If you’ve made your way to Calbright, you’ve already accomplished something difficult. You’ve made the decision to explore options for a better future. Welcome, friend.
What brought me to Calbright College?
I can see clearly now that I became an educator because of the great teachers I had along the way, teachers that made me feel that they believed in me and my potential for success. Unfortunately, every one of us has probably also had some negative educational experiences that made us feel like we weren’t valued. In my time at Calbright, every faculty and staff member I have encountered have embodied a strong sense of mission about their work at Calbright and a deep sense of caring for the students we serve. I believe that education can be a force for good in the world, and that we at Calbright are engaging in “social justice in action”* every day.
Why do I do what I do?
“Learning is not something done to students, but rather something students themselves do. It is the direct result of how students interpret and respond to their experiences—conscious and unconscious, past and present.”
Ambrose, Susan A.. et al., How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching, Jossey-Bass, 2010.
I don’t need to tell you that learning is a complex process of making meaning of new information and experiences. What I do want to tell you, though, is that we at Calbright are always trying to make it better for our students. The learner experience and, most importantly, outcomes for Calbright students inform my work as a Curriculum & Assessment faculty every day.
Our Curriculum & Assessment faculty team at Calbright collaborate with other faculty and subject matter experts to make the curriculum and assignments as transparent and engaging as possible. Then, as Calbright students progress through our programs, we take a deep dive into student learning data to see what works for students and what can be improved. We then partner with teaching faculty, instructional design faculty, and our library faculty, all supported by our leadership team, to improve courses and programs for our students. Our approach to this continuous improvement process is rooted in iterative, evidence-based (i.e., data-based) decision making.
How might that impact you?
For instance, we know that students’ learning benefits from knowing the purpose of their assignments, knowing how those assignments connect to the learning outcomes for a course, being supported with the steps required to complete an assignment, and being given tools that allow them to assess the quality of their own work (1).
We are now applying that at Calbright in several key ways: including the learning outcomes for a course in the syllabus; making sure curriculum and assignments help students develop their ability to meet those outcomes; providing rubrics to students to help them understand what they need to demonstrate in their work; and providing multiple forms of support along the way (such as instructor feedback, academic tutoring services, and academic success counselors).
We believe that student success is our success.
– Written by Dr. Andrea Brewster, Curriculum and Assessment Faculty at Calbright.
*Andrea has just written a book chapter on student learning outcomes assessment that is available as of November, 2024, in Lester, Neal A. editor. Social Justice in Action: Models for Campus and Community. The Modern Languages Association of America, 2024.
(1) Winkelmes, Mary-Ann, et al. A Teaching Intervention that Increases Underserved College Students’ Success” in McNair, editor. Transparency and Problem-Centered Learning. Special issue of Peer Review, Vol. 18, nos. 1-2, winter-spring 2016.
