Liberal Education and America's Promise

LEAP Campus Examples

Through LEAP, AAC&U is working with hundreds of campuses as they work to ensure that all students graduate prepared for the challenges of the new global century. Guiding these efforts are a set of essential learning outcomes and principles of excellence.

Below are recent examples of LEAP-related campus practices. For the full list of examples, visit the archives page. Contact Nakia Bell to share how your campus is using LEAP to strengthen undergraduate education.

Make the Essential Learning Outcomes a framework for the entire educational experience, connecting school, college, work, and life

University of Maryland-Baltimore County
Committed to preparing educators for the new era, a living-learning community entitled “Aspiring Teachers at UMBC,” at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, was created for undergraduates interested in pursuing teaching as a profession. This program is for all majors and includes discussion forums on teaching and learning, enrichment activities, social gatherings, community service, and e-portfolios.

To learn more about Aspiring Teachers at UMBC and other living/learning communities at UMBC, visit www.umbc.edu/reslife/communities/llc.
(From Faculty Roles in High-Impact Practices Meeting, March 2010)

Miami Dade College
As a result of dialogue among faculty, students, alumni, employers, civic leaders, and community members, Miami Dade College celebrated a Learning Outcomes Covenant signing of 10 learning outcomes that are reinforced and assessed throughout the curriculum and in cocurricular activities. This example was featured at the 2009 AAC&U Annual Meeting (January 2009).

Give Students a Compass

Focus each student's plan of study on achieving the essential learning outcomes--and assess progress

Otterbein College
High-impact practices are not new to Otterbein College, but until recently, they have not been organized in a coherent framework.  In the last year, Otterbein has sought to systematically embed high-impact practices in both the curriculum and co-curriculum through “Five Cardinal Experiences”: (a) community engagement, (b) internships, (c) international and intercultural experiences, (d) undergraduate research, and (e) leadership experiences.  These high-impact practices are made visible in a long-standing Integrative Studies program—an innovative core curriculum that underscores commitments to global learning, aligns itself with the AAC&U LEAP Essential Learning Outcomes, and showcases horizontal (e.g., linked courses) and vertical (first-year seminar, capstone) integration.   As a result, it is expected that all students will engage in at least three high-impact practices during their undergraduate career. 

From the “Five Cardinal Experiences: Integrative, High-Impact Practices for Student Success session at AAC&U’s 2010 Faculty Roles in High Impact Practices conference (March 2010)

Utah State University
Utah State University completed an evaluation of the first-year experience program in October 2009. USU found that roughly two thirds of the first year class at Utah State University participates in Connections, a first year experience that focuses on developing critical college study skills, time-management techniques, and test-taking strategies, as well as promoting an awareness of the campus and community. It encourages the development of a support network of classmates, faculty, and staff to help ensure a successful beginning to students’ academic experiences. At the core of Connections is the Common Literature Experience, in which all freshmen, the University, and the broader community read a book, participating in discussions and a lecture from the author.  See University Connections for more information. (October 2009).

University of Wisconsin-Madison
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Cross-College Advising Service (CCAS) exists solely to help students who are undecided about their college major to make informed decisions and plan their liberal education. CCAS puts the emphasis on undergraduate advising for students. In addition, students may join First-Year Interest Groups to become immediately immersed in areas of liberal education. Read more – “The Long View: Charting Purposeful Pathways through Advising” AAC&U News (September 2009).

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
Some of the Berkshire County sixth-grade students visiting Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts had never set foot on a college campus before. On this visit, they met with English professor Rosanne Fleszar Denhard and several of her students. The sixth-grade students watched a multimedia presentation, and talked about their interests in things like graphic novels, filmmaking, and writing for newspapers or magazines. The sixth-graders learned that these topics were among the many they could study in college. Their enthusiasm was clear: “I’m definitely coming to MCLA. I definitely want to make sure [that] Roseanne Fleszar Denhard is still here,” one sixth-grader exclaimed after Denhard’s presentation. Read more -- "Changing Aspirations in a Changing Economy: The Berkshire Compact" (AAC&U News, June/July 2009).

Teach the Arts of Inquiry and Innovation

Immerse all students in analysis, discovery, problem solving, and communication, beginning in school and advancing in college.

University of North Texas
The University of North Texas redesigned the institution's large lecture courses. In 2006, UNT included the goal of improving large courses in its Quality Enhancement Plan for reaccreditation, and received five years of funding to work on course redesign projects. The expanded project, called Next Generation Course Redesign (NGen), strives to create a community among faculty members who will work collaboratively to continually improve, test, assess, and reflect upon their courses. Read more -- "The Promise of Blended Learning: Redesigning Large Lecture Courses at the University of North Texas" (AAC&U News, March 2010)

Utah State University
Utah State University's studies about undergraduate research revealed that more than 26 percent of Utah State University’s graduating seniors report on the National Survey of Student Engagement that they engaged in independent research with a faculty mentor during their undergraduate career.  In these projects, research, teaching, and scholarship become parts of one simultaneous, overlapping, shared process. Undergraduates at Utah State can become active scholars throughout their undergraduate careers, not just at the last stages. See the Utah State Research Office for more information about this high-impact educational practice and how it is being implemented at USU. (October 2009).

Engage the Big Questions

Teach through the Curriculum to Far-Reaching Issues - Contemporary and Enduring - in Science and Society, Cultures and Values, Global Interdependence, the Changing Economy, and Human Dignity and Freedom.

Otterbein College
Otterbein College's new Integrative Studies program, slated to begin in fall 2011 when the college makes the switch from a quarter to a semester calendar, students will still explore questions of human nature—particularly in a first-year writing requirement called an Identity Project—but the overall integrative studies core will be focused on making connections between the disciplines and the wider world. After a first-year seminar that will introduce students to the concept of integrative learning, they will take one IS course in each of four areas during the sophomore and/or junior years: Interconnections (social sciences/history); Reflection and Responsibility (religion, philosophy, and service learning); Natural Foundations (sciences); and Creativity and Culture (arts and writing). Each of these IS courses will focus on teaching students to think globally and beyond disciplinary boundaries. Read more -- Integrative Studies at Otterbein: Reinvigorating a Signature Program for a Global Century (AAC&U News, August 2010)

Augsburg College
“Fate of the Earth 101: Consumption of Food, Fuel, and Media in Contemporary Culture” is an innovative first-semester program that is the current theme of Augsburg College’s pilot Integrated Term (iTerm). The program incorporates AAC&U’s LEAP objectives into an integrated learning community involving a large cohort of first-year students; six faculty from English, History, Religion, and Sociology; and library, IT, and student support services staff. The iTerm includes experiential and problem-based learning as well as traditional disciplinary and cross-disciplinary approaches and comprises the students’ and the facultys’ entire courseload for the semester.

From the “Fate of the Earth 101: An Integrated Term for First-Semester Students” session at AAC&U’s 2009 Integrative Learning: Addressing the Complexities conference (October 2009)
Presented by Lori Brandt Hale, Director of General Education and Associate Professor of Religion, and Beverly Stratton, Director of AugSem and Professor of Religion—both of Augsburg College

San Jose State University
The San Jose State University Health Science Department has worked diligently to integrate public health, which was a program only offered to graduate students, into the undergraduate general education curriculum. University staff worked both from the inside and out, introducing public health into the existing general education curriculum and creating new courses centered on public health. What resulted was collaboration across departments and campus to enhance student learning and engagement in public health issues. Read more -- "Infusing Public Health Education in the Undergraduate Curriculum: The Experience of a Comprehensive University" from Peer Review (Summer 2009).

Connect Knowledge with Choices and Action

Prepare students for citizenship and work through engaged and guided learning on "real-world" problems.

Roanoke College
Roanoke College has recently adopted a new, highly integrative general education curriculum. Based on the Roanoke College liberal learning goals and reflecting the LEAP essential learning outcomes and principles of excellence, this curriculum prepares students for the 21st century by integrating disciplinary skills with focused real-world issues and integrating course content with skills in writing, oral communication, and quantitative reasoning.

From the poster presentation “Developing an Integrative General Education Program” at AAC&U’s 2010 General Education and Assessment: Maintaining Momentum, Achieving New Priorities conference. (February 2010)

Presentation by Adrienne Bloss, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and General Education and Paul Hanstedt, Professor of English—both of Roanoke College

Wagner College
Wagner College’s Wagner Plan requires students to complete issue-centered integrative learning communities during the first year, the intermediate years, and the senior year. The communities are organized around a larger theme or problem, and include experiential as well as academic learning. This example was featured at the 2009 AAC&U Annual Meeting (January 2009).

Clark University
Clark University has a comprehensive program to advance liberal education outcomes for all students. Students must complete an eight-course Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) that includes classes in several outcome areas - including verbal expression, formal analysis, historical perspectives, values perspectives, and others. Both an international studies option within the PLS and the Active Learning and Research program—which focuses on real-world problems—provide opportunities for exploration and learning outside the traditional classroom. Read more -- "Refocusing Undergraduate Education on “Effective Practice”: Curricular Change at Clark University" (AAC&U News, March 2009).

Foster Civic, Intercultural, and Ethical Learning

Emphasize personal and social responsibility, in every field of study.

California State University-Chico
California State University-Chico holds “town hall” meetings in which students lead discussion groups about topics of civic interest. The Chico Town Hall Meeting idea was born in early 2006, when Thia Wolf, director of the First-Year Experience program at Chico State, and her colleague Jill Swiencicki, then a professor in the English department, began discussing whether the university’s first-year composition class could become more focused on civic literacy. Chico State’s new president Paul Zingg had begun his tenure with a focus on civic engagement, and Wolf and Swiencicki were thrilled to have support for advancing civic literacy as a core outcome of college from the campus’ highest levels. In collaboration with the university’s curriculum committee, they developed a curriculum with readings focused on civic participation and its role in a democratic society. Read more -- "Revitalizing Democratic Engagement: Town Halls at Chico State" (AAC&U News, May 2010)

Edgewood College
Edgewood College defines personal and social responsibility as part of its overall goals for undergraduate learning, emerging from its mission, strategic plan, and educational reforms. There are four facets of this approach—the first year experience; general education reform; civic leadership programs for traditionally underserved students; and faculty development initiatives. Although distinct, these four facets have collectively:

• brought faculty from different disciplines together with student development staff to map and integrate curricular and co-curricular opportunities;
• evolved over time to become the norm for increasing numbers of students on campus; and
• demonstrated how research and assessment findings (both internal and external) can influence program creation and revision.

From the “From Capstone to Keystone: Pathways to Infusing Personal and Social Responsibility throughout the Educational Experience” at AAC&U’s 2009 Educating for Personal and Social Responsibility: Deepening Student and Campus Commitment conference.
(October 2009)

Presented by Dean A. Pribbenow, Dean of the School of Integrative Studies, Kris Mickelson, Director of Human Issues Studies Program, and Tricia Dusick, Special Assistant for Student Engagement and Success—all of Edgewood College.

Washington and Jefferson College
Washington and Jefferson College's Magellan Project assists students embarking on projects that complement their studies in a given major. The program is designed to help students in crafting and telling stories that will be useful throughout their college careers and beyond by offering funding, particularly to under-served students; mentoring; proposal design workshops; and referrals to other funding resources. This example was featured at the 2009 AAC&U Annual Meeting (January 2009).

Assess Students' Ability to Apply Learning to Complex Problems

Use assessment to deepen learning and to establish a culture of shared purpose and continuous improvement.

University of Cincinnati
Since 2001, University of Cincinnati students have been required to complete a senior capstone experience to earn a baccalaureate degree. The specific capstone requirements are tailored to each program of study, and department faculty assess students’ achievement using rubrics designed to measure both learning outcomes specific to the major, and outcomes required of all UC students—including critical thinking, knowledge integration, social responsibility, and effective communication. Read more -- "Assessing Learning Outcomes at the University of Cincinnati: Comparing Rubric Assessments to Standardized Tests" (AAC&U News, April 2010)

St. Olaf College
St. Olaf College developed an Essential Learning Outcomes Assessment (ELOA) questionnaire that elicits information about students’ prior learning experiences, current understandings, and future aspirations in relation to the “essential learning outcomes” of a college education, as identified by the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The questionnaire was developed by a team of St. Olaf faculty and staff, and piloted with entering first-year students during Week One in September 2009. More than 450 entering first-years (91% of those invited to participate) completed one of six versions of the instrument.
(October 2009).

LaGuardia Community College
Since 2001, more than 8000 students have created e-portfolios at LaGuardia that demonstrate their achievement of key learning outcomes from course to course and year to year, reflect on their evolving academic, professional, and personal selves, and create documents that supplement resumés and transfer applications to senior colleges. The goals of the e-portfolio project at LaGuardia include encouraging students to take control of their educations, to become self-directed and self-motivated learners, to link classroom and lived experiences, and to increase facility with digital communication. See information about e-portfolios at La Guardia, an audio podcast of a presentation on e-portfolios by Bret Eynon, executive director of LaGuardia’s Center for Teaching and Learning, and information about AAC&U’s assessment initiative, VALUE. (June 2009).

Leap Campus Action Network Contacts

• Nancy O'Neill, Director of Integrative Programs and the LEAP Campus Action Network, oneill@aacu.org
• Nakia Bell, Program Assistant, bell@aacu.org or 202-387-3760 ext. 407