Catalyst curriculum featured in Insight magazine

Ripon College’s Catalyst curriculum was featured Aug. 1 in Insight magazine’s August issue focusing on educational innovation.

“Tailored teaching: Higher Ed Institutions craft programming to respond to employer needs” cites Ed Wingenbach, former vice president and dean of faculty at the College, as saying that liberal arts colleges promise to prepare students who know how to work collaboratively and are ready to take on the jobs of the future. Employers, however, were saying graduates with bachelor’s degrees lacked these skills.

“Leaders at the College wanted to address the disconnect and find a way for students to practice essential workplace skills while still in school.

‘If that’s what we want our students to do, why don’t we make them do it while they’re here? Let’s set up a curriculum that has students solve problems collaboratively, drawing on data and evidence in semi-independent ways because that’s what we want them to do when they leave here,” Wingenbach says.’”

The article also details the development of the curriculum, the success of the first Catalyst Day and the national attention Catalyst is receiving from other institutions and funding organizations.

Learn more about Catalyst.