Washington Center Collaborative Newsletter |
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Our Guiding Purpose: We are guided by the academic success of all students. Ultimately, the measures of our success are improvements in students’ persistence, achievement, and graduation rates—particularly students who are the first in their families to go to college and those from groups historically under‐served in higher education.
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Dear colleagues & friends,
As we approach the end of our academic year, I am meditating on endings. In her wonderful book, The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker advises ending in a manner that prepares everyone to part from one another and retake their places in the world. If ending well appeals to you, I invite you to join our final workshop of the academic year. This workshop, facilitated by my talented co-authors, is a taste of what you can expect at the Learning that Matters: the Course Design Institute (LtMCDI) in August. The institute will be a supportive space to pause from normal routines and focus deeply on meaningful course design. Save your spot now.
Over the past several weeks, I've been asking our community for ideas about how the Washington Center can (and should) serve our campus communities moving forward. As we expected, this community brought forth a wealth of experience and wisdom. Your ideas are incredibly valuable to us as we launch a visioning process to explore how we can (re)commit to our mission of improving undergraduate education.
PLEASE KEEP THOSE IDEAS COMING!
I want to hear from you about the most pressing concerns, the most promising opportunities, and the most impactful strategies you see on the horizon for undergraduate education. Use this simple form to share your ideas, big or small.
In Community,
JuliA Metzker, Director
Washington Center for Improving Undergraduate Education
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A Conversation about Learning that Matters |
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JuliA Metzker, Director of the Washington Center for Improving Undergraduate Education, along with co-authors of Learning that Matters: A Field Guide to Course Design for Transformative Education, Caralyn Zehnder, Karynne Kleine, and Cynthia Alby were recently featured on the Tea for Teaching podcast to discuss how college faculty can create transformative learning experiences for students.
The conversation focuses on the nature of transformative learning experiences, based on deep reflection that can lead to a profound change in the way students see themselves and the world around them. The authors note that we are seeing frequent reports of a decline in student engagement, and the approach shared in their book of anchoring assignments in dilemmas, issues, and questions (DIQs) that students find meaningful offers a solution.
The authors also emphasize teaching towards equity throughout the book and emphasize that all faculty, regardless of their current level of knowledge or skill, have the tools to do this as social beings engaged with other people around them. JuliA speaks about taking steps to humanize the learning environment by valuing the unique story of each student that impacts how they learn.
The Tea for Teaching podcast is hosted by John Kane, an economist, and Rebecca Mushtare, a graphic designer, who run the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at the state University of New York at Oswego.
You can hear the whole podcast here:
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Learning that Matters: A Field Guide to Course Design for Transformative Education is based on practical strategies presented in a conversational style, and it encourages collaboration and working with like-minded partners who are committed to creating equitable and transformative learning experiences. If you are interested in joining a community of educators for a collaborative course-design experience based on the principles in the book, we hope you’ll register for Learning that Matters: the Course Design Institute August 4-8 at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.
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Learning that Matters: the Course Design Insitute
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August 4-7, 2023
Evergreen State College
Olympia, WA
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Making Courses Memorable: Beginning and Ending |
Facilitated by
Cynthia Alby, Georgia College and State University
Karynne Kleine, Georgia College and State University
JuliA Metzker, The Evergreen State College
Caralyn Zehnder, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Tuesday, May 9th, 2023 @ 9:00-10:15 am (Pacific) / 12:00-1:15 pm (Eastern)
Too often we open courses by reviewing the syllabus and end them with a final exam. In both cases, we squander critical opportunities to engage learners, build relationships, and reflect. In this interactive workshop, the facilitators will help translate ideas from Priya Parker’s The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters to education, and participants will apply those ideas to course design. Participants will plan course introductions that welcome and build community and course conclusions that allow for looking inward and looking outward.
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The NLCC 2023 planning committee welcomes proposals for concurrent sessions from educators, researchers, administrators, and practitioners engaged in creating, implementing, assessing, and sustaining high quality learning communities in higher education.
Learn more →
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2700 Evergreen Parkway NW | Olympia, WA 98505 US
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