The Academic Commons Magazine

September 2009

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In this issue, Academic Commons and the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE) join forces to provide the liberal arts community with an opportunity to share and discuss the details that make a difference. The five case studies presented here closely examine how practitioners developed specific projects and collaborations and explore the lessons learned along the way. In these challenging times, innovation is all the more critical.

From the Archives

Trace Evidence: How New Media Can Change What We Know About Student Learning

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Clicker technology, often used in large-enrollment science courses, works well when every question has a single right answer. Lynne Adrian wanted to find out whether clickers could be used in disciplines which raise more questions than answers, and how illuminating the gray areas between “right” and “wrong” could help her students think critically about American studies. She found that the technology allowed her to preserve traces of the otherwise ephemeral class discussions, enabling her to analyze the types of questions she was asking in class and to track their effects on students’ written work throughout the semester.