It seems that in just the last few years, the rapid explosion and proliferation of new computer and communications technologies have the potential to alter the learning and teaching experience forever. We as educators are painfully aware of how “career” or “foundational” skills are essential in today’s ever changing global environment, and that knowledge of and experience in problem solving, critical thinking and information competencies can assure increased graduate success-- or, as one university put it, “keys to reaching your full potential”. While most higher education institutions are today including career competencies in their FYE curriculum or core general curriculum, this webinar will discuss whether that is enough for today’s learning environment. Are we still teaching students the same old way we were taught and expecting them to learn the same way we learned? Maybe it’s time to rethink where and how often we teach critical thinking, problem solving and information skill sets, as well as how and when we teach them. What would be the advantage to faculty and administration if we did this? What would be the advantage to students and graduates? How would it look? What are the challenges to this approach?

1. Time for a Paradigm Shift?

2. ▶ Today’s discussion will examine how
the changing landscape of the current
global economy impacts the way
colleges and universities teach and
assess “career” skills competency
development and what we as
educators can do to begin the
paradigm shift to better align
employers and graduates by changing
what happens in our classroom.
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3. “Our economy is finally growing and companies are hiring. With baby
boomers rapidly retiring, demographics in their favor, and companies
thirsting for technology skills, the market for new college grads should
be booming. Unfortunately, the reality says otherwise. The problem is
that the entry-level job market has changed, but colleges have not
adapted.*
* Susan Surluga, Washington Times, 2015. Retrieved from http://wapo.st/1yTCiI6?tid=ss_mail
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4. Higher Education issues that cannot be
ignored…
▶ Enrollment stagnating/more competition
▶ Demographics of students and employers changing
▶ Accountability for graduates required
▶ Funding appropriations declining, campus budgets
tightened/faculty asked to do more
▶ Accreditation standards for “meaningful”
assessment increasing
▶ Employers require graduates to possess both
subject specific knowledge and career skills
▶ Technology not enough
▶ More programs, not more learning 4

5. According to a new report in 2016 by PayScale and Future
Workplace, only half of managers feel that employees
who recently graduated from college are well prepared
for the workforce.*
According to McGraw-Hill Education’s 2016 Workforce
Readiness Survey, only 40 percent of college seniors feel
that college prepared them for securing jobs in their
career field.
60 percent of managers said critical thinking/problem
solving was the soft skill most lacking among recent
college graduates.**
*http://www.payscale.com/about/press-releases/payscale-and-future-workplace-release-2016-
workforce-skills-preparedness-report
**http://www.careerbuilder.com/share/aboutus/pressreleasesdetail.aspx?ed=12%2F31%2F2016&id=
pr951&sd=6%2F1%2F2016
What the workforce says…
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6. New essential learning proficiencies of 21st
century needed:
▶ Both educators and employers agree critical thinking,
problem solving and communications are essential for
student success in the workplace and in life.*
*AAC&U:On Solid Ground: Value Report 2017, Association of American Colleges and Universities
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7. Students are students, right????
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8. • Females are expected to account for the majority of college students
• Between 2000 and 2014, the 18- to 24-year-old population rose from
approximately 27.3 million to nearly 31.5 million
• Increasing numbers and percentages of Black and Hispanic students
are attending college.
• As much as 75 percent of U.S. college students are nontraditional or
adult learners. Many of them are first generation college students.
• Most students, especially non-traditional students, need some sort of
remediation and core competency instruction.
*Digest of Education Statistics, Table 105.20, NCES, 2016. https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=98
Here are in the latest facts:
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9. What we know today
▶ Students have trouble with problem solving, communications and
critical thinking throughout their educational experience, and even
after they graduate, as witnessed by employer surveys.
▶ College disciplines still put emphasis on content ; silos
▶ Employers feel colleges and universities must make improvements to
ensure graduates’ workplace success. Just getting a diploma no longer
enough to secure a good job.
▶ Career skills are a process learned by repetition and exposure 9

10. But here is what we still are doing………
▶ Same old type of assessment of material/ content
▶ Meaningful assessment of student learning or even teaching of “career
skills” such as critical thinking, problem solving and information knowledge
is still almost non-existent in higher level coursework
▶ “One shot” FYE or general education still the norm
▶ Most career skills are not assessed as a course outcome
▶ “If colleges don’t provide the academic and practical experiences that students need,
pretty soon we’ll see employers looking for alternatives to the college degree.” *
*Jeffrey Sellingo. Why are so many college students failing to gain job skills before graduation. The Washington Post,
January 26,2015.
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11. Current Generic
Assessment Loop:
Design
Implement
Analyze
Evaluate
Adjust and repeat
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12. Infusing “career” skills into core
subject matter disciplines-why now?
▶ Accreditation now demands that faculty and administrators provide
evidence of their students’ success with subject specific learning
outcomes as well as essential core life skills.
▶ Expectations that institutions engage in student learning assessment
at all program levels, from general education to majors and minors .
▶ Assessment should be about changing what happens in the classroom—
what students experience as they progress and whether they can
demonstrate this learning.
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13. Challenges to changing curriculum
▶ The real problem is change itself-sounds simplistic, but
not…
▶ Academics not run anything like businesses
▶ Time and money
▶ Faculty attitudes and culture
▶ I am only one person
▶ I have no more room my class..
▶ It’s not my job
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14. Three types of instructors….
Welcome change and initiate it
Will do with some trepidation provided they receive instruction
Aren’t going to ever change
Which one are you??
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15. ▶ We have to do a better job of instructing students about what
employers are expecting and INTENTIONALLY instructing students
how to prepare for and make the transition from college to career,
and then we have to assess this instruction within each program of
study or major
▶ We have to include career skills part of current content but deliver it
differently than the old “sage on stage”
▶ Focus on the process , not so much on product
▶ Use LEAP and VALUE rubrics---universal
▶ Student success should be everyone’s focus
▶ Instructor led curriculum change is the most successful 15

16. AAC&U LEAP essential learning outcomes and
VALUE rubrics: do you know and use?
▶ What contemporary higher education institutions commonly expect
students to demonstrate as a result of a liberal education, i.e. Liberal
Education and America’s Promise (LEAP)
▶ 16 essential skills
▶ Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education (VALUE)
developed an approach to assessing student progress in achieving the LEAP
Essential Learning Outcomes. Universal rubrics. Teach the Teacher
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17. 17
LEAP promotes
•Essential Learning Outcomes—as a guiding vision and national
benchmarks for college learning and liberal education in the 21st century
•High-Impact Educational Practices—ways of engaging and challenging
students—such as first year programs; intensive writing, collaborative
assignments, undergraduate research, internships, and major projects
that help students achieve essential learning outcomes
•Authentic Assessments—using students’ own work and faculty-validated
rubrics, probing whether individual students have developed essential
capacities, and can apply their learning to complex problems and real-
world challenges
•Students’ Signature Work—challenging higher education to prepare all
students to complete a substantial cross-disciplinary project in a topic
significant to the student and society, as part of the expected pathway to
a degree. The signature project can take one of many forms (e.g.
capstone, internship, field work, research, community-based research

18. Essential learning outcomes from LEAP:
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▶ Intellectual and Practical Skills, Including
▶ Inquiry and analysis
▶ Critical and creative thinking
▶ Written and oral communication
▶ Quantitative literacy
▶ Information literacy
▶ Teamwork and problem solving
▶ Practiced extensively, across the curriculum, in the context of progressively more
challenging problems, projects, and standards for performance

19. How to get started:
▶ Look at your program of expertise, look at courses you
personally teach
▶ Look at your accreditation, strategic plan, etc. and what
it says about learning outcomes and graduation
expectations
▶ Talk to your program director and faculty—get buy in from
higher administration-- Change is difficult!
▶ Start small—try it in one class as a “pilot”
▶ Try it out yourself first!!!
▶ Get feedback from students
▶ Use rubrics with specific assessment criteria of authentic
student work
▶ Collaborate with other faculty
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20. What students tell us*…….
▶ Need more:
▶ internships
▶ professional experiences
▶ real world experience
▶ more time to focus on career
preparation
▶ more alumni networking
opportunities
▶ project based experiences
▶ Believe that better interpersonal
skills are most likely to improve
their job prospects.
▶ *http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7782351-mcgraw-
hill-education-survey/
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21. Remember: successful inclusion of
career skills must always be:
▶ Relevant to the class and what they will be doing for a
living—avoid “busywork”
▶ Engaging, interactive
▶ Relatable to their course learning objectives
▶ Explained clearing in writing with evaluation tools
outlined/rubric assigned
▶ Scaffolded—progressively organized deadlines—you will
be able to see where they have trouble (usually
critical thinking) fosters time management
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22. Some samples of assignments leading to
successful integration of career skills into
curriculum
▶ Service learning/internships---connections and real world experience
▶ Teach back
▶ Reflective writing –comprehensive senior capstone project
▶ Peer review-critical thinking
▶ Exhibitions-poster sessions
▶ Collaborative assignments with diverse participants
▶ Business plans
▶ Portfolio development
▶ Current affairs linked to course objectives
▶ Fake news, biased websites, edit Wikipedia
▶ Researching career choice, certifications, pay, outlook, area
employers 22

23. Career skills are just the tip….benefits:
▶ For students:
▶ Practical,hands on competence
▶ Better grades, retention and persistence
▶ Self esteem, motivation leads to better graduates, citizens
▶ Talking points for employers
▶ For faculty and administration:
▶ Better retention and persistence
▶ Better program reputation/quality of program
▶ Better career engagement with employers
▶ Better student engagement
▶ Better graduates
▶ Value Added –employer satisfaction
▶ “the curricular focus on developing critical thinking skills in students through
their major programs is reflected in higher levels of performance among
students in upper division course work in the majors.”*
*AAC & U. On Solid Ground: Value Report 2017
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24. “every student, regardless of the
specific focus of a student’s studies,
academic major or type of
institution attended, should be able
to authentically demonstrate what
they have learned. *
*AAC&U, On Solid Ground: Value Report 2017, p. 13
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25. Are you up for the challenge?
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26. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/02/23/aacu-releases-report-
national-large-scale-look-student-
learning?width=775&height=500&iframe=true
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/02/10/new-study-suggests-
faculty-development-has-demonstrable-impact-student-learning
https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2017/04/25/how-professors-can-
improve-engagement-students-classroom-
essay?width=775&height=500&iframe=true
AAC& U On Solid Ground:
Access full report, infographic and press release here.
<http://nsse.iub.edu/pdf/NSSE2005_annual_report.pdf>.
http://wapo.st/1yTCiI6?tid=ss_mail
https://www.usnews.com/news/college-of-
tomorrow/articles/2014/09/22/college-of-tomorrow-the-changing-
demographics-of-the-student-body
Assessment That Works: A National Call, A Twenty-First-Century Response
Additional resources:
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27. Questions?
Kate Sawyer, MLS
Higher Education Administration and Library Consultant
katesawyer498@gmail.com

28. Continue the webinar series ...
The Onus is On Us - How Higher Education Can Close the Skills Gap
From School to Work: Bridging the Skills Gap
Presented by: Laurie Burruss, Education Innovation Advisor, lynda.com
Tuesday, May 16th ᐧ 2:00 - 3:00pm ET
Reimagining and Reinforcing Student Success Into Career Success Across the Curriculum
Presented by: Kate Sawyer, Higher Education Administration and Library Consultant
Tuesday, May 23rd ᐧ 2:00 - 3:00pm ET
bit.ly/OnisIsOnUs