"AAC&U has advocated for higher levels of transparency as a key principle of twenty-first century general education design. This book provides practical examples on how to turn that vision into practice at institutions and across systems. The Transparency Framework represents a strategy that has the potential to transform siloed student success efforts to scalable and sustainable models for quality and equity."
Tia Brown McNair, Vice President, Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success
Association of American Colleges and Universities
"With the overarching goal of assessment being directly tied to the improvement of student learning, this book reinforces the general idea of the more information a student has about him/herself, the way they learn and the subject being studied, the more successful they will be in achieving academic success. The authors present a process (The Transparency Framework) that includes the who, what, when, where and why of what a student is expected to learn and how a faculty member can help ensure they do. Their research shows that the model is adaptable to every class size and institutional type. While not the proverbial silver bullet, it comes as close in its practical implementation of research based theories on student learning as Ive ever seen."
Belle Wheelan, President and Chief Executive Officer
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools' Commission on Colleges
"Transparent Design in Higher Education Teaching and Leadership brings together evidence and examples of one of the most elegant and transformative ideas I have encountered: revising assignments to clearly include the purpose, task, and criteria fosters student success and contributes to closing achievement gaps. This practical yet visionary volume offers a unique set of resources of special value to educational developersfaculty and staff working to improve higher education from centers for teaching and learning and similar units. With cases that are adaptable to a wide range of institutional settings and goals, this book should be one of the first resources educational developers turn to when designing programs, evaluating impact, and collaborating with institutional leaders."
Cassandra Volpe Horii, Founding Director
Caltech Center for Teaching, Learning, and Outreach; POD Network President, 2018-19
"Who knew we could enrich and deepen learning by clearly explaining to students what they should focus on and why it matters! This book takes the mystery out of improving learning and teaching by appropriating a powerful idea hiding in plain sight to concentrate student and instructor effort on understandable, purposeful educational tasks adaptable to any classroom, lab or studio."
George D. Kuh, Chancellors Professor Emeritus of Higher Education
Indiana University; Founding Director, National Survey of Student Engagement National Institute on Learning Outcomes Assessment
"How I wish I had had this book a half century ago when I began my own career as a college professor. I would have known how to be 'transparent' with my underprepared, first generation, motivated, intelligent and creative students, in ways that would have made both them and me more successful much sooner and much more intentionally."
John N. Gardner, Chair and Chief Executive Officer
John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education
