This chapter argues that the first year of college needs to be reconsidered. The authors offer, as an alternative, a new kind of course, one created by groups of faculty members from different campuses, multidisciplinary in focus, delivered in a blended format, focused on civic outcomes, and intended primarily for first-year students.

This chapter demonstrates how Decoding work can be used productively within a curriculum change process to help make design decisions based on a more nuanced understanding of student learning and the relationship of a professional program to the field.

Since the 1980s, advocates for change in higher education have called for double-loop learning. One of the main criticisms of the evaluation of colleges and universities was that they measured inputs rather than the outputs. Higher education now needs to apply the lessons of learning and change to campus leadership and organization.

This article is the third of three case studies of successful implementation of experiential education at very different types of institutions. This case study discusses the use of David A. Kolb's Experiential Learning Model in the implementation of innovative graduation requirements in experiential education that began in 2008. Purdue University…

Educational development, which the authors use to refer to the field of professional and strategic development associated with university and college learning and teaching, can be described in many ways by referring to its different aspects. In this article the authors endeavor to categorize many of the models that have been used to describe…

Just as the popular television show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" targets the demolition and reconstruction of a home so that it better meets the needs of its owners, Fink's approach to integrated course design (ICD; 2003) provides higher education faculty with the tools to deconstruct and do a major remodel of their college courses. Teaching…

This article presents an interdisciplinary approach to course redesign that enhanced student learning across all six categories in Dee Fink's taxonomy. A meta-analysis of the results provides evidence that integrated course design produces significant learning. In this article, the authors tell four connected stories: (1) how Fink's book,…

Concerned that her students "knew" Spanish but could not use it in real life situations, the author created new learning goals, new learning activities, and new assessment activities. As a graduate student at the University of Illinois, the author was introduced to "Creating Significant Learning Experiences" (Fink, 2003) while studying with Steven…

The purpose of this chapter is to draw some general lessons on curricular evolution processes and practices at the faculty level emerging from the creation of Renaissance College at the University of New Brunswick and the implementation of its BPhil program. The authors proceed by induction, working from the specific case of Renaissance College to…

This author discusses how some ideas from creative thinking can be applied to help an instructor change his teaching by adapting ideas from others, looking from new perspectives, using models, and inquiry. It is best to start small and be clear on what is actually happening in the class. (MLW)

The principle of athletic coaching is applied by analogy to first year community college writing instruction. The role of the coach and five essential elements are discussed: practice and drill (nongraded exercises); fouling out (assessment); playbooks and plays (resources and strategies); big games (formal research papers); and postmortem (review…

The authors discuss the importance of being aware of two attitudes of students and faculty--learning orientation (LO) and grade orientation (GO)--and describe instruments (LOGO II and LOGO F) that provide instructors with information about how their students stand on those two issues. (Author/MLW)