Increasing learning-centeredness in residence life and housing at the University of Delaware
Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
This Educational Leadership Portfolio (ELP) documents my efforts to increase learning-centered qualities within Residence Life and Housing (RLH) at the University of Delaware (UD, a Mid-Atlantic university primarily serving 24,120 undergraduate and graduate students). Student Affairs units on college campuses, including RLH, have been called upon to become more learning-centered by utilizing curricular approaches that align with the educational goals of the institution. RLH at UD has embraced this national standard for many years by creating annual curriculum plans that guide educational programming. However, the annual plan has not been regularly evaluated for alignment to UD’s General Education Purposes and Objectives. Moreover, professional development for staff to author and implement the curriculum and evaluation of student learning was limited. My work on this ELP focused on implementing strategies related to the improvement goal of increasing RLH’s learning-centered qualities. ☐ The problem and improvement goal of the ELP were defined by conducting a literature review of co-curricular programs’ impact on student learning, as well as by conducting an evaluation study of student perceptions of their experience living on campus. The evaluation study was a qualitative study that interviewed 20 students of various demographics three times in one academic year. Both the literature review and the perception study revealed that RLH needed to improve its learning-centered qualities. ☐ I then developed three improvement strategies to support the improvement goal of increasing RLH’s learning-centeredness. The first was to align RLH programs to UD’s General Education objectives and purposes using the RLH Educational Priority. The second was to increase RLH staff capacity to design educational programs through professional development. The third was to increase evidence-based assessment approaches to evaluating RLH programs. ☐ The improvement strategies had the following results. First, the examination of RLH program outcomes revealed that the programs were aligned well to the RLH Educational Priority. Thus, there was little improvement needed to strengthen alignment. Second, the professional development series resulted in staff improvement related to content knowledge and feelings of confidence, but there was little improvement related to the skills of writing learning outcomes and program outcomes, and writing rubrics. Third, a study of students who lived on campus revealed that students believed they had the opportunity to practice behaviors that align to UD’s General Education purposes and objectives. However, RLH programs need to be improved to maximize this opportunity. ☐ The ELP closes with recommendations for RLH to continue to increase learning-centeredness. The recommendations included systemizing staff training and ongoing development and performing ongoing evaluation with a focus on measuring student learning.
Description
Keywords
Learning-centeredness, Residence life and housing, University of Delaware