Rethinking Assessment: Teaching and Learning in the Magis Core

Dear Colleagues,

As a way to begin our discussion about how best to assess the Magis Core, please join us for Rethinking Assessment: Teaching and Learning in the Magis Core, which will take place on November 19-20. This two-day series will include a talk by Dr. Ashley Finley, Senior Advisor to the President and Vice President of Strategic Planning and Partnerships at AAC&U, entitled “What’s Our Story and How Do We Tell It?: Assessing the Magis Core Curriculum,” and several panels with University faculty devoted to teaching the Signature Elements within the challenges of the current hybrid/online environment. Dr. Finley’s talk will take place on November 19 at 6:30 p.m.

Dr. Finley was previously the associate vice president for academic affairs and founding dean of the Dominican Experience at Dominican University of California and also national evaluator for Bringing Theory to Practice. In her current role, Dr. Finley guides strategic initiatives and planning across AAC&U’s program offices in collaboration with association leaders and member campuses.  Her research and campus engagement focuses on connecting effective implementation of high-impact learning, assessment, and equity with institutional outcomes for student success and strategic planning. A significant component of these efforts has been the highlighting of students’ intrapersonal growth and development with their learning and civic engagement. Finley received a BA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and an MA and PhD, both in sociology, from the University of Iowa.

Dr. Finley will propose ways that the story we tell about ourselves—to students, parents, and each other—can guide us in thinking more intentionally about the education we offer and how to measure its efficacy. Assessment, effectively employed, tells an institutional story about student learning and success. But storytelling takes planning, a sense of the audience, and solid communication. In short, the best stories require asking meaningful questions about what matters and what’s next.

We will also have a series of panels the next day with our faculty currently teaching the Signature Elements who will discuss innovative techniques that have worked in their courses. The half-day session will take place on November 20 at 8:45 a.m.- 12:30 p.m. Please consult this link to register: http://faculty.fairfield.edu/magiscore/documents/rethinking_assessment_oct2020.pdf. A full schedule of online events is included.

I encourage you to join us for this enlivening discussion of how to teach and assess our learning goals in the Magis core.  If you have any questions, please contact me or any member of the Magis Core Curriculum committee.

All my best, 

Elizabeth

Elizabeth A. Petrino

Professor, Department of English

Director of the Magis Core Curriculum

The College of Arts & Sciences

http://faculty.fairfield.edu/magiscore/

President, Emily Dickinson International Society (EDIS)

http://www.emilydickinsoninternationalsociety.org