Entries for 2014 RSS Feed

1. The Multifaceted Potential of Competency-Based Education

   Entry #349

   29 Nov 2014

   2:35 pm

   Fatma Mili

   46 comments

   In a recent Lumina-organized workshop on competency-based education (CBE), it was remarked that CBE will succeed where massive open online courses (MOOCs) have not to truly revolutionize higher education. In one of his Inside Higher Education blogs, Paul Fain called CBE the next big thing. The...

2. Welcome to our New Group of Faculty

   Entry #350

   17 Oct 2014

   2:38 pm

   Fatma Mili

   54 comments

   A new First-Year Experience Team has been formed. This is the team of faculty identified by their department heads to lead the effort of examining the first year of all Technology majors and to redesign it using the Polytechnic Incubator experience as a springboard. This group will be meeting...

3. Roadblocks to Creating a Competency-Based Program

   Entry #351

   10 Sep 2014

   2:49 pm

   Fatma Mili

   61 comments

   Competency-based education is such an intuitive and appealing concept that once we consider it, we start wondering, “Why did we wait so long?” In competency-based education, students earn a degree upon demonstrating competency in their chosen field of study rather than upon spending...

4. Badges of Competence

   Entry #352

   09 Sep 2014

   2:56 pm

   Fatma Mili

   27 comments

   D.School professor Tina Seelig1 touts the power of seemingly trivial questions in opening our horizons and bringing to light unquestioned assumptions. Educational reformer Grant Wiggins2 illustrates this when he asks “What is the goal of education?” Is the aim really knowledge,...

5. Open Minds to the Education of the Future

   Entry #354

   27 Aug 2014

   3:00 pm

   Fatma Mili

   55 comments

   “Though we often lose sight of this basic fact, the point of learning is not just to know things but to be a different person – more mature, more wise, more self-disciplined, more effective, and more productive in the broadest sense. Knowledge is an indicator of educational success,...

6. When 15 Fellows Decide to Take a Different Road

   Entry #353

   20 Aug 2014

   2:58 pm

   Fatma Mili

   24 comments

     Most faculty chose their academic career because they thrive in the intellectual stimulus of scholarly endeavors, the challenges and rewards of working with young minds, and the academic freedom to pursue their own research agenda and share their findings with the public at large. The...

7. Polytechnic Incubator as an Entrepreneurial Endeavor with Strategic Partnerships

   Entry #355

   05 Aug 2014

   3:04 pm

   Fatma Mili

   29 comments

     The Polytechnic Incubator's vision is to create a gravity-free space to question all assumptions, scrutinize all practices, and create the best possible learning environment for the students of today and the future. The potential disruptive nature of the endeavor called for an...

8. Why we Polytech

   Entry #356

   21 Jul 2014

   3:06 pm

   Fatma Mili

   29 comments

     The Purdue Polytechnic Institute has been introduced and described using many different qualifiers and metaphors. It was designed as the zero-gravity space for faculty to unleash their creativity, to dream big, and to implement their most daring and promising educational ideas. It's...

9. President Daniels Writes to President Obama introducing the Purdue Polytechnic Institute

   Entry #358

   20 Jun 2014

   3:11 pm

   Fatma Mili

   26 comments

     The Purdue Polytechnic Incubator aims to graduate thoughtful Makers and Thinkers who will shape their future and ours. Important habits of mind that our students acquire through their studies are problem-based learning, learning in context, learning just in time, and lifelong learning....

10. We're taking our own medicine and feeling great

    Entry #357

    20 Jun 2014

    3:08 pm

    Fatma Mili

    46 comments

      Our graduates will be thoughtful thinkers and makers who remain curious, create iteratively and collaboratively, and seek constructive thoughtful feedback. This is what the faculty fellows have been practicing while designing the Purdue Polytechnic Incubator's curriculum. They are...

11. Competency-based credentialing: Coming soon to a degree near you

    Entry #359

    19 Jun 2014

    3:13 pm

    Fatma Mili

    25 comments

      Much of the recent soul-searching (Lewis, 2007) in higher education can be framed in terms of the seeming disconnect between the things being measured, billed, and credited on the one hand and students’ learning and competence on the other hand. There is a sense that learning, the...

12. Welcome to the Pioneering Cohort of the Polytechnic Incubator

    Entry #360

    18 Jun 2014

    3:16 pm

    Fatma Mili

    23 comments

      The Purdue Polytechnic Incubator faculty and staff are eagerly preparing for the 2014 pioneering cohort of students. Starting in Fall 2015, the institute plans to offer a distinct multi-disciplinary degree. In the interim, a select group of students from the College of Technology and...

13. A million thanks for a momentous year and an exciting one ahead

    Entry #361

    17 Jun 2014

    3:18 pm

    Fatma Mili

    66 comments

      Last year, President Daniels called for bold proposals for the Board of Trustees meeting of June 26, 2013. We proposed to create the Purdue Polytechnic Institute: The goal of the Purdue Polytechnic Institute is to establish an environment within Purdue that benefits from all the...

14. My Visit to the SUSTAIN Program at California Polytechnic

    Entry #363

    11 May 2014

    3:22 pm

    Fatma Mili

    25 comments

      I finally visited the SUSTAIN program at Cal Poly. Since I met Linda Vanasupa last summer, I have been wanting to see for myself what they have been doing; Linda insisted on picking the right time, and, given my constraints and hers, that time ended up being last week. I spent time...

15. Report on my visit to High Tech High in San Diego

    Entry #362

    11 May 2014

    3:19 pm

    Fatma Mili

    27 comments

      I was very impressed by Tony Wagner’s account of High Tech High, both in his Global Achievement Gap book and in the video he showed us during his recent Purdue visit, so I decided this is a place I must visit. I took the day tour this past Monday. I arrived there Monday morning at...