Center for Learning Innovation (CLI)

Vision

The Center for Learning Innovation (CLI) is a single academic unit where faculty from across disciplines deliver a synergistic academic program in the health sciences that prepares students for a wide variety of health careers, including health professions, graduate studies in health related programs, and careers in the bioscience industry. The CLI promotes a learner-centered, technology-enhanced, concept-driven, and community-integrated learning environment. Through ongoing assessment of student achievement, the CLI aspires to personalize learning, establish data-driven research on learning, and continuously improve curriculum.

BSHS Goals and Learning Objectives (PDF)

Executive Summary

The University of Minnesota Rochester is developing a new baccalaureate degree program, the Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences (BSHS), that will provide education and training for students interested in Health Professions career programs, graduate education, and professional degrees. Students will share a common curriculum during the first two to three years. The remainder of the degree program will be targeted to the students’ career aspirations and will include certificate programs in Health Professions and preparation for graduate programs and professional schools in the health sciences. Translating insights from research on learning and teaching into the classroom and emphasizing liberal education and integration across the sciences will be the hallmarks of this degree program.

The Center for Learning Innovation (CLI) is the organizational structure that will take a research-based approach to learning and assessment in the development and implementation of this curriculum. Research on learning and teaching emphasizes learning with understanding that goes beyond memorization and asks students to develop a rich network of well-organized, usable and transferable knowledge. It calls for a learner-centered approach that takes into account students’ pre-existing knowledge and preconceptions and cultural differences. It stresses the importance of a community-centered approach that includes learning communities and linking classroom learning to students’ experiences. CLI will develop a comprehensive approach to assessment that monitors and guides students’ learning. The delivery of the curriculum will be technology-enhanced and will have a significant project-based component to enable students to transfer and integrate knowledge across disciplines to solve complex problems.

The goals of the Center are to:

• develop an integrated curriculum across the life/health sciences, the physical and quantitative sciences for a B.S. in Health Sciences that delivers a liberal education and prepares students for careers in Health Professions and professional and graduate school programs in the health sciences
• develop learning informatics tools to support ongoing formative and summative assessment to guide learning and development of students and to develop a database for ongoing research on learning
• engage in and disseminate data-driven educational research on learning
• advance technology-enhanced learning to expand opportunities for learning and to support ongoing assessment
• establish Learning Spaces where student learning will be supported through one-on-one, group, and peer mentoring
• work closely with Student Services to provide guidance and support for student learning outcomes through academic and career advising, service learning opportunities, and other support services
• develop a postdoctoral and graduate student mentoring program to prepare future educators

Organization

The core science disciplines, the life/health sciences, the physical sciences, and the quantitative sciences, will be the disciplinary backbone of the degree program and will form three clusters. A fourth cluster, which will include the social sciences, the arts and humanities, and other components that are important to a liberal education, will complement the natural and quantitative sciences and will be critical to our goal of delivering a strong liberal education. Learning Design faculty with content expertise in the four clusters and research interest in learning will take the lead in designing the curriculum and will be supported by student-based faculty and postdoctoral fellows. All faculty and staff are expected to participate in the entirety of the curriculum to guarantee a well-integrated curriculum.

The curriculum will be modularized. Modules are two- to three-week units that focus on either a disciplinary or interdisciplinary topic. Each module will have a set of learning outcomes, skills and knowledge expectations, and an assessment component. A curriculum map will link the modules together. Modules will be grouped and appear on transcripts as courses. About 50% of credits will come from the disciplinary science clusters, and the remainder will come from integrative modules and liberal education requirements.

The faculty and staff will develop learning materials for multiple modes of delivery, including technology-enhanced ways that are integrated with assessment, to accommodate diverse learning styles and to ensure active participation of students in the learning process. Disciplinary modules will largely focus on the natural and quantitative sciences to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to pursue careers in the health sciences. Students will transfer their knowledge and skills to solving complex problems in integrative modules that relate to their career interests or that address aspects of the broader liberal education. These integrative modules will emphasize analysis, synthesis, and interpretation, and may be community-based or integrated into internships or study abroad.

Career advising will be an integral part of the curriculum to inform students about the rich career opportunities in the health sciences. Career advising will be delivered through exploratory seminars, presentations by professionals, internships, or one-on-one advising.

Assessment serves multiple purposes, including monitoring and guiding student learning and measuring the value added to their education. The basic unit of assessment of the curriculum will be the module. Well-defined learning objectives will guide the assessment process that will have a pre-test and post-test in addition to ongoing assessment while a student studies a particular module. The detailed assessment allows students and instructors to identify where a student experiences difficulties and to track progress.

Contact Information

Claudia Neuhauser
Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
University of Minnesota Rochester
300 University Square
111 South Broadway
Rochester, Minnesota 55904
Phone: 507-258-8006
Fax: 507-258-8004
E-mail: neuha001@umn.edu