CTLT and Friends

Do you have ideas or examples of good practice of working with employers to promote workforce development? UK universities and colleges are under pressure to do "employer engagement" and some are finding it really difficult. This is sometimes due to the university administrative systems not welcoming non-traditional students, and sometimes because we use "university speak" rather than "employer speak". All ideas very welcome. Thanks. Posted 7 hours ago | Reply Privately /* extlib: /js_controls/_dialog.jsp */ LI.i18n.register( 'Dialog-closeWindow', 'Close this window' ); LI.i18n.register( 'Dialog-or', 'or' ); LI.i18n.register( 'Dialog-cancel', 'Cancel' ); LI.i18n.register( 'Dialog-submit', 'Submit' ); LI.i18n.register( 'Dialog-error-generic', 'We\'re sorry. Something unexpected happened and your request could not be completed. Please try again.' ); LI.Controls.addControl('control-7', 'Dialog', { name: 'sendMessageDialog', type: 'task-modeless', content: { node: 'send-message-dialog', title: 'Reply Privately' }, extra: { memberId: '19056441', fullName: 'Anita Pickerden', groupId: '2774663', subject: 'RE: Do you have ideas or examples of good practice of working with employers to promote workforce development?' } });

Validity and Reliability in Higher Education Assessment

However, validity and reliability are not inherent features of assessments or assessment systems and must be monitored continuously throughout the design and implementation of an assessment system. Research studies of a theoretical or empirical nature addressing methodology for ensuring and testing validity and reliability in the higher education assessment process, results of validity and reliability studies, and novel approaches to the concepts of validity and reliability in higher education assessment are all welcome. To be most helpful in this academic exchange, empirical studies should be clear and explicit about their methodology so that others can replicate or advance their research.

We also developed a technology platform that allows our TAs to electronically insert detailed, actionable feedback directly into student assignments

Your instructors give us the schedule of assignments, when student assignments are due, when we might expect to receive them electronically, when the scored assignments will be returned, the learning outcomes on which to score the assignments, the rubrics to be used and the weights to be applied to different learning outcomes. We can use your rubrics to score assignments or design rubrics for sign-off by your faculty members.

review and embed feedback using color-coded pushpins (each color corresponds to a specific learning outcome) directly onto the electronic assignments. Color-coded pushpins provide a powerful visual diagnostic.

The economy has suffered changes so deep and fundamental that institutions cannot just hunker down to weather the storm. The time has come for creative reconstruction. We must summon the courage and will to re-engineer education in ways founded on shared responsibility, demanding hard work and a willingness on the part of everyone involved to let go of "the way it's always been."

We need to break down expectations based on entitlement and focus on educational productivity and outcomes. Institutions should review redundancies, rethink staffing models, and streamline business practices. Productivity measures should be applied in all areas. In the same way that secondary schools are being challenged to consider longer school days and an extended academic year, we in higher education need to revisit basic assumptions about how we deliver higher education to students. We should not be tied to any one model or structure.

For example, we should re-evaluate the notion that large classes are inherently pedagogically unsound. What both students and faculty members tend to prefer—small classes—is not the only educationally effective approach. Although no one would advocate for large classes in every discipline or instance, we should review what we do in light of new financial contingencies, while keeping an eye on what students learn.

By playing our games, you're training computers to solve problems for humans all over the world.

Three promising alternatives for assessing college students' knowledge and skills. (NILOA Occasional Paper No.2). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois and Indiana University, National Institute of Learning Outcomes Assessment.

Drawing from two years of experience offering the 'Connectivism and Connective Knowledge' course in a distributed online environment, the National Research Council's Personal Learning Environment (PLE) project is expanding the model to courses outside the discipline of education. Specifically, Stephen Downes and Rita Kop - who have both offered Critical Thinking courses through more traditional online and offline means, are adapting this material to the distributed model. The purpose of this course is two-fold. First, the design of the course is based on an understanding of the skills and capacities required to effectively learn using a PLE. Second, the offering of the course is intended to test whether learners can employ a PLE environment in order to develop those capacities. Thus, combined, the objectives of the course are intended to demonstrate whether learning may be self-directed with a PLE, or whether an additional pedagogy is required prior to the use of a PLE. Research will form an integral component of the course.

The Council for Higher Education Accreditation, a national advocate and institutional voice for self-regulation of academic quality through accreditation, has awarded the 2010 CHEA Award for Outstanding Institutional Practice in Student Learning Outcomes to Capella University (MN), one of four institutions that will receive the award in 2010. Capella University is the first online university to receive the award.

Capella University’s faculty have developed an outcomes-based curricular model

“Capella University is a leader in accountability in higher education. Their work in student learning outcomes exemplifies the progress that institutions are making through the implementation of comprehensive, relevant and effective initiatives,” said CHEA President Judith Eaton. “We are pleased to recognize this institution with the CHEA Award.”

SU research directly supports the economies of so many of our communities statewide – communities and economies many of our graduates will soon take part in when they enter the workforce.  Therefore, it is imperative we align WSU to work closely and strategically with the state, and more specifically, very intimately with the counties, communities and businesses to maximize the efficiency and value of our extension, educational, outreach and research programs

Most states are doing little or nothing to hold teacher-education programs accountable for the quality of their graduates, according to a new report that also criticizes colleges for setting low standards for education majors.

Colleges, by contrast, are largely not selective enough in accepting students for education programs, lack a rigorous curriculum, and don't give teaching candidates enough classroom training.

the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, said that the report was timely and that her association was working to unify its members on the theme of accountability.