Residence life and education, residential curriculum and curricular approaches, student housing, and technology.
As a facilitator of residential curriculum and curricular approach workshops, one of the challenges I have is how to explain the process in a way that makes sense to attendees. One of the reasons this is challenging, is that curricular approaches introduce a number of new terms and use those terms in very specific ways.... Continue Reading →
This free webinar series, hosted by Roompact in collaboration with the University of South Florida Department of Residential Education, was designed for scholar-practitioners to explore, analyze, and evaluate innovative engagement practices to enhance student success and academic excellence. This four-week series has intentionally scaffolded learning to allow subject matter experts to share strategies, techniques, and... Continue Reading →
The COVID-19 pandemic represents a unique challenge for maintaining residential education and campus community in a time of social distancing and abrupt transitions to online and hybridized learning format. The role of residential education, however, is more critical than ever. Aiding students in identifying support networks, making connections with others, and the sharing of timely and... Continue Reading →
This free webinar series, hosted by Roompact in collaboration with the University of South Florida Department of Residential Education, was designed for scholar-practitioners to explore, analyze, and evaluate innovative engagement practices to enhance student success and academic excellence. This four-week series has intentionally scaffolded learning to allow subject matter experts to share strategies, techniques, and... Continue Reading →
Because a curricular approach is revolutionary as opposed to evolutionary, it is necessary that you think about organizational culture and organizational change processes before undertaking this journey. For many, this shift in approach requires the development of a learning-centric organization. An organization that moves beyond "exposure" through program attendance, and towards "learning" (Kerr & Tweedy,... Continue Reading →
Transitioning to a curricular approach represents a cultural shift. A department can have well-articulated goals, outcomes, and educational plans, but a residential curriculum will never be successful without the necessary cultural and organizational change that comes along with it. For residence life departments, in particular, this means preparing your student staff members for this shift,... Continue Reading →
Moving to a curricular approach calls upon us to become better at assessing student learning. Although it may be common on a campus to have students respond to short surveys providing feedback about a program or service, it is often less common to assess student acquisition of knowledge and skills as a result of an... Continue Reading →
Roompact is proud to sponsor of ACPA's Institute on the Curricular Approach. Offered annually to educators and professionals in residence life and education, the Institute is a three day series of sequential workshops and sessions that teach participants how to implement a curricular approach to education in residence life and student affairs. As provider of software that... Continue Reading →
Roompact is proud to sponsor of ACPA's Institute on the Curricular Approach. Offered annually to educators and professionals in residence life and education, the Institute is a three day series of sequential workshops and sessions that teach participants how to implement a curricular approach to education in residence life and student affairs. As provider of software that... Continue Reading →
Roompact is proud to sponsor of ACPA's Institute on the Curricular Approach. Offered annually to educators and professionals in residence life and education, the Institute is a three day series of sequential workshops and sessions that teach participants how to implement a curricular approach to education in residence life and student affairs. As provider of software that... Continue Reading →
One of the hallmarks of curricular approaches to student learning outside the classroom is that learning is scaffolded and sequenced to follow a student's journey through their time in college. After educators identify their learning objectives (cascading from Educational Priority, to Learning Goals, Narratives, Rubrics, and Outcomes), the next step in the process is to... Continue Reading →
Educational and curricular efforts exist in context. Furthermore, residence life and education departments do not exist on an island. When developing a campus or residential curriculum, it is important to identify partners and stakeholders early on and include them in the curriculum design process. This inclusion can include stages from planning to implementation, and throughout... Continue Reading →
Because developing a residential curriculum entails refocusing your departmental efforts towards student learning, it necessarily follows that you must develop a culture of assessment. A culture of assessment is one in which decisions are data-driven and tested through the design, implementation, and review of assessment measures. As Lakos and Phipps (2004) describe it, a culture of... Continue Reading →
When getting started in developing a curricular approach to student learning outside the classroom, there are a number of different terms and concepts that are used with which one should become familiar. Many of the terms used have been systematized over time, particularly by the faculty of ACPA's Institute on the Curricular Approach. However, some of... Continue Reading →
Curricular development is a complex process that involves planning and organizational change. It is a process that takes year, not months. Each institution, or within each division or department, there may be unique contextual factors that may influence the development timeline of a curricular implementation. Although it is difficult to develop a timeline that is... Continue Reading →
When encountering the curricular approach for the first time, many staff may wonder why the approach has gained such currency within student affairs and residence life and what research and data backs up and supports its use. When asking these questions, it is important to understand that the curricular approach is a model of how... Continue Reading →
Once a department or division articulates the goals, outcomes, and objectives it hopes to achieve, and they've undergone the work to rubric, map, and sequence these objectives, the final step in the process is the development of an overall educational plan. Educational plans function much like blueprints. As plans, they outline time-based progression through the... Continue Reading →
An important element of developing residential curriculum involves scaffolding and sequencing learning. Rubrics, or tools developed for the purposes of scoring and rating development along a scale, can be useful in this scaffolding and sequencing process. As discussed earlier, residential curriculum rubrics break down learning outcomes into successive stages of development and mastery. Although coming... Continue Reading →
