High-Impact Practices: Implementing Essential Learning Outcomes in an Engaged University Utah Valley University March 20

1. High-Impact Practices: Implementing Essential Learning Outcomes in an Engaged UniversityUtah Valley UniversityMarch 2009

2. What is LEAP? (LEAP) is an initiative that champions the value of a liberal education and focuses campus practice on fostering essential learning outcomes for all students, whatever their chosen field of study. LEAP seeks to engage the public with core questions about what really matters in college, to give students a compass to guide their learning, and to make a set of essential learning outcomes the preferred framework for educational excellence, assessment of learning, and new alignments between school and college.

3. www.aacu.org Association of American Colleges and Universities

4. Narrow Learning is Not Enough—The Essential Learning Outcomes • Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and Natural World • Focused by engagement with enduring and contemporary big questions • Intellectual and Practical Skills • Practiced extensively across the curriculum, in the context of progressively more challenging problems, projects, and standards for performance • Personal and Social Responsibility • Anchored through active involvement with diverse communities and real-world challenges • Integrative and Applied Learning • Demonstrated through the application of knowledge, skills, • and responsibilities to new settings and complex problems

5. Utah Valley Outcomes • Engaged, integrated, and applied learning • Intellectual and practical skills • People of integrity • Professional competency • Stewards of place • Knowledge foundation

6. My Outline • Why Focus on These Outcomes? • Why Focus on These Practices? • What Are We Actually Focused On? Where? For Whom? • How Are We Doing? How Do We Know? How Do Students Know? • Can We Do This In Both Gen Ed and the Major?

7. Why These Outcomes?The World is Demanding More… • Changes in the balance of economic and political power—the Rise of the Rest • Global economy in which innovation is key to growth and prosperity • Rapid change and innovation as new realities in workplace, economy, communities • Global interdependence and increasingly complex cross-cultural interactions • The need to renew democratic institutions and civic values, and build more inclusive communities

8. Emerging Consensus on Essential Outcomes • Educators • Accreditors • Civic and Philanthropic Leaders • Business Leaders Note—students don’t know about this consensus—we need to communicate this clearly to them.

9. Employers Also Endorse the Essential Learning Outcomes… “Liberal Education has always been valued for its role in preparing students for democratic participation and personal fulfillment. But in today’s knowledge economy, it has also become the ‘must-have’ for economic opportunity and professional success.” Carol Geary Schneider President, AAC&U

10. Employers’ Views:Percentage of Employers Who Want Colleges to “Place more Emphasis” on Essential Learning Outcomes • Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and Natural World • Science and Technology 82% • Global Issues 72% • The role of the US in the world 60% • Cultural values and traditions (U.S./global) 53% • Intellectual and Practical Skills • Teamwork skills in diverse groups 76% • Critical thinking and analytic reasoning 73% • Written and oral communication 73% • Information literacy 70% • Creativity and innovation 70% • Complex problem solving 64% • Quantitative reasoning 60%

11. Employers’ Views:Percentage of Employers Who Want Colleges to “Place more Emphasis” on Essential Learning Outcomes • Personal and Social Responsibility • Intercultural competence (teamwork in diverse groups) 76% • Intercultural knowledge 72% • Ethics and values 56% • Cultural values and traditions (U.S./global) 53% • Integrative and Applied Learning • Applied knowledge in real-world settings 73% Note: These findings are taken from a survey of employers commissioned by AAC&U and conducted by Peter D. Hart Associates in November and December 2006. For a full report on the survey and its complete findings, see www.aacu.org/leap

12. What Business Leaders Say “We need the flexible intellectual tools to be problem solvers, to be able to continue learning over time. In such periods of change, it’s not simply what you know that counts but the ability to use what you know.” David Kearns, Xerox Corporation

13. What Business Leaders Say “I look for people to take accountability, responsibility, and are good team people over anything else. I can teach the technical.” Business Executive, Milwaukee, WI

14. High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to them, and Why They Matterby George D. Kuh(AAC&U, 2008)

15. Outcomes of High Impact Practices for Underserved Students: A Review of the Literatureby Lynn Swaner and Jayne Brownell(2009 Draft online at www.aacu.org)

16. The Crucial Role of High-Impact Educational Practices • First-Year Seminars and Experiences  • Common Intellectual Experiences • Learning Communities • Writing-Intensive Courses • Collaborative Assignments and Projects • Undergraduate Research • Diversity/Global Learning • Service Learning, Community-Based Learning • Internships • Capstone Courses and Projects

17. Why Focus on High-Impact Educational Practices? • Require deeper engagement—with faculty, with peers, with material, with community, with knowledge in action • Impact for all students; greater impact for less well-prepared and students of color • Connect organically to essential outcomes

18. High-Impact Practices: Why Do They Work? Engagement • Increase meaningful interaction with faculty and peers • Increase time spent on writing, research, analytic thinking • Increase hands-on and collaborative learning

19. High-Impact Practices • Correlated with levels of academic challenge, active and collaborative learning, student-faculty interaction • Correlated with higher GPA, higher retention rates, greater satisfaction rates

20. Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Educationwww.liberalarts.wabash.edu

21. Wabash Findings • Good Teaching and High-Quality Interactions with Faculty • Academic Challenge and High Expectations • Diversity Experiences

22. Good Teaching and High-Quality Interactions with Faculty • Academic motivation • Critical Thinking • Diversity and challenge • Leadership • Moral reasoning • Need for Cognition • Political and Social Involvement • Positive Attitude Toward Literacy • Well-Being

23. Academic Challenge and High Expectations • Academic Motivation • Desire for professional success • Diversity and challenge • Leadership • Moral reasoning • Need for cognition • Political and social involvement • Positive attitude toward literacy • Well-Being

24. Diversity Experiences • Critical Thinking • Desire to contribute to the arts • Diversity and challenge • Leadership • Need for cognition • Political and social involvement • Positive attitude toward literacy

25. The Bad News—Not Enough Students Get These Practices • Learning communities—17% • Undergraduate research—19% • Service learning—36% first year; 46% seniors • Senior experience—32% Sources: High-Impact Educational Practices (AAC&U, 2008)

26. Wabash Study Findings—How many students report getting these experiences? • Good Teaching/High-Quality Interactions (28% larger institutions; 44% smaller institutions) • Academic Challenge/High Expectations (18% larger institutions; 26% smaller institutions) • Diversity Experiences (3% larger institutions; 5% smaller institutions)

27. Who Takes Which Courses? • First-generation students take fewer courses than others in: mathematics science social studies humanities history foreign languages computer science Source: National Center for Education Statistics, First-Generation Students in Postsecondary Education (2005)

28. Questions for Utah Valley State • Do you have these practices? On which ones do you want to focus? • How many students participate? Which ones? • Underrepresented students—which majors, honors, course-taking patterns, extracurricular activities • Are high-impact practices required or optional? • Are they in both gen ed and majors? Just some majors?

29. AAC&U Member Survey Selected Findings on Use of High-Impact Practices • 19% require all students to do capstone work in general education; 10% offer capstones, but do not require them • 78% placing more emphasis in last 5 years on undergraduate research • 68% placing more emphasis on service learning • 54% placing more emphasis on first-year seminars • 52% placing more emphasis on learning communities

30. How Are We Doing?How Do We Know?How Do Students Know? • Accounting of practices • Assessing learning outcomes— across the institution for each individual student (transcripts, e-portfolios, supplemental transcripts)

31. How Should Colleges Assess and Improve Student Learning? Key findings from survey among 305 business leaders and 510 recent college graduates conducted November 8 – December 12, 2007 for The Association of American Colleges and Universities

32. Employers Evaluate College Graduates’ Preparedness Not well prepared(1-5 ratings)* 17% 19% 19% 21% 23% 23% 26% 30% 31% 37% 42% 46% Very well prepared(8-10 ratings)* 39% 38% 38% 35% 32% 30% 28% 24% 22% 26% 23% 18% Meanrating* 7.0 6.9 6.9 6.7 6.7 6.6 6.5 6.3 6.3 6.1 5.9 5.7 Teamwork Ethical judgment Intercultural skills Social responsibility Quantitative reasoning Oral communication Self-knowledge Adaptability Critical thinking Writing Self-direction Global knowledge *ratings on 10-point scale: 10 = recent college graduates are extremely well prepared on each quality (How Should Colleges Assess and Improve Student Learning? AAC&U/Peter D. Hart, 2008)

33. Employers Find College Transcripts Of Limited Use In Evaluating Potential How useful do you find the college transcript in helping you evaluate job applicants’ potential to succeed at your company? Not sure Very useful Fairly useful Not useful Just somewhat useful

34. Very useful Fairly useful Assessments’ Usefulness In Helping Employers Evaluate College Graduates’ Potential Faculty supervisor’s assessment of applicant’s student internship/ community-based project applying college learning in real-world setting 67% Sample of applicant’s student senior project and overview of faculty assessment of the project 61% Electronic portfolio of applicant’s college work, including accomplishments in key skill areas and faculty assessments 56% Applicant’s score on essay test to evaluate level of problem-solving, writing, and analytical-thinking skills 54% Applicant college’s score showing how the college compares to others in advancing students’ critical-thinking skills 36% Applicant’s score on multiple-choice test of general content knowledge 29%

35. VALUE—Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education • Work with campuses that have experience with electronic portfolios • Create rubrics and scoring guides for each outcome to evaluate levels of achievement using student work in portfolios Funded by: FIPSE and State Farm Insurance

36. Teagle Foundation Project on Disciplines and Undergraduate Liberal Education • Religion, Economics, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, History, and English and Foreign Languages (MLA) • Reports online at: www.teaglefoundation.org • Summaries forthcoming in Liberal Education (spring 2009)

37. American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology • Compared ASBMB Outcomes to LEAP Outcomes • Surveyed institutions on outcomes and practices

38. American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Survey Findings • About half followed recommended curriculum; most included elements • BMB major strong on intellectual/practical skills, lacking in skills for personal and social responsibility • Integrative and critical thinking valued, but appears mainly at advanced levels • Typical pedagogy not reflective of latest research on learning (80% lecture format) • Undergraduate research valued, but only at advanced levels and limited to some students

39. Principles of Excellence • Principle OneAim High—and Make Excellence Inclusive • Principle TwoGive Students a Compass • Principle ThreeTeach the Arts of Inquiry and Innovation • Principle FourEngage the Big Questions • Principle FiveConnect Knowledge with Choices and Action • Principle SixFoster Civic, Intercultural, and Ethical Learning • Principle SevenAssess Students’ Ability to Apply Learning to complex Problems

40. For full LEAP Report and poll data: www.aacu.org/leap humphreys@aacu.org