How to Make the Old New

As January comes to an end and we grow more firmly ensconced in the new year, I have been writing a lot.  In my role as program administrator for faculty development at the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC), my intention to do more of the two things:

• Sensemaking
• Sensegiving

Note: These two acts are iterative and twinned processes.  If you want to read more, I highly recommend Adriana Kezar’s article “Sensemaking/Sensegiving.”

But for now, here’s the quick and dirty: I first attempt to “make sense” of complexity . . . and then I try to create opportunities for others that provide them access to what I have made sense of.

An example of this is the Assessment, Teaching, and Learning Podcast.

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.