“Assessment” is one of the hot topics in current American discussions about higher education: How do colleges assess student learning? And how do they use those assessments to improve teaching and learning in the future?
The Council of Independent Colleges recently announced that Wagner College and 39 other colleges and universities will be part of a new group supported by the Teagle Fund, the Engaging Evidence Consortium, that will use assessment data to guide campus projects designed to improve student learning. The projects conducted by the 40 different institutions will be quite varied, but all will focus on assessing and improving teaching and learning at the university level.
Wagner College’s project will examine how “digital storytelling” — the creation of student-made video essays — helps students reflect on their personal experiences and what they have learned.
The “laboratory” for this study will be a first-year learning community — an interdisciplinary combination of courses with a focus on reflection, writing and a service-learning project — taught by history professor Rita Reynolds and Stephen Preskill, professor of civic engagement and leadership. Called “The Quest for Equality,” this L.C. will expose freshmen to the history of the American Civil Rights movement as well as the concept of “childism” in America.
The service-learning element of the L.C.’s curriculum will be conducted in the Staten Island community of Port Richmond, where Wagner College has joined with 23 schools, churches and nonprofit organizations to focus on four specific areas of need: education, immigration, economic development and health.
The experience of the students in Reynolds and Preskill’s L.C. with video storytelling in Port Richmond will be examined not only in their own right, but by comparison with a similar experience in an L.C. taught last fall by professors Sarah Donovan and Margarita Sanchez.
The assessment process in this Wagner College learning community will be aided by participation in the Engaging Evidence Consortium, which will familiarize the participating teams with current best practices in assessment and ways to overcome the most common pitfalls that lead to ineffective use of student learning outcomes data. A series of webinars will be held throughout the 18 months of the project to assist participants in using various resources and to provide consortium members with help as they develop and complete their campus projects. The work of the consortium will also be supported by an online community site that fosters collaboration.
Wagner picked for major assessment study
July 19, 2012
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