Queen’s Senate will be voting on a new Learning Outcomes Framework for students in April.

The framework, which will go to Senate for a vote on April 19, will guide faculties in program development and assist students in developing learning goals and explaining their achievements inside and outside the classroom. 

The proposal was created through the Senate Committee on Academic Development (SCAD) by a working group under the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Teaching and Learning.

During the last 16 months, the group conducted surveys, ran focus groups, met with faculty boards and consulted the Queen’s Senate, AMS Assembly and other groups on campus.

Jill Scott, vice provost (teaching and learning), said the result will be an e-portfolio to be hosted on OnQ, the online learning web platform that will replace Moodle starting in the 2016-17 school year.

The portfolio gives students the ability to track and document learning outcomes as they are acquired through academics, co-curricular activities, sports, volunteer opportunities, paid placements and work assignments.

“What we hope is that in the future, this framework will enable students to begin to articulate the fundamental totality of their learning,” Scott said.

She said the e-portfolio system will be an opportunity for students to showcase their learning to future employers or programs for further training and education, such as graduate studies.

This learning doesn’t need to be limited to learning inside the classroom, Scott said, and she hopes the e-porfolio will serve as a record of co-curriculars, which Queen’s hasn’t offered in the past.

“For the first time, we will be able to talk about what is distinctive in terms of a Queen’s degree or a Queen’s student experience.”

She said it’s too early to know how many students would be affected by the framework.

“We’re just trying to get this phase to be adopted as a university framework,” she said.

If passed, she says the University will consult with students and student groups on how they can use the framework to meet their needs.

“We don’t want to, at this point, assign any credits [for co-curricular work],” she said. But she added that they hope to provide support for students to document and track learning.