Ascend is a professional learning tool that helps motivated instructors improve their practice and cultivate academic engagement, success, and equity. To facilitate these improvements, Ascend:
Makes it easy for instructors to use valid surveys to learn how students experience their teaching.
Gives instructors practical, research-based recommendations for improvement.
Enables instructors to quickly test the impact of the new practices they try, so that instructors can determine for themselves what works for their teaching style and their students.
We’re proud to offer instructors this powerful combination of support. But, at the end of the day, Ascend is just a tool. The real engine improving student experiences are the instructors who reflect on the feedback their students give them, experiment with new practices, and persist through challenges. While this work can be challenging, especially when student feedback isn’t initially as positive as instructors might have hoped, the impact for students can be transformative.
In the video below, Isabella Zarco, student at CSU Fullerton, reflects on how her instructor was able to leverage Ascend to provide a positive classroom.
Fortunately, with the right approach and a supportive community of practice, instructors overcome these challenges. For example, in the inaugural 6–college cohort of the Student Experience Project, the average instructor had a 14% gain in identity safety in just one semester, and the top quintile of improvers increased it by 28% or more. Read these case studies to learn some of their stories, or watch educators talk about their work to center student experience. (Please send us your own videos if you have an Ascend story to share!)