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Nils Peterson

Community Colleges Must Focus on Quality of Learning, Report Says - Students - The Chro... - 0 views

chronicle.com/...125344

shared by Nils Peterson on 12 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Over all, 67 percent of community-college students said their coursework often involved analyzing the basic elements of an idea, experience, or theory; 59 percent said they frequently synthesized ideas, information, and experiences in new ways. Other averages were lower: 56 percent of students, for example, reported being regularly asked to examine the strengths or weaknesses of their own views on a topic. And just 52 percent of students said they often had to make judgments about the value or soundness of information as part of their academic work.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 12 Nov 10
       
      one wonders, who is the stakeholder that commissioned this assessment and thinks these are important -- looks like the CITR might be underlying their thinking.
Nils Peterson

U. of Phoenix Reports on Students' Academic Progress - Measuring Stick - The Chronicle ... - 0 views

chronicle.com/...27584

shared by Nils Peterson on 10 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • In comparisons of seniors versus freshmen within the university, the 2,428 seniors slightly outperformed 4,003 freshmen in all categories except natural sciences, in which they were equivalent.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 10 Dec 10
       
      This is the value added measure.
  • The University of Phoenix has released its third “Academic Annual Report,” a document that continues to be notable not so much for the depth of information it provides on its students’ academic progress but for its existence at all.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 10 Dec 10
       
      Provides a range of measures, inc. demographics, satisfaction, indirect measures of percieved utility and direct measures using national tests.
  • The Phoenix academic report also includes findings on students’ performance relative to hundreds of thousands of students at nearly 400 peer institutions on two standardized tests
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • University of Phoenix seniors slightly underperformed a comparison group of 42,649 seniors at peer institutions in critical thinking, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, and moderately underperformed the peer group in reading, writing, and mathematics.
Joshua Yeidel

Using Clickers to Facilitate Peer Review in a Writing Seminar - ProfHacker - The Chroni... - 0 views

chronicle.com/...27846

teaching

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 13 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 13 Dec 10
     
    "Teaching a writing seminar has also provided me with an opportunity to use clickers in ways that are new to me. "
Joshua Yeidel

Cross-Disciplinary Grading Techniques - ProfHacker - The Chronicle of Higher Education - 0 views

chronicle.com/...28804

teaching assessment

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 04 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 04 Jan 11
     
    "So far, the most useful tool to me, in physics, has been the rubric, which is used widely in grading open-ended assessments in the humanities. "
  • Joshua Yeidel on 04 Jan 11
     
    A focus on improving the grading experience, rather than the learning experience, but still a big step forward for (some) hard scientists.
Joshua Yeidel

Higher Education: Assessment & Process Improvement Group News | LinkedIn - 0 views

www.linkedin.com/news

assessment outcomes accountability

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 06 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 06 Jan 11
     
    High School Principal George Wood eloquently contrasts standardized NCLB-style testing and his school's term-end performance testing.
Joshua Yeidel

Performance Assessment | The Alternative to High Stakes Testing - 0 views

performanceassessment.org

assessment outcomes accountability

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 06 Jan 11 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 06 Jan 11
     
    " The New York Performance Standards Consortium represents 28 schools across New York State. Formed in 1997, the Consortium opposes high stakes tests arguing that "one size does not fit all." Despite skepticism that an alternative to high stakes tests could work, the New York Performance Standards Consortium has done just that...developed an assessment system that leads to quality teaching, that enhances rather than compromises our students' education. Consortium school graduates go on to college and are successful."
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...
Nils Peterson

Two Bits » Modulate This Book - 0 views

twobits.net/modulate

p2pu recursive public Kelty

shared by Nils Peterson on 24 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Free Software is good to think with… How does one re-mix scholarship? One of the central questions of this book is how Free Software and Free Culture think about re-using, re-mixing, modifying and otherwise building on the work of others. It seems obvious that the same question should be asked of scholarship. Indeed the idea that scholarship is cumulative and builds on the work of others is a bit of a platitude even. But how?
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 24 Sep 10
       
      This is Chris Kelty's site for his book Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software. Learned about the idea "recusive public" at the P2PU event, and from that found Kelty. This quote leads off the page that is inviting readers to "modulate" the book. The page before gives a free download in PDF and HTML and the CC License and invitation to remix, use, etc, and to "Modulate" so I came to see what that term might mean.
  • I think Free Software is “good to think with” in the classic anthropological sense.  Part of the goal of launching Two Bits has been to experiment with “modulations” of the book–and of scholarship more generally–a subject discussed at length in the text. Free Software has provided a template, and a kind of inspiration for people to experiment with new modes of reuse, remixing, modulating and transducing collaboratively created objects.
  • As such, “Modulations” is a project, concurrent with the book, but not necessarily based on it, which is intended to explore the questions raised there, but in other works, with and by other scholars, a network of researchers and projects on free and open source software, on “recursive publics,” on publics and public sphere theory generally, and on new projects and problems confronted by Free Software and its practices…
Theron DesRosier

Tertiary21: 21st Century Assessment: The University of Farmville - 0 views

tertiary21.blogspot.com/...-assessment-university-of.html

21st assessment learning

shared by Theron DesRosier on 23 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Carnegie Mellon University Professor Jesse Schell's talk on the future of gaming is thought provoking. It gives some interesting insights into what educational assessment might look like by mid 21st Century.
  • Theron DesRosier on 23 Sep 10
     
    An interesting perspective on the future of assessment using the analogy of game design.
Gary Brown

Texas A&M's Faculty Ratings: Right and Wrong - Commentary - The Chronicle of Higher Edu... - 0 views

chronicle.com/...124330

accountability

shared by Gary Brown on 08 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • "Academia is highly specialized. We don't mean to be exclusive. We are a public-serving group of people. But at the same time, that public isn't well-enough aware of what we do and who we are to evaluate us."
  • But the think tank is correct that taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent. Public-university operating costs in Texas have gone up more than 60 percent in the last two decades, even after adjusting for inflation, and professors are among the state's highest-paid public employees. The state needs accountability measures, and they must be enforced by a party other than the faculty, who, it could easily be charged, have a conflict of interest. That's what Texas A&M got right.
  • Moosally is right about one thing: The public isn't well aware of what she and many of her colleagues do. But they should be. That is not to say that the public will be able to understand what goes on in all of the chemistry laboratories in Texas. But Moosally teaches English at a college that is not exactly tasked with performing cutting-edge research. Houston-Downtown's mission is to provide "educational opportunities and access to students from a variety of backgrounds including many first-generation college students."
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • No doubt there is useful research coming out of the university system. But plenty could be omitted without a great deal of detriment to students' education. For instance, Hugill's most recent contributions have included a chapter on "Transitions in Hegemony: A Theory Based on State Type and Technology" and the article "German Great-Power Relations in the Pages of Simplicissimus, 1896-1914." Moosally's master's thesis was titled "Resumptive Pronouns in Modern Standard Arabic: A Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar Account," and her current research interests include "interactions between grammar knowledge and writing abilities/interest [and] cross-linguistic patterns of agreement."
  • According to a 2004 survey by The Chronicle, 71 percent of Americans thought it was very important for colleges to prepare undergraduates for careers, while only 56 percent thought it was very important for colleges to "discover more about the world through research."
  • Only 35 percent of respondents felt it was very important for colleges to "provide useful information to the public on issues affecting their daily lives."
  • What Texas A&M officials have also missed is that faculty members must be held accountable for what they teach.
  • Professors receive more credit for teaching higher-level students. But again, that is backward. The idea should be to give senior faculty members more credit for teaching introductory classes.
  • Moreover, the metric entirely ignores teaching quality. Who cares how many "student hours" professors put in if they are not particularly good teachers anyway?
  • Ultimately there needs to be a systemic solution to the problem of teacher quality. Someone—a grown-up, preferably—needs to get into the classroom and watch what is being done there.
  • Gary Brown on 08 Sep 10
     
    Another one in which the comments say more than I might--but the range of these accountability pieces underscore the work to do....
Gary Brown

Learning Assessments: Let the Faculty Lead the Way - Measuring Stick - The Chronicle of... - 0 views

chronicle.com/...26779

assessment

shared by Gary Brown on 08 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • The barriers to faculty involvement in assessment have been extensively catalogued over the years. Promotion and tenure systems do not reward such work. Time is short and other agendas loom larger. Most faculty members have no formal training in assessment—or, for that matter, in teaching and course design. Given developments in K-12, there are concerns, too, about the misuse of data, and skepticism about whether assessment brings real benefits to learners.
  • Moreover, as Robin Wilson points out, some campuses have found ways to open up the assessment conversation, shifting the focus away from external reporting, and inviting faculty members to examine their own students’ learning in ways that lead to improvement.
  • Does engagement with assessment’s questions change the way a faculty member thinks about her students and their learning? How and under what conditions does it change what he does in his classroom—and are those changes improvements for learners? How does evidence—which can be messy, ambiguous, discouraging, or just plain wrong—actually get translated into pedagogical action? What effects—good, bad, or uncertain—might engagement in assessment have on a faculty member’s scholarship, career trajectory, or sense of professional identity?
  • Gary Brown on 08 Sep 10
     
    Hutchings is a critical leader in our work--good links to have available, too.
Gary Brown

Many College Boards Are at Sea in Assessing Student Learning, Survey Finds - Leadership... - 0 views

chronicle.com/...124349

accountability assessment

shared by Gary Brown on 09 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • While oversight of educational quality is a critical responsibility of college boards of trustees, a majority of trustees and chief academic officers say boards do not spend enough time discussing student-learning outcomes, and more than a third say boards do not understand how student learning is assessed, says a report issued on Thursday by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.
  • While boards should not get involved in the details of teaching or ways to improve student-learning outcomes, they must hold the administration accountable for identifying needs in the academic programs and then meeting them, the report says. Boards should also make decisions on where to allocate resources based on what works or what should improve.
  • The most commonly received information by boards was college-ranking data
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Boards should expect to receive useful high-level information on learning outcomes, the report says, and should make comparisons over time and to other institutions. Training in how to understand academic and learning assessments should also be part of orientation for new board members.
  • Gary Brown on 09 Sep 10
     
    This piece coupled with the usual commentary reveal again the profound identity crisis shaking education in this country.
Gary Brown

The Public Be Damned - Innovations - The Chronicle of Higher Education - 0 views

chronicle.com/...26673

public perception of higher ed

shared by Gary Brown on 09 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • A new generation comes along, and a new bunch of books critical of academia are starting to appear. Two recently out include Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus' Higher Education? and Mark Taylor's Crisis on Campus. We are told colleges have lost their way, have lost sight of what is important, namely shaping young minds and turning immature adolescents into responsible young adults. The last round of muckraking had a decidedly conservative cast to it, while this one is more conventionally left wing or apolitical.
  • But until there is mass indignation about the behavior of colleges--their obscene costs, their bloated bureaucracies, the scandalously low teaching loads, the tons trivial academic research, the corruption of intercollegiate sports
  • Reform requires threats of reduced funding from the financiers of higher education.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • the Academic Class has radically different perceptions that the public that funds higher education.
  • The public believes state universities have as their top mission the intellectual and leadership development of undergraduate students, while the Academic Class believes that research and graduate education is truly more important.
  • Gary Brown on 09 Sep 10
     
    for the collection
Gary Brown

Details | LinkedIn - 0 views

www.linkedin.com/groupItem

accountability

shared by Gary Brown on 11 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Although different members of the academic hierarchy take on different roles regarding student learning, student learning is everyone’s concern in an academic setting. As I specified in my article comments, universities would do well to use their academic support units, which often have evaluation teams (or a designated evaluator) to assist in providing boards the information they need for decision making. Perhaps boards are not aware of those serving in evaluation roles at the university or how those staff members can assist boards in their endeavors.
  • Gary Brown • We have been using the Internet to post program assessment plans and reports (the programs that support this initiative at least), our criteria (rubric) for reviewing them, and then inviting external stakeholders to join in the review process.
Gary Brown

Recruiters Pick State Schools, Pass on Ivies - WSJ.com - 0 views

online.wsj.com/...4358904575477643369663352.html

employers

shared by Gary Brown on 13 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Recruiters say graduates of top public universities are often among the most prepared and well-rounded academically, and companies have found they fit well into their corporate cultures and over time have the best track record in their firms.
  • Recruiter salaries, travel expenses, advertising and relocation costs run upwards of $500,000 to recruit 100 college grads, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
  • The Journal asked companies to rank schools that produce the best-qualified graduates—overall and by major. Recru
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Partnerships also play a key role. Universities and companies strike research collaborations that often include student participation. Companies get an early look at promising students, leading to internships and job offers.
  • Partnerships can help boost brand awareness among talented students. The economic climate led Dennis Cornell, head of recruiting for LSI Corp. of Milpitas, Calif., to narrow his on-campus recruiting to three schools where the tech firm wanted to expand its reputation:
  • Gary Brown on 13 Sep 10
     
    Note that WSU is rated in a tie as number 25 (Wall Sreet)
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.”
Nils Peterson

Redesigning Scientific Reputation - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences - 0 views

www.the-scientist.com/...1

shared by Nils Peterson on 17 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Thus, one’s reputation is not measured by credentials, but by one’s contribution both to expanding knowledge and to the community.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 17 Sep 10
       
      The systems the cite suggest that they understand open assessment, though they don't specifically say that in this piece. One of these authors (Adler) will be at the PaloAlto meeting Monday.
Joshua Yeidel

Key Steps in Outcome Management - 0 views

www.urban.org/...310776.html

assessment

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 22 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 22 Sep 10
     
    First in a series from the Urban Institute on outcome management for non-profits, for an audience of non-evaluation-savvy leadership and staff. Lots to steal here if we ever create an Assessment Handbook for WSU.
Joshua Yeidel

University World News - US: America can learn from Bologna process - 0 views

www.universityworldnews.com/article.php

Bologna higher_education

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 22 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 22 Sep 10
     
    Lumina proposes that the US "adapt and apply the lessons learned from the Bologna Process in the EU, which has developed methodologies that "uniquely focus on linking student learning and the outcomes of higher education" -- tautological though that sounds.
  • Joshua Yeidel on 22 Sep 10
     
    Apparently the "audacious" discussion in the WCET webinar yesterday (to be linked) featuring Ellen Wagner and Peter Smith is old hat in Europe. A national "degree framework" is almost inconceivable in the US, but 'tuning' -- "faculty-led approach that involves seeking input from students, recent graduates and employers to establish criterion-referenced learning outcomes and competencies" -- sounds a lot like in goal-setting.
Gary Brown

GE Reform Process - Revising General Education: Comments and Questions - University Col... - 0 views

universitycollege.wsu.edu/...default.aspx

general education

shared by Gary Brown on 23 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • I actually learned something in these classes for 3 main reasons. The first reason was that the class size was small, and my interaction with my classmates and professor/teacher made the material meaningful and educational. Secondly, the essays required for these classes pushed me in my writing skills, and promoted independent research and construction of ideas through writing.
  • Taking the class with students who were serious and knowledgeable about their field of study made my experience educational. Sitting in a large lecture hall with 200 other students who also are taking the class just to get the requirement is not educationally stimulating.
  • Spending money on classes that don’t have any impact is especially hard now that tuition has gone through the roof. Requiring less classes of greater quality will help alleviate this problem and help students graduate on time.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • I also think that if there are going to be any cut-backs on classes it should be done on GE classes. Also, the writing portfolio process is tedious for DDP students, especially for those who transferred from a community college. Honestly the hardest part of the process was not the proctored test (I received a pass with distinction) but hunting down professors to sign the required
  • Likewise, if we eliminate western history, mythology, philosophy and comparative politics, we abandon our common heritage and reduce our graduates to individuals with technical skills but no understanding of how America became the greatest nation in history and of our individual responsibilities as productive and educated citizens
  • Gary Brown on 23 Sep 10
     
    a student reviewing the gened reform proposal....
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