Many of them, particularly those engaged in project-based education as championed by the Autodesk Foundation, are very promising. There are many concrete examples from these case studies that illustrate how the learning college is beginning to take shape on the national scene. I doubt that we will do away with the traditional grading system since it is so ingrained in the culture of education. There has been, however, a major assessment movement in higher education for over a decade that explores a variety of new ways to evaluate students. One of the most promising is portfolio evaluation in which the college provides a clear framework for students and faculty to gather information about student competencies and skills in a portfolio.
Faculty can also show their effectiveness through a portfolio of information.
The key problem is for an individual college to determine the learning outcomes it wishes for its students to achieve and to provide a structure and a process for students to achieve those outcomes. A key principle is to provide as many options as possible for students to achieve the agreed upon outcomes as one way of responding to individual learning needs. Please send us an e-mail.