General Education & Assessment Conference in Portland

Just wanted to share this professional development opportunity surrounding learning and assessment from the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) that will be in Portland in 2014. The conference is now open for registration.

 

From their website:

General Education and Assessment:
Disruptions, Innovations, and Opportunities

Network for Academic Renewal Conference
February 27 — March 1, 2014
Portland, Oregon

Conference Overview

General Education and Assessment: Disruptions, Innovations, and Opportunitieswill examine how emerging disruptions in higher education are leading to positive opportunities for innovation in general education and assessment to improve the undergraduate experience for all students.

Questions to be addressed include: How can the increasing movement toward online learning lead to more effective uses of technology for all students with special emphasis on high-quality multi-modal learning for post-traditional and underserved students? How can higher education move from monitoring seat time as a measure of achievement to assessing outcomes as measures of success, particularly as new modes of learning are taking students out of seats and into communities?  How are institutions promoting collaboration across campus among faculty and other educational professionals to align quality improvement efforts, especially as campuses have grown more reliant on adjunct faculty and less reliant upon additional resources?

The meeting will explore how individual programs, campuses, consortia, and collaboratives have been working to create new opportunities for student learning throughout general education. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss innovations that go beyond a single program or campus, pedagogy or practice, and that show how tenure-track and contingent faculty, other educational professionals, community partners, and students are developing expanded paradigms for learning that matter for students, the workforce and communities both local and global.

Featured Presentations Include: 

From Disruption to Design: A General Education for 2030?
Randall Bass, Vice Provost for Education, Georgetown University; and Sybril Bennett, Associate Professor, Journalism, Belmont University

Examining Leadership Paradoxes:  New Students and Faculty on Campus
Adrianna Kezar, Professor of Higher Education, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California; and Robert T. Teranishi, Professor of Education, Morgan and Helen Chu Chair in Asian American Studies, University of California–Los Angeles

Leading Innovation and Institutional Transformation
Ellen Junn, Provost, San Jose State University; and Anny Morrobel-Sosa, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, City University of New York Herbert H. Lehman College

Evolving Identities of E-Portfolios
Bret Eynon, Assistant Dean for Teaching and Learning, La Guardia Community College/City University of New York

The Degree Qualifications Profile:  Framing Learning Outcomes for General Education
Holiday Hart McKiernan, Chief of Staff and General Counsel, Lumina Foundation; andPaul Gaston, Trustees Professor of English, Kent State University

Reflection for Innovation
Terrel Rhodes, Vice President for Quality, Curriculum, Assessment, and Ashley Finley, Senior Director of Assessment and Research—both of AAC&U

There is more information at their website: http://www.aacu.org/meetings/generaleducation/gened2014/index.cfm

There are also pre-conference workshops on rubrics, global learning, and curriculum mapping, among others.