Bailey Scholars
Quick Facts
What is a Learning Community and why is Bailey one?
A learning community is a group of people banded together, dedicated to ongoing engagement and interaction through learning opportunities. Here, learning is at the core of the work of the group, and that is the focus of the Bailey Scholars Program. Bailey was formed to be a learning community so that students, faculty and staff would be able to learn with, through, and by each other in a supportive and respectful environment. By placing learning at the center, it is expected that each of us contribute to the learning of the entire community through sharing our experiences in a way that best suits us.
By sharing the insights and reflections you have gained on your learning journey with the broader Bailey community, you contribute to the life of the Bailey learning community. Often scholars learn just as much from the sharing of their learning journeys as they have from the initial experience itself. Your stories and insights, when shared with others, help them to understand the world in new ways—contributing to their learning journey as well.
When sharing a learning experience, the tendency is to list simply the many things you have done or accomplished—your activities—without thinking more deeply about the lasting impact of those activities on you—their legacy. When sharing your learning experience with the Bailey community, you should consider the 20/80 ratio. 20% of your sharing should focus on the activity itself with 80% focused on sharing the legacy.
These questions might help prompt reflection on the legacy or meaning of those activities: So what? Who cares? How was I challenged? How does this experience connect to the rest of my life? What was sparked by this experience? What would I do differently? What are my next steps?
How do I receive a specialization in
Connected Learning as an Undergraduate?
You must submit a Learning Vision Statement; complete ANR 210, ANR 310, and ANR 410 with a passing grade; complete and share your Middle 12 Credits; document your co-curricular events, and give a final Learning Journey Presentation in the last semester of your final year in your undergraduate program. All together, this encompasses your learning portfolio. Through the Bailey Scholars Program you have the opportunity to craft a curriculum for your specialization in Connected Learning according to your learning interests. Upon successful completion, your transcripts will reflect your achievement of the specialization.
What is a Learning Vision Statement?
This is the basis of your experience in the Bailey Scholars Program and the focus of your specialization in Connected Learning. It is a statement that reflects your learning interests and goals, be they academic, personal, or professional. Starting Spring 2008, your Learning Vision Statement will also include your plans to contribute your learning and gifts to the entire community. From time to time, an experience will be so significant that it will change the direction of your learning journey. When this happens, you are expected to update your Learning Vision Statement to reflect your new ideas, directions and priorities. This is re-visited each semester with the Senior Director.
What is the role of ANR 210, ANR 310 & ANR 410?
These are called the “Core Courses.” These courses provide you the opportunity to determine as co-learners, through dialogue and collaboration, what it is you will learn, how you will learn it, when you will learn it, how you will assess your learning, and how you will determine the grade associated with that assessment. The aim is to provide a way for you to learn with, through, and by your co-learners in a respectful, supportive environment. Faculty serve as conveners, however they are not responsible for teaching you the subjects decided upon as a class. Rather, they provide a space to explore possibilities and even learn with you as co-learners. Students also may serve as a Student Convener, mentoring the class and providing insight into the experience of Bailey Core Courses from a student’s perspective. Conveners are university representatives and must ensure all policies of the universities are upheld in a respectful environment. It is expected that you also share the work of your core course with the Bailey community.
Why do we have you determine your
own evaluation and assessment?
All members of your course work together to determine evaluation and assessment criteria because it allows full ownership of the learning that happens within your course. Evaluation is a valuable process, and providing feedback to peers is a life skill that is necessary for you to learn as you move forward in your professional careers. Assessment is based on criteria designed by the members of each course each time the course is administered because the learning activities are different for each course. All members must contribute to the assessment and grading process, meaning students and conveners must all have a role in the assessment. Conveners may not count more than once in the process, meaning they may not be part of a peer section AND a convener section, but must be one or the other. Once implemented, if the process is not working as expected it is the responsibility of the class to re-assess their approach to change the process accordingly. However, once the grading and assessment process is finalized for the final grade, the process must be enacted and the final grade may not be changed by ANY individual.
Grading and evaluation can be viewed as a learning opportunity, in which scholars consult new literature (self-assessment, peer-assessment, multi-modal expression) to discover and create authentic assessment strategies. Together students and faculty are responsible for the key steps in grading and evaluation: (1) setting the criteria for judging the work, (2) selecting the evidence, and (3) making judgments about the extent to which the evidence meets the criteria. Discussion of these key steps often turns to broader questions of importance: How does one discern quality? How can the “evidence” be sensitive to different learning styles? How can different voices be counted in the “judgment” step? The co-deciding of "criteria, evidence, judgement" is from Biggs, J. Teaching for Quality Learning at University. 2001. Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press. p. 157. It's an example of how we rely upon scholarship to inform our practice.
Because co-creating grading and evaluation processes is a challenge, it is essential that enough time be reserved for both the design and implementation throughout the semester, not just at semester’s end. Discussion about grading and evaluation should be iterative and include, at the minimum:
§ A preliminary discussion of grading and evaluation as the course begins
§ Formative evaluation at mid-semester where learners reflect on how the course is going and provide constructive feedback (students to conveners and conveners to students) for making mid-course adjustments
§ An opportunity by the course’s midpoint to begin a conversation about final grades and evaluations, including if possible, a “practice session”
§ Adequate time (often several class sessions) at the end of the semester to implement the co-designed grading and evaluation processes
The Bailey Scholars Program developed a Learning Assessment Model not only for the core courses, but for each experience associated with our community, Middle Twelves, Co-Curriculars, and otherwise. You will find this attached to the back of this document. In an effort to ensure that we continuously learn from our work, it was set up to be an intentional and critical process. Beginning with “Envision,” we think about what it is we hope to gain from an experience. Moving through “Prepare,” we think about what it is we need to do in order to prepare for the experience personally and as a community. Moving onto “Do,” we actually go through the experience intentionally and think about what it entailed. Upon completion, we “Gather” and examine our evidence, artifacts, information and thoughts from the overall experience. We then “Reflect,” and think about the overall experience; what we gained from it; how it relates to the Declaration, our 5 Questions, and Guiding Principles; and how it has affected our own individual journeys. Then we “Connect” the experience to our overall work, thinking about how this will affect our greater work and our own Learning Vision Statements. It is a cyclical design, meaning we are constantly learning from what we do and embrace the process of assessing how we go about our work together in community.
What are your Middle 12 Credits?
These are 12 credits taken after ANR 210 and before ANR 410; they are in the “middle” of your Bailey learning. The purpose is to enable you to further your learning as determined by your Learning Vision Statement. The requirement is they complement your learning vision statement, and move you toward achieving your individual goals. Middle Twelve courses may include regular MSU Courses, virtual university, study abroad, independent study, special topics, and internship credits. These credits may already fit into your academic plan for your major. It is a requirement that you submit a Middle Twelve Reporting Sheet to and discuss the relevance of the experience with the Senior Director before you begin your experience or you will not be able to consider the course as counting toward your specialization. Each Middle Twelve experience must be shared in some way with the community on an individual basis upon its successful completion according to your own personal style. If they are not shared with the community by the end of the following semester, they will not be eligible to be counted toward your specialization. Examples of sharing your experience include: writing an article for the Bailey Daily, hosting a Wednesday Lunch conversation, hosting a Share Night or Share Circle, etc. When sharing your learning, you should be focusing on how these experiences changed you, and less on what you actually did. By sharing your experiences, you bring your individual learning back to the learning community. Each experience builds off the next, which is why it is necessary to treat them as individual experiences and share them as they occur.
What are Co-Curricular Activities?
Co-Curricular Activities are valuable “real world,” not-for-credit experiences that happen beyond the classroom, but are an integral part of your experience. Co-Curricular activities complement your learning experiences, and are documented by completing a Co-Curricular Activity Sheet and submitting it to the Senior Director. They are activities that help you learn those objectives set out in your Learning Vision Statement, give clarity to your own personal direction, and impact your learning journey. It is expected that your co-curricular activities include work inside the Bailey Scholars Program, not only outside experiences. Examples may include, but are certainly not limited to: leadership positions, internships, jobs, organization experiences, community service, travel experiences, conferences, etc.
What does your final Learning Journey Presentation include?
This presentation is given in the last semester, and typically in the last months of your academic program at Michigan State University. This will give evidence of your learning over the course of your time in the Bailey Scholars Program and at MSU. You must present your overall experience in order to receive your specialization in Connected Learning. You must provide evidence you met the objectives you set for yourself in your Learning Vision Statement, and, therefore are eligible to receive your Specialization in Connected Learning. This must be presented to the entire community, and you must allow for questions and answers, in order to evidence your learning. A successful presentation will include: your Learning Vision Statement, if it has changed, and what caused it to change; what you learned from your ANR 210, ANR 310 and ANR 410 courses; what your Middle Twelve experiences were, how they contributed to your learning, and what you learned from them; what your Co-Curricular Experiences are, why they were significant to you, and what you learned from them; how you have given back to the community and contributed to its learning; what you have gained from your experience in the Bailey Scholars Program; and how you will utilize this experience in your future. The Senior Director will certify you for graduation upon successful completion of all of your requirements.
When I am getting ready to graduate, what is the process?
As you look to graduate, you need to make sure you have the following items completed: Learning Vision Statement submitted; ANR 210, ANR 310, ANR 410 completed; Middle Twelve Credits, forms submitted, and experiences shared; Co-Curricular Experience Sheets submitted; and Final Presentation completed. You must also turn in your program key and fill out an Exit Survey. The Exit Survey is a way for you to express your experience with the Bailey Scholars Program, and help us learn from your experience through feedback and assessment. You will meet with faculty members to discuss the survey in the last months of your academic program.
How can I provide feedback for the program?
You may provide feedback for the program in multiple ways. For the core courses, SIRS and SOCT forms must be filled out for each convener. Starting Fall 2007, a new convener evaluation form will also be used to collect feedback on each convener. This information will be used in the faculty member’s annual review. You may also provide feedback in your Exit Survey. At any time, you may also contact the Senior Director to provide him with feedback in the program. We will be designing other ways you may give general and anonymous feedback regarding the program throughout your experience as a Bailey Scholar as well.
What is the role of Faculty?
Like student scholars, faculty scholars are expected to be intentional about their learning in the Bailey Scholars Program. Similar to Learning Vision Statements, Faculty Envisionments are written by faculty and shared at the beginning of each year. In the Envisionments, faculty describe their role and contributions to the program, and are held accountable to that Envisionment by the Senior Director. For example, many faculty scholars learn more about the scholarship of teaching and learning, delve into their new areas of personal interest and perform work that embraces that, and engage with the learning community as a whole. Along with what they hope to learn as a Bailey Scholar, they must also explain how they plan to contribute to the overall program operation and learning community. In the summer, faculty members will undergo annual Bailey Scholars Program Faculty Evaluations.