UConn Advancing Structural Consistency through Educational Networks and Design 

 Through a Davis Educational Foundation grant, established by Stanton and Elizabeth Davis after Mr. Davis’s retirement as chairman of Shaw’s Supermarkets, Inc, the multi-year UConn Advancing Structural Consistency through Educational Networks and Design (UASCEND) project aims to expand support for faculty to develop student-centric learning objectives, align assessment measures to objectives, design rubrics, and implement UDL principles. 

UASCEND provides a semester-long multi-module online professional development curriculum for faculty to strengthen their skills in designing, implementing, and evaluating effective assessment strategies to enhance student learning and success. Through the UASCEND curriculum, faculty will design course learning objectives aligned to their program learning objectives and, if appropriate, Common Curriculum objectives. They will also generate assignments and rubrics aligned to those objectives and that scaffold student success. 

Modules include: 

• Assessment for Student Success 

• Defining Learning Objectives 

• Aligning and Designing Assessments 

• Developing Rubrics 

• Universal Design for Learning 

Module lengths vary, ranging from 1-3 weeks, with the entire program offered sequentially across the semester. Through modules designed and delivered by UConn faculty and the grant leadership, participants will engage with their peers in module activities, create deliverables, and consult with peer assessment leaders, Common Curriculum faculty leaders, and the Office of Academic Program Assessment. Upon successful completion, faculty participants are given a certificate and a mini-grant award. 

Who should apply?  

Any CIRE, tenure-track, or tenured faculty member who is interested in gaining skills in the above topics should apply! Faculty are required to have a course to work on that is part of their undergraduate degree-conferring academic program. The course can also be part of the Common Curriculum. The course can be a single section course and multi-section course. For multi-section courses, we encourage multiple faculty who teach different sections to apply together as a means to increase course consistency in terms of course learning objectives and assignments. If you are teaching a multi-section course, we encourage you to participate in UASCEND together with other faculty who teach the course, particularly with faculty from other campuses.  

To ensure the adoption of the objectives, assignments, and rubrics developed by UASCEND participants, we reach out to department heads for applicants for approval. They confirm that the learning objectives developed from the UASCEND curriculum will be the official objectives for the course and that the assignments and/or rubrics will be used as a signature assignment for the course.