Cue the tumble weeds, cowboys and whiskey-slinging saloons, and imagine a land that is both wild and full of potential. It’s the wild west of learning outcomes and like gold they are a hot commodity in an increasingly data-driven postsecondary sector. But there is still a great deal of unexplored territory – particularly in assessment. […]
Category: Other HEQCO Staff
From essays to learning portfolios, there’s a growing number of ways to assess learning outcomes. In the third HEQCO webinar on learning outcomes assessment in higher education, Lori Goff (manager of program enhancement at McMaster University) asked the audience, “Which types of assessments do you primarily use in your course?” and listed a variety of […]
Money talks. Ontario universities are dependent on revenue sources to deliver on their teaching and research missions. Government is a major revenue source, and has an obligation to drive public policy outcomes and exercise appropriate stewardship through its investment. And so the funding formula matters, for it is the mechanism through which an alignment of […]
Ontario is working to transform its postsecondary education system through differentiation – where institutions build on their individual strengths. One component of differentiation is the graduate to undergraduate ratio. The above graph displays the institutional spread of graduate level enrolment by province. Newfoundland & Labrador and Prince Edward Island are single university jurisdictions and therefore […]
Almost every year since 2002, international student enrolment has increased in Ontario’s publicly-funded colleges and universities. Although the university sector used to recruit the large majority of international students, the rate of college enrolment growth has generally surpassed that of universities in the past decade. In 2001, one in five international students attended college, but […]
Full-time, tenure-track academic positions may not be a reality for many doctoral graduates. In Canada, less than 20% of PhDs are employed as full-time university professors. This fact is not lost on many doctoral students. But if their degree will not afford entrance into that hallowed space, for what opportunities does their degree prepare […]
It’s been a long road, but I have come to realize that learning outcomes have the power to transform higher education. As a student, I unknowingly used them to make important decisions, as an instructor they guided my teaching and as a course developer they have changed the way I look at higher education. Like […]
Note: Of the 78,232 students who graduated in 2011, 72,249 were contacted to participate in this survey. Six months and two years after graduation, 17,950 and 20,055 graduates, respectively, responded to this question. Source: Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, 2013-2014 Ontario University Graduate Survey. See http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/programs/osaprates/OntarioUniversityGraduateSurvey1314.pdf As economists and employers continue to debate […]
“We know what employers value most,” says George Brown College’s current marketing campaign – appearing on a subway wall or TV screen near you. As Norma Desmond said to Cecil B. DeMille: I’m ready for my close-up. So too core skills, it would appear. You’re familiar with them – the so-called soft skills, essential skills, […]