A Beginner’s Guide to Tuning: Starting the Discussion with Your Colleagues

1. A Beginner’s Guide to Tuning: Starting the Discussion with Your Colleagues Daniel J. McInerney Tuning USA Advisory Board Professor & Associate Department Head Utah State University, Department of History daniel.mcinerney@usu.edu

2. debt completion STATE OF POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION preparation instruction transfer access pedagogy employment meaning of a degree

4. PROBLEMS WITH PAST ASSESSMENT PLANS RE-ASSESSING OUR WORK AND GOALS

5. top-down approach one size fits all isolated from the rest of the world

6. collecting (but not using)data shhh . . . be quiet; maybe assessment will go away

7. REMINDERS FROM THE AHA

9. -Assessments are here to stay -Who else but historians should respond? -Assessment and education

10. Assessment, accreditation, accountability are all part of our work as practitioners of -- and advocates for -- history

11. -How clearly do we define the learning that our discipline programs and degrees develop? -How well do our students (and their parents, their employers, their policymakers) understand these goals? -When do students understand these issues? -when they complete program of study? -when they enter program of study? -How well do we clarify these objectives and expectations to secondary schools & other post-secondary institutions? THE QUESTIONS ADDRESSED BY TUNING

12. WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT TUNING’S APPROACH?

13. T U N I N G “When students complete a program of study in history, what should they know, understand, and be able to do?” informing question MAKE THE IMPLICIT EXPLICIT

14. T U N I N G bottom-up approach discipline-specific informing question focus on learning outcomes clarity and transparency degree levels work w/colleagues at different institutions inclusive: consult a range of stakeholders diversity and autonomy a process, not a finished product

16. 10 SUGGESTIONS ON STARTING THE CONVERSATION

17. 1. Meet people where they are, not where you want them to be 2008-2009: annus horribilis administrative orders the functions of conflict & complaint start at the endpoint a cultural change

18. 2. Don’t go it alone borrow from colleagues around the world EU / UK / Australian learning outcomes AHA materials Tuning Discipline Core Tuning web site Tuning discussion group Perspectives on History pamphlets on teaching & learning

21. 3. Build the project incrementally provisional “learning outcomes” outcomes on all syllabi sample “rubrics” single rubric for capstone “inter-rater reliability” revise intro survey “pre-major”

22. 4. Talk with people outside academe students parents alumni policy makers employers alumni letters surveys focus groups

23. It Takes More Than a Major: Employer Priorities for College Learning and Student Success April 2013 SEARCH: aacu more than a major

24. Innovation is a priority capacities that cut across majors (more important than choice of undergraduate major importance of a liberal educationand the liberal arts education practices that involve students in the active application of skills. interest in e-portfolios and partnerships Key Findings

25. More emphasis than they do today Less emphasis The same emphasis Employers want colleges to place greater emphasis on selected outcomes Critical thinking/analytical reasoning Ability to analyze/solve complex problems Effective oral communication Effective written communication Apply knowledge/skills to real-world settings Locate, organize, evaluate info from multiple sources Innovation/creativity Teamwork/collaboration in diverse group settings Ability to connect choices and actions to ethical decisions

26. Center on Education and the Workforce

27. 5. Build a basket of metrics RUBRICS course evaluation systems COURSE MANAGE-MENT SOFTWARE ASSIGNMENTS TIED TO LEARNING OUTCOMES E-PORTFOLIOS

28. 6. Help students build a compelling, persuasive narrative of their education “requirement sheet”? checklist for graduation  guide to learning Historical study develops one’s ability to investigate problems, identify reliable sources, analyze information, contextualize complex questions, and communicate conclusions in a clear and thoughtful manner

29. 7. Embrace your distinctiveness priorities mission curriculum student profile majors entry point evaluations interdisciplinary spec. resources soc/civic engagm’t

30. Ten Tips For Here is a coherent set of learning goals. Here are the ways our institution fosters that learning in distinctive ways.

31. 8. Meet with academic advisors, career counselors, campus orientation directors

32. 9. Let your students tell the story

33. 10. Prepare your elevator speech

34. The AHA’s “Tuning” project asks historians to clarify – and demystify -- the core goals and the key skills pursued in our discipline. We want to answer a basic question: when students complete a program in history, what should they know, understand, and be able to do? We ask this question to understand our own roles and responsibilities in higher education. And we want our students to understand clearly what they take from their studies into employment, further education, and civic life.

36. Useful materials for Tuning

37. AHA Tuning websitehttp://www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/current-projects/tuning

38. SEARCH page: Perspectives on Historysearch for “Tuning”http://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/past-issues-x12547

39. American Historical Association membershiphttp://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/join-the-aha

40. http://tuningusa.org/TuningUSA/tuningusa.publicwebsite/c5/c58681b6-801e-49e1-bf55-4ff29e1b800b.pdfhttp://tuningusa.org/TuningUSA/tuningusa.publicwebsite/c5/c58681b6-801e-49e1-bf55-4ff29e1b800b.pdf

41. Tuning USA

42. www.tuningjournal.org

43. Tuning has become a global project http://www.unideusto.org/tuningeu/ Tuning China 2012 - 2014