DQP and Tuning
DQP and Tuning Webinar: Faculty Collaboratives (November 19, 2015)
Dan McInerney:
Integrating these two initiatives is key. The work reflects a set of interrelated questions. The initiatives address questions related to proficiencies, skills, pathways degrees, and majors—for all students at different types of institutions. Tapping into faculty members’ passion for their disciplines and passion for student learning.
What do majors and degrees represent in terms of learning? (e.g., How do we define learning developed by our programs and degrees?) Tuning focuses on the program or major, and DQP focuses on the degree. Tuning helps us think about related stakeholders and how we document student learning. Tuning helps faculty clarify and demystify skills in relation to disciplines.
How to start a conversation on Tuning:
1) Meet people where they are (and invite them to share), not where you want them to be.
2) Don’t go it alone—look at colleagues’ work around the world. Look at EU Tuning Academy.
3) Have a clear sense of the concerns, problems, and aspirations of your particular campus. Other campuses can provide reference points.
4) Build the project incrementally: provisional learning outcomes; outcomes on all syllabi; map the curriculum; sample rubrics; single rubric for capstone.
5) Talk with a wide range of stakeholders.
6) Test different ways of tracing student learning.
7) Help students build a compelling, persuasive narrative of their education.
8) Meet with academic advisors, career counselors, campus orientation directors.
9) Prepare your elevator speech.
The DQP provides a framework at three degree levels, and helps us clarify a degree in relation to five areas of proficiency—each cast at different levels of sophistication as the DQP moves up the degree ladder. The DQP is not “one size fits all,” but it gives us language for proficiency statements using action verbs and concrete descriptions of what students actually do. The DQP has been used as a tool for the curriculum, for mapping, for transfer, to guide program reviews…
Both initiatives place faculty back at the center of assessment, are critical for two-year institutions, and fit within a global context of academic change. Both initiatives provide cultural change, require time and patience, are a process, and respect the diversity and autonomy of departments and institutions.
Question and Answer:
Question: What about pre-Associates or pre-Bachelor’s?
Dan: The DQP is really resonant with K12 learning. Look at the C3 Framework for social studies (google this).
Question: How did this work proceed in your own department?
Dan: It was not painful. We didn’t make it coercive. We made small, steady
contributions over two years. Our department also has a culture that rewards
experimentation.
Question: What kind of campus engagement should we plan and expect?
Susan: In addition to grass roots, you need support from administration, but not top
down only.
Dan: Bring people together informally, too.
Peggy James and Jim Robinson:
Our BAAS is offered at the two-year institution and is interdisciplinary. We mapped the degree learning outcomes for each course to program outcomes—categorized using Bloom’s action verbs. These outcomes were also reviewed against measurable outcomes. We asked for faculty input, and then organized the curriculum according to levels of priority. We didn’t mention the DQP at all during this process, but we mapped the DQP to course learning outcomes vs. program outcomes. We noted some networking that we needed to be conscious of, in terms of student learning at the beginning, advanced, and mastery levels. We were able to map a student’s progression through the degree using the DQP and the language from the VALUE rubrics. We were able to implement this beyond Waukesha-Parkside, through all of the institutions involved in the BAAS program. We started with BAAS core proficiencies, moved to the DQP, then to the VALUE rubrics, then to the BAAS course and learning outcomes—via assignments and the senior capstone. This is about faculty mapping their courses so that students can see how they are progressing in relation to proficiencies/degrees and employer needs.
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