Undergraduate Learning Working Group

The Undergraduate Learning Working Group (ULWG) recently completed an eighteen-month exploration of how to enrich the undergraduate student learning experience at UND. The ULWG examined current teaching and learning practices at UND, gathered and assessed data from institutional sources and through focus groups with faculty, staff, and students, and surveyed emerging and best practices at other universities. The ULWG’s Final Report contains a wealth of information and several major recommendations to enrich the student learning experience at UND. Full descriptions can be found in the Report’s Executive Summary and, in greater detail, in the full Report, available here .

Several of the Report’s most exciting and transformative recommendations are already underway in AY 2011-2012 as Exceptional UND Initiatives to Enrich the Student Learning Experience, including its primary recommendation, to Encourage the Creation of First-Year Experience (FYE) Pilot Seminars to be Offered in AY 2011-2012 . The goal is to develop an individualized, academically rigorous first-year experience akin to those offered at much smaller liberal arts colleges.

A spring 2011 call for proposals generated considerable faculty enthusiasm and excitement, as did the student enrollment process at the summer 2011 Getting Started program. The Office of the Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs funded summer development grants and the initiation of seven FYE pilot seminars to be offered in AY 2011-2012. Click here for a list of the Pilots. The pilots are noteworthy for innovations including interdisciplinary and team-teaching as well as providing undergraduate research opportunities. They were selected to accomplish four goals: facilitate successful transitions to college through self-reflection, active learning, and study effectiveness; engage with the academic life of the university by sharing productive and meaningful academic experiences with faculty and peers; engage in deep learning with disciplinary or interdisciplinary academic content; and achieve learning outcomes related to essential studies skills in thinking & reasoning, communication, information literacy, or social-cultural diversity. Academic Affairs also funded four FYE Coordinators to facilitate faculty development for the pilot seminars and the creation of common assessment goals, techniques, and metrics to inform consideration of scaling up to provide a FYE for all incoming first-year students.

Status and progress: Pilots and assessment of program underway.