by driftword

Is there a hidden agenda behind all of this extra work we’re doing with Student Learning Outcomes?

Writing Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) has recently appeared front and center on my radar screen, and the deadline is closing fast. After digging through the resources found on UC’s Semester Conversion home page, I have to say that there seems to be a hidden agenda behind all of this extra work. Crafting “approved” student learning outcomes becomes an exercise in teaching effectiveness (or lack thereof) as much as meeting the semester-conversion deadlines.

Because of Semester Conversion, now is the perfect time to rethink the way we teach our courses—which means we probably have to rebuild them from the ground up. Not only do we have to write learning outcomes for our individual courses, but these individual outcomes must carefully align with our program outcomes…which means we as a faculty must come together to review the classes we teach as a group. Ouch! Who needs all this extra work?

by driftword

So what is the big deal about semester conversion anyway? Semesters, quarters, year-long programs…these are all just artifacts with no real inherent meaning at all. Isn’t it just another convenience? A pre-packaged collectable, consumable, ready-for-our-cost-consciousness consumption? What is this education system all about, really? And what are we asking our students to get from their educational experiences?

by Elissa Sonnenberg, MSEd

Fall has always been my favorite time of year—crisp breezes offer hints of rebirth after a long, hot, Cincinnati summer. This year, as I look forward to meeting a fresh new crop of UC students, the pre-birth contractions have already begun as talk of semester conversion and an exciting office move pull me back toward campus, anticipating new routines and pedagogical discoveries.

But as July matured, it was the whiff of independence that quickened my pulse—the independence to create new spaces for learning and growing alongside students. The independence to find ways to glimpse how the process of learning can part the curtain between the teacher and the taught, revealing extraordinary, and often unexpected, truths.

by Tom Haines, MM

Our students come to our universities hoping to find something they can find nowhere else. They come to us with highly integrated life experiences that have already colored their worlds for better and for worse. Now, with neo-millennial students staring back at us with their expansive world views and expectations—our currently compressed classroom schedules put the highest priority on our in-class face time together. Each time we set foot in our classrooms, our students assess our relevance via their worldview (again for better or for worse.) These days, knowledge for knowledge sake seems out of date. Students know that with little or no effort they can obtain facts and figures online. If they get the notion that attending class has little effect on extending their knowledge base and has only a slight effect on their grades—then what’s the point? To satisfy their curiosity about their world, they’re just as likely to stay home and online. So what is it that they truly seek?

Students seek authentic, shared experiences. They inherently know when they have it even if they cannot tell us exactly what it is.

by our experienced yet anonymous “Points of View” professor

It’s an exciting time—and a challenging one—to be a teacher at the University of Cincinnati.  Many of us are a bit nervous as we face semester conversion, collegiate restructuring, and the One University initiative. I’ve spent years honing my skills to deliver effective didactic lectures coupled with readings, assignments, and exams,  and now I’m being asked to rework my ten week-long courses into a fifteen week-long format.