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In the summer of 2015, from July 26 to August 2, a partnership of 23 liberal arts institutions will host ILiADS, the Institute for Liberal Arts Digital Scholarship, at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. ILiADS offers participants two ways to engage the community of liberal arts practitioners and pedagogues: a team- and project-based approach and a more traditional conference structure.

Thomas Carey argues that "depth vs. breadth" is an insufficient model for understanding the possible contributions of the liberal arts. (Plus, K is for Kenyon, that's good enough for me.)

Interesting attempt to measure the growth of professionally-oriented courses at liberal arts schools, and some good reporting to contextualize the changes.

Jose Bowen, president of Goucher College and author of the book _Teaching Naked_, is starting a 5-part series on liberal arts education as the "degree of the future". In part one, I'd note the implied difference between "critical" and "creative" thinking.

Richard Detweiler's study correlates students' classroom experiences with their lifelong achievement of mission goals of liberal arts colleges.

Interesting post from the Rice University Center for Teaching Excellence blog. The criticism that we conflate "art" and "talent" seems spot on, though I think there's room to debate whether simply being observant and iterative is the same as as "scientific."

This article analyzes the shift toward quantitative courses among students at liberal arts colleges.

"When I first taught Intro­duc­tion to the Dig­i­tal Lib­eral Arts, I named it so in order to include projects going on in bio­chem­istry and the per­form­ing arts as well as those that fit the more tra­di­tional pro­file of DH, such as the­matic research col­lec­tions of writ­ers and his­tor­i­cal peri­ods. All of these fields are expe­ri­enc­ing changes due to the inno­v­a­tive use of tech­nol­ogy in both teach­ing and research, and all of them are par­tic­i­pat­ing in a com­mon move­ment that can­not be described as DH, even though the lat­ter is inti­mately con­nected with much of it."

Interesting podcast episode about incorporating physical art and artifacts in teaching, and the ways they can prompt a variety of disciplinary thinking and observational skills.

A sketch of how liberal arts colleges foster learning through personal encounters, inquiry-rich campus culture, and research applied in the classroom.

This essay specifically discusses the MOOC concept in the context of a small liberal arts college. I have personally heard many of the points raised in this essay in conversations here on the Kenyon campus.

If any liberal arts college was likely to step into the MOOC world, it would be one offering cross-listed courses with MIT, one of the founders of the MOOC provider EdX. This will be one to keep an eye on for small, elite liberal arts colleges like Kenyon. 

An experiment analyzing over 1,200 undergraduate papers at a selective liberal arts institution found that requiring students to complete a tutorial on academic honesty substantially reduced the likelihood of plagiarism.

"Technology is a part of our human experience, not a replacement to it."

"Like great art, a great course disturbs its audience. But if it is too disturbing, the audience may withdraw (figuratively or even literally). If it is too affirming, it is just entertainment; fun, but with no real impact."

Self-awareness is a central component to the Liberal Arts mission and this article lays out simple strategies to promote metacognitive awareness without setting aside class time for it.

"Our real goal is to improve how students integrate new information. We want to change them. While what we have to teach our students may get them a first job, it will not on its own get them a second job-especially one that may not yet even exist. We want our students to be able to learn new things, analyze new knowledge, integrate it into their thinking, and change their minds when necessary." Jose Bowen argues that we should treat both technology and disciplinary content as tools, in pursuit of the larger cognitive changes we try to create in the liberal arts.

At the recent NITLE Symposium, Dan Cohen criticized the fact that the average academic conference is a "lean back" experience (i.e. sit back in your chair and let the information wash over you) as opposed to a "lean forward" experience (i.e. be on the edge of your chair, interacting with the speaker and other attendees). This post takes musician Bobby McFerrin as an example of a speaker who can get an audience to "lean forward." Given that McFerrin's specific decisions are most appropriate to the performing arts, what could we learn (and teach students) about the principles which this author draws out of his technique?

This seems very much like the kinds of questions we're facing at Kenyon.

Rick Detweiler, president of the GLCA, presented data on the outcomes of a liberal arts education at the recent meeting of AAC&U.