Context

CTE was approached in December 2007 to facilitate a five- to six-hour retreat to “ask us the tough questions” and to help understand the new Degree-Level Expectations from OCAV.

Approach

Before the retreat, a Senior Instructional Developer studied all documents pertaining to previous program review, current mission statements, and the Department’s new curriculum plan. Having derived key terms and key objectives from them, the SID pre-printed large sticky notes with one objective per note. During the retreat, the same SID led a process of course and curriculum mapping. After brainstorming attributes of an ideal graduate from the existing and the planned program, faculty members were given the large sticky notes with one key objective or key value pre-printed per note, and asked to map these to the brainstormed list of ideal graduate attributes. Once they were satisfied with the results, they moved the sticky notes to a prepared grid with the OCAV UDLEs across the top, seeing clearly how they are already meeting these threshold expectations (and in some cases, exceeding them). Then, using smaller sticky notes and a new set of grids, the OCAV UDLEs were listed across the top horizontal axis and the program courses listed along the vertical axis; each faculty member noted where his or her course introduced, reinforced, or mastered content or skills in support of the UDLEs, and what activities and assessments allowed students to demonstrate these levels of learning.

Results

Faculty members discussed content, skills, and teaching/learning approaches across the curriculum; two months later, the program planning committee chair used similar concepts to continue the planning process.