.
Among a few challenges that remain -- Scott and Cole are struggling with assessing the student's work in the course. The discussion focused on how difficult it was to evaluate student work when the class itself shifted the ultimate intended outcomes of the course.
In 2010, the instructors were completely non-prescriptive about the technologies and tasks for students to use. But the student work products in 2010 were tremendously better than in 2008. So with no structure, students did much more -- data analysis, data visualizations and other creative approaches. The student final presentations are on the blog link below.
Kudos to Cole and Scott for an interesting, innovative approach to teaching -- and for this well-crafted presentation.
For more info, see http://blogs.tlt.psu.edu/courses/disruptive
I recently observed a class of 210 first year students in a lecture
class while I sat in the back row. Very eye opening - facebooking,
youtube, ESPN highlights and full length movies were occupying the
laptops -- and most students had open laptops. This experience coupled with the juxtaposition of what I observe going on in the same kind of classrooms in the evening during student organization meetings (highly interactive, students engaged, working with animation to interact and solve problems) set the stage for the opener of today's symposium.
Michael Wesch, asst. professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State, was the keynote speaker at this morning's TLT Symposium. Though I have heard him speak previously, he is continuing to explore strategies for breaking down the awful student disengagement that characterizes many large lecture classes at research universities. (And, of course, it is ironic that talks about engaging students and avoiding lecture formats are nearly always delivered in a lecture format).
Wesch invites his students to work together to create the focus for their work during each semester. They work together to develop problems to address, explore readings, shape the course syllabus, engage in community blogging, and assess each others final papers. Over time, he has decided to approach teaching by "engaging real problems with students and harnessing the relevant tools". See 'digital ethnography' at http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg
Wesch's ideas for using open communication tools and student directed learning are really compelling. Though work in cocurricular learning that has traditionally used experiential learning -- and transformative learning via service learning, leadership practice and teachable moments - there is more that student affairs practitioners can do to develop deeper, asynchronous conversations among students using Wesch's approaches.
Recently, I attended a conference called "Expanding the Circle: Creating an Inclusive Environment in Higher Education for LGBTQ Students and Studies". Cosponsored by various organizations including The Association for Colleges and Universities Religious Affairs (ACURA), Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU), Campus Climate Index, Global Fund for Women, among others, the conference debuted in its first year to, as the title suggests, creating a welcoming, inclusive space for LGBTQ students on campuses.
My interest specifically lies within the intersection of spirituality and sexuality in students' lives and the often divisive nature that LGBTQ students who are religious or spiritual face within the LGBTQ community. To some, the attitude from nonreligious LGBTQ individuals is "why would you practice a faith that has discriminated, ostracized, and punished GLBTQ people because of their sexuality?" To those who are devoted to a spiritual/religious practice, the response may be that they have found their niche within their particular religious denomination which happens to be progressive, welcoming, and accepting of all. In most cases, it can be difficult enough for students to recognize and accept their sexual identities. At the same time, remaining true to their particular faith traditions can alienate them from the very community they rely on for social and emotional support.
In my work within the Center for Ethics and Religious Affairs, I have seen religious/spiritual organizations approach the issue of sexual orientation from a variety of levels of acceptance or prejudice for LGBTQ individuals. There is no easy answer to this age-old dilemma. The conference exposed the challenges we, as staff and faculty, encounter in supporting and welcoming these students wholeheartedly. Scotty McLennan, Dean for Religious Life at StanfordUniversity, pointed out that we need to be careful about our own misguided liberal assumptions that LGBTQ students will want to be or should be liberal or have liberal views. There are LGBTQ students who practice within a very conservative, orthodox tradition and would not have it any other way. Their faith represents the foundation of who they are and emphasizes the importance of family and community---the very thing they risk losing if they come out. It's the "Gay or God" debacle where there exists antireligious sentiment in the LGBTQ community and antigay sentiment in many religious communities.
The spiritual development of our students is as critical as any other developmental milestone. Within our multi-faith facility, CERA provides an important outlet for spiritual wellness and offering students access to discovering multiple levels of identity. For spiritual/religious LGBTQ students, both identities are part of their story. If they dismiss either one, how do they deal with questions of life and death, ethics, morality, sex, daily behaviors? Wrestling with multiple identities can be challenging, but it is not impossible. Encouraging our students to find the similarities across communities whether they be religious, LGBTQ, racial, and/or cultural can help shape them into confident leaders. And, by including a spiritual component to their education, students can ground themselves in religious/spiritual practices which can ultimately help them navigate ethical decision making---becoming strong, authentic leaders in their communities.
The diversity of the student body at colleges and universities lends itself to ensuring that higher education institutions like PennState raise awareness of spirituality and its contribution in a holistic education. One of the goals of the Expanding the Circle conference was to raise awareness of the importance of LGBTQ resources on campuses and, as they write, while "some colleges and universities have been incorporating LGBTQ studies for decades, courses and programs continue to be pockets of innovation, rather than models of inclusion for all of higher education." Clearly, we have our work cut out for us. But, conferences like this help remind us that support and resources do exist to make it happen.
The 2010 Teaching and Learning with Technology Symposium is next week. As we, in Student Affairs, continue to explore aspects of technology and social networking tools that we can use to advance student cocurriular learning, I find it helpful to gain insights from Penn State's innovative faculty.
Here are a few videos outlining some faculty efforts along with recorded presentations from previous symposium speakers:
The rubrics provide descriptions for increasing levels of competence that are customized for each of the learning outcomes associated with each topical area.
If you weren't able to make it to Association of College Unions International (ACUI) conference this year, you can still join the conversation using Twitter.
Introduction To The #SACHAT In More Than 140 Characters
I started following a number of student affairs folks on Twitter a little over two years ago as a way to learn about what individuals working at other colleges and universities do, specifically what types of cocurricular learning are being provided. One thing that this community does regularly is holds a "chat session" using Twitter. It is organized by the Student Affair Blog (The Student Affairs Collaborative). The conversations are always interesting and valuable in that they really give you ideas on better ways to do things as well as give you support when you need it.
Yesterday's conversation was very interesting. It was about upcoming challenges in student affairs. I think a lot of the ideas presented will resonate with Student Affairs staff here at Penn State. Here's the recap of that session.
If you'd like to learn more about Twitter, check out the Web 2.0 course available on this blog by clicking the Courses and Resources tab or click this link and select "Microblogging" from the menu.
In this video, College of Liberal Arts Associate Dean Christopher Long talks about the importance of his study abroad experience when he was an undergraduate. He asks students to share the important experiences of their Penn State education.
Here is an interesting
blog entry from Glen Baumgart at the University
of Texas at Austin about the importance of developing
academic rigor in the context of cocurricular programs. Post your comments and thoughts in the CLC Blog.
Last Friday, Bruce Teeple, the volunteer coordinator for the March 2010 Native American Powwow in Boalsburg, was invited to attend the Penn State Council of Lionhearts meeting. The Council is comprised of the presidents and service leaders from Penn State's 14 student service clubs. Bruce is also the curator of the Penns Valley Area Historical Museum and a noted, local historian. After he finished providing information about the many volunteer opportunities at the upcoming Powwow, he talked to the students about the Aaronsburg Story.
"The Aaronsburg Story" was a pageant held Oct. 23, 1949 to commemorate an important, but little known, act of tolerance that took place in the small village of Aaronsburg in 1799. Back then, the village's founder, Aaron Levy (a Jewish-Dutch immigrant) presented a communion set that he had purchased to a group of Lutherans in the village. This simple act of religious tolerance became more poignant in 1949 with the end of the horrors of World War II.
The pageant in 1949 was committed to the promotion of racial and religious tolerance and social justice and featured speeches by Pennsylvania Governor Duff, Palestine Commission Mediator Ralph Bunche, UN General Assembly Vice President Mohammed Aly Zafrulla Khan, and Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. Penn State's faculty were involved in the program as presenters and 55 members of the Blue Band performed at the pageant.
As Bruce noted, there is a long tradition of community engagement among the German immigrants of Central Pennsylvania. This ethos of extending care for neighbors (an example is the barn raising activities of the Amish) and reaching out in fellowship was certainly a driving force behind the pageant. It is remarkable that over 30,000 people - mostly local citizens (farmers, factory workers and professionals) all joined together for that weekend celebration. The Aaronsburg Story predated most of the major events of the American civil rights era and was an unprecedented celebration of good will.
Below is the next session for our Adobe Connect demonstrations. The session demonstrates the primary features of the meeting room and answers questions that you might have. No registration or RSVP necessary.
*Wednesday, February 17, 2010, from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Here is the link to the meeting room: https://breeze.psu.edu/r54559680/. Please come when you like, learn about the new features, different ways to use Adobe Connect, ask questions, stay for a few minutes. Feel free to pass this on to friends and colleagues. Members of the Penn State community can arrange for an on-site demonstration by contacting your ITS Consultant (https://myit.vmhost.psu.edu/node/72).
There is a free online Student Affairs conference at the end of March. Here's the information if anyone is interested in attending. It could be a good professional development activity for a group.
I think that most people would agree that retention programs are beneficial to the individuals enrolled in them, but could the the cost to the organization to high? Could it ever be to high if it means the difference between someone dropping out and someone graduating and becoming a more productive part of society? What can we put in place that might help measuring these types of programs easier in the future?
Student Affairs can impact student learning by providing the appropriate mix of technology within our facilities. We have done a good job by providing wireless in most of our larger public spaces, but what else can be done, who can we collaborate with to ease the cost, is there information to help guide our ideas on what to do next. The 2009 FACAC Student Survey Report can help guide our decisions by understanding what students are doing with the technology they have and the technology provided to them. Students were asked about laptop ownership, computer labs, wireless access and gaming to name a few. As the Division builds its strategic plan and the 2010/2011 budget, this survey and the Informal Learning Spaces Vision Document can provide us with some important data.
A new online BA in Energy and Sustainability Policy is being developed in the College of EMS. The 1 credit introductory course for this program is a program orientation whose learning outcomes fall into three areas. As a result of participating in this course students should: 1) be aware of program contacts and resources, 2) be familiar with the learning outcomes of the program, and 3) become familiar with and develop proficiency in using online collaborative/networking applications and tools.
The program aspires to prepare students in the area of energy and sustainability not just to be conceptually aware of the types of energy and how they are deployed but more importantly prepare them as agents/advocates of change in this new field.
For me, this sense of agency is a clear example of where cocurricular learning outcomes intersect with what a program desires its students to obtain.
The question is "How can Student Affairs become a significant contributor to this student's educational experience?"
Does this rely on a referral? If so, then program planners need to be able to find opportunities for students easily and match these experiences to program needs. Information online should facilitate this connection making and the Cocurricular Learning Community been focusing on this need.
Are there other strategies that might be more proactive? iStudy modules focus on helpful skills but do they involve cocurricular learning contexts that align with what program planners desire? i.e.,
* Knowledge Acquisition/Application * Cognitive Competency * Life Skills and Self-Knowledge * Personal Integrity and Values * Intercultural Development * Leadership and Active Citizenship
Are there ways in which context areas for the cocurricular learning outcomes above can be highlighted and shared? Ways that would highlight the work of students who work in and with student affairs programs whose experiences would serve as wonderful examples as agents/advocates of change that programs are looking for... What skills are associated with these contexts? Can these be shared so that other students can turn these skills and apply their own unique message?
The Daily Collegian is probably still the #1 source for students when it comes to being informed about what is happening on campus (http://www.sa.psu.edu/sara/pulse/150-SPA.pdf). So, for staff in Student Affairs, it is important to know how the Collegian is handling an events calendar. For many years, they did not have an events calendar. They looked the University's events calendar but decided against duplicating that effort. So, what do you think....will students use it?, will staff submit events to it? Too soon to tell...most students and staff might not even know about it yet.
So take a look at http://www.collegian.psu.edu/calendar/. You will notice right away that they are using Google Calendar. To submit an event for inclusion, send an email to campus@psucollegian.com. Be sure to include: What, When, Where and a Description. If you event will draw in students from other campuses, be sure to include the entire address, city, state and zip code because Google will add a "map" link to your event.
I have been inspired by Glen's curriculum map and by Allison' efforts to create a rubric reflecting the connections between learning outcomes and programming. As a result I am working with the Health Promotion and Wellness staff to do something similar with our services, peer education training classes, and frequently offered programming events. The goal is to use the cocurricular learning outcomes as a guide for developing & shaping health promotion programming and to ensure that our programs and services are aligned with the direction of the division and the institution. I am also hoping to develop health-specific learning outcomes that can be used to help assess the impact of our 'programming' efforts.
Last week, Penn State sponsored a conference primarily for faculty titled "Education for Sustainability". I was invited to serve as a panelist for a break out session and my topic was on the importance of developing learning outcomes for sustainability education.
Debra Rowe, the facilitator for the conference, urged the group to at least consider the creation of some learning outcomes. I would hope for intentional, clear and measurable learning outcomes for sustainability that are included in the general education curriculum -- but it seems unlikely this will happen anytime soon. For my part, I encouraged those in attendance to imagine what cognitive and affective learning outcomes that every Penn State student ought to know at graduation.
Since the conference, I have thought more about this challenge of how our cocurricular programs on sustainability can become more transformative. I found an online tool that was created to go beyond the carbon footprint and help you assess your ecological footprint:
At the conference, I talked about several of the challenges that Penn State will have if we do decide to go forward and develop intentional outcomes. First, we don't have many faculty who map their course syllabi to the existing general education learning outcomes. I rarely meet a faculty member who has even read them. Next is the significant bureaucratic hurdle in getting those gen ed outcomes revised. At Evergreen State, a group of 120 faculty just decided to get together and create some outcomes on their own. At the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, the faculty are starting a conversation about outcomes. And one of our student affairs professional organizations (ACPA) has a list of seven outcomes:
oLearn
to apply concepts of sustainability by engaging in challenges and solutions on
campus and in the community
oAlso apply those concepts in a world
context
This list is a good start -- but during the conference, I talked about Bloom's taxonomy of affective domain objectives - paying attention, participating, shaping your own values, accepting new values and beliefs (after personal vetting and reflection), adopting a new way of life or outlook. These upward steps of affective learning are exactly what will be needed for our graduates to fully understand their own responsibility of living and working sustainably. Cognitive understanding is important -- but, in this case, real personal transformation requires affective learning.
I also stressed the importance of reflection in all of this -- and the value of experiential learning. Something the student affairs has always been good at. Another panelist, Prof. David Riley, from Penn State's Center for Sustainability, gave some great examples of how he is using experiential learning to teach students -- the solar decathlon, the Morningstar solar home and his ideas about creating a national energy corps.
The final challenge we will have is to develop useful assessment measures that will tell us how well our learning interventions are working.
I was reminded during a meeting last night that all too often those of us in higher education, even those of us in student affairs, too narrowly define "success" for students. Last night professionals from the Office of Undergraduate Education and the Division of Student Affairs gathered to discuss opportunities to collaborate in support of the strategic plan of the University. As is often the case when we discuss student success, we quickly (although tacitly) agreed that "retention" was THE indicator of success.
Of course this makes sense: retention-to-graduation is relatively easily measurable; it is almost universally agreed upon as the preferred outcome of college ("why go if you're not planning to graduate"); and it is easy to explain to policy-makers and the public.
Unfortunately, retention is only a necessary but insufficient condition for learning to occur. We would be better off to think about retention (or more appropriately, "persistence") as a condition of college, rather than an outcome. Yes, students must be here for us to teach them, but I'm afraid there are many students "here" over whom we have little influence.
I was heartened at this meeting, though, as the individuals around the table began to challenge the assumption that retention of students was the ultimate goal, as we began to identify learning (in its many forms) as the true outcome of a college education, and the myriad ways in which these two organizations can support students in pursuit of this goal.
Student affairs professionals have much to offer in this discussion. We can assist in redefining "student success" and resituating retention as a condition rather than an outcome. We should also engage in the discussions about "learning" in order to make certain this is understood in its broadest terms--yes, content knowledge gained primarily in the classroom/laboratories is important; but so is critical thinking and intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, which are practiced and acquired both inside and outside the classroom.
I was reinvigorated by the conversation last evening and may have found the topic of my talk at PCPA in October...
I attended the public portion of Alan Levine's visit to Penn State. He
is a VP at the New Media Consortium. I went to the NMC conference hosted at Princeton last June. It was very interesting to see how new media is being used in education outside of Penn State. I am always so proud
of Penn State when I see how far ahead we are in some areas. Alan
seemed genuinely impressed by the things Penn State has done with
Blogs, the Gaming Commons, and the Digital Commons especially at our
huge size. For a more complete account of the visit, see Cole Camplese's blog post on the event.
My Impressions, Thoughts and Reflections through a Student Affair's Lens
Alan
talked about his 50 Ways to Tell a Story using 50 different Web 2.0
tools. He reminded us to not focus on the tools, but we should focus on
the story and more importantly the telling of the story. As he was
talking (very quickly) about the tools that he's found for telling
stories digitally, I was thinking about a blog as a student portfolio which was a
theme at the recent TLT Symposium. So what is a portfolio at it's most
basic level? It's a story of a students curricular (classroom) and cocurricular (outside the classroom) life
in college.
As he worked his way through the tools, my
mind was spinning on ways that these tools could be used to tell a
student's story (both curricular and cocurricular) with their blog as the
delivery mechanism and community to support the student through their entire career at Penn State. There are some powerful tools
available on the web to help students showcase their cocurricular
competencies in interesting, dynamic and even fun ways. Not that I don't
think that the reflection most students incorporate into their blogs isn't
powerful, it is, but it certainly isn't the only way to tell a story. Check some
of them out at: http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools
Most
if not all of the folks in the room were from a college or support a
college in some way, so the focus was academic and rightfully so. This
isn't anything new to me. These events really feed my brain and make me really think about connections. So I was once again thinking about how
cocurricular learning is the other side of the student "coin." I struggle with
how the curricular and cocurricular can better work together to help students tell a complete story
of their college experience using their blog as their ePortfolio.
I
keep coming back to developing some sort of a template that helps
remind students that they accomplish so much more in college than
gaining knowledge and experiences from taking classes. In fact there is a long list of outcomes that cover them. When I think about it, I envision
something like what Carla Zembal-Saul and Brad Kozlek came up with for
the student teaching pilot by pre-populating a few tags for their
competencies and automatically displaying them as section headers. I
think it would be interesting to see if those tags were available, if
students would blog about the cocurricular competencies much the way
they do about their academic ones once they have been made aware of
them by their faculty members. At the same time, I understand why ETS can't get into the template development business, but I just can help
wondering what it might be like. I am also wondering how we could communicate these tags to students to accomplish the same task without any additional programming. I thought of a few options, but I know there are more out there. If you have any ideas, please comment or contact me in some way that you are comfortable.
Adding recommended tags to the training/documentation for eportfolions the next time it is updated.
Partnering with faculty members who assign the development of an ePortfolio would be prudent, but finding them could be a challenge.
Asking to partner with freshman seminar faculty or ENGL 15 faculty to mention or link to them.
Using viral marketing to advertise them or a contest to stir up interest in finding out what they are and why the are meaningful.
For those of you who don't know what the cocurricular learning outcomes are for Penn State students, I've listed them below. How cool would it be to be able to do a search on one of them and see how several thousand Penn State's students are fulfilling them? I think it would be awesome!
Knowledge Acquisition/Application
Students will:
Develop an understanding of
knowledge from a range of disciplines/areas
Demonstrate the ability to
integrate and apply ideas and themes across the curriculum and
cocurriculum.
Cognitive Competency
Students will:
Acquire learning skills to
assist in their academic success
Develop critical and
reflective thinking abilities
Apply effective reasoning
skills
Life Skills and Self-Knowledge
Students will:
Determine their career
interests
Acquire career management
skills
Develop the ability to
manage and resolve interpersonal conflicts
Cultivate a propensity for
lifelong learning
Develop personal health,
fitness, wellness and leisure habits and identify health risks
Improve self-understanding
and awareness by developing an integrated personal identity (including
sex, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, culture and spiritual)
Exhibit responsible
decision-making and personal accountability
Personal Integrity and Values
Students will:
Acquire ethical reasoning
skills
Improve their ability to
manage their emotions effectively
Develop a sense of personal
integrity and clarify their personal values
Appreciate creative
expression and aesthetics
Demonstrate compassion and
empathy for others
Intercultural Development
Students will:
Possess multicultural
awareness and knowledge
Develop sensitivity to and
appreciation of human differences
Exhibit the ability to work
effectively with those different from themselves
Demonstrate a commitment to
social justice
Leadership and Active Citizenship
Students will:
Communicate effectively
with others both verbally and in writing
Demonstrate an
understanding of group dynamics and effective teamwork
Understand leadership theory
and styles
Identify their own
leadership style when working with others
Develop a range of
leadership skills and abilities such as effectively leading change,
resolving conflict, and motivating others
Assume a sense of civic
responsibility and a commitment to public life
Over the past few years as a few of us at Penn State have looked at many different tools for students to use to create ePortfolios, one issue has consistently emerged -- privacy features for writing reflectively. Initially in the camp of those who strongly argued that there was some value in asking students to write reflectively but not publish their work online, I have changed my view of this.
At the recent Teaching and Learning with Technology Symposium at the Penn Stater, Chris Brady was talking about his own experience as a blogger and his interest in increasing the amount of reflective writing that his students engage in. He noted how some people in academe become known as 'public intellectuals' -- but, he noted further, it is not clear how that status is achieved. The students on the panel for that session have been writing online all semester. They noted that they take more care with their work because they do not know who their audience will ultimately be. This is obviously a good, unintended outcome of asking students to post their reflections online.
Personal Scholarly Narrative
Bob Reason, a faculty member in the College Student Affairs master's program, has suggested that our program should think about guiding the reflective writing or our students by looking at the ideas of Robert J. Nash and his notion of 'scholarly personal narrative'. In his book "Liberating Scholarly Writing", Nash suggests he is also in the camp of those who think reflections should be made public -- and he posits some good arguments for this:
"The point I am trying to make is that scholarly personal narrative writing can take many different forms. While it is personal, it is also social. While it is practical, it is also theoretical. While it is reflective, it is also public. While it is local, it is also political. While it narrates, it also proposes. While it is self-revealing, it also evokes self-examination from readers" (p. 29).
Nash's last point -- evokes self-examination from readers -- is the most compellingly educational facet of his argument, in my view. If we are serious about building a community of scholarship, then causing students to write and react to the writing of their peers requires published narratives.
Though it may be not be easy for anyone to attain the status of Public Intellectual (in capitals) it should be part of our work as teachers to encouage our students to view their own scholarship -- and each others -- as public. And to see themselves as, perhaps small case, public intellectuals.
References:
Nash, R. (2004). Liberating scholarly writing: The power of personal narrative. New York: Teachers College Press.
A couple days ago, the AVP of the division that I work for sent me an article "Close the Book. Recall. Write It Down." by David Glenn that was in the faculty section of Chronicle of Higher Education, 55(34). The article was about a couple of studies that support "active recall" as a study strategy instead of traditional re-read and take notes strategies. He asked me what implications I thought the article had on the online modules that I am developing in Student Affairs. Here's what I had to say about it. The article is copyrighted and it's a pay service, so I can't share it with you or link to it very effectively. If you clicked the link above you saw what I mean. But I think you can get the drift of what it said by reading my post. Comments are always welcome.
At first blush, I'd say that the study implicates that adding self-reflection questions into the modules was a good idea. It's not exactly the same because we aren't asking students to precisely recall what they read, but are in most cases asking them to reflect on how what they read fits into their schemata for a particular subject and how they relate to it on an emotional level. This passage spoke to me when I read it, "I don't think these techniques will necessarily result in rote memorization," Mr. McDaniel says. "If you ask people to free-recall, you can generate a better mental model of a subject area, and in turn that can lead to better problem-solving." I believe that is what we are asking students to do by having them stop and reflect. It is so much more powerful and in the end more beneficial to them as individuals. We are in a different situation than say a math class because there are both cognitive and affective aspects to a lot of what were are developing. Not very many students feel emotionally about math (other than anxiety), except maybe the math majors.
By helping students learn the facts about something and clearing up the myths / misunderstanding, we are also (hopefully) changing the way that they see the topic as a whole. This I believe is the mental model mentioned by Mr. McDaniels. It is also the premise that the Sexual Assault Awareness module was developed on. We don't focus solely on facts in many of our modules because of the topics. However, most of our module assessments still do focus on facts at this point. The main reason is that it is easier to track and auto-grade than other types of assessments are. There are exceptions to that in the Career Planning Certificate. There is still one reflection in that certificate that is graded as well as the resume review. All of the other assessments, however, were turned into knowledge quizzes. The Sexual Assault Awareness module's pre and post tests incorporate a Likert Scale to help get to the combination of increase in knowledge and change in affect. There aren't enough results to tell if we succeeded just yet.
The problem with self-reflection as we've used it is that without accountability we don't know whether or not they are actually doing it, so we can't measure the impact that the reflections have on learning, attitude or behavior changes. They could simply just read over them and move on without reflecting or just skip them altogether. If for instance, we highly recommended that the reflections be blogged, podcasted , videotaped, etc. I think it would certainly make more of an impact on the students' learning of the content. It could also have the added benefit of starting conversations around the topic giving students an even fuller understanding of a topic by interacting with and engaging the greater community. A theme that I heard over and over again at the TLT Symposium was that students step up and take more care with public posts because of the expectation that someone may see it. Until we have an infrastructure (in StuAff) to be able to accomplish that, we can't really consider it. We could have discussion boards in ANGEL if we wanted to start down that path. The problem with both of these options is staffing for the certificates. Who would be responsible for applying credit for the completed assignment or giving feedback for the responses?
What this implies is that the system we have will need to change to enable more authentic assessment options to be put into place. How cool would it be to be able to show a portfolio of blog posts, videos, podcasts, art work, etc to demonstrate how our students are meeting the cocurricular learning outcomes in areas like self-understanding and awareness or ethical reasoning when Mid-States comes knocking. Incorporating certificate support into individuals' job descriptions or hiring and training interns or graduate students to support the certificates would be a good place to start. Without doing those things or something else to garner additional support for the certificates, we will need to continue to give knowledge-based assessments for our certificates. If numbers are all we need, then we can continue to give knowledge assessments and not worry about the additional impact that our content has on our students. I would rather make the investment and know, but at the same time I do realize that it is not practical for all topics, that in this economy we can't start accruing new costs, and that moral is a little low in general (based on the economy) to be adding tasks to individuals' job descriptions without any compensation. So this is more of an ideal and what I would love to see than any type of recommendation for a big change. I do, however, think it would be awesome if we could consider piloting it some day.
On a More Personal Note While I think that most people if subjected to this study or one similar to it would probably show the same results (scoring higher on the test after active-recall than with re-reading the chapter), I agree with the cautions in the article. There are bound to be a number of students who would not get the same results because they just aren't wired that way. I had a couple of questions about the research 1) Were these students told that they would have to recall the passages and not be allowed to re-read? and 2) Did the students intentionally self-organize as a result of the instructions? I think that it's important to not lose sight of differences in learning style, the speed that individuals process information (someone may need to read something a couple of times to "get it"), recognized learning disabilities related to info processing, and even the impact that routine has on an individual's strategy for studying. So while I agree with the results of the study and what psychology says about learning, I am cautious about applying it to everyone equally. Now, I think this would be entirely different, if we started teaching young children how to study this way when they are first learning study strategies. When I have children, I'll tuck that bit of advice away when the time comes. I've never thought K-12 schools do enough to teach these types of skills early on. I am not sure where that even fits into the curriculum. This might be a bad assumption, but if students are still using the Re-read technique to study, it doesn't seem that other options aren't being taught or at least remembered.
At a NASPA conference I attended very early in my student affairs career, former Congressional Representative Barbara Jordan (TX) was the keynote speaker. Someone asked her what her philosophy of life was -- she immediately responded, from her wheelchaired seat of gravitas on the stage: "What I want for myself, I also want for you." Those words, though really merely a fine twist on the golden rule, hit like a shot and I jotted them down on the back of one of my business cards. After more than 20 years, I remember her excellent speech and these ringing words. She elaborated by pointing out that she, like most everyone, has always wanted a safe place to live, education for herself and her family, acceptance by others and so on. She also wants these things for others.
Jordan's words, in my view, form the truest basis for understanding social justice at the most important and basic level. And they also speak to empathy and compassion.
Though they are often used synonymously, empathy and compassion do have slightly different meanings. Empathy is the action of understanding the thoughts, feelings and experience of another. Compassion actually goes the full measure -- it is the sympathetic consciousness of others' distress -- but coupled with the desire to alleviate it. Barbara Jordan had compassion.
A few years ago, I was discussing the Penn State Cocurricular Learning Outcomes at a meeting of the University's Coordinating Committee on Assessment. A very interesting conversation developed among faculty colleagues there about whether 'empathy' should be included as a learning outcome. Of course, it is a value and for that reason some on the committee objected to it. Alternatives were suggested - why not teach competition? (I also think we already teach competition in good measure at all levels of education).
I read an excellent book of philosophy about five years ago called "A Small Treatise on the Great Virtues: The Uses of Philosophy in Everyday Life -- by the contemporary French philosopher Andre Comte-Sponville. In the book, 13 human virtues are presented: politeness, fidelity, prudence, courage, justice, generosity, compassion, mercy, gratitude, humility, simplicity, tolerance, purity and gentleness. The author traces the historical conceptual development of thinking about these virtues through the great works of Aristotle, Aquinas, Nietschze, Kant and Spinoza -- among others. Comte-Sponville's chapter on compassion is well-crafted and I recommend its reading.
Through my role as a faculty member of the PSU College Student Affairs master's program, I think often about the importance of reflection -- for the students in our program and for those of us who are practitioners. Recently I have concluded that not much good results from lack of reflection and the opposite is likewise true. Further, it seems impossible to me that anyone can gain any personal understanding of compassion WITHOUT reflection.
And isn't the idea of increased capacity for and understanding of 'compassion' as an intended learning outcome for higher education a reasonable notion? It seems to me to be well aligned with the highest aims of a university -- to graduate students who understand the distress of others and have a personal commitment to helping to alleviate that distress. If this is not the ideal of 'public scholarship' and 'engaged citizenship'- what is?
More cynically, I think about that cadre of business school graduates from every great university in America who engineered the financial crisis that most of the developed world is now reeling from. Imagine if they had merely considered the distress that their greed and financial rigging would cause others? Some of the investment bankers, financial analysts and derivative specialists have now left their shattered careers to pursue more human-centered work -- learning too late that the value of their personal integrity had likewise collapsed with the stock markets.
Through service learning, volunteering and even leadership, students have extraordinary opportunities to learn about and to practice the essence of compassion outside the classroom. A key question on my mind these days, is how can we advance more intentionality around this important learning outcome? It also underscores the critical challenge of finding ways to encourage students to find more time in the week to simply think and become more reflective. Beyond thinking -- to also write reflectively and engage each other (and their faculty) in the process of public scholarship about compassion and other important human virtures.
Not only is it just impossible to imagine how any undergraduate could come to terms with the keystone questions of "who am I? what do I value? Why am I here? How do I define quality of life? How will I let my life speak?" -- but it is likewise impossible to imagine that capacity for compassion and the ability to express compassion can improve without contemplative reflection.
I attended a session on sustainability in higher education. The presenter provided some info about the Higher Education Sustainability Act which provides $50 million for sustainability project within higher education. It is the first federally funded grant of it's kind in 20 years. It was supported by the House, Senate as well as the former president.
Courtney Smith, the presenter, explained that there are three facets of sustainability including social, economic and natural aspects. All of which are intricately woven into each other like a web. She stressed that sustainability was much more than just "going green," including technology, economics, development, business, agriculture, and global thinking. She asked if higher ed might just be the answer to help move the sustainability agenda along through partnerships and campus practices. There are a lot of barriers to reaching sustainability including cost, time, apathy, resistance to change, proof of validity (for some folks), and others.
The activity was to break into groups and prioritize a list of things related to sustainability if money wasn't an issue. Some of the items on the list were:
Training for faculty, staff and administrators on the concepts of sustainability, techniques, and assessment tools.
Address the environmental side: educate and develop programming related to recycling, green buildings, ag concerns, energy efficiency, transportation, waste, renewable energy, etc.
Address economic sides: educate and develop programming related to social and ecological consequences of economics--what does the business of higher education take, make and waste?
Address the social justice side: teach the concept and connection to sustainable practices and the inclusion of economics and environment and fair use
Sustainability curriculum: new degree programs, integrate as a component of all degrees
Support institutions to work with community partners from business, government, and non-profit sectors to design and implement sustainability programs for application in the community and workplace.
Fund research and development of sustainability tech and practices
Fund there new policies: initiatives incorporating environment, economics, and social equity.
Each group talked about what our priorities were and why. Some people shared some stories about successes and failures. One of the items that was shared was from someone at Ohio University about the use of aerobic equipment to actually put energy back into the grid. This really struck a chord with me because I had hear about other universities doing that (Oregon State, University of Florida), but also because I will be working on a physical exercise module this summer and I thought it would be really cool to bring sustainability into that module by focusing how students can enhance their health while contributing to the university's sustainability plan.
In the end, she encouraged everyone to do something at our universities and college to push the sustainability agenda. She recommended reading the following:
I wrote yesterday about bookmarking items and not getting back to them for a while. It's like finding buried treasure! Well, I "found" another treasure, a youtube video, while looking for something to add to the same presentation that I was working on yesterday. I do remember watching it all the way through probably right after it was published. In the presentation, I was justifying using video in the module that I am presenting on by explaining the nature of students today. I could've listed all of the attributes of in a bullet list, but why be boring?
The video is a little old (Oct 2007), but it does such a cool job of explaining it that I still think that there is a benefit to sharing it. I'll be using part of the Digital Ethnography project's A Vision of Students Today video by Michael Wesch at Kansas State University. If you haven't seen it, I think it's worth 5 minutes to watch and so did
3,064,870 other folks as of this morning at 11:15 am. What I found even more interesting was another video that I think is just a relevant because it takes a step
back and talks about similar topics as they relate to K-12 education
and what we are preparing out kids to do in the future. A Vision of K-12 Students Today was published in November of 2007.
What I found even more interesting was a related video that I think is just a relevant because it takes a step
back and talks about similar topics as they relate to kids in the K-12 education system. The video questions what we are preparing our kids to do in the future, how they stack up against the rest of the world, how they spend their time in and out of school, and what they want out of education. A Vision of K-12 Students Today was published in November of 2007 by B. Nesbitt. I think this is more relevant that the one for college students because as a university we can plan and prepare for the arrival of the K-12 students. The children in the video asks us to teach them to think and to engage them. We can do that or in the very least start to design instruction based on that so when they get to college they are engaging them in meaningful and powerful ways.
Every now and then, I bookmark something that someone sends me and I get busy and don't get back to it immediately. I ran into one of these "filed for later" items today while I was searching for content for the ACPA (a national Student Affair's conference) presentation that I will be giving at the end of the month as well as talking about it to our internal Cocurricular Learning Group in a couple of weeks too. In Student Affairs, we use Bloom's Taxonomy to help write our learning outcomes. I remembered seeing the update to Bloom's Taxonomy that came out last year sometime, but only skimmed it so I didn't know how much had changed. Here's the link to the Educational Origami web site that has lots of information on it if you want to check it out.
What I found was really useful to me. Not only did I find the info that I was looking for, I got a big bonus on top of it. As I suspected the model had been updated to incorporate verbs instead of nouns for each level, but digital language was also added throughout specifically for Web 2.0 skills. When I get back to working on the Web 2.0 tools overview that I blogged about developing earlier, I can use the document to help me with the pedagogical stuff. It is full of rubrics and examples that I can use. I don't have to come up with everything on my own, so I might be able to get this done more quickly than I had hoped. I was planning on putting a call out to the community and I still will, but this document will give me a great starting point. This document is also a good tool for working with faculty and helping them understand how to assess learning using Web 2.0 tools. Just thought I'd share just in case anyone else filed it away for later.
Note: bloom's Digital taxonomy v3.0.pdf is the document that I am talking about that updates some of the
language as well as adds examples of how to apply the taxonomy to Web
2.0 tools and ubiquitous computing skills if you want to download it as a pdf.
For a while now, Student Affair's has been piloting a certificate program on Multicultural Competencies. Each time we pilot, we learn a little bit more to make the certificate better. These certificates were intended to be a blended learning experience for students with elearning modules serving at the Web portion and workshops and personal feedback serving the in-person portion. This is great in theory, however, it is not as great in practice without a strong support structure in place. As it stands at this moment, we don't have that structure.
We have identified a few areas that are not working as well as we'd hoped. I am just going to talk about the one that comes at the end of the certificate which is a module on Social Justice. The activity associated with it is to complete two of five case studies by reflecting on the the case and using the knowledge that was gained through completing the other three required modules. Unfortunately, we simply don't have the staff to grade and provide feedback on the finished product, so I need to adjust the assessment.
Our goal is to help students move beyond just Knowledge and Comprehension in Bloom's Taxonomy towards Application and Analysis throughout the certificate. The learning modules are mostly knowledge and comprehension, but the reflections and case studies are in the Application and Analysis range. I need to find a way to do that sort of an assessment through ANGEL without human interaction involved in the grading. I think this is going to be mighty challenging for me to do it in an authentic way. One thought it to provide a few completed case studies and then ask questions about them that require deeper processing. I haven't ever done something like that, so it should be a good learning experience. I think that I will look into so other options as well. Does anyone care to share some ideas keeping in mind that I have to use ANGEL (our university course management system) and it cannot require human interaction as feedback?
I've had two meetings in the last week that mentioned the theory that millennials also known as Generation Y don't know what to do with their free time which in some case can lead to mischief or problematic behaviors. The theory is based on the premise that this group of students had their whole lives so controlled and scheduled by their "helicopter" parents shuttling them between activities that when they arrive on campus, they really don't know how to keep themselves occupied outside of class. A faculty member in leisure students wants to see how using the principles of leisure might apply to how students spend their time.
If it all works out, I may have the opportunity to partner with that faculty member to integrate the self-assessment instrument that she uses in her class to help students explore how they spend their free time into the Health and Wellness certificate that I am currently working on. As it exists now, students keep track of how much time they spend doing certain activities over a two-week span by marking a paper instrument. After the two weeks is up, they tally up the results and discuss how they spend their time. In Student Affairs, we'd like to see them examine the result and identify changes that they might consider to spend their free time more productively and with intentionality as they matriculate through college. In my position, I'd like to see them make the Cocurrriular Learning that I develop part of that intent.
In return for working with us, the faculty member will have access to a web-based version of the instrument for her students. Once the instrument is integrated into to certificate, I'd like to use it to help them identify unhealthy activities that may impact the areas covered in the certificate mainly stress, nutrition, sleep and physical activity. Later this may help them make decisions on what to focus on when they develop their lifetime health and wellness plan which is the capstone for the certificate. I hope it all comes together. Seem like it will be a fun project.
Beginning later this semester, I look forward to reconvening a monthly discussion forum called the "Student Affairs Cocurricular Learning Group." This group is comprised of innovative staff colleagues from every Penn State Student Affairs department that is delivering educational programs. One of the interesting projects on the docket for the next semester with this group is to create a "Cocurricular Learning Sourcebook" that can be used by division staff who seek to improve their ability to create effective, rigorous, high-impact learning programs that are well matched to student's needs and improved through regular assessment. This sourcebook will follow up on a previous project that resulted in learning module for staff.
In 2006, working with colleagues Dr. Andrea Dowhower, Andrea Gregg (inst. designer), and more recently, April Shenninger (inst. designer), we created an online learning workshop for Penn State Student Affairs staff that is intended to advance the important skills needed to develop more intentionality in the educational programs and workshops offered by Division staff. Penn State SA staff can log in to access this content at the edge.psu.edu website. Here is the table of contents for that learning module:
Improving Educational Programming: Design and Assessment
Table of Contents
Improving Educational
Programming
Institutional Development
In Loco Parentis and
Student Development
Purposeful Education
The Student Learning
Imperative
Powerful Partnerships
Learning Reconsidered
Penn State General
Education Learning Outcomes
PennState
First Year Learning Outcomes and Competencies
PennState's
Cocurricular Learning Outcomes
Bloom's Taxonomy of
Educational Objectives
Cognitive Domain
Multicultural
Competency Example - Cognitive Domain
Career Planning
Example - Cognitive Domain
Affective Domain
Multicultural
Competency Example - Affective Domain
Career Planning -
Affective Domain
Learning Outcomes
Benefits of Learning
Outcomes
Writing Learning
Outcomes
Keep learning topics
distinct
Be specific with your
outcomes
Focus on the desired
learning rather than the activity
Ralph Dorn Hetzel was president of the Pennsylvania State University in 1935 when Benjamin S. Bloom (1913-1999) graduated from here with his bachelor's and master's degrees. He was hired to be an instructor of educational psychology at the Unviversity of Chicago in 1940 and he completed his PhD there in 1942. I admire Bloom's clear thinking especially for the work he completed with his colleagues at the University of Chicago in describing a taxonomy of educational objectives.
Probably his most important to American education is not his taxonomy, though. Bloom published an important work in the 1960's that led others to realize that early childhood eduation is extremely important to later intellectual development. ''Stability and Change in Human Characteristics'' (John Wiley & Sons, 1964). His research caused him to be among the leaders of the movement to create Head Start programs across America - a cornerstone of President Lyndon Johnson's 'Great Society' program.
Over the years, I have found Bloom's original taxonomy to be a valuable heuristic device in understanding the writing of learning outcomes (with increasing complexity) and in creating rubrics to evaluate student work. I first encountered Bloom's work in the summer after my senior year in high school when I was preparing to become an undergraduate eduation major. My aunt, Mary Lou Burlingame, was an English teacher at the Olean (NY) public high school. Though she discouraged me from entering the field of education, she stopped by one day and gave me two books that she bought when she was working on her master's degree at Penn State a few years earlier. The two books were both edited/written by Benjamin Bloom -- in 1956, the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives - Handbook I: Cognitive Domain. And in 1964, the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives - Handbook II: Affective Domain.
I distinctly recall thinking -- what use will these books from the two previous decades be as I prepare to enter college? Within the first few weeks of my first semester, I was referencing those books for papers. I used them through undergraduate, master's and doctoral work and I still reference them from my office bookshelf today.
The books still have the receipt -- my aunt paid $2.50 each for the books at Keeler's - The University Book Store in State College, PA. Perhaps the best textbook investment ever made.
I really can think of very few ideas in the history of education that have held up as well -- for over 50 years -- as has Bloom's Taxonomy. In spite of its many criticisms and detractors, it still has surprising good utility today.
David Krathwohl, an early and important collaborator with Bloom, has published an update to the original taxonomy. In so doing, he noted four key reasons that Bloom used to develop the original:
"Bloom saw the
original Taxonomy as more than a measurement tool. He believed it could serve
as a:
* common language
about learning goals to facilitate communication across persons, subject
matter, and grade levels;
* basis for
determining for a particular course or curriculum the specific meaning of broad
educational goals, such as those found in the currently prevalent national,
state, and local standards;
* means for
determining the congruence of educational objectives, activities, and
assessments in a unit, course, or curriculum; and
* panorama of the
range of educational possibilities against which the limited breadth and depth
of any particular educational course or curriculum could be contrasted."
Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The
Classification of Educational Goals. Handbook I: Cognitive Domain (Bloom,
Engelhart, Furst, Hill, & Krathwohl, 1956).
What are the implications of emerging e-learning 2.0 tools for the delivery of cocurricular learning?
Instructional designers (the creative architects of today's evolving e-learning environments) are taking stock of the changing nature of how students use technology to interact and to learn. It is clear that what are referred to as Web 2.0 technologies are creating increasingly interactive tools that can be employed to transform the delivery and effectiveness of cocurricular learning programs.
April Sheninger, an instructional designer employed by Student Affairs, sent a link to an interesting paper about how emerging ideas in learning theory are driving innovation toward 'e-learning 2.0'. Here is the abstract to Stephen Downes paper:
"Learning Networks and Connective Knowledge
The purpose of this paper is to outline some of the thinking behind new e-learning technology, including e-portfolios and personal learning environments. Part of this thinking is centered around the theory of connectivism, which asserts that knowledge - and therefore the learning of knowledge - is distributive, that is, not located in any given place (and therefore not transferred' or 'transacted' per se) but rather consists of the network of connections formed from experience and interactions with a knowing community. And another part of this thinking is centered around the new, and the newly empowered, learner, the member of the net generation, who is thinking and interacting in new ways. These trends combine to form what is sometimes called 'e-learning 2.0' -an approach to learning that is based on conversation and interaction, on sharing, creation and participation, on learning not as a separate activity, but rather, as embedded in meaningful activities such as games or workflows."
So to my fellow student affairs practitioners, I ask you to take careful note of how this imagined e-learning 2.0 world is described:
"conversation and interaction, ...sharing, creation and participation"
How much better can we imagine an alignment of what our profession has been working to create for students in their cocurricular world for decades? What I am obviously suggesting here is that it is clear to me now that the evolving e-learning environment is going to become just as holistic, engaging and interactive as are today's best cocurricular learning environments -- such as our best residence hall special living options, peer mentoring programs, experiential learning programs and so on. This presents those of us in student affairs with the challenge of stepping up to experiment even more with how we can use these evolving tools to help our students actively shape their own cocurriculum as well as to help them record artifacts, write reflectively and make meaning out of their cocurricular experiences.
As often is the case, reading the paper that April sent, led me to look closely at a concept map for an envisioned 'Personal Learning Environment' -- sort of the 'e-learning 2.0' next evolution of the current model of e-learning -- the Virtual Learning Environment -- or the VLE.
"...we envisage situations where the PLE is not a single piece of software, but instead the collection of tools used by a user to meet their needs as part of their personal working and learning routine. So, the characteristics of the PLE design may be achieved using a combination of existing devices (laptops, mobile phones, portable media devices), applications (newsreaders, instant messaging clients, browsers, calendars) and services (social bookmark services, weblogs, wikis) within what may be thought of as the practice of personal learning using technology."
I believe this concept map will serve as a helpful model to those of us in student affairs who now need to re-imagine the technology and e-learning 2.0 tools that we will need to employ to meet the rapidly evolving needs of our students. References:
Personal Learning Environments: Challenging the dominant design of educational systems"
"Look below, there's our field over there
Though there's one motor gone
We can still carry on
Comin' in on a wing and a prayer." - Adamson and McHugh, 1942
Staff Sergeant Evert Swanson, standing center, central fire control gunner. _____________________________________________________________________________________________
This photo depicts the crew of the American Army Air Corps B-29 bomber, 'Superstitious Aloysious". This crew of the 40th Bomber Group saw significant air combat action during World War II on numerous missions in the Pacific Theater and flying 'the hump' in Burma. The shiny aluminum shown behind the aircraft's artwork is the result of a repair of combat damage done just before this photo was taken. The artwork of the crew's luck elf came from a post card sent by the mother of the tallest crew member. I know this because the tall airman in the center of the photo is Evert Swanson -- he was the central fire control gunner on the crew -- and he is my uncle. And TODAY is the birthday of this highly decorated, American war hero. ______________________________________________________________________________________________
On a wing and a prayer ....
Intentionality. It is both critically important and too often missing in the context of student affairs cocurricular program interventions. For years, not unlike their faculty counterparts, student affairs folks have made decisions about cocurricular programs -- leadership training, career management, residence life programs, student activities, service learning, etc. -- based on instinct or experience or ... tradition. And just like in the classroom, usually something beneficial is intended and sometimes, no doubt, something beneficial happens. But isn't this leaving too much to chance? Don't we develop too many programs on a wing and a prayer?
The publication "Learning Reconsidered 2" provides a fairly useful road map to help sort out what we really should be doing. If you haven't read "Learning Reconsidered 2", here are some key concepts to look for.
1) Mapping. Learn how to map the learning environment that your campus provides -- but, more importantly, that your programs provide. Recognize, identify and document the learning activities. For me, the most important idea that programmatic learning outcomes can only be related effectively if they map to macro learning objectives.
2) Learning Outcomes. We have a problem, really. The majority of the folks in student affairs who are creating, planning and presenting educational programs don't know how to write meaningful learning outcomes for those programs. The strategy to remedy this problem is referred to as 'capacity building' in the monograph. Once you begin to frame your work around the creation of learning outcomes you will find that, of course, it is an iterative process. But, isn't it obvious that it is better for students to know what it is that you intend for them to learn? And for your colleagues to know? And for you to know what you are intending to teach?
3) Rigor. OK, it is true that 'Learning Reconsidered 2' doesn't specifically talk about the importance of rigor in cocurricular education -- but, it is important. And, once again, it is too often missing. Challenging students with really contemplative and sometimes difficult learning opportunities makes good sense. This approach helps to anchor the bridge well on both sides of the classroom doorway. And, in my view, it is insulting to students to offer anything less.
4) Assessment. Of course this last step is important. We tell students what we intend for them to learn. Did they learn what was intended? Did they learn anything? How do we use assessment findings to continually improve our cocurricular learning environment? See assess.psu.edu.
' A bridge must be well anchored on either side' - Robert Kegan
Robert Kegan, a disciple of Lawrence Kohlberg, wrote a powerful follow-up to The Evolving Self, a book I read in graduate school. His 1994 work, In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life,
holds many valuable insights into how our students learn and the very
gradual formation of mature cognitive development. Folks who work in
student affairs spend a great deal of time sorting out the consequences
of underdeveloped cognition.
I am revisiting his writing about the concept of 'self-authorship'.
Kegan sees the achievement of self-authorship as one's move to 'Fourth
Order Consciousness'. He provides characteristics of people who are
demonstrating this level of consciousness in varied settings -- as
parents, at work, as citizens of a diverse society -- and at school.
Here is an excerpt about the school setting:
Exercise critical thinking;
Examine ourselves, our culture, and our milieu in order to
understand how to separate what we fell from what we should feel, what
we value from what we should value, and what we want from what we
should want;
Be a self-directed learner (take initiative, set our own goals and
standards; use experts, institutions, and other resources to pursue
these goals; take responsibility for our direction and productivity in
learning);
See ourselves as the co-creators of the culture (rather than only shaped by culture)
Read actively (rather than only receptively) with our own purpose in mind;
Write to ourselves and bring our teachers into our self-reflection
(rather than write mainly to our teachers and for our teachers);
Take charge of the concepts and theories of a course or discipline,
marshalling on behalf of our independently chosen topic its internal
procedures for formulating and validating knowledge. (Kegan, p. 303)
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So first, I try to imagine the Academy brimming with learners who
have achieved this fourth order consciousness related to their learning.
I am thinking about the value that students might find in the
development of their own comprehensive ePortfolio. Couldn't this work
help move a student toward this kind of personal transformation as
envisioned by Kegan? So what would this ePortfolio environment look
like?
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