About 140 faculty and administrators from 20 colleges and universities are on campus this week for the annual Associated New American Colleges (ANAC) Summer Institute. Details...
The goal of the conference is to explore best practices in teaching and learning.
“The institute will emphasize pedagogies and programs that blur traditional disciplinary and classroom boundaries, bringing together curricular and co-curricular efforts to transform student learning on our campuses and around the world,” says Gerald Francis, Elon provost and chair of the ANAC institutional representatives group.
Over the three-day event, members will attend sessions and engage in panel discussions. Small group meetings will provide an informal setting for faculty and administrators to meet and share with fellow ANAC members who share a commitment to integrating liberals arts, professional education and civic engagement.
Three plenary speakers who will speak at the institute include the following:
- George Kuh (Indiana University) is the director of the National Survey of Student Engagement, serves as the Chancellor’s Professor of Higher Education, and leads the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University. He will speak about what matters to student success.
- Randy Bass (Georgetown University) is a Senior Scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and Executive Director of Georgetown University’s Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship. He will discuss what it means to take student learning seriously.
- Barbara Jacoby (University of Maryland) is Senior Scholar at the University of Maryland’s Stamp Student Union, and is a leader in national discussion about civic engagement and service-learning. She will talk about the importance of cross-campus partnerships to integrative learning.
During the institute, about 60 Elon faculty and staff members will attend sessions and lead discussions on a variety of issues. President Leo M. Lambert will host a visit by eight college presidents and will speak at dinner along with ANAC Exective Director Lynette Robinson Wednesday evening.
ANAC is a national consortium of small to mid-sized colleges and universities that find value in a liberal education, professional studies and civic engagement. Founded in 1995, the organization aims to improve the quality of teaching and learning among its members through its support of conferences, international study programs and surveys and data benchmarking.
More information on the institute is online at http://www.elon.edu/anac.