The final webinar in Credo Education webinar series "The Onus is On Us - How Higher Education Can Close the Skills Gap" presented by Kate Sawyer, Higher Education Administration and Library Consultant. Are we still teaching students the same old way we were taught and expecting them to learn the same way we learned? Maybe it’s time to rethink where and how often we teach critical thinking, problem solving and information skill sets, as well as how and when we teach them.

1. Reimagining and Reinforcing Student Success Across the
College Curriculum

2. This seminar will show how you can reimagine, redefine and
reinforce today’s essential workplace competencies by
inserting critical thinking, problem solving and
communications skill development into your existing
academic program/course/assignments/assessments.

4. Infusing “career” skills into core subject
matter disciplines-why now?
 National, regional and programmatic accreditation agencies now
require that faculty and administrators provide evidence of their
students’ success with subject specific learning outcomes as well as
essential core life skills.
 Expectations that institutions engage in genuine student learning
assessment at all program levels, from general education to majors
and minors, to be able to demonstrate learning experience and skill
competency as they progress.
 FYE and general education not enough for today’s students.
 Institutional effectiveness, mission and vision statements, QEP, other
institutional factors
4

5.  As student demographics change, the way we in higher
education instruct students to become lifelong learners
and successful graduates must change. There is a growing
consensus among faculty, administration, and employers
that students still do not possess the skills necessary for
career success. *
 *AAC&U:On Solid Ground: Value Report 2017, Association of American Colleges and Universities

6. “We have come to a tipping point in
American higher education where
we must change our assessment
beliefs and act accordingly.
Authentic assessment may be the
most powerful tool available to us
for ensuring universal mastery of
essential knowledge.”
Rick Stiggens, Assessment for Learning, ETS Training Institute, 2008.

7. Noticeable Shifts in Assessment
From
 Assessing to learn what students do
not know
 Using results to calculate grades
 End of term assessments by
instructors
 Little feedback/contact
To
 Having students engaged in
ongoing genuine assessment of
their work and others
 Using results to inform instruction
 Ongoing descriptive guidance and
self assessment to empower and
motivate students
 More instructor/student/class
contact
 Diverse learning style recognition

8. 56%
77%
16%
10%
72%
Proportions of Member Institutions that Assess Learning
Outcomes in Departments
Assess learning
outcomes
Does your institution assess learning outcomes across the curriculum? If it does, are students’
cumulative learning outcomes assessed in departments?
Do not assess
learning outcomes
Assess learning
outcomes
Do not assess learning
outcomes
All/Most
departments
Planning
to do so
24% Planning to
11%
28%
87%
13%
2008 2015
85% assess
within
departments
68% assess
within
departments
A few/No
departments
A few/No
departments
All/Most
departments
8

9. Traditional vs. authentic assessment
 Multiple choice, true false, etc.
 Product not process
 Recall facts
 Curriculum drives assessment
 Rubrics
 Performance
 Thought process involved
 Application of knowledge, facts
 Assessment drives curriculum
Authentic assessment calls upon students to
demonstrate specific skills and competencies, as well
as knowledge, and to apply those skills and
competencies.
Traditional Authentic

10. “Authentic” assessment
•Incorporates a wide range of assignment options that facilitate active
learning
•Asks students to perform a “real world task’ that demonstrates meaningful
application of essential knowledge and skills, as well as subject matter
knowledge.
•Employs “free range learning” - students may teach and assess themselves,
reflect on their learning, and build metacognition
•Is part of continuous learning experience
•Caveat: Faculty will need training in implementing authentic assessment
techniques

11. Advantages of authentic assessment for
your institution:
 Real world opportunities make better graduates
 Collaboration between departments and programs
 Assists instructors to have better understanding of student learning
 Better programs, students, instructors, graduates, and learners

12. Do you use traditional assessment or
authentic assessment?
POLL

13. Reimaging Lesson Plans: Major Components
Four levels: program level, curriculum level, course level and
assignment level
• Know class competencies
> Learning outcomes
> Content/context
• Use active learning and engagement
• Shift-from traditional to authentic
• Compound competencies?

14. Identify standards
Align with institutional priorities
Select authentic task
Focus on student performance
Look at process, not just product
Choose transferable skills
Give feedback before, during and after
“Guide on the side” approach
Create or use rubric

15. Remember: successful inclusion of
career skills must always be:
 Relevant to the class and what they will be doing for
a living—avoid “busywork”.
 Real world scenarios
 Engaging, interactive
 Relatable to their course learning objectives
 Explained clearing in writing with evaluation tools
outlined/rubric assigned
 Scaffolded—progressively organized deadlines—you
will be able to see where they have trouble (usually
critical thinking) fosters time management 15

16. Some samples of assignments leading to
successful integration of career skills into
curriculum
 Service learning/internships-connections and real world
experience
 Teach back
 Reflective writing –comprehensive senior capstone project
 Peer review/critical thinking
 Exhibitions-poster sessions
 Collaborative assignments with diverse participants
 Business plans
 Portfolio development
 Current affairs linked to course objectives
 Fake news, biased websites, edit Wikipedia
 Jig Saw 16

17. Alternatives to term papers—please!!
 Offer choice!
 Give students opportunity to show broader range of skills
 Demonstrate to students how problem solving, critical
thinking, and communication skills can be used in a wide
range of applications including those that might more
closely mimic tasks students will perform in the workplace
or civic life
 Opportunities for teamwork, different ways of presenting
information, different learning styles
 Authentic assessment possibilities
 Less plagiarism
 More time management, career skills

18. Sample lesson plans
 MGMT 1250:Leadership
 COM 2175: Managerial communications
 PSY3350:Psychology and the Media
 PR 3803: Public relations strategies/
 HPM 445:Healthcare planning and marketing/caring for the community
 ED 5001:School and Community Relations
 CS4940:Cyberlaw

19. Example: PR 3803: Public relations strategies
Communication debate, oral presentation, project, business
plan, journalistic article, website, interviews,
executive summaries, etc.
Teamwork team presentations, problem-based learning in
teams, field research with partners, debate
Critical Thinking problem based learning, exhibitions, case
studies, figuring out how to use research skills
to make an alternative style final product,
decision making in a group, etc.
Problem Solving using a learned skill to solve hypothetical
problem, problem based learning, assignments
involving proposals, making diagnoses, mock
museum exhibitions

20. Sample lesson plan---real world scenario

21. Sample scaffolding milestone
 Event plan introduction and pitch letter 10% Due date
 Research, resources and timeline
(calendar, schedule) 10% Due date
 Press release/advertising/fact sheet 10% Due date
 Campaign strategy and actions timeline 10% Due date
 Poster/publicity/social media 15% Due date
 Event presentation* 35% Due date
 Evaluation/peer review** 10% Due date
 *will have own rubric
 **creativity, success, etc.

22. More on scaffolding
 Have them hand in each piece of assignment, drop box or give links
so you know they are completing successfully
 Tell them how pieces each relate to what they will be doing at the
workplace
 Talk about plagiarism, ethics, workplace time management
beforehand
 Tell them why assignment is scaffolded
 If class is having problems, do reteach and move due date
 Don’t be afraid to change mid stream—be flexible !

23. Sample rubric
 One of most important pieces of assignment/project
 Use AAC& U or your institution’s program/course rubric
 Be precise with expectations and competencies, points
 Give them explicit directions on how to get started—brainstorm with
them!
 Go over rubric before assignment and “teach” them what each
component means—don’t assume they know this—they don’t

25. Sample rubric

26. Using Bloom’s to gage learning
 You will use different categories
for different courses
 As learning increases, higher level
of behavior or outcomes build on
lower levels
 Let them tell you which ones they
used

27. Here is what you will get*:
27
•Essential Learning Outcomes—as a guiding vision and national benchmarks for
college learning and liberal education in the 21st century
•High-Impact Educational Practices—ways of engaging and challenging students—
such as first year programs; intensive writing, collaborative assignments,
undergraduate research, internships, and major projects that help students
achieve essential learning outcomes
•Authentic Assessments—using students’ own work and faculty-validated rubrics,
probing whether individual students have developed essential capacities, and
can apply their learning to complex problems and real-world challenges
•Students’ Signature Work—challenging higher education to prepare all students
to complete a substantial cross-disciplinary project in a topic significant to the
student and society, as part of the expected pathway to a degree. The signature
project can take one of many forms (e.g. capstone, internship, field work,
research, community-based research
•*LEAP

28. Additional Resources :
 Adelman, C., Ewell, P., Gaston, P., & Schneider, C. G. (2014). The Degree
Qualifications Profile 2.0: Defining U.S. degrees through demonstration and
documentation of college learning. Indianapolis, IN: Lumina Foundation
 Rising to the LEAP Challenge: Case Studies of Integrative Pathways to Student
Signature Work
 Association of American Colleges and Universities. (2009). Inquiry and analysis
VALUE rubric. https://www.aacu.org/value/rubrics/inquiry-analysis
 www.aacu.org/value/casestudies.
 https://www.ets.org/Media/Conferences_and_Events/pdf/stiggins.pdf
 https://keycenter.unca.edu/sites/default/files/aacu_high_impact_2008_final.p
df
 National Survey of Student Engagement nsse.indiana.edu/html/pubs.cfm
 Educational Testing Service. (2013). Quantitative market research [PowerPoint
slides]. Princeton, NJ: Author.
 AAC&U:. On Solid Ground. 2017

29. Questions?
Kate Sawyer
Higher Education Administration and Library Consultant
katesawyer498@gmail.com
To view the archived recordings of all three webinars in the series please visit
bit.ly/OnusIsOnUs