I recently attended the 3rd annual Spring Conference on Student Learning and Success at MSU. The first year it ran, it was a joining of a couple of similar events across campus that previously had been taking place simultaneously. This year, there were more added to the party. Namely, what was previously a Student Success…
Picture this: You’re an incoming freshman, ready to sign up for your first semester of classes at MSU. You didn’t reach a certain threshold on the required math placement examination and are now required to take Math 1825. Imagine this Math 1825 course being online and you not receiving credit for it, despite it being…
By Bill Heinrich, Director of Assessment and Korine Wawrzynski, Assistant Dean of Academic Initiatives MSU is developing a co-curricular record (CCR) to provide comprehensive evidence of students’ learning and engagement outside of formal coursework and academic programs. While we agree that faculty own the institution’s curriculum, learning takes place in multiple environments during college—and the CCR…
By Bill Heinrich, Director of Assessment In 1995 Robert Barr and John Tagg argued for a shift in paradigms. They asked us all to move from a more instructor focused classroom to a more learner focused one. Their work zeroed in on what faculty (and by extension, administrators and leaders) in higher education should do…
By Bill Heinrich, Director of Assessment A traffic jam in Dar es Salaam allowed for a few moments of clarity. In the heat and humidity of coastal Tanzania, I reflected on the last three hours and the next three days. I was in the country to facilitate a series of Human-Centered Design workshops for the…
By Jeff Grabill, Director of MSU Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology The Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology has an ambitious mission. The bar-napkin version of the mission is “to help the university reinvent itself as a learning institution.” Some people roll their eyes at language like this (but some people always…
By William Heinrich, Director of Assessment Summer is over us and campuses welcomed new cohorts of eager students in our (hopefully air-conditioned) classrooms and offices. This annual pattern reminds me to think ahead about who is coming to our campuses. Beloit College’s Mindset List is a great place to begin that exploration of what incoming…
By Bill Heinrich, Director of Assessment at MSU Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology [<a href=”//storify.com/MSUHub/malawi-trip-5th-workshop” target=”_blank”>View the story “Innovation Through Conversations” on Storify</a>] [View the story “Innovation Through Conversations” on Storify]
Encountering and addressing the challenges of a new campus-wide record. This is the second post about the emerging Co-Curricular Record at MSU. Bill Heinrich, Director of Assessment, Hub; Heather Shea, Assistant Program Director, Residential Initiative on the Study of the Environment Academic progress is regularly complemented by learning outside of courses at most campuses, including ours.…
Purpose, Definitions, and Positioning. By Bill Heinrich, Director of Assessment, Hub & Heather Shea, Assistant Program Director, Residential Initiative on the Study of the Environment Student academic success is regularly complemented and enhanced by out-of-class learning at most campuses, including ours. Yet, how do we know what students’ experiences outside of the formal classroom at Michigan State…