Comments on: Understanding Students’ Experience http://generoche.net/blog/2008/01/understanding-students-experience/ The Times They Are A-Changin' Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:28:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Students Aren’t Fish :: Techfoot http://generoche.net/blog/2008/01/understanding-students-experience/comment-page-1/#comment-33509 Students Aren’t Fish :: Techfoot Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:27:24 +0000 http://generoche.net/blog/2008/01/22/understanding-students-experience/#comment-33509 [...] One theme that I keep finding myself returning to this semester is the need for a better understanding of how students make sense of their college experience. At ELI I had a chance to meet up a couple of times with Serena Epstein, a junior at Mary Washington, who has written a great essay providing a glimpse into her world: As a student (perhaps a “damn idiot” one), it’s always a little surreal hearing professors debate over how best to reach students. The main question seemed to be “how can we use games to get students actively involved in their learning?” On one level, I’m genuinely impressed that these instructors are brave enough to approach this problem…. [...] [...] One theme that I keep finding myself returning to this semester is the need for a better understanding of how students make sense of their college experience. At ELI I had a chance to meet up a couple of times with Serena Epstein, a junior at Mary Washington, who has written a great essay providing a glimpse into her world: As a student (perhaps a “damn idiot” one), it’s always a little surreal hearing professors debate over how best to reach students. The main question seemed to be “how can we use games to get students actively involved in their learning?” On one level, I’m genuinely impressed that these instructors are brave enough to approach this problem…. [...]

]]> By: Gardner Writes » Blog Archive » Techfoot’s back on the bull’s eye http://generoche.net/blog/2008/01/understanding-students-experience/comment-page-1/#comment-33002 Gardner Writes » Blog Archive » Techfoot’s back on the bull’s eye Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:03:48 +0000 http://generoche.net/blog/2008/01/22/understanding-students-experience/#comment-33002 [...] Gene’s latest post comments on a very thoughtful and timely article by a former colleague. I’ll direct you to Gene’s post for all the details. Here I simply offer a little comment responding to Gene and to commenter QueenAnne’s point about longitudinal assessment. It’s an obvious point, but one worth making: look what our institutional silos have done to distort the very idea of mission, let alone assessment. [...] [...] Gene’s latest post comments on a very thoughtful and timely article by a former colleague. I’ll direct you to Gene’s post for all the details. Here I simply offer a little comment responding to Gene and to commenter QueenAnne’s point about longitudinal assessment. It’s an obvious point, but one worth making: look what our institutional silos have done to distort the very idea of mission, let alone assessment. [...]

]]> By: QueenAnne http://generoche.net/blog/2008/01/understanding-students-experience/comment-page-1/#comment-32949 QueenAnne Wed, 23 Jan 2008 01:14:24 +0000 http://generoche.net/blog/2008/01/22/understanding-students-experience/#comment-32949 While it is true that most institutes of higher learning (as well as public K-12 schools) judge their success on the collective by how many graduate, we really do ourselves an injustive when we do not look deeper at the individuals who make of the masses. Dan makes excellent suggestions to go beyond just the surface of a school's success; however, I would also seek information on what the student did after leaving the college/university (or in my field K-12 school). Did the student immediately seek employment or enroll for more education? In addition, knowing why the student chose the way he/she did becomes important for policy makers and planners as well. I feel that K-12 schools and colleges/universities do not collect sufficient student outcome data because of the lack of sufficient manpower to collect and maintain such data. While collecting data after a student graduates regardless at the high school or the college level becomes difficult, the effectiveness of an institution is partially tied to the student outcomes it generates. While it is true that most institutes of higher learning (as well as public K-12 schools) judge their success on the collective by how many graduate, we really do ourselves an injustive when we do not look deeper at the individuals who make of the masses.

Dan makes excellent suggestions to go beyond just the surface of a school’s success; however, I would also seek information on what the student did after leaving the college/university (or in my field K-12 school). Did the student immediately seek employment or enroll for more education? In addition, knowing why the student chose the way he/she did becomes important for policy makers and planners as well.

I feel that K-12 schools and colleges/universities do not collect sufficient student outcome data because of the lack of sufficient manpower to collect and maintain such data. While collecting data after a student graduates regardless at the high school or the college level becomes difficult, the effectiveness of an institution is partially tied to the student outcomes it generates.

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