Products


Conference Presentations

The ILP team at Philadelphia University, along with an array of faculty collaborators, has shared the results of its investigative and assessment work at conferences in the US and abroad.

Text for conference presentation
"Assessing the Philadelphia Public Murals Project: From Integrative Structures to Integrative Learning in the First Year Experience," AAC&U Integrative Learning Conference, Denver, Colorado, October 2005. Valerie Hanson, Carol Hermann, Marion Roydhouse

PowerPoint slides for conference presentation
"Integrating Student Learning and Pedagogies Across the Professional Studies/General Education Divide: Re-engineering a Liberal Education Capstone Course," ISSoTL Conference: Vancouver, October 2005. Susan Frosten, Marion Roydhouse, Tom Schrand


"Crossing Boundaries: Globalisation, Integrative Learning and Connecting Liberal Education with Professional Studies," The Third International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities, Cambridge, UK, August 2-5, 2005. Marion Roydhouse

Assignments and assessment for the First Year Experience

Based on a unifying theme ("Finding Philadelphia") and a common reading (Philadelphia Murals), the First Year Experience combines classroom and co-curricular activities designed to help student integrate learning from multiple courses and from out-of-class experiences.

Based on student work and surveys, our assessment of the 2004-2005 academic year indicated that the FYE programming helped one-fifth of our first-year students make integrative learning connections at a level that was more than superficial. A much larger number of students made surface connections, with 80% of the students responding positively to the FYE initiatives and showing a degree of integrative learning. This raises the question: what is an acceptable level of integrative learning in the freshmen year? This question should be central to further work on our campus and on other campuses.

Summer assignment for First Year Experience
This summer project asks students to investigate and think about their home communities, in ways that are relevant for their first year courses in history, writing, and environmental science, and also for the "Finding Philadelphia" theme.

Assessment instruments for integration in the First Year Experience
Assessment of integrative learning in the First Year Experience was conducted in May 2005. A group of faculty from the College Studies program and from the professional schools applied an assessment rubric to samples of first-year student work and analyzed responses to a survey completed by first-year students. This attachment presents the rubric and the survey questions used in this assessment effort, which formed the basis for our presentation at the AAC&U Integrative Learning Conference, Denver, October 2005.


Assignments and student work for the senior capstone course: Contemporary Perspectives

As part of its efforts to strengthen liberal-professional integration in student work, the ILP initiative encouraged the faculty teaching the senior capstone course, Contemporary Perspectives, to develop pilot assignments which would encourage and require students to produce work in which they combined their skills and knowledge from their professional training with what they had learned in the College Studies program. The results, available below, ranged from problem-based learning (PBL) assignments to case study projects to group-based collaborations. The results of these experimental assignments were assessed by a panel of faculty from the liberal arts and sciences and from the professional schools at a series of workshops in the Fall 2005 semester.

Sample group-based student project
This is a sample group-based student project in which students from 4 different majors address a real-life situation in Ethiopia.

Case study alternative assignment
This alternative seminar project assignment requires students of all majors to address the same case study (in this case, the June 2005 London bombings), first as a global issue, and then from the perspective of their professional fields.

Group-based alternative assignment
This alternative seminar project assignment is organized around groups comprised of students from different majors. The project asks them to identify a real-life situation in a specific country which they can address by applying their various professional specialties.

Problem-based learning (PBL) alternative assignment
In this PBL version of the seminar project assignment, students were asked to develop proposals for problem scenarios. One scenario was chosen for each of our different professional schools, and then all of the students in that school were assigned to work on that problem.

Sample case study student project
This is a sample student project from the case study assignment. This project examines the 2005 London bombings from the perspective of the architectural field.

Sample PBL scenario
This is a sample of one of the PBL scenarios that students were given to work on. This particular scenario was assigned to students with majors in the School of Science and Health, and it focuses on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa.

Sample PBL student project
This is a sample student PBL project for the South Africa HIV/AIDS scenario described above.