Marymount University is a midsized, independent Catholic university whose mission combines a liberal arts foundation with career preparation and opportunities for personal and professional development. The university is moderately selective with a highly diverse undergraduate student population. Approximately half of Marymount undergraduates are…

A number of universities in the United Kingdom (UK) have launched institution-wide initiatives recently to embed inquiry and research more firmly into the student experience. Among these, the Centre for Inquiry-based Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences (CILASS) led a five-year development program at The University of Sheffield (TUOS) between…

Inquiry-guided learning (IGL) has widespread appeal in higher education as a suite of teaching strategies that promotes learning through students' increasingly independent investigation of questions, problems, and issues using the methods of inquiry of the disciplines. Framed as especially appropriate for research universities, IGL has been…

In 2006, Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) launched a major initiative, the Top 25 Project, to embed inquiry-guided learning (IGL) into its largest-enrollment courses across the university. These are generally entry-level classes and thus affect many students: 75 percent of incoming students on its main campus in 2010 were in at least one Top 25…

The term "assessment" sends shivers down academic spines. For faculty, it signals marching orders from external parties who may or may not appreciate the subtle and not always quantifiable value of faculty efforts. For administrators, it means the dual challenge of recalibrating internal measures to meet external mandates but also…

The complex and comprehensive nature of writing-across-the-curriculum programs makes them difficult to evaluate. There are some measures of program effectiveness that are easy to collect and others that are worth trying for. (MSE)

A variety of assessment techniques to measure and document the outcomes of interdisciplinary study at the college level are examined, focusing on the contexts and problems of such assessments. Several programs are profiled, suggestions for assessment design are offered, and an annotated bibliography of information sources is presented. (MSE)

Bibliographic instruction programs at the following colleges are described: Berea, Baruch, Earlham, Lake Forest, Ohio State, SUNY Brockport, Colorado, Toronto, Wisconsin, and Winthrop. Descriptions include program duration, administrative support, faculty support, integration into the campus curriculum, program goals and objectives,…

Inquiry education cuts across conventional distinctions between liberal arts and professional programs and is supported by specially designed curricula and pedagogies. The establishment of Hampshire College is described. The idea that undergraduate education should promote students' intellectual independence was a strong thread through the…