The Undergraduate
Experience
What Matters Most for Student Success
Peter Felten
Center for Engaged Learning
Elon University
“Systematically underserved students
fare worse in unstructured do-it-yourself
learning environments, and they succeed
in environments with strong advising,
mentorship, and clear pathways to their
goals – all of which require continued
guidance from [academic staff].”
(Schneider, 2016)
“Systematically underserved students
fare worse in unstructured do-it-yourself
learning environments, and they succeed
in environments with strong advising,
mentorship, and clear pathways to their
goals – all of which require continued
guidance from [academic staff].”
(Schneider, 2016)
Learning
Relationships
Expectations
Alignment
Improvement
Leadership
Learning
Relationships
Expectations
Alignment
Improvement
Leadership
“Learning results from what the
student does and thinks and only from
what the student does and thinks.
The teacher can advance learning
only by influencing what the student
does to learn.”
(H. Simon quoted in Ambrose et al., 2010)
“Learning results from what the
student does and thinks and only from
what the student does and thinks.
The institution
teacher can advance learning
only by influencing what the student
does to learn.”
(H. Simon quoted in Ambrose et al., 2010)
“Learning results from what the
student does and thinks and only from
what the student does and thinks.
STUDENTS AS PARTNERS
The teacher can advance learning
only by influencing what the student
does to learn.”
(H. Simon quoted in Ambrose et al., 2010)
Time | Effort | Meaningful | Feedback | Practicing | Reflecting
what the student does and thinks
Time | Effort | Meaningful | Feedback | Practicing | Reflecting
what the student does and thinks
“I belong here.” | “I can learn this.”
Time | Effort | Meaningful | Feedback | Practicing | Reflecting
EXAM WRAPPERS
2 examples
ADAPTIVE LEARNING
Time | Effort | “Ieaningful
| Feedback
| Practicing
belong here.”
| “I can learn
this.” | Reflecting
Time | Effort | Meaningful | Feedback | Practicing | Reflecting
Exam Wrappers (1/3)
How much time did you spend doing each of these:
__ Reading class notes
__ Reworking old homework problems
__ Working additional problems
__ Reading the textbook
“I belong here.” | “I can learn this.”
Time | Effort | Meaningful | Feedback | Practicing | Reflecting
Exam Wrappers (2/3)
Now that you have looked over your graded exam, estimate
the percentage of points you lost due to each of these:
__ % from not understanding a concept
__ % from careless mistakes
__ % from not being able to formulate an
approach to a problem
__ % from other reasons (please specify)
“I belong here.” | “I can learn this.”
Time | Effort | Meaningful | Feedback | Practicing | Reflecting
Exam Wrappers (3/3)
Based on the estimates above, what will you do differently in
preparing for the next test?
(Ambrose et al., 2010)
Time | Effort | “IManingful
| Feedback
| Practicing
| Reflecting
belong here.”
| “I can learn
this.”
Time | Effort | Meaningful | Feedback | Practicing | Reflecting
ADAPTIVE LEARNING
Tie | Effort | Meaningful
| Feedback
| Practicing
“I belong here.”
| “I can learn
this.” | Reflecting
Time | Effort | Meaningful | Feedback | Practicing | Reflecting
“I belong here.” | “I can learn this.”
Time | Effort | Meaningful | Feedback | Practicing | Reflecting
Tme | Effort | Meaningful
| Feedback
| Practicing
| Reflecting
“I belong here.”
| “I can learn
this.”
Time | Effort | Meaningful | Feedback | Practicing | Reflecting
“The future is already here –
it’s just not evenly distributed yet.”
(Gibson, 1992)
“I belong here.” | “I can learn this.”
Time | Effort | Meaningful | Feedback | Practicing | Reflecting
Over the next 5 years at your institution, what do you
think is the single most promising way to enhance
student learning?
1. Increase active learning in classrooms
2. Expand adaptive learning outside of class time
3. Cultivate student engagement out of the curriculum
4. Develop students as partners initiatives
5. Other
“I belong here.” | “I can learn this.”
Learning
Relationships
Expectations
Alignment
Improvement
Leadership
Learning
Relationships
Expectations
Alignment
Improvement
Leadership
Excellent institutions align their resources,
policies, and practices with their
educational purposes and student
characteristics.
Vertical alignment
Vertical alignment
Horizontal alignment
Vertical alignment
+
Horizontal alignment
Transfer United Seminar
1. Interview successful students in the program
you are entering. What do they do that helps
them succeed?
2. Write an autoethnography of your own
experience entering the university. What do
you do on a day-to-day basis to be
successful at the university?
Learning
Relationships
Expectations
Alignment
Improvement
Leadership
AASCU
Comparative study of 24 of 420 institutions that far
outperform peers on graduation rates for all students.
What matters most for graduation rates is not a
specific program or special funding but a campus
culture where everyone believes that their role is to
help students become successful.
Georgia State University
2003-2014: Significantly increased both low SES student
enrollment and graduation rates for all students.
“No single initiative is responsible for the dramatic
gains; the university’s improvement represents the
accumulated impact of a dozen or more relatively
modest programs.”
(Kurzeweil & Wu, 2015)
positive restlessness
culture of partnership
“Higher education institutions might become
‘as-if’ places – places where long term goals
of social change are lived inside the institution
as if they were already norms for society.”
(Walker, 2009, p. 221)
Learning
Relationships
Expectations
Alignment
Improvement
Leadership
Ambrose, S., Bridges, M., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M., & Norman, M. (2010). How
Learning Works .Jossey-Bass.
Carey, K. (2015). The End of College. Riverhead Books.
Craig, R., & Williams, A. (2015, August 17). Data, Technology, and the Great
Unbundling of Higher Education. Educause Review 50:5.
DeMillo, R. (2014). Revolution in Higher Education. MIT Press.
Felten, P., Gardner, J., Schroeder, C., Lambert, L., & Barefoot, B. (2016). The
Undergraduate Experience. Jossey-Bass.
Gibson, W. (1992). http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/01/24/future-has-arrived/
Kurtzeil, M., & Wu, D. (2015). Building a Pathway to Student Success at Georgia
State University. ITHAKA S+R.
Schneider, C. (2016). Forward. In R. Bass & B. Eynon, Open and Integrative.
AAC&U.
Walker, M. (2009). Pedagogy for Rich Human Being-ness. In E. Unterhalter & V.
Carpentier, eds. Global Inequalities and Higher Education. Palgrave
Macmillan.
[email protected]
@pfeltenNC