Aligning Curriculum and Assessment from General Education Through the Capstone Experience

1. From My Course to My Department’s Course: Aligning Curriculum and Assessment from General Education Through the Capstone Experience AAC&U Integrative Learning & the Department, July 2014 J. Elizabeth Clark, Ph.D. LaGuardia Community College, CUNY

2. Framing Thoughts Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. Based on Domain, Community, & Practice ~Etienne Wenger

3. Framing Thoughts The idea of making students more self-aware and purposeful—more intentional—about their studies is a powerful one, and it is the key to fostering integrative learning. And At the heart of liberal education lies the idea that learning should be greater than the sum of its parts. ~Mary Taylor Huber and Pat Hutchings

4. Navigating Brooklyn!

5. New York to San Francisco!

6. Vinland Map

7. Vintage Disneyland

8. Treasure Map

9. Draw your own map. How did you get where you are today? What did you learn? What are the integral connections?

13. Google’s Rerouting Feature

14. From you as student to you as faculty:What is your discipline? Name a course you teach.

15. Disciplines & Offices Represented in the Room: Education Business Dance Psychology History Theater Kinesiology English Biology Chemistry Student Affairs Center for Teaching Excellence Political Science Government Religion Game Design The President’s Office Administration Interdisciplinary Languages Assessment Public Health Institutional Research Nursing Music Faculty Development Music Education Sociology

16. Image from Ashburn, VA web

17. Image from Tylden Equipment

18. Image from Boer Met

19. Image from Scaf Co

20. WHAT 1 Word DESCRIBES: Your courses?Your department?Your department’s philosophy/mission?Your department’s relationship to general education?Your department’s larger relationship to the institution?

21. Where is student learning in this formulation of faculty life?And, in this formulation: how is the student at the center of the educational journey?

22. The Changing Nature of Faculty Work How do your courses contribute to larger general education goals of your department? Of your institution?

23. Communities of Practice Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, William M. Snyder Design for evolution; Open a dialogue between inside and outside perspectives; Invite different levels of participation; Develop both public and private community spaces; Focus on value; Combine familiarity and excitement; Create a rhythm for the community.

24. What Do We Already Do? (Group Brainstorming Results) Group meetings for multiple sections of the same course: mentoring, resource sharing, curriculum overview Mentoring Inclusion of adjuncts Respect, communication & ownership of the department & department courses Department meetings with food and wine: hospitality Calm spaces to find answers Retreats Resources for students Engaging and involving alumni

25. Integrative Learning ~Mary Taylor Huber and Pat Hutchings • The good news, as documented in the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ report Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College (2002), is that many campuses today are creating opportunities for more integrative, connected learning. • The bad news is that they often involve small numbers of students or exist in isolation, disconnected from other parts of the curriculum and from other reform efforts. Indeed, the very structures of academic life encourage students to see their courses as isolated requirements to complete. • How, then, can campuses help students pursue learning in more intentionally connected ways? What does such learning look like? How might it be shaped by emerging cultural realities and by new thinking about learning and teaching?

26. What might an integrative & engaged department look like?What does an integrative& engaged institution look like?

27. Mission as a Verb Do your students know what a “department” is? How do you communicate what you “do” as a department to one another, to all of your faculty, and to your students? What is your department’s vision/mission? How does that guide your work together as faculty? With students? In your courses? In your work with other departments? In your work with the larger college or university? In your work with the professional, national organizations related to your discipline?

28. Administration Administrative Staff Department Students Professional Staff Faculty A department includes ALL of these people, not just faculty.

29. National Higher Education K-12 Employer/Transfer Department Classroom College/University Community Culture National Disciplinary Push/Pull Relationships on a Department

30. Your Department as aCommunity of Practice • Setting the vision: mission statement, web presence, printed materials, meetings, professional development, intra- and internet materials, surveys; • Setting the curriculum: shared learning outcomes, pedagogies, priorities, shared assessment; • Creating the cultural conversation AND a culture of dialogue: mentoring, round tables, discussions, social events, presentations; • Connecting the work of the department to the work of the institution; • Creating space for all kinds of leadership (even self-created!); • Creating sustained professional development around inquiry;

31. Your Department as a Community of Practice • Sharing governance: students, faculty, staff; • Showcasing faculty & student learning: presentations, publications, celebrations, forums; • Creating a rhythm for the work, play, and creativity of the department; • Connecting learning to other courses, to other departments, to the college, to your community, to the national conversation in your discipline, to the national conversation about higher education; • Finding ways to REWARD this work structurally & systematically.

32. Faculty Development as sustained inquiry “We believe that the one-hour, lunch-time faculty development workshop has little impact on the transformation of faculty attitudes and behavior.” ~Pat Hutchings Sustained; Collaborative; Focused on Evidence of Student Learning.

33. Working Towards an Integrative Department, an Integrative College: Moving Beyond the Department Departmental College-Wide External

34. Peer Led Team Teaching “In the UT Dallas application of the PLTL model, students enrolled in PLTL-supported courses have the option to register for a weekly zero-credit, ninety-minute small-group session of eight to ten students, which is facilitated by another student who has already successfully passed the course.” The PLTL leaders work with faculty liaisons who serve offer curriculum support and provide problem sets and resources. More?“Transforming Science Education Through Peer-Led Team Learning” by Thom D. Chesney http://www.aacu.org/peerreview/pr-su11/Chesney.cfm

35. Guided reflection in the integrative portfolio (from MPortfolio) • Who am I becoming? • What am I learning? • What knowledge, strengths and skills am I developing? • What can I do? • How will I make a difference? More? See Mportfolio: http://www.mportfolio.umich.edu

36. Jessica JoiEiland University of Michigan MPortfolio

37. Portland State University’s Capstone Course Portland State University has forged strong ties with the surrounding community and tailors its courses to prepare students for the multitude of exciting challenges that await them in college and beyond. Each 6-credit, community-based learning course is designed by a Portland State faculty member to provide students with the opportunity to apply, in a team context, what they have learned in their major and in their other University Studies courses to a real challenge emanating from the metropolitan community. Interdisciplinary teams of students address these real challenges and produce a summation product under the instruction of a PSU faculty member. Each Capstone's purpose is to further enhance student learning while cultivating crucial life abilities that are important both academically and professionally: establishing connections within the larger community, developing strategies for analyzing and addressing problems, and working with others trained in fields different from one's own.

39. More? See Portland State University: http://www.pdx.edu/unst/senior-capstone-courses

40. How Can You Move from a Culture of “My Course” To “Our Course? What’s the next step for your department? What is working well already? What do you want to experiment with? What new initiatives do you want to start? Put students at the center of learning Departmental Mission/Vision Departmental Culture Communities of Practice Professional Development Integrative Learning High Impact Practices Assessing Student Work as Intellectual Work of Faculty Engaging Beyond the Department Contributing to the larger general education goals

41. Works Cited • Huber, Mary Taylor and Pat Hutchings. Integrative Learning: Mapping the Terrain. Washington, D.C.: AAC&U, 2004. • Hutchings, Pat. “From Special Occasion to Regular Work: A Different Way to Think about Professional Development.” Carnegie Perspectives. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. October 2008. Web. 5 July 2009. • Wenger, Etienne, Richard McDermott and William M. Snyder. “Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge--Seven Principles for Cultivating Communities of Practice.” Working Knowledge for Business Leaders. Harvard Business School. 25 March 2002. Web. 5 July 2009.

42. Additional Resources See resources from Jann H. Adams’ ILD presentation “From Theory to Practice: Case Studies of Implementation” for additional examples of PLTL. See ILD participant Elizabeth Lawley’s “Just Press Play” project for helping students to map their progress through RIT. lawley.rit.edu(presentations and papers)

43. Institutions Cited • LaGuardia Community College, CUNY, ePortfolio Program • Portland State University, Capstone Program • University of Michigan, Mfolio • University of Texas—Dallas, PTLT Model

44. Contact • J. Elizabeth Clark, Ph.D., Professor of English • lclark@lagcc.cuny.edu