What is academic rigor?
In higher education, one of the things that gets talked about but rarely defined with any clarity is “quality.’ What is quality? How do we know that the rigor is there to drive quality? For years colleges referred to quality in terms of input. The most award-winning faculty, the largest library, the availability of labs. But more recently attention has shifted to questions about what is learned – what are the results of time spent in college?
All those inputs I mentioned were nice, cost a lot and now we, the public, want to know what they produced.
If we ask the question about what is the goal of higher education from a public policy perspective, it would be to produce thoughtful and productive citizens who are able to participate in our democracy, earn a decent living, and contribute to our economic vitality. We certainly want citizens who can communicate effectively, think critically about a range of issues, and reason analytically. But we also want citizens prepared to do the work that drives the economy and allows them to realize a good life. If a student majors in accounting, for example, you want that person to be able to do effective and responsible accounting work.
How do we look at program level learning, such as accounting? Are there institutional and program-level standards, to which a student is held accountable? How do we express the level to which a student measures up to those standards? How do we know a student learned the necessary content when reading a transcript that lists course titles and letter grades? I am not the first to say that very little is gleaned from the traditional transcript. This is very disappointing because the use of portfolios and an increasing emphasis on learning outcomes assessment enables us to do much better.
Colleges can clearly articulate standards for learning outcomes and define proficiency levels for each outcome, ranging from basic skills to a distinguished level of proficiency. Assessments can be designed to measure the level of proficiency a student demonstrates for each intended outcome. These assessments can be embedded in a portfolio that records the student’s achievement. The type of information provided in this sort of learning record is superior to a mere listing of course and letter grade.
Pressing deeper into what the goals for higher education should be, what level of proficiency should we try to attain for our students? Our goal should be to work with every student to help them to achieve the highest possible level of proficiency. That would mean that we should aspire to have every student demonstrate a distinguished level of proficiency. When measured against standards that are clearly articulated and vetted in the world in which the student will work, I would say that it is possible to teach to excellence and to expect students to demonstrate the highest levels of proficiency. It should be our goal to have every student aspire to and potentially achieve a level of proficiency that is distinguished. Distinguished not in a competitive comparison to other students, but in terms of the stated and accepted standards.
But those who expect a bell curve will argue that it is impossible to have many or most students achieve a distinguished level of learning – if too many students achieve that level, the standards are soft. Academic rigor must be lacking. Why would that be so? Again, if standards are set, are vetted in the world of work, and the students are able to demonstrate that they are achieving a level defined as exceptional or distinguished, what is soft? Why is there an assumption that rigor is lacking? We should base judgments about rigor and quality on what is produced, not what is put in, or how many are failed.
I would submit that if we are committed to evidence-, standards- and outcomes-based education, then we need to give up on the old approach that dictates failure and accept that many of our students can and will demonstrate exceptional or distinguished levels of proficiency achievement. The old approach is elitist and competition-driven and requires that only a select few can rise to the level of the exceptional or distinguished. I believe that we can remove elitism not only from admissions decisions but from learning outcomes assessments by focusing on standards that are shared transparently and require demonstration of proficiency. This approach assumes a shift from a competitive base to a modified mastery-learning base. Modified in that we don’t keep teaching the student until she gets what is being taught but that we teach and support her to achieve the highest possible level of mastery.
Academic rigor is more about what we do to teach and support students so that they can demonstrate the highest level of proficiency rather than to assume that rigor means some must fail and most must be simply “average.”
What do you think?
Mike
Share This9 Responses to “What is academic rigor?”
Jamie Zanelotti Says:
I absolutely applaud the view point from a quality based academic approach where everyone can personally develop their potential and be distinguished. Competition has somewhat affected the quality in terms of producing a system that will be on a longer lasting scale rather than short lived. We must re-think this system if we are to create the best. Quality cannot be shaded by speeding up the craft and art of true learning. It must be done with precision and great care in order to perfectly work to its fullest advantages..
Jamie
Mike Offerman Says:
Traditional University Senior Administrator:
Thanks for your comment. And congratulations for implementing quality indicators at your institution. I agree this can be costly. And, it is possible that the results may disappoint. But, as you will do with your year to year comparisons, we can use the results to improve what we do. The first step, of course, is to know how well we are doing. Then we know what may need attention. Hopefully, over the course of a few years, this information and the resulting quality improvements will justify the costs. Regardless, what you are doing makes sense and seems to be the right thing to do.
Mike
Caroline Says:
I applaud your statement. I have seen schools try to show thier students in the very best light, at the same time not give the very best education possible. I actually attended a college for a short time, that no matter what or when you turned in work most people would receive an A for their attempt. These same people would receive degrees go out into their field and fail, because they weren’t really taught the information, or the expectations weren’t high enough to bring out the very best in those students.
Former undergraduate Says:
I am not an academic administrator. I have a Liberal Arts Bachelor’s degree, with multiple national academic honors and I merely want to add my view to this discussion. I welcome feedback. I am also not presently a member of the Capella learning community. My name is not as important as the message I wish to share, but you should know that there are many students who hold similar views to the one I’m expressing here.
I’ve never felt that education has be so difficult. And yet, so often it is grueling. Let me explain. For example, some university officials feel (or at least give this impression of a defined norm) that in graduate school if you’re not writing 20 page papers every week in every class or doing tons of other various course activities, you’re not learning anything. Thats insane!
Writing 20 page papers every week in some frantic fashion (to keep busy with the course) like some academic work horse is not the definition of learning anything in school, or the definition of preparing one for work in some professional field. I absolutely reject that assertion as being any definition of a quality education. Show me someone who actually writes 20 pages of anything in a professional field every week, and I can show you that same person’s burnout risk and likely move to a more comfortable job.
I know that the other popular argument is that academic rigor prepares you for the rigor of employment positions. I say hogwash. There are people with MBA’s (from high rigor programs) who sit in a plush office delegating duties to other lesser educated individuals. The same is often true in many other fields. Its as if the portal of Academic Rigor (having passed through it) is the granted license to finally relax in the working world. This is an unfair assessment. Its also appears like a level of supremacy in the professional world. Academic rigor equates to having paid one’s dues in education for professional employment. I disagree. It excludes more people than it includes. I’m not saying make courses easy, so much as not so hectically involved (as illustrated in this response).
Coursework can be taught without the need to make students feel they are receiving an education via heavy workloads and high pressure stressed environments (as if there is no other way). It makes me a little hesitant to pursue graduate school, because this heavy work mindset exists in graduate education…and it really seems pointless.
So when I read about “Academic Rigor”, I want to scream, because program intensity does not (based on my experience) equal learning or employment success. (There are a lot of MBAs working at “Happy Burger” making fries. Academic intensity does not really equate to employment success in ones field, thats my point). Taking a simple idea in learning…if you learn your ABCs through the common jingle most of us acquired in grade school, verses writing them out 1,000 times…which would you prefer? Which method is easier and still effective? That is the key, and should be the approach to learning. Simple and effective….not grueling, tiresome, and discouraging.
I take this issue personally, only because many of the courses I took in my undergraduate years were filled with intensity that truly DID NOT need to exist in the course content. I know of one instructor who taught a math course. She had included content of student journaling, writing three different 3-5 page papers, 3 exams of 100 questions each, a class group project, and a required field trip to an elementary school! I’m not kidding. For a math course. Heaven help the student if she taught basket weaving! I would have learned just as much with simple homework and the 3 exams. Its not like she was the only instructor or course I was taking or planning to take. But most instructors don’t seem to care about that factor too much…and its an important issue. In the balance, that kind of thinking adds stress to the student. Busy work does not equal learning, (and this is my central point to the idea of “Academic Rigor”) it is merely added and unnecessary stress found so often in many courses. And it leads to student burnout. Is that the “academic rigor” we’re considering as a good thing? I hope not.
So, in the end, the quality of an education (in my view) should not be determined by how much you sweat through the ordeal and stayed up at night until 2 or 3AM writing a 20 page paper (every week), or all the other extra busy work often found in courses. It should be determined by a balance of course content proportionate to learning speed and understanding of the average student, as well as the ability to retain the information taught under tempered environments (with an understanding that students DO have a life). But not through an academic environment geared toward making one feel that the quality of an education is equal to how much they struggled and ran around doing 10 different course activities.
Thats my two cents on the matter. Thank you for reading it. Maybe my view will change, however this is a current reflection of past experience in schooling. Maybe Capella will be different if I should join this academic community. And if not, I’ll simply sludge along as usual…waiting and hoping for a change to find its way into the powerhouse of the academic and institutional leaders’ minds. If I’m completely wrong on this issue, chalk it up to perception based on first hand impact.
Mike Offerman Says:
Former undergraduate
Thanks for your heartfelt post. Your experience is unfortunate and, as you state, unnecessary.
Today I posted about a study that found that many faculty teaching at the graduate level do not feel adequately prepared to teach effectively. I must say that I certainly felt that. And I probably made many mistakes, including being too demanding. It is easy to teach about something you have a passion for and fail to realize that students, particularly undergraduate students, may not share that passion and have multiple other courses and responsibilities beyond your own course.
There are steps that can be taken to avoid creating courses with extreme demands or demands that may make no sense for the content being taught. One strength of online courses is that they involve design and often a team that includes the faculty member, an instructional designer, an assessment specialist and a curriculum specialist. That does not mean that courses may not still be very demanding and time consuming, but hopefully the varying perspectives help to create a more balanced course.
I hope that you find graduate study to be more balanced and the expectations appropriate.
Thanks again,
Mike
Caralee Bromme Says:
Today, I heard Dr. Tinto speak regarding attrition in the community colleges. The thoughs I brought home were:
Have high expectations and your students will try to reach them. No one trys to for low standards.
Be aware for even the littlest advising moment in your eyes can change someone life with regards to education.
Students today think one class at a time. Not a year at a time.
With this in mind I have to make each class I teach relevant and a learning experience for the students.
While the last person commenting didn’t appreciate the amount of work in their classes, it did prepare him for the job market. He just didn’t find one with highest expextations. I am writing 20 page pages in my field. Without the preparation from my schooling and tough “academic rigor”, I would not have been as prepared as I am today.
Carrie Says:
Caralee,
You may have to write 20 pages a week in your field, but most employees and managers don’t. I am a 48 year-old undergrad student doing online classes and the amount of busy work is atrocious. I am paying to learn very little in my field because the sheer amount of work each class piles on is not conducive to learning the material. Yet despite my protestations, letters with studies, and information about how other countries do it, the curriculum teams keep piling more on every semester.
We Americans have a disease that makes us think we have to work more, more, more to be successful. Our culture is work-a-holic and unhealthy. Education isn’t about outputs, it is about LEARNING and it is time educators remember that. The best education anyone can get is to have a life-long love of learning and our education systems, from K-university, are killing that. What a shame we all brag about how much work we did or how little sleep we got or how many hours we slogged away at some lesson or job. We have lost sight of what it means to live and love learning. The quality of life here is extremely low and bad and we continually push students to run ever faster on that treadmill.
It is time we stop that love of “rigor” and start learning again.
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Traditional University Senior Administrator Says:
Nice piece, Mike – thanks.
I would not be the first to point out that higher education has done a terrible job of measuring outcomes (and, more generally, quality). The question is not whether we should develop measures, or how it would be done. The question is why we haven’t done it yet. Here are some possible reasons:
- It will be costly
- the results won’t be something to celebrate
- the ‘better’ schools won’t do any better than the ‘cheap’, ’second-choice’ schools
I’ve recently implemented ‘quality indicators’ within my operation in a traditional institution. While I can confirm that it’s costly, we won’t be able to make comparative studies with our institutions. Our results will instead be compared year to year.
July 10th, 2008 at 7:26 pm