Responding and Responsive Institutional Change
A Technique to Map and Evaluate Fulfillment of Institutional Learning Outcomes: Analyzing Outcomes to Facilitate Educational Accountability
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Julie Sexton, Jay M. Lightfoot, Brian Dauenhauer, Eugene Sheehan, Renee Welch, Tara Wood
Outcomes assessment in higher education has grown beyond basic formative and summative evaluation. To ensure full participation and educational advantages to under-represented groups we must begin to assess and evaluate the entire academic institution and its contribution to social change. Toward that end, our University developed a set of institutional learning outcomes (ILO) that encompass both academic units and student service functions. These ILOs are organized within five broad categories that include: foundational skills, interactions with others, connecting ideas, professional competence, and healthy behaviors. The intent was to determine and analyze the extent to which the ILOs are taught and assessed throughout the University at all levels within all units. The project collected data from 49 programs/departments concerning the extent to which each of the ILOs is taught and assessed within the unit’s courses and activities. Collecting the data from the units was relatively straight-forward; however, we found that comparative analysis was problematic given the nature of the data and the varied functions of the units. To solve this, we developed a visual mapping technique to represent the data that allows easy analysis and quickly draws attention to areas where ILOs are not adequately addressed. Our paper describes the ILO mapping project and demonstrates the visual technique it incorporated. The technique is generalizable to any level of the academic organization and provides the information needed to fine-tune teaching and assessment activities. This, in turn, can improve the overall effectiveness of the educational institution.
Social Inclusion and Digital Equity for Vulnerable and Marginalized Adults: Newcomer Language Learners in Canada
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Matthias Sturm
Public services are increasingly offered exclusively online, thus Internet access and digital literacy become basic requirements of social, economic, and educational inclusion (Dailey, Bryne, Powell, Karaganis, & Chung, 2010). Digital-by-default policies reduce or discontinue face-to-face interactions with public services in favour of online interactions, with the goals to increase efficiency (European Commission, 2018), enhance access to services, and realize financial savings (McKinsey Center for Government, 2016). Digital access and literacy skills are not equitably distributed among populations (Haight, Quan-Haase, & Corbett, 2014; European Association for the Education of Adults, 2019). This creates the potential for new forms of digital and social inequality and necessitates a closer examination of how digital policies affect vulnerable and marginalized adults such as Canadian newcomer language learners, who rely on government services, and already experience social and economic inequality related to age, income, education, location, and immigration status (Haight et al., 2014). This is a particularly pressing issue, as adult learners are “stuck in a double bind” because these disparities, compounded with lack of online problem-solving skills and access to learning supports, contribute to the existing digital divide (Pinsent-Johnson & Sturm, 2017). The proposed doctoral study investigates the implications of digital policies on migrants’ experiences using resources and service online and how learning digital skills contribute to cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1977, 1990). The presentation discusses the theoretical framework and methodology of the research, conceptualizing connections between digital policies, social inclusion, and digital equity for literacy research in the digital turn.
