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Gary Brown

Academic Grants Foster Waste and Antagonism - Commentary - The Chronicle of Higher Educ... - 1 views

chronicle.com/...124920

grants

shared by Gary Brown on 20 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • We think that our work is primarily organized by institutions of higher education, or by departments, or by conferences, but in reality those have become but appendages to a huge system of distributing resources through grants.
  • It's time we looked at this system—and at its costs: unpaid, anxiety-filled hours upon hours for a single successful grant; scholarship shaped, or misshaped, according to the demands of marketlike forces and the interests of nonacademic private foundations. All to uphold a distributive system that fosters antagonistic competition and increasing inequality.
  • Every hour spent working on or worrying about grants is an hour that could be better spent on research (or family life, or civic engagement, or sleep). But every hour not spent on a grant gives a competitive edge to other applicants.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • The grant is basically an outsourcing of assessment that could, in most situations, be carried out much better by paid professional staff members.
  • Meanwhile grant-receiving institutions, like universities, become increasingly dependent on grants, to the point that faculty members and other campus voices can scarcely be heard beneath the din of administrators exhorting them to get more and more grants.
  • Colleagues whose research may be equally valuable (based on traditional criteria of academic debate) could be denied resources and livelihoods because, instead of grant writing, they favor publishing, or public engagement, or teaching.
  • Grant applications normalize a mode of scholarly writing and thought that, whatever its merits, has not been chosen collectively by academe in the interests of good scholarship, but has been imposed from without, with the grant as its guide. And as application procedures grow more stringent, the quality of successful projects is likely to sink. Can we honestly expect good scholarship from scholars who must constantly concentrate on something other than their scholarship? Academic life is increasingly made up of a series of applications, while the applied-for work dwindles toward insignificance.
  • It's time, I think, to put an end to our rationalizations. My spine will not be straightened. The agony will not be wiped off my brain. My mind misshapen will not be pounded back, and I have to stop telling myself that everything will be OK. Months and years of my life have been taken away, and nothing short of systemic transformation will redeem them.
S Spaeth

Google Gadget Ventures - 1 views

www.google.com/gadgetventures

assessment

shared by S Spaeth on 05 Dec 09 - Cached
  • S Spaeth on 05 Dec 09
     
    Google Gadget Ventures is a new Google pilot program dedicated to helping developers create richer, more useful gadgets. Inspired by the success of iGoogle, which has been driven by the creation by 3rd-party developers of a broad range of gadgets, Gadget Ventures provides two types of funding: Grants of $5,000 to those who've built gadgets we'd like to see developed further. You're eligible to apply for a grant if you've developed a gadget that's in our gadgets directory and gets at least 250,000 weekly page views. To apply, you must submit a one-page proposal detailing how you'd use the grant to improve your gadget. Seed investments of $100,000 to developers who'd like to build a business around the gadgets platform. Only Google Gadget Venture grant recipients are eligible for this type of funding. Submitting a business plan detailing how you plan to build a viable business around the gadgets platform is a required part of the seed investment application process. It's our hope that Google Gadget Ventures will give developers the opportunity to create a new generation of gadgets to benefit users. ---------- Consider this form of authentic assessment and the metrics they apply.
Theron DesRosier

While Supplies Last ... Get Yours Today! ~ Stephen's Web ~ by Stephen Downes - 1 views

www.downes.ca/51652

credentialing higher_education

shared by Theron DesRosier on 10 Feb 10 - Cached
  • The Chronicle ridicules the idea of corporations granting degrees, but universities should take note. When their funding falls through the floorboards, corporations will be quick to jump into the credentialing game. They won't, though, think of professors as high-paid talent. Teaching staff, like hamburger-flippers, will be disposable, because the real power is in the degree-granting monopoly, not the hoarding (or delivery) of knowledge.
Joshua Yeidel

World-Class Greatness at a Land-Grant University Near You? - Commentary - The Chronicle... - 0 views

chronicle.com/...124591

higher_education

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 28 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 28 Sep 10
     
    "So how does the maintenance of high academic ranking as a research institution fit into the land-grant mission? Simply put, it doesn't."
  • Joshua Yeidel on 28 Sep 10
     
    Another for the "HE Identity Crisis" collection...
Theron DesRosier

News: 'The World Is Open' - Inside Higher Ed - 1 views

www.insidehighered.com/...bonk

education open opensource 2.0 learning

shared by Theron DesRosier on 31 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Theron DesRosier on 31 Aug 09
     
    Perhaps there is a need to adopt the approach of Western Governors University and certify or grant credit to individuals based on skills that they have obtained. Or perhaps there is a need for facilitators or guides to walk one through this free and open content when and where needed. Peer-to-Peer University and the University of the People have sprung up in 2009 to apparently address this very issue. The world community will be curious to see the results.
  • Theron DesRosier on 31 Aug 09
     
    From the interview: "Perhaps there is a need to adopt the approach of Western Governors University and certify or grant credit to individuals based on skills that they have obtained. Or perhaps there is a need for facilitators or guides to walk one through this free and open content when and where needed. Peer-to-Peer University and the University of the People have sprung up in 2009 to apparently address this very issue. The world community will be curious to see the results."
Theron DesRosier

Google funds research to help it understand itself - Ars Technica - 0 views

arstechnica.com/...-help-it-understand-itself.ars

google grants research

shared by Theron DesRosier on 07 Apr 09 - Cached
  • Theron DesRosier on 07 Apr 09
     
    "Google has made a fortune by understanding what makes people happy when they're looking for advertising and online search, but it still feels it needs to know more. Its latest solution: fund grants so that the best and brightest of the academic world explore the areas it's interested in."
Theron DesRosier

U of Phoenix Makes History « The Quick and the Ed - 0 views

www.quickanded.com/...phoenix-makes-history.html

shared by Theron DesRosier on 21 Jul 10 - Cached
  • Theron DesRosier on 21 Jul 10
     
    "According to U.S. Department of Education data released today, the University of Phoenix became the first college in the history of the United States to take in more than a billion dollars worth of Pell Grants disbursements in a single academic year. Students at the for-profit chain received a total of $1,042,372,699.50 spread amongst 304,583 awards in the 2009-10 academic year."
Joshua Yeidel

How budget cuts short-changed the UW - 1 views

crosscut.com/...19457

higher_education uw washington state

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 08 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 08 Jan 10
     
    An article on budget cuts by Ed Lazowska, who holds the Gates Chair in Computer Science and Engineering at UW. Dr Lazowska states that "the principal role of great public universities is to provide socioeconomic upward mobility to the citizens of their states," and claims that the "capacity" of UW and other bachelor-granting institutions is insufficient and shrinking. Many questionable assumptions
Gary Brown

Views: Accreditation 2.0 - Inside Higher Ed - 0 views

www.insidehighered.com/...eaton

accreditation

shared by Gary Brown on 22 Jan 10 - Cached
  • The first major conversation is led by the academic and accreditation communities themselves. It focuses on how accreditation is addressing accountability, with particular emphasis on the relationship (some would say tension, or even conflict) between accountability and institutional improvement.
  • The second conversation is led by critics of accreditation who question its effectiveness in addressing accountability
  • The third conversation is led by federal officials who also focus on the gatekeeping role of accreditation.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • All are based on a belief that accreditation needs to change, though in what way and at what pace is seen differently
  • The emerging Accreditation 2.0 is likely to be characterized by six key elements. Some are familiar features of accreditation; some are modifications of existing practice, some are new: Community-driven, shared general education outcomes. Common practices to address transparency. Robust peer review. Enhanced efficiency of quality improvement efforts. Diversification of the ownership of accreditation. Alternative financing models for accreditation.
  • The Essential Learning Outcomes of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, the Collegiate Learning Assessment and the Voluntary System of Accountability of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities all provide for agreement across institutions about expected outcomes. This work is vital as we continue to address the crucial question of “What is a college education?”
  • peer review can be further enhanced through, for example, encouraging greater diversity of teams, including more faculty and expanding public participation
  • Accreditation 2.0 can include means to assure more immediate institutional action to address the weaknesses and prevent their being sustained over long periods of time.
  • Judith Eaton is president of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, which is a national advocate for self-regulation of academic quality through accreditation. CHEA has 3,000 degree-granting colleges and universities as members and recognizes 59 institutional and programmatic accrediting organizations.
  • Gary Brown on 22 Jan 10
     
    The way the winds are blowing
Matthew Tedder

Congress Finances Program to Use Technology in Education - NYTimes.com - 2 views

www.nytimes.com/...25center.html

education

shared by Matthew Tedder on 26 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Matthew Tedder on 26 Jan 10
     
    This might be a good thing for education... Grants, money.. possibly very soon.
  • Matthew Tedder on 26 Jan 10
     
    Granted (no pun intended), the funds are seriously not there. I bet private contributions will be substantial.
Joshua Yeidel

Cutting Class - Richard D. Kahlenberg - 0 views

www.washingtonmonthly.com/...0909.kahlenberg.html

higher_education

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 10 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 10 Sep 09
     
    A review of "Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Scghools in Raleigh", by sociologist Gerald Grant. Raleigh merged its school district with suburban Wake County and integrated its schools not just by race, but by socioeconomic status. Quoting the 1966 Coleman Report: "The norms of a good school are shaped more by the children who come through the door than the dollars spent on books, buildings, laboratories, teacher salaries, or other traditional measures of school quality." Is this why "selective" colleges are more successful? How are the "norms" of WSU shaped?
Gary Brown

Student-Survey Results: Too Useful to Keep Private - Commentary - The Chronicle of High... - 0 views

chronicle.com/...49128

accountability NSSE

shared by Gary Brown on 17 Nov 09 - Cached
  • "There are … disturbing signs that many students who do earn degrees have not actually mastered the reading, writing, and thinking skills we expect of college graduates. Over the past decade, literacy among college graduates has actually declined."
  • But a major contributing factor is that the customers of higher education—students, parents, and employers—have few true measures of quality on which to rely. Is a Harvard education really better than that from a typical flagship state university, or does Harvard just benefit from being able to enroll better students? Without measures of value added in higher education, that's difficult, if not impossible, to determine.
  • Yet what is remarkable about the survey is that participating institutions generally do not release the results so that parents and students can compare their performance with those of other colleges.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Requiring all colleges to make such information public would pressure them to improve their undergraduate teaching
  • It would empower prospective students and their parents with solid information about colleges' educational quality and help them make better choices. To make that happen, the federal government should simply require that any institution receiving federal support—Pell Grants, student loans, National Science Foundation grants, and so on—make its results public on the Web site of the National Survey of Student Engagement in an open, interactive way.
  • Indeed, a growing number of organizations in our economy now have to live with customer-performance measures. It's time higher education did the same.
  • Gary Brown on 17 Nov 09
     
    The whites of the eyes--the perceptions and assumptions behind the push for accountability. I note in particular the notion that higher education will understand comparisons of the NSSE as an incentive to improve.
Nils Peterson

New Grilling of For-Profits Could Turn Up the Heat for All of Higher Education - Govern... - 1 views

chronicle.com/...66020

shared by Nils Peterson on 25 Jun 10 - Cached
  • Congress plans to put for-profit colleges under the microscope on Thursday, asking whether a higher-education model that consumes more than double its proportionate share of federal student aid is an innovation worthy of duplication or a recipe for long-term economic disaster.
  • The evaluation threatens new headaches for an industry that is sometimes exalted by government policy makers as a lean results-oriented example for the rest of academe, and other times caricatured as an opportunistic outlier that peddles low-value education to unprepared high school dropouts.
  • Economic bubbles such as the unsustainable surge in housing prices "typically are built on ignorance and borrowed money," says one prominent pessimist on the matter, Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a professor of law at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. "And the reason you've got a higher-education bubble is ignorance and borrowed money," Mr. Reynolds said.
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  • Congress and colleges still lack a firm sense of "what our higher education system is producing," said Jamie P. Merisotis, president of the Lumina Foundation for Education.
  • Mr. Reynolds said. Colleges of all type have been raising tuition for years as the government offers ever-growing amounts of grant aid and loan money, he said. The price inflation is driven by the fact that a government-backed loan, while offering students only a slight break from market interest rates, "looks cheap because you don't have to make payments for a while,"
  • That determination to expand the distribution of federal tuition assistance has left Congress and the White House seeking other ways to ensure that students get quality for their money. Just last week, the House education committee held a hearing in which Democratic members joined the Education Department's inspector general in pressing accrediting agencies to more clearly define the "credit hour" measurement used in student-aid allocations. Some colleges have objected, wanting more flexibility in defining their educational missions.
  • Whether it involves defining credit hours or setting accreditation standards, the root of the problem may be that the government is looking for better ways to ensure that its money is spent on worthwhile educational ventures, and yet it doesn't want to challenge the right of each college to define its own mission. So far that has proven to be a fundamental contradiction in judging the overall value of higher education, said Mr. Merisotis, of the Lumina Foundation. "There's got to be a third way," he said. "We don't have it yet."
Gary Brown

The Chimera of College Brands - Commentary - The Chronicle of Higher Education - 1 views

chronicle.com/...65764

quality market accountability

shared by Gary Brown on 10 Jun 10 - Cached
  • What you get from a college, by contrast, varies wildly from department to department, professor to professor, and course to course. The idea implicit in college brands—that every course reflects certain institutional values and standards—is mostly a fraud. In reality, there are both great and terrible courses at the most esteemed and at the most denigrated institutions.
  • With a grant from the nonprofit Lumina Foundation for Education, physics and history professors from a range of Utah two- and four-year institutions are applying the "tuning" methods developed as part of the sweeping Bologna Process reforms in Europe.
  • The group also created "employability maps" by surveying employers of recent physics graduates—including General Electric, Simco Electronics, and the Air Force—to find out what knowledge and skills are needed for successful science careers.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • If a student finishes and can't do what's advertised, they'll say, 'I've been shortchanged.'
  • Kathryn MacKay, an associate professor of history at Weber State University, drew on recent work from the American Historical Association to define learning goals in historical knowledge, thinking, and skills.
  • In the immediate future, as the higher-education market continues to globalize and the allure of prestige continues to grow, the value of university brands is likely to rise. But at some point, the countervailing forces of empiricism will begin to take hold. The openness inherent to tuning and other, similar processes will make plain that college courses do not vary in quality in anything like the way that archaic, prestige- and money-driven brands imply. Once you've defined the goals, you can prove what everyone knows but few want to admit: From an educational standpoint, institutional brands are largely an illusion for which students routinely overpay.
  • Gary Brown on 10 Jun 10
     
    The argumet for external stakeholders is underscored, among other implications.
Joshua Yeidel

Can Gates Foundation's Millions Remake Higher Education? - Students - The Chronicle of ... - 0 views

chronicle.com/...123824

higher_education

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 25 Aug 10 - Cached
  • Another Gates grantee, Highline Community College, in Washington, created different tracks for students planning to major in math-heavy fields and for all the others. Highline is one of 29 colleges in Washington that got Gates money as part of a $5.3-million grant given to the Washington State Board for Technical and Community Colleges.
  • Joshua Yeidel on 25 Aug 10
     
    "All are focusing, to varying degrees, on learning communities as a way to improve remedial education. The idea is that the linked courses create peer-support networks, build greater cohesion in the curriculum, and enable students to earn some college credits along with precollege work."
  • Joshua Yeidel on 25 Aug 10
     
    One aspect of the Gates Foundation's massive move into higher education. The remedial aspect quoted may raise memories for some of us...
Gary Brown

The Profession: More Pressure on Faculty Members, From Every Direction - Almanac of Hig... - 2 views

chronicle.com/...123918

change

shared by Gary Brown on 25 Aug 10 - Cached
  • Changes in the American professoriate’s employment patterns and types, demographics, and work life are the greatest we have seen in over half a century.
  • But averages obscure the widening salary ranges on campuses, particularly between presidents and faculty members
  • The drive toward institutional prestige that most professors consider a high priority at their four-year institutions has intensified the focus on research there.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Some faculty members, permanent and contingent, are expected to cover their full salaries with grants. With the tenure bottleneck narrowing, junior faculty members are often advised to focus on research, do a reasonable job of teaching, and avoid service.
  • Faculty members report spending more than half of their time on teaching and classroom-related activities. Professors are increasingly expected to use new technologies in both distance education and on-campus courses, and to be more systematic about assessing student learning at both course and program levels.
  • The scholarship of teaching and learning, in which faculty members examine the effects of their teaching strategies, is spreading; the advent of conferences and publications marks its increasing acceptance as serious scholarship.
  • The “corporatization” of institutional administrations in the face of fiscal distress and severe budget cuts imperils faculty governance, which falls increasingly to the shrinking number of permanent tenured faculty members.
  • Gary Brown on 25 Aug 10
     
    New realities rendered starkly.
  • Joshua Yeidel on 26 Aug 10
     
    Note: A "premium content" article -- you must be a paid subscriber to see it, not just a registered site user.
Gary Brown

Another Benefit of Robot Teachers: No 'Moral Problems' - College 2.0 - The Chronicle of... - 0 views

chronicle.com/...26941

future of education

shared by Gary Brown on 15 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • The unusual project aims to create robots that can teach English to schoolchildren here, and it is a huge undertaking. The research is supported by more than $100-million in grants, mostly from the South Korean government, and it involves more than 300 researchers, said Mr. Kim.
  • Forty robots will go into service for a pilot test in December, teaching at 18 elementary schools for three months to see how well they do.
  • “There are some problems and some accidents in hiring native speakers at the schools right now,” said the researcher. “For example, the immigration system in Korea is not good enough to examine whether the foreign visitors are clean or not, or they did some crime,” he added. “That’s the reason why the government thinks about such robot systems—they don’t have any such social problems, they don’t do the drugs.”
Theron DesRosier

pagi: eLearning - 0 views

pagi.wikidot.com/elearning

citing CTLT

shared by Theron DesRosier on 02 Mar 09 - Cached
  • ePortfolio ePortfolios, the Harvesting Gradebook, Accountability, and Community (!!!) Harvesting gradebook Learning from the transformative grade book Implementing the transformed grade book Transformed gradebook worked example (!!) Best example: Calaboz ePortfolio (!!) Guide to Rating Integrative & Critical Thinking (!!!) Grant Wiggins, Authentic Education Hub and spoke model of course design (!!!) ePortfolio as the core learning application Case Studies of Electronic Portfolios for Learning
  • Theron DesRosier on 02 Mar 09
     
    Nils found this. It is a Spanish concept map on eLearning that includes CTLT and the Harvesting Gradebook.
Nils Peterson

2009 Annual Meeting | Conference Program - 0 views

www.aacu.org/...program.cfm

shared by Nils Peterson on 22 Jan 09 - Cached
  • This session explores the notion that assessment for transformational learning is best utilized as a learning tool. By providing timely, transparent, and appropriate feedback, both to students and to the institution itself, learning is enhanced – a far different motive for assessment than is external accountability.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 22 Jan 09
       
      need to get to these guys with our harvesting gradebook ideas...
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 22 Jan 09
       
      decided to attend another session. Hersh was OK before lunch, but the talk by Pan looks more promising
  • Academic and corporate communities agree on the urgent need for contemporary, research-based pedagogies of engagement in STEM fields. Participants will learn how leaders from academic departments and institutions have collaborated with leaders from the corporate and business community in regional networks to ensure that graduates meet the expectations of prospective employers and the public.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 22 Jan 09
       
      here is another session with links to CTLT work, both harvesting gradebook and the ABET work
  • Professor Pan will discuss the reflective teaching methods used to prepare students to recognize and mobilize community assets as they design, implement, and evaluate projects to improve public health.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 22 Jan 09
       
      Students tasked to learn about a community, ride the bus, make a Doc appt. Then tasked to do a non-clinical health project in that community (they do plenty of clinical stuff elsewhere in the program). Project must build capacity in the community to survive after the student leaves. Example. Work with hispanic parents in Sacramento about parenting issue, ex getting kids to sleep on time. Student had identified problem in the community, but first project idea was show a video, which was not capacity building. Rather than showing the video, used the video as a template and made a new video. Families were actors. Result was spanish DVD that the community could own. Pan thinks this is increased capacity in the community.
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • Freshman Survey annually examines the academic habits of mind of entering first-year students.  Along with academic involvement, the survey examines diversity, civic engagement, college admissions and expectations of college. 
  • The project aims to promote faculty and student assessment of undergraduate research products in relation to outcomes associated with basic research skills and general undergraduate learning principles (communication and quantitative reasoning, critical thinking, and integration and application of knowledge).
  • They focus educators on the magnitude of the challenge to prepare an ever-increasingly diverse, globally-connected student body with the knowledge, ability, processes, and confidence to adapt to diverse environments and respond creatively to the enormous issues facing humankind.
  • One challenge of civic engagement in the co-curriculum is the merging of cost and outcome: creating meaningful experiences for students and the community with small staffs, on small budgets, while still having significant, purposeful impact. 
  • a)claims that faculty are the sole arbiters of what constitutes a liberal education and b) counter claims that student life professionals also possess the knowledge and expertise critical to defining students’ total learning experiences.  
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 22 Jan 09
       
      also, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
  • This session introduces a three-year national effort to document how colleges and universities are using assessment data to improve teaching and learning and to facilitate the dissemination and adoption of best practices in the assessment of college learning outcomes.
  • Exciting pedagogies of engagement abound, including undergraduate research, community-engaged learning, interdisciplinary exploration, and international study.  However, such experiences are typically optional and non-credit-bearing for students, and/or “on top of” the workload for faculty. This session explores strategies for integrating engaged learning into the institutional fabric (curriculum, student role, faculty role) and increasing access to these transformative experiences.
  • hands-on experiential learning, especially in collaboration with other students, is a superior pedagogy but how can this be provided in increasingly larger introductory classes? 
  • As educators seek innovative ways to manage knowledge and expand interdisciplinary attention to pressing global issues, as students and parents look for assurances that their tuition investment will pay professional dividends, and as alumni look for meaningful ways to give back to the institutions that nurtured and prepared them, colleges and universities can integrate these disparate goals through the Guilds, intergenerational membership networks that draw strength from the contributions of all of their members.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 22 Jan 09
       
      see Theron's ideas for COMM.
  • Civic engagement learning derives its power from the engagement of students with real communities—local, national, and global. This panel explores the relationship between student learning and the contexts in which that learning unfolds by examining programs that place students in diverse contexts close to campus and far afield.
  • For institutional assessment to make a difference for student learning its results must result in changes in classroom practice. This session explores ways in which the institutional assessment of student learning, such as the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education and the Collegiate Learning Assessment, can be connected to our classrooms.
  • Interdisciplinary Teaching and Object-Based Learning in Campus Museums
  • To address pressing needs of their communities, government and non-profit agencies are requesting higher education to provide education in an array of human and social services. To serve these needs effectively, higher educationneeds to broaden and deepen its consultation with practitioners in designing new curricula. Colleges and universities would do well to consider a curriculum development model that requires consultation not only with potential employers, but also with practitioners and supervisors of practitioners.
  • Should Academics be Active? Campuses and Cutting Edge Civic Engagement
  • If transformational liberal education requires engaging the whole student across the educational experience, how can colleges and universities renew strategy and allocate resources effectively to support it?  How can assessment be used to improve student learning and strengthen a transformational learning environment? 
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 22 Jan 09
       
      Purpose of university is not to grant degrees, it has something to do with learning. Keeling's perspective is that the learning should be transformative; changing perspective. Liberating and emancipatory Learning is a complex interaction among student and others, new knowledge and experience, event, own aspirations. learners construct meaning from these elements. "we change our minds" altering the brain at the micro-level Brain imaging research demonstrates that analogical learning (abstract) demands more from more areas of the brain than semantic (concrete) learning. Mind is not an abstraction, it is based in the brain, a working physical organ .Learner and the environment matter to the learning. Seeds magazine, current issue on brain imaging and learning. Segway from brain research to need for university to educate the whole student. Uses the term 'transformative learning' meaning to transform the learning (re-wire the brain) but does not use transformative assessment (see wikipedia).
  • But as public debates roil, higher education has been more reactive than proactive on the question of how best to ensure that today’s students are fully prepared for a fast-paced future.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 22 Jan 09
       
      Bologna process being adopted (slowly) in EU, the idea is to make academic degrees more interchangeable and understandable across the EU three elements * Qualification Frameworks (transnational, national, disciplinary). Frameworks are graduated, with increasing expertise and autonomy required for the upper levels. They sound like broad skills that we might recognize in the WSU CITR. Not clear how they are assessed * Tuning (benchmarking) process * Diploma Supplements (licensure, thesis, other capstone activities) these extend the information in the transcript. US equivalent might be the Kuali Students system for extending the transcript. Emerging dialog on American capability This dialog is coming from 2 directions * on campus * employers Connect to the Greater Exceptions (2000-2005) iniative. Concluded that American HE has islands of innovation. Lead to LEAP (Liberal Education and America's Promise) Initiative (2005-2015). The dialog is converging because of several forces * Changes in the balance of economic and political power. "The rise of the rest (of the world)" * Global economy in which innovation is key to growth and prosperity LEAP attempts to frame the dialog (look for LEAP in AACU website). Miami-Dade CC has announced a LEAP-derived covenant, the goals must span all aspects of their programs. Define liberal education Knowledge of human cultures and the physical and natural world intellectual and practical skills responsibility integrative skills Marker of success is (here is where the Transformative Gradebook fits in): evidence that students can apply the essential learning outcomes to complex, unscripted problems and real-world settings Current failure -- have not tracked our progress, or have found that we are not doing well. See AACU employer survey 5-10% percent of current graduates taking courses that would meet the global competencies (transcript analysis) See NSSE on Personal and social responsibility gains, less tha
  • Dr. Pan will also talk about strategies for breaking down cultural barriers.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 24 Jan 09
       
      Pan. found a non-profit agency to be a conduit and coordinator to level the power between univ and grass roots orgs. helped with cultural gaps.
Gary Brown

News: Scrutiny for an Accreditor - Inside Higher Ed - 1 views

www.insidehighered.com/...hlc

accreditation

shared by Gary Brown on 26 Dec 09 - Cached
  • The inspector general essentially accused the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools of shirking its federal gate keeping duties because it granted accreditation to a for-profit university despite a single flaw that the inspector general deemed to be serious.
  • The agency's action stunned many higher education leaders, who characterized it as a misstep of dramatic proportions. "We believe that the OIG's recommendation is an unwarranted overreaction," Sylvia Manning, president of the Higher Learning Commission, said in a news release. "To make a sweeping indictment of the HLC's capacity to judge quality based on a single case or even a small group of cases is wrongheaded and overreaching."
  • Added Belle S. Wheelan, president of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and head of the Council of Regional Accreditation Commissions: "This is certainly of concern, because they appear to have put themselves in the place of the evaluators, and made a recommendation that's fairly radical based on one instance at one institution."
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • the Obama administration, in the presence of Education Secretary Arne Duncan, has shown no signs of backing off. While last winter's negotiations over new rules governing accreditation ended in far more accord than did the 2007 discussion that blew up in conflict, the end result left some accreditation experts believing that the federal government was continuing to expand its reach and authority into accreditation matters.
  • Such action, if taken, could impair the ability of the many hundreds of colleges that the commission accredits to award federal financial aid.
  • Gary Brown on 26 Dec 09
     
    The Department of Education and Middle States at odds, and the new scrutiny is revealed.
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