The Coordinating Group held a joint meeting with members of the Standing Committee on Curriculum to work on rapid prototype modeling for the “big bets” process on Wed, Feb 26th; 25 people attended.
Participants worked in small groups and were given different categories to work with, including student populations (based on Selingo’s student population models), “growth narratives” (below), and curricular ideas that came from the week 6 Faculty Meeting presentation.
- Completion College. Such colleges help “some college, no degree” students finish a degree by integrating credits earned at other institutions, assessing and providing credits for prior learning through experience, and providing extensive support services. Completion colleges typically have over 50% of their students age 25 and older and are often reliant on online instruction
- Career Connected Learning. In this model, educators and employers work together to combine classroom instruction with relevant real-world experience. At the four-year college level, this model includes extensive use of experiential learning opportunities such as co-ops and internships.
- Increase Graduate Studies. The college currently has three graduate programs. There are a variety of other master’s degree programs that residents in the South Sound region, especially state government employees, would find compelling.
- Low Residency Paths of Study. Available data suggest that the current generation of transfer students find online BA programs compelling, due to their flexibility
- Alternative Credentials. Many colleges and universities are beginning to emphasize offering alternatives to the BA and BS, such as micro-credentials and certificates. Studies have shown that these alternative credentials have surprising impacts on student success.
- Reputation Change. It is likely that our relatively poor local reputation (in local high schools, in particular) is an important factor behind our long-term enrollment decline.
*Apologies for the images being sideways! I’m working out what to do about this, but wanted to at least get the models to you all for now. Thanks for your patience! 🙂
