Category: Carleton College

Carleton College

Toward a better Latin placement test

LACOL
C. Zimmerman from Carleton College
C. Zimmerman from Carleton College

At the LACOL workshop in June, classicist Chico Zimmerman from Carleton College shared a short plenary talk entitled, “Toward a better Latin placement test”, also known as, “A Tale of Two Arcadian Friends, a Homocidal Innkeeper, and a Pile of Manure.”

In their teaching, faculty strive to meet students where they are, but often must ask, where exactly ARE they? For incoming students at Carleton, the Classics department found that their Latin placement test was not giving enough granular diagnostic information, especially for less experienced students. To address this need, Zimmerman and his colleages are investigating a variety of adaptive tools and platforms with the potential to help them better understand and guide their students at the appropriate level.

In the video clip below, Zimmerman shares details on Carleton’s experiments thus far with Moodle, Assistments, Smart Sparrow, and other tools.  Similar themes of adaptive and digitally-enhanced support for language instruction and other disciplines were explored in sessions throughout the two-day workshop program.

https://youtu.be/kgJF_IgiXB8
Chico Zimmerman explores tools for better language placement at the LACOL workshop.

This talk also related to remarks in the Adaptive Learning breakout session, particularly William Turpin’s presentation on adaptive tools for Latin.

A look into Carleton’s CUBE for QS/QR

LACOL
G. Shuffelton from Carleton College
G. Shuffelton
J. Russel, Carleton College
J. Russell

A major highlight of Saturday’s plenary session at the June LACOL workshop was a presentation from Carleton College on their new online/hybrid bridge program called ‘Carleton Undergraduate Bridge Experience’ or CUBE. Associate Dean and Professor of English George Shuffelton opened the session with some background on the motivations for designing the new program to support incoming students with their quantitative skills and reasoning which pilots this summer. Director of Academic Technology Janet Russell has worked closely with the program’s director, Physicist Melissa Eblen-Zayas, and the Carleton IT team to guide the learning design for the first cohort of ~24 students. Janet described various elements of the program, including on-campus and online mentoring, videos and connections through social media. Workshop participants, especially those involved with the Quantitative Skills working group, applauded this excellent presentation and are excited to learn from Carleton’s initial experiences this summer. The QS group is exploring various ways the colleges might collaborate to support students with quantitative skills and reasoning as they arrive on campus and progress with their studies.

https://youtu.be/LaNmJ1OBQzY
Carleton’s G. Shuffelton and J. Russell share a look at the CUBE for QS/QR.

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Learning Data. What do we know? What do we want to know?

LACOL

Highlights of the April 27th panel discussion

On April 27th, five expert panelists from across the Consortium gathered online with an audience of faculty, technologists, and campus administrators for a discussion entitled, “Learning Data. What do we know? What do we want to know?” The session began with some thought-provoking remarks from the panelists, followed by two case studies, leading into free flowing conversation around several themes noted below in the video highlights.

Bilger, Crouch, De Veaux, Jilani, Nixon
Left to Right: Panelists Audrey Bilger, Catherine Crouch, Richard De Veaux, Saleha Jilani, Andrea Nixon
For full details about the panelists and the program, see the Panel Announcement

The goal of this online conversation was to set a broad frame for faculty perspectives on learning data as it is useful in guiding teaching and student success in the liberal arts. As indicated by audience feedback, this area has rich possibilities for exploration and potential collaboration as a Consortium.  We will be looking for opportunities to foster further conversation and collaborative investigation on specific aspects of this important topic.

Video Gallery – Online Panel

The who of learning data for the liberal arts.

• Dr. Audrey Bilger, Professor of Literature and Faculty Director of the Center for Writing & Public Discourse, Claremont McKenna College; incoming Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the College, Pomona College

https://youtu.be/JP4FA7wPVkI

Levels of data that may inform teaching practice and institutional structures.

• Dr. Catherine Crouch, Associate Professor of Physics, Swarthmore College

https://youtu.be/V2PYymvGe0U

How can liberal arts colleges collaborate on data that guide teaching and learning?

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Carleton’s Moodle Evaluation & Needs Assessment

LACOL

By Carly Born, Academic Technologist

moodle-eval-logoCarleton College has been using Moodle for nearly 10 years without having ever done a real evaluation of our use.  Recent data from our participation in the MISO survey suggest some dissatisfaction with Moodle on our campus.  And many current conversations (this Educause white paper is a great place to start) in ed-tech are centered around the changing role of the LMS or even whether an LMS is really needed anymore.  But how do we know? And how do we know what we need?

That is why we are taking a step back and trying to engage the campus on attempting to understand our use of Moodle on a deeper level. The Moodle Evaluation & Needs Assessment project is designed to answer this question:

Does Carleton College need to investigate new technologies to support the functions currently provided by Moodle? Before we can answer this question, we are carrying out an assessment to gain a  deeper understanding of the how we are using Moodle now, how we feel about it, and what it is that we actually need.

I’ve designed this evaluation project to try to assess Moodle from a number of different angles in order to get a more complete picture. There will be database diving, surveys and oh, so many focus groups!

Survey to assess the satisfaction with Moodle

Carly Born, Academic Technologist at Carleton College
Carly Born, Academic Technologist at Carleton College

A survey was distributed in March 2016 to all faculty at Carleton and also to staff who have logged into Moodle more than 5 times in the last year at Carleton.  A separate survey was also distributed to a representative sample of Carleton students.  I have some anecdotal information on general feelings towards Moodle, but it will be so much better to get some quantifiable feedback to specific features of the system.

Survey to assess the importance placed on features typically served by tools like Moodle

This is arguably more important than the questions about satisfaction, and is the heart of the needs assessment portion of this study. I’m hoping to get responses from everyone, even those who don’t use Moodle so that we can understand more about what it is that we need.

Database Diving

I am spending a lot of time up close and personal with the Moodle database. Moodle tracks a lot of information, and so I’m hoping to take advantage of that to understand our current usage patterns. Some questions I will be looking at include: Read More

Dr. Randy Bass speaks at Carleton about a future design for learning

LACOL

In the fall of 2015, Carleton College’s Learning and Teaching Center and Information Technology Services hosted Randy Bass, Georgetown’s Vice Provost for Education, and a leading thinker on innovation in higher education.  In this clip from his campus talk, Dr. Bass invites faculty to look proactively and efficiently at the evolving Liberal Arts landscape.

https://vimeo.com/140367009

According to Bass:

One of the most important things for any institution, especially ones that know that their survival isn’t threatened by the changes in the ecosystem, is to try to be a model of reinvention, to try to reimagine what it is that we most deeply value that is now existing in the world. The most important design question to ask is what kind of experimentation does an institution need to do so that institution can live fully in its time.

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Carleton’s President Poskanzer speaks about LACOL’s founding goals and vision

LACOL

In June 2014, LACOL held its first consortium-wide workshop. Teams of faculty, librarians and academic technologists from all eight LACOL colleges gathered together on the Pomona College campus to share ideas and explore collaborative experiments in online and hybrid approaches to teaching and learning for the liberal arts. In this clip, President Steven G. Poskanzer of Carleton College welcomes the group, and shares his thoughts on LACOL’s promise.

https://youtu.be/qs2poMOG6A4

President Steve Poskanzer of Carleton College welcomes workshop participants

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About Carleton College

LACOL

Carleton_CollegeFounded in 1866, Carleton College is a small, private liberal arts college in the historic river town of Northfield, Minnesota. Best known for its academic excellence and warm, welcoming campus community, Carleton offers 37 majors and 15 concentrations in the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences.

Carleton College is committed to providing a true liberal arts education, a curriculum that challenges our students to learn broadly and think deeply. Instead of training for one narrow career path, Carleton students develop the knowledge and skills to succeed in any walk of life.
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