In 2007 the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) published College Learning for the New Global Century to launch the Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) initiative. This document asserted a new way of conceptualizing the primary learning outcomes of a college education, focusing on four categories of transferable knowledge, skills, and dispositions:
- Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and Natural World
- Intellectual and Practical Skills
- Personal and Social Responsibility
- Integrative Learning
It wasn’t as if the shift from a focus on content knowledge acquisition to an emphasis on transferable skills and dispositions was a brand new idea. But the public nature of this assertion from one of, if not the, major association of colleges and universities made a powerful statement to postsecondary institutions of all kinds that the cafeteria-style of content acquisition that had dominated most college curricula was no longer sufficient in preparing students to enter post-graduate life.
Throughout College Learning for the New Global Century, AAC&U urged colleges and universities to find ways for students to apply their learning in experiential settings. They repeatedly cited the substantial body of research supporting the educational importance of application for deep and transformative learning.
At Augustana we’ve put a high value on these kinds of experiences, and our survey of seniors last spring directly asked about the degree to which students’ out-of-class experiences helped them connect what they learned in the classroom with real-life events.
Our seniors’ responses looked like this.
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It is certainly heartening to see that more than 80% of our seniors indicated “agree” or “strongly agree.” Moreover, this data confirms that many of the experiential opportunities that we provide for our students seem to be functioning in an educational capacity rather than simply serving as a respite from academic pursuits. Analyses of other data from our participation in the Wabash National Study demonstrates that our students who engage in applied learning experiences make greater gains on a variety of learning outcomes than our students who do not.
But I want to point out another side of this finding that I think is worth considering. I think that this data may be instructive as many of us – faculty, staff, administrators, and board members – continually try to make the case to prospective students and their parents that an Augustana education is worth the price they are asked to pay. Moreover, not only does this data point help us focus our assertion that Augustana provides an education that is worth the cost, but I believe it should point us toward the way we need to think about the important yet slippery (and sometimes even a little bit uncomfortable) concept of “value proposition.”
At the end of the summer we analyzed our senior survey data to see if we could identify specific student experiences that increased the likelihood that our seniors would, if given the chance to relive their college decision, definitely choose Augustana again. I think this is an important outcome question because it suggests the degree to which our seniors think that the money they spent to attend Augustana was worth it. Since without tuition revenue we are out of business, this is an aspect of our work that we simply can’t ignore.
Our analyses revealed that the degree to which our seniors’ out-of-class experiences helped them connect their classroom learning with real-life events significantly increased the likelihood that they would definitely choose Augustana again. I’d like to emphasize that we were testing whether students would DEFINITELY choose Augustana again – not “maybe” or “probably.” In essence, in addition to being an important driver of student learning, I think our seniors explicitly recognized the educational value of these experiences. As such, they were more than able to connect this educational value with the long-term benefits of the financial investment they had made.
I would suggest that this finding can guide the way that we talk about the value or worth of an Augustana education AND the way that we think about the admittedly amorphous notion of a value proposition. At it’s essence, “value proposition” is supposed to represent the maximum synergy between the value promised by an institution and the perception by the student that this value will be fully delivered. The difficulty, temptation, and sometimes suspicion, is that the folks who concentrate on establishing and strengthening a value proposition tend to focus more on the glitz of the marketing than the quality of the product. Nonetheless, whatever your opinion of this phrase it’s hard to deny the concept’s importance.
In the context of this notion of value proposition, the data point I’ve described above puts in mind the famous line from the movie Field of Dreams. “If you build it, he will come.” (No it’s not “they” . . . and yes, I was surprised too) Every college in the country right now is pulling out all of the stops to create the most persuasive marketing campaign. While we have admittedly been doing the same thing, we have also been concentrating on building an educational experience that is as fundamentally effective as it is precisely interwoven. We may not have perfected our product, but we have developed an educational experience that is consistently producing robust evidence of strong learning outcomes. I would humbly suggest that the key to maximizing our value proposition is in the product we build. More than simply listing all of the experiential learning opportunities in which students can participate, when we can explain to students how each of these experiences is designed to help them apply and solidify an important aspect of their learning and development toward the person they aspire to be, we make a case for an Augustana education that is substantially more nuanced, adaptable, and compelling than the argument that prospective students hear from most other institutions.
I believe this is a way that we can ultimately communicate distinctiveness in a manner that is both powerful and personal. More importantly, it allows us to live a story that never stops getting better. And at the end of the day, that sure feels like we are doing what we were meant to do.
Make it a good day,
Mark