1 / 19

Designing a Signature Course for Freshmen in an American University Abroad

Designing a Signature Course for Freshmen in an American University Abroad. WASC ARC 2014 Melissa Brown Sharistan Melkonian. What would you do? What did AUA do? - The development process What did we learn? What’s next?. Questions to explore.

rafal
Download Presentation

Designing a Signature Course for Freshmen in an American University Abroad

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Designing a Signature Course for Freshmen in an American University Abroad WASC ARC 2014 Melissa BrownSharistanMelkonian

  2. What would you do? What did AUA do? - The development process What did we learn? What’s next? Questions to explore.

  3. If you had the opportunity to create a signature course for freshmen from scratch for a brand new undergraduate program, what would you do? What would you do?

  4. What did AUA do? Freshman English was developed through acollaborative iterative process - a series of university-wide meetings,discussions, and feedback &assessment opportunities • Review AUA Mission, Program Goals, and Curriculum Map • Determine Structure and Overarching Theme of Freshman English • Brainstorm Expected Population • Benchmark and BrainstormContent and Course-based Learning Outcomes. • Develop Assignments Aligned with Course-Based Student Learning Outcomes • Design Syllabi and Course Outlines • Administer and assess a “pilot” Freshman English 1 course in Spring 2013 • Adjust coursebased on information gathered from students, instructor, and pilot team

  5. What did AUA do? • Administer Freshman English 1 for 2013 Freshman • Weekly Freshman English faculty meetings • Diagnostic and Exit Writing • Mid-Term and End-of-Term Student Survey • Course evaluation • Instructor survey on course content and materials • Adjust course based on information gathered from students and instructors

  6. As an institution of higher learning, the American University of Armenia provides teaching, research, and service programs that prepare students and enable faculty and researchers to address the needs of Armenia and the surrounding region for sustainable development, in a setting that values and develops academic excellence, free inquiry, integrity, scholarship, leadership, and service to society. Connecting to AUA’s Mission

  7. Part of the university’s General Education program, Freshman English is one of three two-course sequenced signature foundation courses, all of which all grounded in AUA’s Mission and provide an opportunity for assessment of student learning across programs. A Signature Course

  8. What did we learn from the pilot?

  9. What did we learn from the pilot?

  10. What did we learn from the pilot?

  11. What did we learn from the pilot?

  12. Entrance and exit writing Weekly faculty meetings (including calibrating grading) Mid-term and end-of-term surveys Course evaluation Instructor survey What did we learn from the first semester and how did we learn it?

  13. What did we learn? Entrance and Exit Writing – Average Scores This isn’t the whole picture.

  14. What did we learn? Have we given students the chance to: • Develop the academic skills they need for success at AUA? • Make full use of the resources available to them at AUA? • Explore the core values contained AUA’s mission statement?

  15. What did we learn?-Student Feedback Have we created a learning environment that reflects and promotes these values expressed in AUA’s Mission? • “The atmosphere was very democratic and friendly.” • “Class discussions and activities worked well in this class, as they were interactive. Everybody participated and felt free.” • “I really liked discussions as the opinions were different and we could learn from each other.” • “..You are free to express your thoughts no matter if they are super-clever or extraordinarily stupid.” • “The free communication between students and the teacher…”

  16. What did we learn?-Instructor Feedback • Maintain overall course structure & content • Adjust readings other course material • Revisit sequencing of assignments • Increase number of in-class assignments • Raise awareness of the value of (or cut) • university resource assignments • self & peer participation evaluation

  17. What’s next? • Incorporated some of was learned from Freshman English 1 into Freshman English 2. • Set up a faculty working group to revise the course syllabus for Freshman English 1 for Fall 2014. • Thorough review of surveys, course evaluations, student portfolios as part of assessment process

  18. Freshman English Development Team LissettBabaian, Ed.M., Harvard University. Team Leader conception - May 2013 Melissa Brown, MA, MFA , AUA and NYU. Team Leader May 2013 - present Catherine Buon, Ph.D., Louisiana University SharistanMelkonian, MA, Columbia University Tom Samuelian, Ph.D, J.D., University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University Several of the course readings were culled from the following courses: Duke University's PPS146 Leadership, Development and Organizations taught and developed by Tony Brown, MBA, Harvard University; Fordham University's two courses in Psychology of Human Values taught and developed by F.J. Wertz, PhD, and David Marcotte, PhD, ; Harvard University's Education GoodWork:  taught and developed by Howard Gardner, PhD, Harvard University and Exercising Leadership: Mobilizing Group Resources taught and developed by Ronald Heifetz, MPA and M.D, Harvard University.  Development team and Resources

  19. American University of Armenia www.aua.am

More Related