MCC Team to Attend Institute on General Education & Assessment

Middlesex Community College will send a team of faculty and staff to the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ (AAC&U) 2014 summer Institute on General Education & Assessment, to be held June 3-7 at the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vt.

AAC&U Summer Institutes offer campus teams a time and place for sustained collaborative work on a project of importance to their campus, along with a curriculum focused on important trends, research and best practices, and a resident faculty of educational experts.

“In order to achieve MCC’s goal of graduating students who have a high level of demonstrable competence with our Institutional Learning Outcomes, we need an assessment process and plan that responds to the course, program and institutional levels in a more integrative way,” explained Phyllis Gleason, Dean of Foundational Studies, First-Year Experience and General Education. “We want an assessment process that will be sustainable and produce results that can be used by faculty to improve those learning outcomes.

“And, because MCC’s program review process also includes an assessment of student learning outcomes component,” continued Gleason, “it makes sense that our General Education Team consider ways in which the two processes can be integrated at the college.”  

Gleason is leading MCC’s General Education & Assessment Team, which also includes Carlos Brocatto, Professor of Philosophy; Joanna Del Monaco, Professor of Mathematics; Ryan Keen, Professor of Psychology; and Rebecca Newell, Assistant Dean of Students.

For 24 years, AAC&U’s Institute on General Education and Assessment (IGEA) has provided campus teams with opportunities to refine and advance general education programs and their assessment. The Institute focuses on building a campus learning culture that supports the design and implementation of intentional, well-defined and meaningfully assessed general education curricula that engage our increasingly diverse students and faculty.

AAC&U (www.aacu.org) is the leading national association concerned with the quality, vitality and public standing of undergraduate liberal education. Its members are committed to extending the advantages of a liberal education to all students, regardless of academic specialization or intended career.        

MCC is one of the largest, most comprehensive community colleges in the state. We offer more than 75 degree and certificate programs, plus hundreds of noncredit courses, during the day, evening and weekend, on our Bedford and Lowell campuses, and online. Middlesex – a great place to begin your future!