Teaching and Learning

What's For Sale These Days In Higher Education: Two Stories

Robert M. Rosenzweig
1999

"What's for sale and what isn't?" The author has no doubt that we will see more corporate involvement in teaching and research. Universities will increasingly sell or rent to corporations those activities to which a dollar value can be attached that is agreeable to both sides. The financial pressures on universities and the value of what they do, as perceived by widening sectors of business make that close to inevitable. The author, however, is dubious that many universities can be trusted to know the difference between what is marginal and what is central.

Trends Towards Global Excellence in Undergraduate Education: Taking the Liberal Arts Experience into the 21st Century, by Marijk van der Wende

Marijk van der Wende
2012

Dissatisfaction over undergraduate education seems to be persistent and has been jeopardized by the boost in research performance as fuelled by global rankings. Yet it will continue to be the cornerstone and a key mission of higher education. Hence the tide is shifting and the global debate on “the world-class university” is increasingly inclusive towards excellence in teaching and learning. A renewed focus on liberal arts education is part of this global debate on redefining excellence. This article aims to explain why liberal arts education, as it is (re)emerging in different...

THE MULTIDISCIPLIPLINARY IMPERATIVE IN HIGHER EDUCATION

C. Judson King
2010

Disciplines codify related knowledge and have developed powerful approaches that enable both solutions to a wide variety of problems and efficient further extension of knowledge. Individual disciplines have translated into individual departments within universities. Academic departments tend to turn inward, deepening the knowledge within the discipline. Because of this inwardness, the differing methodological approaches among disciplines, and the reward systems within disciplines and universities, it is difficult for faculty to reach outside their disciplines and departments, so as...

Globalization and Student Learning: A Literature Review and Call for Greater Conceptual Rigor and Cross-Institutional Studies, by Richard J. Edelstein

Richard J. Edelstein
2014

University learning objectives and the curriculum have evolved to include more knowledge, skills and aptitudes related to the increasingly international nature of a broad range of professions and occupations. More broadly, graduates are expected to know more about the world outside their home country in order to be informed and responsible citizens and to function personally and professionally in international contexts. There is, however, very little systematic assessment of international learning and programming A review of the literature indicates that studies of...

Assessing the Future Landscape of Scholarly Communication: An Exploration of Faculty Values and Needs in Seven Disciplines

Diane Harley
Sophia Krzys Acord
Sarah Earl-Novell
Shannon Lawrence
C. Judson King
2010

Since 2005, the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE), with generous funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation(link is external), has been conducting research to understand the needs and practices of faculty for in-progress scholarly communication (i.e., forms of communication employed as research is being executed) as well as archival publication. The complete results of our work can be found at the Future of...

Use and Users of Digital Resources: A Focus on Undergraduate Education in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Diane Harley
Jonathan Henke
Shannon Lawrence
2006

The purpose of our research was (1) to map the universe of digital resources available to a subset of undergraduate educators in the humanities and social sciences, and (2) to investigate how and if available digital resources are actually being used in undergraduate teaching environments. We employed multiple methods, including surveys and focus groups. Our definition of digital resources was intentionally broad and included rich media objects (e.g., maps, video, images, etc.) as well as text.

RESTRUCTURING ENGINEERING EDUCATION: Why, How and When?

C. Judson King
2011

There is strong interest in broadening engineering education, bringing in more liberal arts content as well as additional subjects such as economics, business and law, with which engineers now have to be familiar. There are also cogent arguments for balancing against what is now the almost exclusively quantitative nature of the curriculum, adding more elements that relate to the actual practice of engineering, and structuring engineering education so as to provide multiple and later entry points, which should enable more informed career choices and make engineering attractive to a...

Undergraduate Research Engagement at Major US Research Universities, by John Aubrey Douglass and Chun-Mei Zhao

John Aubrey Douglass
Chun-Mei Zhao
2013

Bolstered by the recommendations of the 1998 Boyer Report, US federal agencies have put significant resources into promoting opportunities for undergraduates to engage in research. American universities and colleges have been creating support programs and curricular opportunities intended to create a “culture of undergraduate research.” Yet our knowledge about the commonality of undergraduate research engagement—how it integrates into the educational experience, and its benefits or lack thereof—is still very limited. Universities exude the ideal of a pivotal link of teaching and...

Beyond the Ivy Islands: Building Undergraduate Teaching Muscle in Public Universities Without Detracting from Research, by Steven G. Brint

Steven G. Brint
2012

Reviewing Andrew Delbanco’s new book, College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be, this paper explores the current shifts in the college model—particularly those occurring at overstressed public campuses—and offers suggestions for improving teaching effectiveness in “dustbowl” classrooms to avoid the progressive mechanization of the undergraduate curriculum over the next decade and a growing exodus from public universities to online colleges-in-name-only.

Online education platforms scale college STEM instruction with equivalent learning outcomes at lower cost

Igor Chirikov
Tatiana Semenova
Natalia Maloshonok
Eric Bettinger
René F. Kizilcec
2020

Meeting global demand for growing the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce requires solutions for the shortage of qualified instructors. We propose and evaluate a model for scaling up affordable access to effective STEM education through national online education platforms. These platforms allow resource-constrained higher education institutions to adopt online courses produced by the country’s top universities and departments. A multisite randomized controlled trial tested this model with fully online and blended instruction modalities in Russia’s...