View extended episode notes at https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/eportfolios-as-capstone-experience/.

In this episode, we visit with Carol Van Zile-Tamsen, associate vice provost for curriculum, assessment, and teaching transformation at the University at Buffalo, about UB's ePortfolio capstone requirement for general education.

Carol Van Zile-Tamsen is the associate vice provost for curriculum, assessment, and teaching transformation at the University at Buffalo. Her primary focus involves student learning assessment, psychometrics, and using data for improvement efforts. She teaches pedagogy and psychometric theory for graduate students from across the university, as well as first-year seminars for incoming freshmen and transfer students. She is an alumni of UB, earning her doctorate in educational psychology in 1996. 

This episode is co-hosted by Jessie L. Moore, Director of Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning, and Nolan Schultheis, a first-year student at Elon University, studying Psychology with an interest in law. Jessie L. Moore edited the episode. Making College “Worth It” is produced by Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning.

We’re taking a mid-season break during the month of December, but we’ll be back with new episodes in January 2024. In the meantime, we invite you to catch up on Season 1 of Making College “Worth It” and to listen to episodes of the Center’s other podcasts. We’d also appreciate learning more about what inspires you to listen to podcasts about scholarly teaching and the scholarship of teaching and learning in higher education.

See our full episode notes at https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/salient-practices-of-mentoring-undergraduate-research/.

In this episode, we visit with Helen Walkington, Professor of Higher Education at Oxford Brookes University, UK, and Eric Hall, professor of exercise science at Elon University, about the salient practices of mentoring undergraduate research. These practices can facilitate a high-quality mentoring pedagogy. Professors Walkington and Hall were part of a research team that conducted an extensive review of the literature on mentoring undergraduate research, identifying ten salient practices which support effective mentoring of undergraduate researchers, and they continue to research the ways that mentoring informed by the salient practices makes college "worth it" for students.

This episode is co-hosted by Jessie L. Moore, Director of Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning, and Nolan Schultheis, a first-year student at Elon University, studying Psychology with an interest in law. Jessie L. Moore edited the episode. Making College “Worth It” is produced by Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning.

See our extended episode notes at https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/the-data-mine/.

In this episode, we focus on living-learning communities, which combine students’ on-campus housing experiences with academic experiences like linked courses, shared academic interests, or other learning opportunities. We talk to Professor Mark Ward from Purdue University and Professor Jonathan Manz from Lewis and Clark College, two of the creators of The Data Mine Living Learning Community at Purdue, and we learn more about how the program fosters relationship-rich educational experiences.

View extended episode notes at: https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/capitalizing-on-capstone-experiences/.

Caroline Ketcham and Tony Weaver, co-editors of Cultivating Capstones: Designing High-Quality Culminating Experiences for Student Learning, share strategies for faculty and students to make the most of these high-impact opportunities for learners to integrate and reflect on the skills and knowledge they've developed across their college experiences.

This episode is co-hosted by Jessie L. Moore, Director of Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning, and Nolan Schultheis, a first-year student at Elon University, studying Psychology with an interest in law. Making College “Worth It” is produced by Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning.

See our full episode notes at https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/lifewide-writing-in-college/.

In a 2021 survey of recent U.S. college graduates, conducted by the Elon Poll and the Center for Engaged Learning, 94% of participants indicated that writing was somewhat or very important to their day-to-day lives, but only 80% had developed effective writing skills during college. College students and the people who support them need to attend to the writing students are doing in college and how those writing experiences prepare them for lifelong and lifewide writing. 

We visit with our guests - Professors Alexis Hart from Allegheny College, Ashley Holmes from Georgia State University, Íde O’Sullivan from the University of Limerick in Ireland, Yogesh Sinha from Ohio University, and Kathleen Yancey from Florida State University - about how students make connections among their spheres of writing as they write for college courses, co-curricular activities, internships, work, civic or community activities, and self-motivated purposes.

This episode is co-hosted by Jessie L. Moore, Director of Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning, and Nolan Schultheis, a first-year student at Elon University, studying Psychology with an interest in law. Making College “Worth It” is produced by Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning.

See our full episode notes at https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/making-connections-in-college/

In a 2021 survey conducted by the Elon University Poll and the Center for Engaged Learning, 54.5% of recent college graduates indicated that they’d encountered meaningful relationships with faculty or staff multiple times, and 69.1% reported multiple meaningful relationships with other students. Unfortunately, 16.4% reported never developing those relationships with faculty or staff, and 9.8% never developed meaningful relationships with peers. How can students make connections in college?

Our panelists - Isis Artze-Vega (Valencia College), Oscar R. Miranda Tapia (North Carolina State University), and Peter Felten (Elon University) - share strategies from their new book (with Leo Lambert), Connections are Everything: A College Student's Guide to Relationship-Rich Education. Read the book for free on Project Muse, thanks to a grant from the Gardner Institute. Explore teaching and faculty development resources related to the book on the Center's website.

This episode is co-hosted by Jessie L. Moore, Director of Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning, and Sydni Brown, a senior at Elon University who is majoring in Communications Design and Strategic Communications. Making College “Worth It” is produced by Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning.

View our extended show notes at: https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/preparing-for-workplace-writing/

In a 2021 national survey of recent college graduates in the U.S., young professionals indicated that writing was very important to their daily lives, but only 80% reported developing the writing skills they needed while in college. How can college students prepare for writing they'll encounter in the workplace?

Our panelists - Stephen Macharia (Swathmore University, Kenya), Amanda Sturgill (Elon University, U.S.), and Neil Baird (Bowling Green State University, U.S.) - share their international research on young professional's writing experiences. They offer tips for students on how to make the most of college experiences to prepare for workplace writing, and they share recommendations for university faculty and staff across the university on supporting students' writing development.

This episode is co-hosted by Jessie L. Moore, Director of Elon University's Center for Engaged Learning, and Sydni Brown, a senior at Elon University. Making College "Worth It" is produced by Elon University's Center for Engaged Learning.

Making College “Worth It” examines engaged learning activities that contribute to a high-quality, equitable education and increase the value of college experiences. In each episode, we explore engaged learning activities that recent college graduates associate with their financial and time commitment to college being worthwhile. We share research from Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning and our international network of scholars and we offer tips for college students and the people who support them. Making College “Worth It” was created by Jessie Moore and is produced by the Center for Engaged Learning at Elon University. Many episodes are co-hosted by students who share their insights on each topic and reflect on the strategies shared by the episode’s guest scholars.

New episodes release every other Monday. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and learn more at www.CenterForEngagedLearning.org.