Experiential Learning, broadly defined as ‘hands-on’ learning, engages students in active learning beyond traditional classroom, laboratory, or studio pedagogy. Well-planned, supervised and evaluated learning experiences can stimulate academic inquiry while promoting interdisciplinary learning, civic engagement, career development, cultural awareness, leadership, problem solving and other professional and intellectual skills. Experimental Learning programs are a prime means of marketing the UCD campus to the Denver metropolitan community.
The original QUE Experiential Learning initiatives included e-portfolios, internships, undergraduate research and service learning. The offices of Undergraduate Experiences, Research and Graduate Studies, and the Career Center promote some components of undergraduate research, and provide a prime example of the need to centralize and coordinate efforts outlined by Dr. Gardner.
The campus planning process is evaluating whether the campus can ‘guarantee’ that each undergraduate student will actively participate in at least one learning experience. This guarantee is broadly interpreted to include, but not limited to, an internship, undergraduate research, service learning, study abroad, service learning, or a capstone experience. Such a ‘guarantee’ would be a ‘signature’ program for UCD, but current programs must be expanded to support such a guarantee.
The proposed e-portfolio program would provide a system where students could showcase their knowledge, skills, and achievements; and articulate their experiences well beyond the limitations of a traditional resume. A UCD e-portfolio could set this campus apart and give students a competitive advantage when applying for employment or graduate school.
The budget request for Experiential Learning has two major components: provide additional staff to support, or increase, internships and other forms of Experiential Learning, and to pilot new programs such as e-portfolio.
One of the important retention programs to develop out of the QUE initiative is a campus-wide Freshman, or as John Gardner stresses a First-Year, Seminar. A faculty steering committee was initiated to oversee the development of the UCD First-Year seminars, and a pilot of 7 sections was developed for Fall 2006. An enlarged First-Year Seminar program is an important component of the QUE initiatives for improved student retention required under the CU-CCHE Performance Contract.
The initial QUE concept required a seminar for all new first-year students coming directly from high school and an optional seminar for new transfer students. Dr. Gardner likes that UCD format of combined academic content with academic skills, but encouraged the campus to move away from a required seminar. Dr. Gardner’s points are that when the campus reaches 60-80% seminar participation, virtually the entire campus is impacted because of student-student interactions, and the campus avoids the negative connotation for any required student course.
The Faculty Steering Committee is developing an assessment tool for the First-Year seminars based on NSSE engagement questions and assessment tools from other institutions. The Steering Committee has developed plans for an enlarged Seminar program for Fall 2007 of 20 sections (accommodations for approximately 30-40% of incoming students), a common meeting pattern that would allow Seminar students across sections to meet as a group for off-campus speakers, and a combined Seminar with English Composition (ENGL 1020 or 2030) to form a learning community (see below).
Learning communities represent an important student engagement tool whereby a single group of students registers for the same 2-3 courses. This co-registration provides a stronger interaction among students, provides a built-in study group, and improves self-confidence of students when compared to students not enrolled in a learning community.
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences tried a pilot learning community program within the past two years for students registered in a freshman seminar, English 1020 and a large lecture class such as introductory psychology or biology. Results of the pilot were mixed. Strengths were student interaction and assistance in a large lecture class. Weaknesses included cumbersome, manual registration through the current SIS system and the fact that some students desiring the learning community had test-out credit (IB or AP) for ENGL 1020. These assessment data have been used to modify the Fall 2007 pilot learning community program that would combine a first-year seminar with either ENGL 1020 or 2030
The opening of residence halls ‘on’ the campus opens up tremendous possibilities for a living community approach within the broader category of learning communities. For example, science and engineering students may be part of a living community by placing them in a common wing of the residence halls and providing tutoring specific to their science and math course work. Another possible example would be students in the ALHP program might be housed on the same floor of the residence halls for group projects, honors courses, and study groups.
Undergraduate Experiences is working with the Residence Halls Director to ensure classrooms are of an adequate size and technology to allow instruction and tutoring as part of the living community arrangement. Such classrooms won’t be available until Phase II construction is completed in the future.
Supplemental Instruction (SI) is a general term that means slightly different things to different institutions. In principle, a supplemental instruction facilitator attends every course lecture, facilitates support and group learning, tutors students who volunteer for SI in scheduled meetings outside formal lecture, and meets with the lecture instructor on a regular basis to provide feedback on how students are handling the lecture material.
At several institutions, supplemental instruction has proven effective in lowering the rate of non-completion (D, F, W, I grades) in courses that have medium to large enrollment and have greater than 30% non-completion rates in the absence of SI. It is important that both strong and weak students attend the voluntary SI meetings for active learning instruction. SI programs at the University of Missouri – Kansas City have been able to lower the non-completion rate from 30-35% to 15-20%. National non-completion data are scarce as most institutions are reluctant to share these data. At UCD, the Fall 2005 non-completion data average 16% over all undergraduate courses, but range from 0% to 62% for individual course sections.
While there are likely a multitude of factors that influence the non-completion rate, SI techniques have proven effective in lowering high non-completion rates. Prime UCD course candidates for a SI program are introductory general science courses. Non-completion rates in these courses are typically above 30%. General Biology and General Chemistry are probably the best candidates for a pilot SI program given the historically large non-completion rate even with highly experienced faculty instructors.
During the Fall 2006 semester, the offices of Undergraduate Experiences, Enrollment and Student Engagement and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences initiated a test-scale retention program called ‘Early Alert’ which is an expanded version of mid-term grade reporting used on the downtown Denver campus for several years. The design objectives of Early Alert are to:
- provide a web-based program for easier faculty identification of students needing support
- broaden the identification from the current academic ‘grade’ to also include student participation and student behavior
- provide earlier student identification to academic advisors in order to provide a broader range of student support
- develop stronger campus services to assist students identified as needing assistance