Keynote Address: Learning and Discovery in an Era of Change
Thursday, February 23, 2012, 7:00–8:30 p.m.
Elizabeth Coffman, James P. Collins, and Ted Hardin

Students come to college to learn about their world, hoping to change it for the better. What opportunities do they have to examine their ideals, assess expectations, and discover solutions to society's most compelling problems? This plenary will open with the story of the Mississippi River Delta region as an example of the multi-faceted, evolving, and unscripted challenges for which college must prepare students. The speakers will provide insights into how general education can offer students the opportunity to study complex problems that require interdisciplinary approaches, integrative skills, and ethical decision-making in an era of change.
(Posted on Tue, 06 03 2012 02:04:57)

Plenary: Making Sense of the New Learning Landscape
Friday, February 24, 2011, 9:15–10:45 a.m.
Steve H. Murdock, Barbara Wright, and Kathleen Blake Yancey

The plenary will open with an overview of our changing students, followed by a discussion of how today's students require that our institutions change in profound ways--loosening curricula, developing more rigorous assessments, and blending students' non-campus-based learning with institutional aspirations for student development--professional, personal, and civic. The speakers will also examine e-portfolios as a way to document, discuss, and assess students' many modes of learning in connected, reflective, and educative ways.
(Posted on Tue, 06 03 2012 02:04:57)

Plenary: Building Cultures of Faculty Engagement
Friday, February 24, 2011, 2:15–3:45 p.m.
Robert Collins, Michele Cuomo, Susan Gano-Phillips, Cynthia Gomez, Norman Jones, and Gary Rhoades

Faculty members share a common stake in the quality and outcomes of the general education that their students experience. This plenary provides an opportunity for faculty members to share their visions for and experiences with re-conceptualizing general education. They will talk about strategies that are effectively weaving general education outcomes throughout the undergraduate experience, with an emphasis on the relationships between faculty, core curricula, and the structures necessary to advance faculty members' innovation and leadership.
(Posted on Tue, 06 03 2012 02:04:57)

Plenary: One Word That's Powering General Education Reform (It's Not "Plastics")
Saturday, February 25, 2012, 8:00–9:00 a.m.
Paul Gaston, Trustees Professor of English, Kent State University

In the light of epiphanies that continue to inspire the reform of general education, this plenary will focus on greater intentionality as the essential platform for improved quality. A commitment to intentionality requires the clarification and pursuit of explicit incremental student learning outcomes--as well as assiduous assessment to measure the effectiveness with which they are accomplished. Faculty must express through the design and evaluation of general education the same scholarly values implicit in their scholarship: clarity of objectives, thoughtful congruence between method and desired results, and receptivity to constructive advice. The result should be more integrative and developmentally nuanced general education programs designed to lead students to clear goals. Gaston will offer a new vison for general education that is ironically the oldest of visions: Students learn more effectively when they understand and appreciate the priorities that structure their work.
(Posted on Tue, 06 03 2012 02:04:51)