Learning Is Not a Sprint Assessing and Documenting Student Leader Learning in Cocurricular Involvement

Student affairs professionals are increasingly being asked to provide evidence that students are learning and growing through their experiences on campus. Stakeholders such as accrediting agencies, legislators, families, employers, faculty, and students all have opinions about what individuals should be learning in college. Students learn in all contexts, from resolving roommate conflicts, to managing a complex student organization budget, to making a persuasive speech in front of the student government. The task of assessing and documenting student learning outside the traditional classroom presents a unique set of challenges: there are no grades given at the end of an experience, the skills developed may not fit into one academic area, and there are no national standards or summative curriculum. Learning is Not a Sprint: Assessing and Documenting Student Leader Learning in Cocurricular Involvement offers multiple perspectives and a framework to establish and document student learning in the cocurricular environment, with a specific focus on student leaders and student employees. It provides student affairs professionals with a theory base on student learning and student leadership, but also addresses the realities of the current state of higher education. Written primarily for student affairs administrators with responsibility for advising and supervising undergraduate student leaders and student employees, this book provides readers with: an understanding of the importance of student learning in the cocurricular environment; models of student leadership, learning, and development; tools to assess and document student learning; advising theories and strategies; implementation and training strategies; methods for assessing programs and individuals; potential challenges to address for program success; and opportunities to think about the future of cocurricular student leader learning.