Seminar Objective:

Redesign General Education to strengthen its connections to degree programs and implement a comprehensive cyclical model of faculty development to help faculty members incorporate High Impact Educational Practices and competencies into their courses

George Kuh’s High-Impact Practices:

First-Year Seminars and Experiences
Many schools now build into the curriculum first-year seminars or other programs that bring small groups of students together with faculty or staff on a regular basis. The highest-quality first-year experiences place a strong emphasis on critical inquiry, frequent writing, information literacy, collaborative learning, and other skills that develop students’ intellectual and practical competencies. First-year seminars can also involve students with cutting-edge questions in scholarship and with faculty members’ own research.

Common Intellectual Experiences
The older idea of a “core” curriculum has evolved into a variety of modern forms, such as a set of required common courses or a vertically organized general education program that includes advanced integrative studies and/or required participation in a learning community (see below). These programs often combine broad themes—e.g., technology and society, global interdependence—with a variety of curricular and co-curricular options for students.

Service Learning, Community-Based Learning
In these programs, field-based “experiential learning” with community partners is an instructional strategy—and often a required part of the course. The idea is to give students direct experience with issues they are studying in the curriculum and with ongoing efforts to analyze and solve problems in the community. A key element in these programs is the opportunity students have to both apply what they are learning in real-world settings and reflect in a classroom setting on their service experiences. These programs model the idea that giving something back to the community is an important college outcome, and that working with community partners is good preparation for citizenship, work, and life.

Objectives, Spring and Fall 2013:
Revitalize General Education for a 21st-Century College of Technology

1. Seminar Fellows incorporate Gen Ed Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) into their courses
2. Seminar Fellows communicate the Gen Ed SLOs in their courses to students via the OpenLab digital platform
3. Seminar Fellows use High Impact Practices (HIPs) in their teaching
4. Communicate to the greater college community about General Education through reporting on “Living Lab” activities

Learning Outcomes Spring and Fall 2013:

1. Integrate Gen Ed SLOs into course syllabus and/or course segment.
2. Use  the OpenLab to engage in Open Pedagogy.
3. Share HIPs with the students and colleagues.
4. Communicate in diverse settings and groups, using written, oral, and visual means.

Assessment:

• Participation in the OpenLab
• Participation in group discussion during seminars
• Creation of, with intention to implement, course syllabi of a first or third year course in fall 2013 incorporating aforementioned High Impact Educational Practices.

Seminar Reading:

See Bibliography.

 

Feb 1,  9:00am-12:30pm, Faculty Commons, N227                                                                         

Readings: Kuh, HIEP and Feynman

Agenda:  Group discussion, Agreement and Scavenger Hunt

 

Feb 8, 9:00am-2:00pm, President’s Conference Room, 3^rd Floor                                                  
Readings:

• Tufte, “Visual and Statistical Thinking”
  http://www.cs.cofc.edu/~bowring/classes/csci%20392/docs/Tufte.PDF
• Bain, Chapter 1, Focus on pp. 15-21

Agenda:

• Academic Service Learning, Guest Speakers Gwen Cohen-Brown, Barbara Mishara, Lynda Dias, Aida Egues
• Place Base Learning Tool Kit, Guest Speaker Anne Leonard
• BWRC, Guest Speaker Richard Hanley

 Feb 15, Independent Study, No Meeting                                                                                      

Feb 22, 9:00am-11:30am, N119                                                                                                        
Reading:

• Bain, Chapter 3
• City Tech General Education SLOs

Agenda:  Joint Meeting with the City Tech’s Gen Ed Committee

March 1, 9:00am-2:00pm, N119                                                                                                       

Reading:

• Finkel and Monk, “Dissolution of the Atlas Complex”, www.lth.se/fileadmin/lth/genombrottet/Finkel_and_Monk_1983.pdf
• Bean, Chapter 8

Agenda: The Practice of Questions, Guest Speaker, Ellen Goldsmith

Mar 8 – Independent Study, No Meeting                                                                                      
NOTE:   CUE conference submissions due March 15

March 15 –  Activity with BWRC, Location TBD                                                                            
Reading:

• Bain, Chapter 5, Focus on pp.117-134
• Ambrose Chapter 6

Agenda: Academic Service Learning Project

 Mar 22 – Independent Study, No Meeting                                                                                     

April 5 – 9:00am-12:00pm, Location TBD                                                                                        

Reading:

• Bean, Chapter 6, Focus on pp. 92-93, 95-104
• Bean, Chapter 7

Agenda: Open Pedagogy on the OpenLab

 April 12, 9:00am-12:30pm, Faculty Commons, N227 and N119                                                     

Readings:  Ambrose, Chapter 3

Agenda:

Increasing Student Motivation: Strategies That Work, Guest Speaker, Saundra McGuire

April 19, 9:00am-3:00pm, Faculty Commons, N227                                                                                    

Readings:

• Bean, Chapter 14
• Bean, Chapter 16, Focus on conclusion pp. 334-336
• Bain, Chapter 7, Focus on pp.150-163

Agenda: Assessment

April 26 – Independent Study, No Meeting                                                                                                

May 3, 9:00am-12:30pm, N119                                                                                                        

Final Presentations

May 10, 9:00-3:00, John Jay College of Criminal Justice                                                                

CUE Conference