Brainstorming

We are always happy to meet with any department looking to better understand their students’ experience. During these meetings, we encourage you to:

Think small. Design feasible projects that provide information you want to know and can use to shape curricular or pedagogical decisions. Sample students versus focusing on all students. Focus on curricular bottlenecks/pass-throughs. Examine only one learning goal at a time.

Examine process. Look at where certain material or skills are covered in your department curriculum. Review syllabi and course descriptions. Ask faculty to complete pedagogy inventories. Review student transcripts to explore curricular pathways.

Look for outcomes. Review what students can produce or do, but consider multiple ways to access their work or abilities. Examine student work pulled from courses or performed for audiences or created in manufactured scenarios (e.g. room competition, pre-test/post-test).