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This article describes the results of a follow-up investigation to a study in which researchers proposed a model for implementing a college-wide initiative in which ten essential learning outcomes students acquire from curricular and extra-curricular learning experiences were developed and implemented at the university. Using descriptive and correlational statistics, and an analysis of qualitative data researchers identified pedagogical factors that supported student competence with essential learning outcomes. This follow-up study investigated the role of the syllabus as a tool for promoting ELO competence, and the results of this study also serve as further evidence of the pedagogical practices that support ELO competence in students. Collectively, the data from this second study reveal that intentional practices on the part of faculty and professional staff, enhanced student ELO competence (Cydis, Galantino, Hood, Padden, and Richard, 2015). When researchers compared the results of the pre and post student self-perception questionnaires, an increase of 0.25, (p = 0.05) was found in round one of data collection, and an increase of 0.34 (p = 0.05) in round two indicating an increase in students' self-perception of their ELO competence from the beginning to the end of the semester. In the second iteration of the learning community and data collection, researchers further analyzed the content of participant syllabi using an adapted version of The Syllabus Rubric (Palmer, Bach and Streifer, 2014) and found that while explicit and intentional efforts to effectively integrate ELOs did in fact promote student perceived ELO competence, a learner-centered syllabus alone, did not necessarily correlate with increases in student perceived competence in the essential learning outcomes targeted in respective courses.

In this article, the author discusses the multi-year implementation of essential learning outcomes at Stockton University. The implementation process included strategies for generating faculty buy-in, creation of a University-wide steering committee, facilitating summer workshops, and planning for assessment.

I created my Exploratory Survey on the Status of the Research Paper Assignment in First-year Writing/Composition Courses to learn whether the traditional research paper remained as common an assignment in 2009 as it had been in the past. My survey updates results from two previous surveys on the status of this assignment. Ambrose N. Manning's survey, conducted in 1961, found that 83% of colleges and universities in the United States included the traditional research paper assignment in first-year writing/composition curricula. James E. Ford and Dennis R. Perry's 1982 survey concluded that 78.11% of the colleges and universities that required first-year writing/composition courses included the assignment, a decline of 5%. My survey results indicate that in 2009, at survey respondents' schools, only 6% of research assignments in first-year writing/composition courses are traditional research paper assignments, a decline of 72% since 1982, while 94% are alternative ones. This shift appears to reflect trends in scholarship as well as changes in assessment practices, structure of first-year writing/composition programs, and technologies for writing, researching, and teaching.

In this article, the author compares the arguments of Susan Swartzlander, Diana Pace, and Virginia Lee Stamler (1993) who note the contradiction between the "shockingly unprofessional" practice of asking students to write about their personal traumas in writing courses and the common occurrence of such assignments with Jeffrey Berman (2001) who argues that student writing about trauma leads to educational, aesthetic, and therapeutic achievements. In an effort to restate the ethical issues embedded in essay assignments that ask students to explore traumas in their life, this essay conceptualizes the place of writing, and language use more generally, in recovery as much more complicated, much less controlled, much more diffuse, and much less significantly associated with particular writing assignments in school than Berman and even Swartzlander, Pace, and Stamler assume.

Marian Mesrobian MacCurdy. The Mind's Eye: Image and Memory in Writing about Trauma. Amherst: U of Massachusetts P, 2007. 240 pp. ISBN 1-558-49558-4, $24.95. Interdisciplinary scholarship on trauma has accelerated [...]

Between 2015-2017, local police, state troopers and emergency medical personnel in Atlantic County, NJ collected data on opioid overdose victims within the County. Forms on 311 overdose victims were ultimately completed. Early in 2018, a partnership between the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office and Stockton University was formed in order to analyze this information and better understand Atlantic County's opioid overdose statistics. Results painted a picture of who is using, and showed that quick response to opioid overdoses and prompt administration of the drug naloxone can save lives. Recommendations for the future include collecting additional data points for overdose victims going forward to allow for deeper study, along with increased distribution of naloxone. Such recommendations can positively contribute to future educational and prevention efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employers increasingly indicate the need for employees who have demonstrated proficiency in skills and knowledge that cut across majors such as written and oral communication, teamwork ethical decision making, critical thinking, and the ability to apply knowledge in real-world settings. The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) identifies these five skills as those most highly valued by employers. In addition, AAC&U includes these five skills among the ten essential learning outcomes (ELOs) the organization identifies as outcomes of a liberal arts education. To comply with the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business' (AACSB) assurances of learning standards, Business school faculty must develop, monitor, evaluate, and revise the substance and delivery of curricula and assess the impact of curricula on learners. This article will focus on the ways in which the Stockton University School of Business incorporates alignment of AACSB's assurances of learning with the institution's ELOs as part of its assessment process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]