Measuring Complex Domains for the Liberal Arts

Session: Measuring Complex Domains for the Liberal Arts (Inclusive Pedagogies) with Sensemaker
Resources:
Project site: https://emergentedu.org
About Sensemaker: http://cognitive-edge.com/sensemaker/#sensemaker-about
Leads:
Kristen Eshleman, Director of Digital Innovation, Davidson College
Brent Maher, Director of Academic Assessment, Davidson College
Annie Sadler, Instructional Design Fellow, Davidson College
Paul Youngman, Prof. of German, Chair, Digital Humanities, Washington & Lee University

WATCH!  Intro video (15 min)

Innovations in assessment can directly address a key challenge for our institutions – demonstrating our value in a time of increasing skepticism about the liberal arts.

On April 27, Davidson College and Washington & Lee University hosted a LACOL workshop to explore an assessment tool and method called  Sensemaker that has the potential to manage and account for the complex domains of learning.  Pursuing a research design as a network of allied liberal arts institutions provides evidence at scale while building capacity for experimentation and innovation at each of our institutions. 

Partners in this collaboration are working over the summer of 2018 to develop their research plan for a multi-campus, student-led implementation process in the fall. The goal of the study is for students to gather meaningful “sensemaking” signals from peers on their lived experiences around inclusivity in classroom and campus life. To learn more about this initiative, visit the project website Complexity & the Liberal Arts and watch the short video above from the team leads that explains the motivations and goals driving research into higher ed complexity in an age of accountability.