For me, leading is always best done by listening. It began this summer with introductory meetings and a widely circulated “stakeholders’ survey.” At opening convocation in September, I reported “preliminary findings.” In my remarks, I promised to expand, sharpen, and correct these first impressions through a process of meeting with all of you. And then report back. That report, Preparing the Future, was delivered to the campus community at noon on February 12, 2009. As you read or watch my report, you may have ideas or comments that would contribute to the dialogue about Western’s future. Please post them here so that we can all benefit from the broad mix of ideas that makes Western such a dynamic university. (Or if you prefer, send your comments to me by email.)
My remarks represented a “next stage” in a cycle of listening, learning, feeding back, and then listening and learning again. A cycle that will continue so long as I have the privilege of serving you. As expected, the process of listening took all of Fall Quarter with January thrown in. I believe there were opportunities for 2,200 of us -- faculty and staff and student leaders -- to meet together in about 90 listening sessions. In addition, there were opportunities to listen and learn from meetings with student groups, neighborhood associations, community organizations, university boards, electronic forums, newspaper editorial boards and even one call-in radio show. Further, my calendar shows about 200 smaller, usually one-on-one meetings with alumni leaders, donors, elected officials, leaders of the communities of color that enrich our state, colleague presidents, union leadership, and leaders in various sectors at the state level.
I learned so much and thank you for taking the time to educate me. What was my greatest lesson? I learned, face-to-face with each of you, just how excellent this university is. Thanks for helping with my continuing education!
Bruce
Dear President Shepard,
At the listening session you attended on 32nd street on the 29th of January you commented that every so often higher education experiences some significant transformation that challenges the establishment of the day to think differently about the way we do business. You also said that one example of that kind of change might be the elimination of the credit hour as a basis for our organizing structure and that the first institution to successfully do so would become a world leader in higher education. In your remarks to the campus community this afternoon you also made reference to the importance of voluntary systems of accountability for producing data that can help us make better decisions and improve our programs. The University already has a tool in place that has the potential to take us in these directions and help us become the leader that other institutions will follow.
The Western Assessment Data Management System (WADMS) is an outgrowth of the need that the Woodring College of Education had to track non-course related learning objectives necessary for meeting particular certificate and endorsement requirements, but it also reflected a pedagogical philosophy that focused on knowledge and skill acquisition rather than test scores and course enrollment. For some students and some lessons, the traditional lecture might be the most effective learning environment. For others, seminar based dialog, individual research, volunteer or travel opportunities, internships, or special projects that have the potential of giving back to our local community might be more appropriate. What WADMS does is allow us to track, record, and report on the completion of these personalized learning opportunities and relate them back to our defined learning objectives. What it could do is allow us the flexibility to shift our way of thinking about the college learning experience. Rather than a degree program consisting of a certain number of credits at various levels of study, with our learning objectives clearly defined, we could provide flexibility in the various ways those learning objectives might be met.
Before coming to Western, I worked at a school district where one of our projects was the creation of a 'learning content database' that was intended to provide students with a variety of different formats for being exposed to the same essential learning objective. The primary idea driving the effort was the understanding that students have different needs for successful learning and that a lecture based approach doesn't always meet those needs. We imagined a learning environment where the teacher, rather than presenting a lesson at the head of the room to an audience of passive students, functioned more as a facilitator, offering guidance and support to individuals or small groups that were actively engaged in various learning modules specifically designed to meet their particular learning needs. WADMS has the potential of being used in a similar way. Once the learning objectives for a particular curriculum have been identified, a test bank of peer-reviewed questions and assessment modules conforming to standardized evaluation rubrics become a resource for faculty and students alike, offering a diversity of options for demonstration of student success. Over time this test bank becomes an asset to the University, capturing the quality and experience of our past faculty and presenting it as a resource for those new to their role as an educator.
In fifteen to twenty years I can imagine the higher education experience being a dynamic and flexible, self-directed journey that includes a variety of learning experiences and environments that challenge the student personally and academically. Here at Western, through a commitment to support and build on the technologies and approaches we're already using, we have the potential of offering that experience within the next five years. WADMS already provides for the association of learning objectives with our currently offered courses. Those associations are being integrated into the syllabus creation tool developed by the Center for Instructional Innovation. For the time being the two systems can exist side by side, traditional course requirements for the successful completion of various degree programs can allow us to continue our existing fee and pay structure while at the same time, extra-curricular learning experiences can be recognized and incorporated into our programs. Over time a shift in focus away from the credit and towards this more flexible and responsive system could include a phased approach to the transition of our established degree requirements, and fee calculations.
We already have a strong technical foundation in place for supporting this change. Even in these difficult times we have an opportunity to look forward and become a world leader that will serve as an example for others to follow.
With a sincere desire to see Western offer the very best possible learning opportunities for our students,
~aspen apGaia.