Cut the Busy Work! Establishing Clear Purpose in Course Assignments and Activities

   ACUE joined the Council of Independent Colleges for its fall institute, which brought together chief academic, financial, and enrollment officers to explore the intertwined issues of recruitment, retention, and completion through quality education. The convening of over 600 leaders opened with a powerful call to action from Roger Ferguson, president and chief executive officer of TIAA-CREF. Ferguson, whose commission produced The Future of Undergraduate Education, The Future of America for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, spoke about the imperative to help many more students earn a degree. In revisiting many of the Commission’s major findings which ACUE discussed l ast year with Michael McPherson, Ferguson emphasized the impact of college completion on our nation’s economic and social prosperity.

We were also inspired by Marcia Chatelain, distinguished associate professor of history and African American studies at Georgetown University. By intertwining her personal story about how attending the University of Missouri “rewrote her family history” with an examination of the major political, social, and educational events of 1968, Chatelain demonstrated the “power of diverse voices” to take higher education forward.

 Members of the ACUE and CIC inaugural Consortium for Instructional Excellence and Career Guidance also met to discuss progress to date. CIC President Richard Ekman and Vice President David Brailow shared their impressions of how well the program is going, and we were delighted to be joined by Paul De Giusti from Strada Education Network. ACUE CEO Jonathan Gyurko shared remarks about the “locus of change” among students and faculty. Read the full remarks, along with a conference summary, on The ‘Q’ Blog. Congratulations to CIC on a successful conference!
   

News in brief

Employers Want Liberal Arts Grads
A new report by the Strada Institute for the Future of Work and Emsi indicates that liberal arts programs can prepare students with the marketable skills they need for employment, but colleges and instructors should focus on demonstrating to students how they might use the skills they learn in their careers. (Inside Higher Ed)

One Way to Help Students Confront Their Political Biases
No one is free from political biases, according to Christina Farhart. Farhart urges students to confront their biases by asking them to complete surveys regarding their beliefs about the safety of genetically modified organisms, conduct online research on the topic, and write papers about how their attitudes changed. Many students find their research has reinforced their perspectives, which, as Farhart notes, is often due to focusing on information that will bolster the argument. (The Chronicle of Higher Education Teaching Newsletter)

Teach Like You Write
Writing his dissertation has informed Daniel Knorr’s teaching. For example, he applies the concept of recognizing what his audience doesn’t need to know to removing portions of his dissertation and culling his course reading list to only include resources that will engage students. (GradHacker)

Six Ways Colleges Can Think Differently to Meet the Workforce Needs in America
Colleges need to change the way they think to prepare students for the workforce, writes Van Ton-Quinlivan. Calling on her experience with the California Community Colleges, her suggestions include redesigning the college experience with working and nontraditional students in mind, investing in experiential learning, and personalizing learning by offering relevant courses and support services. (The Evolllution)

The ‘Holy Grail’ of Class Discussion
Students’ engagement in class discussions requires seeing themselves and their classmates as a community, writes David Gooblar. To help students interact and learn from the discussion, he suggests giving them the opportunity to work through complex subjects, asking follow-up questions, and using a board to enable them to keep track of and refer to previous points. (Vitae)

Teacher-Student Co-Design for Campus-Wide Challenges
At the American University in Cairo, the Center for Learning and Teaching ran a Student-Faculty Co-Design session in which tables of faculty and students responded to questions regarding their assumptions about one another and discussed how they can best work together moving forward. Many students and faculty found the collaboration rewarding and wished that the sessions were conducted on a more regular basis. (ProfHacker)