Residence life and education, residential curriculum and curricular approaches, student housing, and technology.
Intentional Conversations are one-on-one meetings between student staff and their residents guided by a suggested set of questions and prompts that are developmentally appropriate and situated within the context of a resident’s experience. This post is one of a multi-part series examining and providing suggestions for residence life and education departments that utilize Intentional Conversations... Continue Reading →
Intentional Conversations are one-on-one meetings between student staff and their residents guided by a suggested set of questions and prompts that are developmentally appropriate and situated within the context of a resident’s experience. This post is one of a multi-part series examining and providing suggestions for residence life and education departments that utilize Intentional Conversations... Continue Reading →
Intentional Conversations are one-on-one meetings between student staff and their residents guided by a suggested set of questions and prompts that are developmentally appropriate and situated within the context of a resident’s experience. This post is one of a multi-part series examining and providing suggestions for residence life and education departments that utilize Intentional Conversations... Continue Reading →
One of the primary roles of residence life professionals is to advance student learning. But given the myriad of hats and tasks that housing and residence life professionals take on, it can sometimes become lost in the mix. It requires professionals to remain vigilant. When developing educational plans, writing position descriptions, and training staff, these processes should be constantly... Continue Reading →
The ultimate mission of student affairs work is to advance student learning. Although this occurs across campus, the professionals that work in residence life are uniquely situated in this process given the relatively high level of contact they have with students. Unlike most faculty members, however, the educational environment created by student affairs and residence life educators... Continue Reading →
When thinking about my own experience in developing a residential curriculum, I’m reminded of a wordsmithing session I had with some colleagues. We were attempting to set some broad learning goals for our curriculum and we wanted to ensure that our language encouraged critical reflection but also allowed for a diversity of viewpoints. It took... Continue Reading →
An important concept in developing intentional learning experiences for students is the idea of the "cascade." Much like the successive steps of a waterfall, as water flows from one plateau to another, learning goals and outcomes in a residential curriculum should flow from more general statements of educational priority down to more specific and measurable... Continue Reading →
The Residential Curriculum Institute outlines 10 "Essential Elements" that make up a curriculum and yet little to no research has been conducted specifically on these Elements. While that is not to say that the Elements are unsupported by research, they borrow from proven concepts and sound principles of instructional design, but there is currently no... Continue Reading →
One of the bedrock concepts of designing residential curricula and learning plans is the ability to write effective learning objectives. Writing effective and measurable learning objectives, however, is often more difficult than it may seem. The deeper one delves into learning theory and curricular design, the more nuanced one realizes these concepts are. One of... Continue Reading →
As a residential education software company working with many different colleges and universities, Roompact designs its software in a way that can accommodate the range of approaches institutions can take to the learning process in the residence halls. One of the most interesting design challenges we have confronted is how to accommodate both residential curriculum models and category-based... Continue Reading →
When transitioning your residence life program to a residential curriculum model, it becomes increasingly important that you hire professional staff with the requisite skills and competencies to enact the curriculum. Although these skills are desirable in any residence life professional, they take on added importance in a residential curriculum. Some of the competencies required of staff... Continue Reading →
The Residential Curriculum Institute defines a curriculum as having 10 "Essential Elements." These are the features and principles that a residence life department's educational program should adhere to if it is to be considered a "true" residential curriculum. In 2013, while in my PhD program, I conducted some research on schools implementing this curricular approach. I wanted to find out... Continue Reading →
Roompact is proud to sponsor the tenth anniversary of ACPA's Residential Curriculum Institute. Offered annually to educators and professionals in residence life and education, the Institute is a three day series of sequential workshops and sessions that teach participants how to implement a curricular approach to education in the residence halls. As provider of software that enables... Continue Reading →
Roompact is proud to sponsor the tenth anniversary of ACPA's Residential Curriculum Institute. Offered annually to educators and professionals in residence life and education, the Institute is a three day series of sequential workshops and sessions that teach participants how to implement a curricular approach to education in the residence halls. As provider of software that enables... Continue Reading →
Roompact is proud to sponsor the tenth anniversary of ACPA's Residential Curriculum Institute. Offered annually to educators and professionals in residence life and education, the Institute is a three day series of sequential workshops and sessions that teach participants how to implement a curricular approach to education in the residence halls. As provider of software that enables... Continue Reading →
The Institute on the Curricular Approach (formerly the Residential Curriculum Institute) is a professional development opportunity offered by ACPA-College Student Educators International. The Institute provides an overview and training on how to start and grow a residential curriculum and, since its inception, has drawn thousands of participants from across the United States and around the world. The Institute is the only event of... Continue Reading →
Cascading from an educational priority are the broad goals of a curriculum. The goals of a curriculum are the main categories and statements of the educational components of the learning program. A typical residential curriculum includes 3-6 goals which are accompanied by narratives providing further detail. These goals, in turn, guide the development of learning outcomes and... Continue Reading →
One of the first steps in implementing a curricular approach in the residence halls is to articulate an educational priority. Educational priorities are written statements, typically 1-3 sentences, that describe the overall mission or objective of a curriculum. These priorities should be grounded in research and scholarship as well as the institutional context of the... Continue Reading →
