An Update by Bettina Shuford, Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Engagement
After returning from the Institute for the Curricular Approach last month, our UNC-Chapel Hill team confirmed that we are indeed on track with the development of a Division-wide Curricular Approach. A special shout out to Dr. Coop Roberts Cooper for serving as a faculty member at the Institute and for the active participation of the following colleagues who attended the Institute with me: Brian Lackman, Jordan Jackson, Shahnaz Khawaja.
Since my last update in March, we ended the spring semester with the completion of the three learning goal statements for resilience, diversity and inclusion and values development, along with the corresponding narratives, learning outcomes and rubrics by the three working groups, which are located on the Student Affairs website. It was a heavy lift, but much of our foundational work was established as a result. Over the course of the summer and fall semester, departments were tasked with conducting an audit of “all things” henceforth known as strategies that influence student learning within their unit. A strategy is not limited to a program, it can be an intentional one-on-one interaction, student trainings, workshops, meetings, social media, peer mentor programs, bulletin boards, etc. The array of strategies provides the flexibility for all departments to contribute towards student learning. The second part of the audit included a decision tree to determine if each of the identified strategies aligned with a Curricular Approach learning goal(s) or outcome(s). If the strategy did not align with a learning goal or outcome it provided departments with the opportunity to sunset the strategy. The deadline for completing the department audits was this week.
In follow-up to the audit, the steering committee is holding a retreat in December to review the submitted strategies from across the Division to determine where there are potential gaps or overlap, as well as opportunities for departments to collaborate around a learning goal or outcome. The steering committee will also look to see where there are opportunities to sequence the learning strategies over the course of a student’s time at the university and to see how the learning strategies can be mapped to a calendar. A timeline for implementing the first phase of the Curricular Approach will be identified as well.
If you are wondering what role you can plan in the development of the Curricular Approach, there will be additional opportunities for working groups to provide input and leadership in a variety of areas. As a reminder, a full implementation of a Curricular Approach is a multi-year process. However, we don’t have to wait until the full list of essential elements are in place. We can implement in phases. Projected actions steps for the spring and summer terms include identifying ways to engage students, branding the Curricular Approach with a contest to name the approach, involving campus partners, centering an equity minded framework for assessment, applying an intentional inviting framework for how we conduct our work with students and each other, and developing facilitation guides. Although the investment in time to develop a Curricular Approach is a big commitment, the interim and long-term benefits are a great return on our investment. It enables us to narrow the scope of work to just three learning goal buckets vs the seven we had with Carolina Excellence, in addition to working more collaboratively across the division. Plus, it will make our work more efficient, effective, and impactful over time.