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Tilted Model

Legacy Problems, TILTed Solutions 

 Legacy Gen Ed Problems TILTed Gen Ed Solutions 
18 outcomes are too many Cut down to 4 or 5 
Outcomes are variously interpreted and assessed with the result that there is no one thing we are measuring with our assessment data Use Gen Ed committees to cultivate and articulate shared conceptions of Gen Eds and curricular standards with commensurable assessment methods 
Many outcomes are not taught generally to all of our students Make Gen Ed certified courses degree requirements 
Gen Ed is not transparent or meaningful to students TILT Gen Ed (Transparency in Learning and Teaching) 

Comments: 

  1. There is little prospect of making 18 outcomes meaningful for students. Even among faculty and administrators, nobody can just name all 18, never mind define them. A third of our 18 outcomes have no definition in campus documents. If we cut down to 4 or 5 outcomes that represent what it means to get an education at BC, outcomes that embody the basic skills and core values we want all students to cultivate, then we can be transparent with students and make our Gen Ed program meaningful to them. 
  1. This is an accreditation issue. Accreditation expects us to use the results of assessment to improve our teaching of Gen Ed outcomes and to use the results of Gen Ed in academic planning and resource allocation decisions. We can’t do this without meaningful data. Currently there is generally no one thing we are measuring with our data. We have a “junk in” problem. This problem stems from the fact that we have treated Gen Ed as synonymous with assessment. The result is that we really only have the tail end of a program of General Education. A key feature of the TILTed (Transparency in Learning and Teaching) proposal is to establish permanent subcommittees to the CAC (Curriculum Advisory Committee), one for each of our 4 or 5 Gen Eds. Each Gen Ed subcommittee will have roles to play prior to assessment in articulating curricular standards for the outcome, vetting and recommending courses for certification in the Gen Ed, supporting programs in developing curriculum for the Gen Ed outcome. Meaningful assessment requires that we know what we are measuring and adopt shared standards of evaluation. The proposed Gen Ed subcommittees are charged with facilitating this prior to assessment, and then iteratively in light of assessment results. 
  1. This is also an accreditation issue. Accreditation is asking for institution wide learning outcomes. Making our Gen Ed outcomes Institutional Learning Outcomes requires incorporating all of our Gen Eds into all degree programs. This will be feasible only if we narrow our Gen Eds down to a few basic skills and core values. 
  1. Students have little to no awareness of the existence of our Gen Ed program. Making our Gen Ed program transparent and student centered requires addressing problems 1-3. Our Gen Ed program should embody the core of what we want all degree seeking students to get out of a BC education. Being clear with students about this requires that we know what our Gen Ed outcomes are and that we have a more or less shared conception of them. This is a first step towards TILTing Gen Ed. 

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