Focused on Institutional Needs Dr. Karen Hornsby Dr. Scott Simkins - - PDF document

1

Faculty and Student-Driven SoTL Focused on Institutional Needs

• Dr. Karen Hornsby
• Dr. Scott Simkins

Rebecca Geiger Shannell Chappell North Carolina A&T State University

Lilly Conference on College Teaching

February 21, 2009 | Greensboro, NC

Institutional Question

How can North Carolina A&T State University improve the retention and graduation rates

• f its students?

2

2

SoTL Research Question

How can an educational institution effectively gather and use data to improve student learning?

3

Previous Use of Institutional Data

IR Office as recorders and reporters Ad hoc gathering of data, driven by UNC System demands

NSSE - 2003 FSSE - 2005 UNC Freshman, Sophomore, and Senior Surveys

Result: Data publicly available but largely unused

4

3

Intentional Data Gathering/Analysis

Intentional focus on learning Academy for Teaching and Learning as catalyst CASTL Institutional Leadership Program Team [faculty+students] Wabash/Provost Scholars [students]

5

The SoTL Process

Starting with a question What do we know about the learning of our students and the learning environment at NC A&T? Gathering data Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Outcomes

6

4

The SoTL Process

Interpreting the data

CASTL and Wabash/Provost

Scholars developing “institutional narrative” / focus groups Going public

Sharing the data with students,

faculty, administrators, staff – “Does this make sense to you?”

7

What are we Learning?

Wabash Results Institutional Narrative – Aspirational Gap Low performance on critical thinking, writing, and moral reasoning… with only small gains during freshman year Our freshman students spend little time studying (60% report < 10 hours/week) Students experience challenging courses but… also report problems with teaching practices

8

5

Digging Deeper

Wabash Provost Scholars Focus Group Training Institutional Review Board (IRB) Training Focus Group Sessions

9

Focus Groups: Process

What’s Involved? Generating Questions Scheduling Sessions Publicizing Sessions Gathering “data” Summarizing data Analyzing data – Bb Wiki Tool

10

6

Focus Groups: Challenges

Learning Curve Participant Attendance Scholar interest / Load sharing

11

What are we Learning?

Focus Groups Wabash/Provost Scholar Perspective Participants’ Responses

12

7

Next Steps

Lilly presentation (Today) Making sense of focus group data (March) Presentation to Provost (April) Summary report (May) Fall:

Deans’ Meeting Campus publications Student groups CASTL/ISSOTL meeting (Indiana)

13

What Next?

Implementing Change Using Wabash data to promote changes in departmental curricula, pedagogical practices, and academic support What do the data mean for departments?

14

8

Institutional Commitment (?)

15

Take-aways Start with “What do we know?” Need for quantitative + qualitative data Student and faculty involvement (Wabash/

Provost Scholars + CASTL team)

Holistic assessment (Wabash vs. CLA, MAPP,

CAAP) – institutional narrative

16

9

Take-aways Going public (sharing results with students,

faculty, administrators, staff)

General results but local action (depts.,

courses, classrooms)

Intentionality – focus on learning Continuing assessment – new questions

17