Teaching and Learning National Institute:

You are invited to send a cross-functional team to the

1^st Annual Teaching and Learning National Institute
Using Evidence for Improvement
July 31-August 4, 2016
The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington

This Institute is sponsored by Achieving the Dream, Inc., the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA), National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), Washington Center for Improving Undergraduate Education, and Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC)

At the Institute, your team will

• develop a plan for fostering a data-informed change initiative aimed at improving the quality of students’ experiences in courses and educational activities across the curriculum.
• construct a two-year action plan for implementation—informed by current research on student learning and learning-centered campus practices, grounded in the specific context and experiences of your campus.

Teams might

• tackle concerns about attainment and achievement gaps
• explore strategies to raise the quality of student writing
• work to build students’ quantitative reasoning skills across disciplines

Participants will be supported in using assessment results and research to design action plans to address specific issues, while also developing the skills and know-how to support a broader campus culture of learning-centered, evidence-based improvement.

Cross-Functional Team Make-Up: The recommended team will consist of at least 3 faculty members (ideally representing different disciplines), an academic administrator, and at least one other person from your campus who is central to your planning, such as the director for the Center for Teaching and Learning (or the equivalent), an institutional researcher, an assessment leader, a student affairs professional, a librarian, or an educational technology specialist.

Cost: The cost for the 2016 TLNI is $1350 per team member.

Contact: Please contact Emily Lardner of the Washington Center for Improving Undergraduate Education for more information.

Participate in an Assignment Charette!

The National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA)
invites YOUR application
to participate in an assignment charrette!

Applications are due by November 15, 2015

Selected Participants will meet on Saturday, February 20, 2016, in New Orleans, from approximately noon to 6:00 pm, following the conclusion of the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ General Education and Assessment Conference.

Please only apply if you are available on February 20th!

What is a Charrette?
A charette is a collaborative assignment-design process. The charrette is intended for faculty members and related staff who are designing and using assignments linked to proficiencies set forth in the Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP).  The charrette provides an opportunity to share your assignment with others and to contribute to an online library of high quality, peer-endorsed assignments as part of the Assignment Library Initiative.

What is the DQP?
Read more about the DQP.

What is the Assignment Library Initiative?
View the current version of the Library.

What does the Project Cover?

• Travel
• Onsite costs
• $500 honorarium upon completion

Following the meeting, participants will fine tune their assignments based on feedback and submit them to the library in Fall 2016.

Applications
NILOA is open to assignments of all types, addressing any DQP proficiency in any discipline or field. However, they are especially eager to receive applications from 2-3-person teams working on linked assignments that students experience over time or across contexts. This might mean, for instance, one participant who teaches a first-year seminar submitting an assignment highlighting the Use of Information Resources, and a colleague who teaches a subsequent course with an assignment that requires students to apply those skills. Teams might also be composed of faculty from a 2-year and from a 4-year institution working together on assignments. One application should be submitted per team. They welcome applications from both full-time and adjunct or part-time faculty and especially encourage those who work at minority-serving institutions or who teach diverse student populations to apply.

Please send your application materials electronically to: njankow2@illinois.edu

Applications should include

1. Participant name, department affiliation, and institution.
2. A copy of the assignment in the form that you present it to students along with a rubric or set of criteria used to evaluate it.
3. An explanatory memo about the assignment, which covers the following:
   1. Which DQP proficiencies the assignment is intended to assess—please be as specific as possible, using language from the 2014 version of the document;
   2. In what course the assignment is used, and at what point in the course;
   3. Any pertinent information about the students in the course–majors vs. non majors, what they might find most challenging about the assignment, etc.;
   4. How the assignment builds on earlier work and/or prepares students for more advanced work in later courses (or for success beyond graduation).
   5. Your experience with the assignment to date and what aspects of the assignment might be strengthened or about which you would like feedback from other participants at the NILOA event.
   6. Who else might find this assignment useful?