As you may have gleaned from the previous issue of The Educator, we’re pretty excited that we’re rolling out the new Castleton General Education Program: Connections this semester.
“Fine,” you say. “Whatever. My course is neither a CNX seminar nor an Area of Understanding. Big deal.”
Frankly, despite your analysis of the importance of your course and its relevance to the Connections program, yes, it is a “Big deal.”
The name “Connections” wasn’t chosen by happenstance or lucky accident. (You can read more about the history of the development of the general education program in this post by Chris Boettcher in the previous issue.) This was an intentional selection.
The value of a liberal arts education (as our first year students can hopefully tell you after reading William Cronon’s essay Only Connect) is that it enhances our ability to make connections between the various topics we study, the events we participate in, the experiences we have, and more!
(Don’t worry… there are plenty more memes where that came from… just keep reading…)
One of the more powerful components of the Connections Seminars, and the program as a whole, is the introduction of the Portfolio.
The Portfolio is a major reason why you should keep using Canvas (that I failed to emphasize in Faculty Assembly the other day). Why? Because any assignment you have a student upload to Canvas becomes a readily accessible artifact for them to use later as they build their Portfolio.
That’s right! Students can access any assignment they’ve submitted through (or uploaded to) Canvas for a course and link to it within the snazzy portfolio feature of Canvas that we’re using for students to build their Connections Portfolios. This gives them direct access to seeing their growth over time and working on making connections, for themselves, within their own minds, through the process of creating their Portfolio.
Ah yes… but you’re not teaching an Area of Understanding course…
Well why should that exclude students from making connections to the content in your course? Maybe they’re in your course because it’s required for the major or maybe it’s for a minor or maybe it’s because their friend said the teacher is really cool or their CA said it totally changed their perspective… Whatever the reaon, your course is still an opportunity for them to make a connection. Why?
Be like the Dude. Embrace that whatever topic you’re teaching them is “connected” to their experience at Castleton and is just as worthy of being included in their Connections portfolio as any of the courses required by the General Education program.
Keep using Canvas and collect your students’ assignments on Canvas to give them an advantage as they curate their Portfolios and reflect on their growth over their time at Castleton.
Need more “Everything is Connected” memes to convince you? Check out:
- That Aliens guy on the History Channel
- Charlie Day on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
- That startled looking college student in the middle of the partying crowd
- Buzz Lightyear and Woody in Toy Story
- Or, for the mathematically inclined, the Golden Spiral is everywhere!
Alright. I’ll stop with the memes. Hopefully my message has “connected” with you: no matter what you’re teaching, you’re providing our students with more content opportunities to create connections. Help them remember that content (or at least more easily find it) by having them submit that assignment to your Canvas course.
