What are universities for? Project-based Learning in the ... · Adaptive Learning Open Online Courses Public Funding Accountability Expanded access. ... Make Student Learning Visible

What are universities for? Project-based Learning in the New Digital Ecosystem

Randy Bass (Georgetown University)

WPI Project-based Learning Institute

June 23, 2016

The future of higher education, and indeed the very survival of your institutions, entirely pivots on what you will be doing the next three days.

CORE MESSAGE

If we were designing the university for this moment in history what

would it look like?

The Design Question

What will the conditions of knowledge, technology, learning

and work be in 15 years?

What kind of graduate would we want to produce?

“The Future of the University as a Design Problem”Profs. Ann Pendleton Jullian and Randy Bass

2030: Designing for context not content

i u g i/ y o o - g e e /

naman delbert esi

iugi: unlock the future

W H A T I F G E O R G E T O W N C O U L D P R O M O T E K N O W L E D G E

S Y N T H E S I S T H R O U G H C O L L A B O R A T I V E P R O J E C T S F R O M

D A Y 1 T O G R A D U A T I O N , I N V O L V I N G S T U D E N T S ,

P R O F E S S O R S , S T A F F A N D P R A C T I T I O N E R S ?

S Y S T E M F E A T U R E S

I U G I S

U N L O C K I N G M E C H A N I S M

S K I L L S - B A S E D C O R E

D A S H B O A R D

P O R T F O L I O

iugi

Iugis are project families that reverse the course-centric learning model.

`

`̀

Online Course

Lecture series

Reading

cluster

`

Class/knowledge

Lab

Today Tomorrow

Knowledge

Packets

IUGI

iugi taxonomy

1 2 3 4

If we were designing higher education for this moment in

history what would it look like?

The Design Question

Jack DeGioia, President, Georgetown

Three interlocking and inseparable elements of the University:

• Formation of men and women

• Knowledge-creation through scholarship and research

• Public Good and the Common Good

Formation (Whole Student)

Transformation

Integration

External Forces of Potential Disruption

Skill-based Learning

Data Analytics / Adaptive Learning

Open Online Courses Public Funding

Accountability

Expanded access

Public Accountability

Return on Investment

Completion

Employability

Learning?

Competing Visions & Definitions of the Purpose of Higher Education

Changing Student Demographics:

An Emerging New Majority

Data Analytics / Adaptive Learning

Skill-based Learning

Open Online Courses

The Onrushing

Digital Revolution

Scale

Automate

Reduce instructional

costs

“Unbundling = Equity”

Purdue-Gallop Poll on Engaged Work and Flourishing

Two most important predictors of success:

1) Adult mentor who cared about you

2) Sustained project


64% I had a professor who made me excited about learning.

27% Professor cared about me as a person.

22% A mentor who encouraged my goals and dreams.

14% had all three.


32% A long term project that took a semester or more to complete.

30% Internship or job where applied learning.

20% Extremely involved in extracurricular activities or organizations.

%6 of all graduates

Networks of

Networks

Data & Algorithms

ParticipatorySocial

Creative

Abundant and open resources

Digital Ecosystem

Bad Combination: Narrow academic aims in silo’d environments + narrow

(commodified) version of the digital

Networks of

Networks

Data & Algorithms

ParticipatorySocial

Creative

Abundant and open resources

Digital Ecosystem

The great tension of our time in education is between integration and dis-integration.

Two paradigms of education

Integrative (bundled, holistic, coherent):

Curricular & co-curricular conceived as part of a whole

Knowledge, skills & dispositions

Connections & integration

Design of learning experiences for whole

person development

Disintegrative (unbundled):

Design of discrete or granular learning experiences

Elementary and discrete competency-based learning

Learning decoupled from formal boundaries

Analytics that track narrow or micro learning














person development








person development






Rebundling: Toward a New Synthesis











person development

Disintegrative in service to the integrative

If we were designing higher education for this moment in history what would it look like?

Formal undergraduate

curriculum

Experiential co-curriculum



Study abroad Undergraduate research

Community-based learning

First-year Seminars

Writing-intensive Capstone courses

Collaborative Assignments

Where are the “high-impact practices” located?

Student AffairsAdvising

Internships

Formal undergraduate

curriculum




Accountable talk and thinking

Meet challenges to perspectives and belief, take risks, operate outside comfort zone

Get (and give) frequent and meaningful feedback

Make daily decisions –judgment in uncertainty

NEW ECOLOGY FOR LEARNING

What makes High Impact Practices high impact?

Invest time and effort (time on task)

Opportunity to integrate, synthesize, make meaning

High impact integrative Curriculum

Formal undergraduate curriculum


Foundational KnowledgeSome generic and interchangeableSome institutionally-distinctive expertise

Local and IdentityJesuit and Catholic

Mentor-basedtradition

Residential, Diverse

Blendedinteractive online

Massive Online

Institutional Brand and

Identity

Engaging DifferenceEthical JudgmentSelf-ReflectionPractitioner education, leadership

HOW DO WE DESIGN

FOR THIS CENTER?

Rebundling

Project-based Learning

What does project-based learning look like in a rebundled university?

With Bret Eynon, LaGuardia

Community College

Four Design Principles: A Vision for Rebundling

Learner-centered

Networked

Integrative

Adaptive

Design Principles for a Rebundled Institution

Learner-centered

“whole person”

Educating the whole person?

“formation”

Dispositions: Learning to learnCritical thinkingCreativity Curiosity Resilience EmpathyHumility Ethical Judgment

Striving to cultivate a balanced person, with intellectual, affective, imaginative and reflective capacities.

Knowledge + Skills + Dispositions (+ Values)

“HARD SKILLS”

Formation by Design (FxD)

“We believe that an education that is designed for the whole person—developing knowledge and skills within the wider traits that characterize learning, engagement, reflection, and integration—prepares students for a lifetime of success in a rapidly changing, complex, and uncertain world.”


Learner-centeredIs project-based learning empowering students? Are you designing

project-based learning to cultivate broader holistic outcomes?




Networked

LOCATION OF GEORGETOWN STUDENTS ENROLLED IN THE ONLINE COURSE “SOCIAL JUSTICE INTERSECTIONS”

SOCIAL JUSTICE INTERSECTIONS

Georgetown University Center for Social Justice UNXP 130: Intersections of Social Justice (online, 1-3 credits)

Reflection

1 82 3 4 5 6

7

Conflict Analysis

& Mapping

Communication &

Community

Partnership

Peace Education

1 color (red, orange, blue) + purple = 1 credit

2 colors (red, orange, blue) + purple = 2 credits

3 colors (red, orange, blue) + purple = 3 credits

Weeks

Social Media &

Social Change

Managing Difficult

Conversations

Social Justice

Program Planning &

Design

Monitoring &

Evaluation (M&E)

Data Analysis &

Visualization

Grant &

Proposal Writing

Summer 2015

Proposed for

Summer 2016

“Experience Wrapping”

URBAN STUDIO

One-year long credit-bearing “studio” for urban studies projects.

Student apply with a project.

Work collaboratively.

Mentored by multiple faculty and peers.

A “Iugi”




NetworkedIs project-based learning enabled by social learning, and a broad

concept of mentorship? Are you creating porous boundaries between the university, the local context and the world?

Integrative

ePortfolio Initiatives Make Student Learning Visible

ePortfolio initiatives support reflection, social pedagogy, and deep learning.

ePortfolios hels students reflect on

and connect their learning across

experiences. Advancing higher order

thinking and integrative learning, the

connective ePortfolio helps students

construct purposeful identities as

learners.

Addressing the Whole StudentPurposeful Self-Authorship

Advisement & Academic Planning

Connecting w/ Faculty & Students

External Audiences

Learning Across Disciplines

Learning Across Semesters

Formal Academic Curriculum

Co-Curricular & Lived

Experiences

Students’Integrative ePortfolioPractice

Building my ePortfolio Agree/Strongly Agree

Helped me make connections between ideas 75.6%

Helped me think more deeply about course content 64.4%

Allowed me to be more aware of my growth & development as a learner

69.3%

My (ePortfolio-enhanced) course engaged me in… Quite a Bit/Very Much

Synthesizing & organizing ideas, information or experiences in new ways

83.1%

Applying theories or concepts to practical problems or in new situations

77.2%

My course contributed to my knowledge, skills and personal development in understanding myself

78.6%

Making Learning Visible to Others

ePortfolio as a Social Pedagogy

• Feedback, Peer Critiques

• External Audiences –Family, Professionals, Experts in the field

• Collaborating on Shared Projects

• Constructing Sustained Knowledge Communities

Building my ePortfolio helped me to make connections between ideas…

37.6

82.3

49.1

89.2

0

20

40

60

80

100

Low InstructorFeedback

High InstructorFeedback

Low StudentFeedback

High StudentFeedback

% Agree/Strongly

Reflection and Connection

What Does it Take to Make a Difference?

http://c2l.mcnrc.org/

Reflection is the bridge between Inquiry and Integration.

Kathleen Blake Yancey defines reflection as the centerpiece of powerful ePortfolio learning.

What Does it Take to Make a Difference?

http://c2l.mcnrc.org/

Reflective pedagogy transforms ePortfolio from a push-button technology into an engaging process of connection, integrating academic learning, life experience, and profound processes of

personal growth.

Kathleen Blake Yancey defines reflection as the centerpiece of powerful ePortfolio learning.




NetworkedIs project-based learning enabled by social learning, and a broad

concept of mentorship? Are you creating porous boundaries between the university, the local context and the world?

IntegrativeIs project-based learning serving an integrative function for students,

faculty and the institution?


Learner-centeredHow are you empowering students? Are you scaffolding agency?

NetworkedAre you designing for communities of practice, social learnig, and a broad concept of mentorship? Are you creating porous boundaries

between the university, the local context and the world?


faculty and the institution? Are you designing for connections and coherence?

Adaptive

Assessment FORStudent, Faculty &

Institutional Learning

Ground assessment in the authentic work of faculty & students.

Northeastern University

• “[based on our read of the portfolios… the redesign transformed the program from a collection of courses into an intentionally designed learning experience… from a ‘degree with a portfolio requirement’ into a portfolio program whose students graduate with a collection of signature work that evidences their capabilities.”

“Are we who we think we are? ePortfolios as a Tool for Curriculum Redesign.” Gail Matthews-DeNatale


Learner-centeredHow are you empowering students? Are you scaffolding agency?

NetworkedAre you designing for communities of practice, social learnig, and a broad concept of mentorship? Are you creating porous boundaries

between the university, the local context and the world?


faculty and the institution? Are you designing for connections and coherence?

AdaptiveAre you assessing project-based learning in ways that serve

institutional learning?

Design Principles: a Vision worth Working Toward

Learner-centeredPBL as empowerment for the whole person

NetworkedPBL as connecting students and the campus to the world

IntegrativePBL as the nexus of integrative learning

AdaptivePBL as the engine of institutional learning

High impact integrative curriculum

Foundational KnowledgeSome generic and interchangeableSome institutionally-distinctive expertise

Local and Identity-specific

Urban settingCommunity-based

Mentor-basedResidential, Diverse

Project-based learning in a rebundled university

Contribution to a knowledge community

Unstructured complex problemsAuthentic workInterdisciplinary InquirySocial learning

Self-authorship

Reflection and sense-making

Students learn on an arc that moves them inward and

outward

Opportunities for integrating theory and

practice, connecting disparate learning

experiences

Formal learning Informal learning

HOW DO WE DESIGN

FOR THIS CENTER?

Project-based Learning

Knowledge of a domain Knowledge of the world

Knowledge of yourself

Heidi Elmendorf, Ph.D.Biology, Georgetown

Formation

The white space of … formation, transformation and whole student development

Domain Knowledge

Knowledge of the world

Knowledge of yourself

New paradigm for higher education? The place of project-based learning?

The future of higher education, and indeed the very survival of your institutions, entirely pivots on what you will be doing the next three days.

CORE MESSAGE

Project-based learning enables colleges and universities to be their best, most authentic selves.

Thank You!

[email protected]

Documents

What are universities for? Project-based Learning in the ... · Adaptive Learning Open Online Courses Public Funding Accountability Expanded access. ... Make Student Learning Visible