Beginning later this semester, I look forward to reconvening a monthly discussion forum called the "Student Affairs Cocurricular Learning Group."  This group is comprised of innovative staff colleagues from every Penn State Student Affairs department that is delivering educational programs. One of the interesting projects on the docket for the next semester with this group is to create a "Cocurricular Learning Sourcebook" that can be used by division staff  who seek to improve their ability to create effective, rigorous, high-impact learning programs that are well matched to student's needs and improved through regular assessment. This sourcebook will follow up on a previous project that resulted in learning module for staff.

In 2006, working with colleagues Dr. Andrea Dowhower, Andrea Gregg (inst. designer), and more recently, April Shenninger (inst. designer), we created an online learning workshop for Penn State Student Affairs staff that is intended to advance the important skills needed to develop more intentionality in the educational programs and workshops offered by Division staff. Penn State SA staff can log in to access this content at the edge.psu.edu website. Here is the table of contents for that learning module:

Improving Educational Programming: Design and Assessment

Table of Contents

1. Improving Educational Programming
2. Institutional Development
1. In Loco Parentis and Student Development
2. Purposeful Education
3. The Student Learning Imperative
4. Powerful Partnerships
5. Learning Reconsidered
6. Penn State General Education Learning Outcomes
7. Penn State First Year Learning Outcomes and Competencies
8. Penn State's Cocurricular Learning Outcomes
3. Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
1. Cognitive Domain
2. Multicultural Competency Example - Cognitive Domain
3. Career Planning Example - Cognitive Domain
4. Affective Domain
5. Multicultural Competency Example - Affective Domain
6. Career Planning - Affective Domain
4. Learning Outcomes
1. Benefits of Learning Outcomes
2. Writing Learning Outcomes
3. Keep learning topics distinct
4. Be specific with your outcomes
5. Focus on the desired learning rather than the activity
6. Be realistic
5. Assessment
1. Assessing Learning Outcomes
2. Methods of Assessment
6. Tying it All Together
1. Test Your Knowledge
2. Feedback Form
3. References