Student Engagement in the Learning Process

One of the most important aspects of Global Text is the way that it can enhance student engagement in the learning process. Rick saw the value of this in his early experiments with having his students write the XML textbook, one of the inspirations behind Global Text.

With our two proof of concept texts, some chapter editors have had their students draft chapter topics, and soliciting contributions from students who use the texts has been part of our model from the beginning. That's why we liked this announcement from the AACSB, the accrediting body for business schools world-wide, taking a fresh look at what constitutes good faculty research. It's from today's issue of Inside Higher Education:

"AACSB International: the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, has released for comment a report calling for the accreditation process for business schools to evaluate whether faculty research improves the learning process. The report expresses the concern that accreditors have noted the volume of research, but not whether it is making business schools better from an educational standpoint".

One of the issues we've been wrestling with is faculty incentives to contribute to Global Text, given the somewhat restrictive (and out-of-date) definitions of what constitutes "acceptable" scholarship. The AACSB reports addresses this issue in many ways, and seeks to broaden the definition of scholarship to include contributions to projects like Global Text. Here's an example taken from Recommendation #2 of the report:

"But what if AACSB went a step further to require business schools, if applicable to their mission, to demonstrate that they have faculty systems that support and reward practice-oriented or pedagogical contributions in addition to basic research published in refereed journal articles?"

Ahhhh. Music to my ears!

- Don