Preparing for the Post-Course Era

Randy Bass (Georgetown University)Inside Higher Education

Audio Conference February 16, 2010bassr@georgetown.edu

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“You know. It was taught as a Gen Ed course and I took it as a Gen Ed

course.”

Georgetown student, end of first year, focus group: reflecting on a

particular course in which, he claimed, he was not asked to

engage with the material. 2/16/10 2

Student Focus Groups

What students are saying: • In many courses, they are not asked to

engage with the material--just to listen and give it back, without opportunity to make it relevant to their lives or their learning.

• They talk about the difference between a “Georgetown degree” and a “Georgetown education.”

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Richard Light, Making the Most of College: Students Speak their Minds

• “…most graduates have far clearer memories of their singing or writing or volunteer tutoring….than of the details of the class on American history they took in the sophomore year.”

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Richard Light, Making the Most of College: Students Speak their Minds

• “That leads to a simple but enormously powerful finding that…those students who make connections between what goes on inside and outside the classroom report a more satisfying college experience.”

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High Impact Practices (National Survey of Student Engagement--NSSE)

• First-year seminars and experiences• Learning communities• Writing intensive courses• Collaborative assignments• Undergraduate research• Global learning/ study abroad• Internships• Capstone courses and projects

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High Impact Activities and Outcomes (NSSE)

Outcomes associated with High impact practices.

They enable students to……attend to underlying meaning…integrate and synthesize…discern patterns…apply knowledge in diverse situations...view issues from multiple perspectives…make gains in Skills, knowledge, practical

competence , personal and social development

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For example…(AAC&U Session Description)

“This panel addresses ways in which the transformative impact of study abroad can be further enhanced and extended to the campus learning community. Through presentations, case studies, and audience discussion, the panel will address how the integration of study abroad with high-impact, integrative learning activities such as undergraduate research, senior capstones, or service-learning can be transformative for both students and institutions.”

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High Impact Activities and Outcomes

High Impact Practices:

• First-year seminars and experiences

• Learning communities• Writing intensive courses• Collaborative assignments• Undergraduate research• Global learning/ study abroad• Internships• Capstone courses and projects

Outcomes associated with High impact practices

• Attend to underlying meaning• Integrate and synthesize• Discern patterns• Apply knowledge in diverse

situations• View issues from multiple

perspectives• Gains in Skills, knowledge,

practical competence , personal and social development

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So, if high impact practices are largely in the

extra-curriculum (or the co-curriculum), then where are the low-

impact practices?

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formal curriculum=

low-impact practices ?

Are we then entering the “post-course era”

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Electronic Portfolios

• E-portfolio ‘movement’ as sign and symptom of the post-course era

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If the formal curriculum is not where the high impact experiences are then how should we respond?

• Make courses higher impact

• Design better connections between courses and the high impact experiences outside the formal curriculum

• Rethink relationship between curriculum and co-curriculum, including (perhaps) shifting resources from from the formal to the high impact (experiential) curriculum

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If the formal curriculum is not where the high impact experiences are then how

should we respond?

(1) Make courses higher impact

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Range of responses

courses designed as inquiry-based and problem-driven

Using social tools

at scaleDesign courses for depth and engagement (writing intensive, project-based,

team-based, etc)

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Participatory Culture of the Web

Features of participatory culture – Low barriers to entry– Strong support for sharing one’s contributions– Informal mentorship, experienced to novice– Members feel a sense of connection to each other– Students feel a sense of ownership of what is being

created– Strong collective sense that something is at stake

How do we make classroom learning more like participatory culture?

Jenkins, et. al., Confronting the Challeges of Participatory Culture

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Six Characteristics of high impact practices AND features of participatory culture

Features of participatory culture (on the Web) Low barriers to entry Strong support for sharing one’s

contributions Informal mentorship,

experienced to novice Members feel a sense of

connection to each other Students feel a sense of

ownership of what is being created

Strong collective sense that something is at stake

High impact experiences (co- curriculum)

Attend to underlying meaning

Integrate and synthesize Discern patterns

Apply knowledge in diverse situations

View issues from multiple perspectives

Skills, knowledge, practical competence , personal and

social development

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The Formal

Curriculum

InformalLearning

Participatory culture

High impact practices

Experiential Co-

curriculum

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How to respond?

(2) Create better connections between courses and the high impact experiences outside the formal curriculum

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Range of responses

Electronic portfolios

Activities that link inside / outside

Community-based Course

Connections

Weblogs while studying abroad, public research

or field journals

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NOVICE MIRACLE EXPERT

product product

Connecting Intermediate Processes to Practice

Bass & Elmendorf, 2009

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NOVICEprocesses

EXPERTpractice

LEARNINGprocesses

LEARNINGprocesses

How can we better understand

these intermediate processes?

How might we design to foster and

capture them?

evidence of process

Connecting Intermediate Processes to Practice

LEARNINGprocesses

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John Seely Brown: Practice to Content

content

practice

“Minds on Fire”2/16/10 23

Intermediate processes

• “judgment in uncertainty” (Shulman)• “practical reason” (Sullivan and Rosin)

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How to respond?

(3) Rethink relationship between curriculum and co-curriculum, including shifting resources from from the formal to the high impact (experiential) curriculum

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How to respond?

Can we any longer afford to act as if the formal curriculum was the center of the undergraduate experience—especially if that means under-funding and under-developing the kind of experiences we are increasingly understanding correlate with deep learning?

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Tim Kastelle University of Queensland, “Successful Open Business Models”

Three Value-adding activities in the digital economy (e.g.

Journalism, Music):

Aggregate

Filter

Connect

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Tim Kastelle, “Successful Open Business Models”

“Successful Open Business Models” (higher education)

Aggregate•Information resources

Filter•Knowledge (what knowledge is worth

knowing)•Scholarship (peer review)•Graduates (employability)

Connect•Ideas, experiences, people2/16/10

Shift in How We Add Value?

AGGREGATE

FILTER

CONNECT

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Shift in How We Add Value

AGGREGATE

FILTER

CONNECT

COURSE ERA

POST-COURSE

ERA

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Entering the Post-Course Era– in a Constrained Fiscal Future

How do we best match resources with the experiences that add the most value? Can we continue to

afford “everything plus”? How should we respond to

the shifting ground between curricular and co-curricular

learning?

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Three Considerations for the Post-Course Era

• Our notion of learning has far outstripped our understanding of assessment – we need far more nuanced ways to read the evidence of learning that emerges in practice

• Our notion of learning has far outstripped our language for teaching – we need far more nuanced ways of counting load and of defining the instructional net.

• If electronic portfolios are to be a key to “filtering and connecting” – then they must both engage multiple stakeholders on campus (Batson) and engage faculty and courses in ways they generally are not now.

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Tim Kastelle, “Successful Open Business Models”

The lesson to take from the current states of both the music industry and journalism is that you have to have a clear understanding of how you’re creating value so that you build and protect the correct parts of your business

model.

Perhaps universities can learn this lesson before educational business models are

disrupted as well.

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References

Randy Bass and Heidi Elmendorf, “Examining the Value of Social Pedagogies: A Paradigm for Deepening Disciplinary Engagement among Undergraduate Students,” ISSOTL 2009.

Trent Batson, “Portfolio: the Higher Education ‘Hedgehog’,” Campus Technology, Feb 17, 2010.John Seely Brown and Richard P. Adler, “Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and

Learning 2.0” Educause Review (Jan/Feb 2008)Henry Jenkins, et. al., Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture, MacArthur

Foundation Occasional Paper, 2007. Tim Kastelle, (University of Queensland) Innovation Leadership Network,

http://timkastelle.org/blog/George Kuh, High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them,

and Why They Matter, AAC&U, 2008. Richard Light, Making the Most of College: Students Speak their Minds, Harvard University

Press, 2001. Lee Shulman. “The Pedagogies of Uncertainty,” Liberal Education Spring 2005. William Sullivan and Matt Rosin, A New Agenda for Higher Education: Shaping the Life of the

Mind for Practice. Jossey-Bass, 2008.

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