Faculty representatives from four higher education institutions gathered at Virginia Wesleyan January 29-31 for the fourth and final meeting of the Teagle C4 Consortium. The Consortium is a partnership among three private colleges and one university in pursuit of creating a more coherent and intentional curriculum with goals, pathways, and outcomes that are clear to students and other constituencies.
The work of the C4 Consortium, comprised of faculty from Virginia Wesleyan College, Davis and Elkins College, Eckerd College, and Shenandoah University, has been supported by Teagle Foundation funding in the amount of $280,000 for over 30 months (January 2015 through June 2017). Since the grant’s inception, the C4 Consortium has sought to answer, individually and collectively, three overarching questions that focused on a coherence agenda, purposive faculty governance, and the value-added partnership.
The Consortium's final meeting featured speakers Linda Nilson (Aligning Curricular Design and Classroom Learning) and Paul Gaston (The Coherence Agenda). There were presentations from each campus and final project outcomes and impacts on the curriculum, faculty governance, and student learning were shared. Marty Sharpe, featured facilitator, led a focused discussion on project effectiveness, impacts, and lessons learned. There was also a conversation with Madeleine Green, Teagle Foundation Senior Program Consultant, who has provided feedback to the Consortium throughout the process.
The group planned next steps for the grant’s completion, assessment, final report and other projects for the future. In the next few months, the grant partners anticipate additional collaborative presentations and publications, and all of the C4 institutions will be represented at the Teagle Foundation meeting in New York in April.
Special thanks to VWC Provost and Vice President Dr. Timothy O'Rourke, who has been the driving force behind this initiative.
Learn more about the Teagle C4 Consortium and view photos from the meeting on the VWC website at: http://www.vwc.edu/news-a-
