A Guide for Leaders in Higher Education

A Guide for Leaders in Higher Education
Author: Brent D. Ruben
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 483
Release: 2023-07-03
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1000978982

FIRST EDITION SPECIAL RECOGNITION:Winner of the 2018 Sue DeWine Distinguished Scholarly Book Award, National Communication Association, Applied Communication Division REVIEWS OF THE FIRST EDITION“The book provides frameworks and resources that would be highly relevant for new and aspiring department chairs. In fact, this text is ideally designed to serve as a selection for a book discussion group.”—The Department Chair“Succeeds in providing accessible and useful resources to individuals across different leadership roles... As a midpoint between textbook and reference work, it is successful at both and provides a clear and unbiased background to issues facing current leaders.”—Reflective TeachingDuring a time of unprecedented challenges facing higher education, the need for effective leadership – for informal and formal leaders across the organization – has never been more imperative.Since publication of the first edition, the environment for higher education has become more critical and complex. Whether facing falling enrollments, questions of economic sustainability, the changing composition of the faculty and student bodies, differential retention and graduation rates, declining public confidence in the enterprise, or the rise in the use of virtual technologies – not to mention how COVID-19 and an intensified focus on long standing issues of racial and gender representation and equity have impacted institutions and challenged many long-standing assumptions – it is clear that learning on the job no longer suffices. Leadership development in higher education has become essential for advancing institutional effectiveness, which is the focus of this book.Taking into account the imperative issues of diversity, inclusion, and belonging, and the context of institutional mission and culture, this book centers on developing capacities for designing and implementing plans, strategies, and structures; connecting and engaging with colleagues and students; and communicating and collaborating with external constituencies in order to shape decisions and policies. It highlights the need to think broadly about the purposes of higher education and the dynamics of organizational excellence, and to apply these insights effectively in goal setting, planning and change leadership, outcomes assessment, addressing crises, and continuous improvement at both the level of the individual and organization.The concepts and tools in this book are equally valuable for faculty and staff leaders, whether in formal leadership roles, such as deans, chairs, or directors of institutes, committees, or task forces, or those who perform informal leadership functions within their departments, disciplines, or institutions. It can be used as a professional guide, a textbook in graduate courses, or as a resource in leadership training and development programs. Each chapter concludes with a series of case studies and guiding questions.

Using Evidence of Student Learning to Improve Higher Education

Using Evidence of Student Learning to Improve Higher Education
Author: George D. Kuh
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2015-01-20
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1118903390

American higher education needs a major reframing of student learning outcomes assessment Dynamic changes are underway in American higher education. New providers, emerging technologies, cost concerns, student debt, and nagging doubts about quality all call out the need for institutions to show evidence of student learning. From scholars at the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA), Using Evidence of Student Learning to Improve Higher Education presents a reframed conception and approach to student learning outcomes assessment. The authors explain why it is counterproductive to view collecting and using evidence of student accomplishment as primarily a compliance activity. Today's circumstances demand a fresh and more strategic approach to the processes by which evidence about student learning is obtained and used to inform efforts to improve teaching, learning, and decision-making. Whether you're in the classroom, an administrative office, or on an assessment committee, data about what students know and are able to do are critical for guiding changes that are needed in institutional policies and practices to improve student learning and success. Use this book to: Understand how and why student learning outcomes assessment can enhance student accomplishment and increase institutional effectiveness Shift the view of assessment from being externally driven to internally motivated Learn how assessment results can help inform decision-making Use assessment data to manage change and improve student success Gauging student learning is necessary if institutions are to prepare students to meet the 21st century needs of employers and live an economically independent, civically responsible life. For assessment professionals and educational leaders, Using Evidence of Student Learning to Improve Higher Education offers both a compelling rationale and practical advice for making student learning outcomes assessment more effective and efficient.

Excellence in Higher Education Guide

Excellence in Higher Education Guide
Author: Brent D. Ruben
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 143
Release: 2023-07-03
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1000980774

The new (eighth) edition of the Excellence in Higher Education Guide: A Framework for the Design, Assessment and Continuous Improvement of Institutions, Departments and Programs updates and extends the classic EHE series. This edition includes a broad and integrated approach to design, assessment, planning, and improvement of colleges and universities of all types, as well as individual academic, student affairs, administrative and services units. The framework included in the Guide is adaptable to institutions and units with any mission, and is consistent with the current directions within regional and programmatic accreditation.Based on the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award framework, this bestseller is the definitive tool for college and university administrators. The flexibility of the EHE model makes it appropriate for use with administrative or academic departments, with administrative or faculty councils or senate, and with programs, centers, or institutes. Moreover, the framework can be used by an entire college or university or with a particular department, division or campus.The EHE program includes everything you need to conduct a self-assessment workshop. The Guide provides facilitators with a solid understanding of the EHE model, providing detailed guidance in each of the seven areas:• Leadership• Purposes and Plans• Beneficiary and Constituency Relationships• Programs and Services• Faculty/Staff and Workplace• Metrics, Assessment and Analysis• Outcomes and AchievementsThe eighth edition series also includes a Workbook and Scoring Instructions (available in print and electronic format) and Facilitator’s Materials (available only by download). The Guide is also sold as an ebook bundle with the Facilitator's materials.

Assessing Student Outcomes - Why, Who, What, How?

Assessing Student Outcomes - Why, Who, What, How?
Author: J. Fredericks Volkwein
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2011-11-22
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1118279174

This volume offers administrators and practitioners a summary guide to assessment in higher education, from the reasons for undertaking assessment to the delivery of findings. It opens with the questions that precede an effective study and drive research design: To what extent is the study aimed at educational improvement, and to what extent is it aimed at external accountability? Are the results expected to demonstrate goal attainment, improvement, comparison to others, meeting standards, cost-effective investment? What is the population from whom assessment data are being collected: Are we measuring the knowledge and skills of individuals and making decisions about their remediation, certification, or development? Or are we sampling from particular groups of students and comparing them to each other, or perhaps to themselves over time? The core of the volume is devoted to the objects of assessment: basic skills, general education knowledge, attainment in the major, personal growth, attitudes and satisfaction, and alumni outcomes, keeping in mind both cognitive and noncognitive measures. One chapter describes common obstacles to effective assessment; others describe conceptual models, research methods, and data collection strategies and instruments. The concluding chapter underscores the importance of communicating research results effectively. This is a special volume of the Jossey-Bass higher education quarterly report series New Directions for Institutional Research. Always timely and comprehensive, New Directions for Institutional Research provides planners and administrators in all types of academic institutions with guidelines in such areas as resource coordination, information analysis, program evaluation, and institutional management.

Documenting Learning with ePortfolios

Documenting Learning with ePortfolios
Author: Tracy Penny Light
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2011-11-18
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1118204964

Documenting Learning with ePortfolios Documenting Learning with ePortfolios provides higher education instructors with a theory-to-practice approach to understanding the pedagogy behind ePortfolios and to helping students use them to record and reflect on their learning in multiple contexts. The authors outline a framework of six critical iterative tasks to undertake when implementing ePortfolios for student success. Filled with real-life models of successful ePortfolio projects, the book also includes guidance for faculty development to support the use of ePortfolios and covers the place of ePortfolios in institutional assessment efforts. Finally, the authors offer considerations for deciding on which technological tools to deploy in implementing a successful ePortfolio initiative. "These authors achieve the very rare accomplishment of combining their years of practical experience, broad conceptual and research underpinnings, and incredibly useful examples and applications into a single, concise volume for enhancing student learning through an ePortfolio approach to our shared educational purpose." TERREL L. RHODES, vice president, Office of Quality, Curriculum, and Assessment, Association of American Colleges and Universities "Educators keep asking for more information about how to use electronic portfolios. This book provides answers, guidelines, examples, and scholarly insights about learning based in the wisdom of the ePortfolio community of practice what a powerful addition to our collective knowledge! I am thankful to the authors for this boost to our field and for providing a blueprint for implementers to follow." TRENT BATSON, executive director, The Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning

Shaping the College Curriculum

Shaping the College Curriculum
Author: Lisa R. Lattuca
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2011-01-11
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1118047206

Shaping the College Curriculum focuses on curriculum development as an important decision-making process in colleges and universities. The authors define curriculum as an academic plan developed in a historical, social, and political context. They identify eight curricular elements that are addressed, intentionally or unintentionally, in developing all college courses and programs. By exploring the interaction of these elements in context they use the academic plan model to clarify the processes of course and program planning, enabling instructors and administrators to ask crucial questions about improving teaching and optimizing student learning. This revised edition continues to stress research-based educational practices. The new edition consolidates and focuses discussion of institutional and sociocultural factors that influence curricular decisions. All chapters have been updated with recent research findings relevant to curriculum leadership, accreditation, assessment, and the influence of academic fields, while two new chapters focus directly on learning research and its implications for instructional practice. A new chapter drawn from research on organizational change provides practical guidance to assist faculty members and administrators who are engaged in extensive program improvements. Streamlined yet still comprehensive and detailed, this revised volume will continue to serve as an invaluable resource for individuals and groups whose work includes planning, designing, delivering, evaluating, and studying curricula in higher education. "This is an extraordinary book that offers not a particular curriculum or structure, but a comprehensive approach for thinking about the curriculum, ensuring that important considerations are not overlooked in its revision or development, and increasing the likelihood that students will learn and develop in ways institutions hope they will. The book brings coherence and intention to what is typically an unstructured, haphazard, and only partially rational process guided more by beliefs than by empirically grounded, substantive information. Lattuca and Stark present their material in ways that are accessible and applicable across planning levels (course, program, department, and institution), local settings, and academic disciplines. It's an admirable and informative marriage of scholarship and practice, and an insightful guide to both. Anyone who cares seriously about how we can make our colleges and universities more educationally effective should read this book." —Patrick T. Terenzini, distinguished professor and senior scientist, Center for the Study of Higher Education, The Pennsylvania State University

Stopping the Buck

Stopping the Buck
Author: Peter T. Ewell
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 90
Release: 2011-08-17
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1118162145

A unique, state-by-state look at two decades of progress and practices in higher education assessment Specially selected from the archives of the award-winning journal Assessment Update, the articles gathered together in Stopping the Buck offer readers a unique opportunity to take a deep, historical look at outcomes assessment in higher education as it has evolved over the past several decades. Written by Peter Ewell, author of the pioneering work in the field, it tracks, on a state-by-state basis, progress, trends, and practices in outcomes assessment among institutions of higher learning since the 1990s, a time when diminished funding and increased demand for accountability shifted the focus to performance indicators and institutional comparisons. Examines the evolution of higher education assessment in the 1990s, with special attention given to the emergence of pay-for-performance in many states, and the various reasons why it failed in most cases Chronicles the rise of regional and national initiatives and the concomitant diminishment of state authority in assessment Offers the author's informed conclusions and forecasts on the current and future state of assessment to provides policymakers with valuable insights to help them with the decisions they face, now and in the years ahead Both sobering and hopeful, Stopping the Buck provides readers with invaluable information and guidance on specific areas of assessment—gathered together for the first time in a single, easy-reference format.