Academic Quality Improvement Program - General Education AQIP Report
Winter 2003
AQIP Action Project Update
1. Describe the past year's accomplishments and the current status of this Action Project.
In March 2001, Augsburg’s Academic Affairs Committee appointed a general education steering committee with the following charge:
- To streamline Augsburg’s general education requirements
- To discuss possible revisions in general education in light of the college’s vision document, particularly attending to the theme of vocation and transformation in the curriculum.
- To consider the addition of a capstone general education requirement.
- To incorporate the union of the liberal and practical and Experiential/Internship/Service Learning into General Education.
- To develop more interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary courses.
- To review the use of adjunct faculty in first year courses
- To explore the relationship of the relationship of General Education to majors.
- To generate a proposal for the longer-term governance structure for general education.
By the time it concluded its work in May 2002, the first steering committee concluded that nothing less than a complete overhaul of General Education would be needed. Before it passed on its work to a successor steering committee and design team, it:
- Defined principles appropriate to a revised general education. These principles, articulating both vision and mission of the College, were endorsed by the faculty in April 2002.
- Uncovered the “political lay of the land,” as it were by presenting several models of a revised general education curriculum to the faculty.
- Surveyed the faculty about its preferred components in and structure of a revised general education.
In Summer 2002, a design team, responsible to a new steering committee, developed a proposal to revise general education. The design responded to the principles endorsed by the faculty: a developmental model of general education that articulates the College’s mission and supports our vision for explicit attention to the key themes of Lutheran education. These themes include: the understanding of vocation; the creation of components of “community in the curriculum”, building on Augsburg’s strengths in experiential education; attending to the needs of a variety of student populations (day, weekend, traditional-aged, adult); promoting the connection between liberal and practical education (general education and the major); and, creating a dialogue between faith and other ways of knowing and believing.
The new general education (the Augsburg Core) achieves these principles through three components: the Signature Curriculum, the Liberal Arts Foundations (LAF), and Skills. The Signature component includes first year learning communities, two search for meaning courses, and the “keystone” (our term for capstone) course. As students progress in their majors, they take graduation skills courses (critical thinking, quantitative reasoning, speaking, writing) in the major (or in courses recommended by the major). They connect the liberal and practical, and college and community, by completing at least one Augsburg Experience requirement—study abroad, immersion experiences in this country (e.g. a domestic travel seminar), faculty-student research, an internship, or service learning.
The Senior Keystone course concludes the Augsburg Core. This provides students with a final opportunity to explore the central themes of an Augsburg education— vocation and the search for meaning in a diverse and challenging world. Students will reflect upon the meaning of their educational experiences and consider issues of transition as they prepare for their lives after Augsburg. The keystone connects the broad liberal arts foundation with the professional skills and in-depth study of the major. Accompanied by a Critical Conversations on Vocation component yet to be developed, this keystone course takes advantage of a moment when students’ cumulative experiences best equip them to think critically, reflectively, ethically and — we hope — successfully about their place in the world as leaders and servants.
The faculty approved the proposed curriculum in October 2002.
The following implementation steps have been taken:
- Formation of Implementation Team and definition of its responsibilities and relationship to AAC: November 2003
- Development of implementation and accommodation plan for current students: approved by faculty on February 4. 2003.
- Clarification of Augsburg Core requirements for transfer students: the faculty approved a Minnesota Transfer Agreement on March 3
- First Search for Meaning course approved: REL 100 Christian Vocation and the Search for Meaning: Late February 2003. A sample syllabus is available in the Augsburg Core folder in the Academic and Learning Services folder on Augnet.
- An initial discussion of possible changes in Aug Sem and indeed the entire make-up of The Augsburg First Year will result in a First Year Task Force to be named after the mid-term break.
- Engaging Minneapolis: Two brown bag discussions launched a learning community.
- Diversity and Global Awareness Imprints: The English Department has discussed the imprint in ENG 111 Effective Writing. As part of what it is tentatively calling “The Many Voices Project,” the English Department has selected The Autobiography of Malcolm X as the common text for all ENG 111 sections next year.. In addition, ENG 111 instructors will select readers containing multicultural selections for their sections. The department expects to hold a May workshop to further discuss imprinting diversity and/or global awareness in the ENG 111 curriculum. It will explore ways of inviting the larger college community to join in discussions of the common text.
Summer 03-Fall 03:
Augsburg sent a team to the Asheville Institute on General Education to work on the keystone courses and imprinting diversity. It returned with recommendations regarding Critical Conversations on Vocation and a taxonomy for learning objectives re. global awareness/diversity.
2. Describe how the institution involved people in work on this Action Project.
As described above, the work involved three formal subcommittees of the College’s Academic Affairs Committee: two steering committees and a design team. About twenty people, including faculty, administration, and students served on these committees.
As the first steering committee worked on developing models, it involved the entire faculty through monthly reports at faculty meetings, open hearings on general education models, reports at department/division chairs meetings, and a survey of the faculty to determine its preferred components in/structure of a revised general education. A May 2002 retreat involved about twenty faculty and academic and student services support staff in discussion of components of a revised general education.
As it worked during the summer of 2002, the design team met periodically with the second steering committee; the deans representing student academic support services and student affairs offices; the Advising Office; the Registrar; the Center for Global Education and dean of international education; the President of the College; and Enrollment Management Office representatives. It had two “open hearings” for faculty and students who were on campus and interested in contributing ideas.
In late August, the design team made an initial presentation of the proposal to representatives of key administrative offices, including the Development Office, the Admissions Office, Enrollment Services offices, and to faculty. A second, larger wine-and-cheese presentation was made during the first week of classes. About twenty people attended the first presentation; over seventy attended the second. The proposal was presented to the Regents in September. It also was discussed by the Student Senate. Several open hearings were held for the entire college community in September.
The process easily involved over a hundred people.
3. Describe your planned next steps for this Action Project.
- The Religion Department has already designed one signature Search for Meaning course. By Fall 2003, it will have designed the second such course and the transfer synthesis course.
- We will identify where global awareness and diversity imprints already exist in the curriculum. Departments will be asked to identify how their curricula address themes of global awareness and diversity and to identify learning outcomes appropriate to their majors.
- A first year task force will work on improving first year learning communities and discussing the role of Augsburg Seminar, the academic orientation course, in the revised curriculum.
- Learning communities will be established around signature components and graduation skills and be shared with developing strategies for assessment. The following collaboratives have been convened:
- Search for Meaning
Effective Writing
Modern Language- Foundations of Fitness
- Liberal Arts Foundations (one in each area: Fine Arts, Humanities, Natural Sciences & Math; Social & Behavioral Sciences)
- AugSem
- Keystone courses
- Infusing Diversity & Global Awareness
- The Augsburg Experience
- Engaging Minneapolis
- Augsburg is about to embark on a review of the first year curriculum.
4. Describe an "effective practice(s)" that resulted from work on this Action Project.
The selection and training of the design team were crucial to the success of this project. Team members were given training sessions on team problem solving and spent initial time establishing their role as curriculum designers separate from their discipline specific needs, giving them the independence to envision a general education curriculum that would address the broader needs of the college and student populations.
In addition, steering committee members and others invited to provide input during the design were intentionally chosen from campus opinion leaders and others who did not necessarily agree with details of the proposal. In other words, objections and potential issues that could be created by the new general education proposal were intentionally sought out during the design so that consideration could be given to those points in the final proposal. Through this open approach and sincere consideration of alternative views, many of those in opposition to the curriculum change became supporters by virtue of their own input.
We believe that the establishment of learning communities around components of the new curriculum (e.g. graduation skills, Engaging Minneapolis, diversity and global awareness imprints, keystone “Critical Conversations on Vocation,” etc.) will keep us attentive to the quality of the program.
5. What challenges, if any, are you still facing in regards to this Action Project?
There will be no lack of challenges. To name a few:
- Making the diversity/global awareness imprint work: The new general education will move Augsburg to a model in which attention to diversity and global awareness will become the responsibility of the entire curriculum, not just of General Education. Because diversity is crucial to Augsburg’s mission, the shift from the “inoculation” to the “imprint” model is risky. We believe that the imprint model is superior, but it is essential that the imprint not be lost or treated secondarily and that it be clearly assessed. ‘
- Revising graduation skills requirements: Under the new model, major departments will become increasingly responsible for making skills requirements (quantitative reasoning, writing, speaking, critical thinking) “make sense” within the context of the major. There’s considerable work to be done.
- Reviewing the first year: We will want to improve what we do with first year learning communities. Beyond that, we will want to review the entire first year academic experience—and consider curricular bridges into the sophomore year.
- Developing keystone courses and campus-wide “Critical Conversations on Vocation”
- Making learning communities work so that we are truly attentive to the best practices of teaching and learning—in short the ongoing challenge at any academic institution seriously committed to excellence in teaching and learning
6. If you would like to discuss the possibility of AQIP providing you help to stimulate progress on this action project, explain your need(s) here and tell us who to contact and when.
We do not need additional assistance at this time.