Grant Summary
$300,000 over 36 months. Bringing together five private liberal arts colleges and universities, the collaborative will explore whether and how selected programs foster both program-specific goals and the broader liberal arts goal of educating students to be active and intentional learners, able to integrate disparate kinds of information in different contexts for different purposes. Collectively and separately, the institutions will develop tools to assess various programs of intense student-faculty interaction: first-year seminars (Drew), lower- and upper-level writing-intensive courses (Moravian), capstone courses and student-faculty research (Muhlenberg), freshman orientation and first-year seminar (Roanoke), and first-year core and senior capstone courses (Susquehanna). Using national and local surveys, direct assessment of student work, and focus groups, the collaborative will develop assessment protocols compatible with the personal, student-oriented environment of the liberal arts college.