Resources, Training, and Opportunities to Measure Progress Towards Pluralism
As campuses increasingly prioritize interfaith cooperation in and out of the classroom, educators and other leaders are asking important questions about students’ progress toward those ends. Are students learning the knowledge and skills they need to positively engage modern religious diversity? To what degree are campus interfaith programs effective? Do students of diverse worldviews feel safe, included, and supported on campus?
IFYC believes in the importance of asking and answering these questions. In fact, we believe that gathering this knowledge and using it to improve programs is a hallmark of excellence as well as a valuable contribution to the emerging best practices in this field.
As part of our Assessment and Research initiative, we help colleges and universities to measure student learning, better understand success, and pinpoint opportunities to improve students’ experiences with religious diversity on campus.
IFYC supports campus assessment in three key ways:
Measuring Interfaith & Experiences with Worldview Diversity
In partnership with higher education scholars Alyssa Rockenbach and Matt Mayhew, we administer two campus-wide survey instruments, the Values, Interfaith Engagement, and Worldview Survey (VIEWS) and the Interfaith Diversity Experiences & Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS). Both surveys help campuses understand student perceptions of religious and spiritual campus climate and the impact of campus experiences on a range of interfaith outcomes. VIEWS helps campus leaders take the pulse of their unique campus, better understanding their students’ perceptions of and engagement with people of diverse religious worldviews. IDEALS explores these issues across higher education to provide a wider view of the challenges and opportunities facing American colleges and universities by tracking a four-year cohort of students as they encounter and engage with worldview diversity on over 120 campuses.
Partnerships & Training
We partner with institutions to develop assessment practices that can enhance interfaith programming; these partnerships take many forms such as specialized consultation, resource development, and collaborative presentations. For those interested in building their assessment skillset, we provide capacity building opportunities - online and in-person - that cover the fundamentals of assessment as well as specific methodologies and promising practices. In collaboration with interfaith educators across the nation, we hope to develop a suite of resources that help campuses better comprehend student learning and navigate campus change via effective interfaith assessment practices. Read more
Resources & Literature
We curate a growing collection of free guides, rubrics, and templates to help you measure student learning, develop learning outcomes, construct surveys, and much more. We also gather and recommend books and scholarly articles that inform our approach to assessment and the practices we endorse. Read more
Start Exploring Your Assessment Opportunities
VIEWS
