A Colorado Challenge
- Colorado Challenge - Memo #1
- Colorado Challenge - Memo #2
- Colorado Challenge - Memo #3
- Colorado Challenge - Memo #4
- Colorado Challenge - Memo #5
A Colorado Challenge - Memo #3
- TO: Chairs and Directors
- FROM: Todd T. Gleeson
- DATE: October 2005
Dear Chairs and Directors,
In response to the "Colorado Challenge" document and update that I issued last academic year, a number of units have engaged in a variety of curricular reviews, student focus groups, and other activities to address some of the issues raised by the Challenge. Many individuals and several units have already adopted changes to their classroom offerings and grading practices as a result, and I am gratified to see the energy and creativity associated with this college-wide conversation.
I would like to call to your attention a survey related to the Colorado Challenge conducted as a student exercise in the Department of Communication. I found this study particularly thought-provoking. Professors Lisa Keranen, Cindy White, and graduate student Jennifer Tillis helped students to design and administer a survey tool that examined student perceptions of academic work. In the authors words:
This report summarizes the results of the study as they relate to (1) the nature of academically challenging courses, (2) the nature of meaningful assignments, and (3) student perceptions of reading as a learning activity. Although the results of the study are most directly relevant to the Department of Communication, they provide information about students' perceptions of learning that may be useful to faculty across the College of Arts and Sciences.
The report offers a distinction between challenging courses and merely difficult ones that many of us may wish to contemplate. The results also reveal student attitudes towards reading assignments and textbooks that I found surprising and a bit disappointing. You might wish to share this report with your curriculum committee or other members of your unit who are involved in your own Colorado Challenge introspection. The report is available as a pdf at:
http://comm.colorado.edu/default_new.aspx?page=ColoradoChallenge (April 2009; now at http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~lizb/internal/A-and-S-focus-group.doc; see summary at end of this document)
The report is titled " An Exploratory Focus Group Study of Undergraduate Communication Majors' Perceptions of Challenging Communication Coursework". My thanks to the authors for calling it to my attention, and making it available to all of us.
Unrelated to this report but timely, ASC Chair Babs Buttenfield (GEOG) plans to charge a committee later this semester with the task of continuing the College-wide conversation on this topic.
