CSUN Initiatives

“The priority that drives all our other efforts and all other priorities is student success. It is because of our students and the promise and potential they represent that all of us and the university are here.”

- Dianne Harrison, President

Matadors Rising is CSUN’s student success campaign, which highlights the benefits of completing 15 credits per semester or 30 per year to reduce time to graduation. A key element of this effort is also connecting students to the wide variety of campus resources that support students in their educational journey at CSUN.

Faculty Development offers equity-minded professional development programming for faculty.

Institute for Transformative Teaching and Learning

In the Institute for Transformative Teaching and Learning (ITTL), faculty are presented with different frameworks for creating a racially equitable classroom environment and curriculum, as well as brain-based pedagogical strategies for activating learning and engaging students. Participants learn about unconscious bias, how it can present itself in the teaching and mentoring practice, and strategies for interrupting it.

The Institute is data-informed in that each participant receives at the beginning of the program a report showing them the racial gaps in course grades and non-passing grades in the courses they teach, and are then given another report a year later so they can see whether their efforts to become more equity-minded practitioners are having an impact on student outcomes.

College deans with department chairs were provided a list of high DFU courses and/or high gap classes and encouraged to help recruit faculty to engage. Those faculty teaching those courses were invited to participating in this ITTL program.

Elements of the Institute for Transformative Teaching and Learning were incorporated into the eLearning Institutes in 2017 and 2018.

Metacognitive Learn-How-to-Learn Intervention

Saundra McGuire, former Chemistry Professor and Assistant Vice Chancellor Louisiana State University was invited to visit CSUN to present how a meta-cognition intervention, when done early in a course, shows promise in dramatically improving student performance before the end of term. The intervention entails the instructor using an hour of class time after the first major assessment (e.g., first quiz, exam, or major paper) to administer a short engaging lecture that teaches students how to learn effectively in that particular class. The intervention strategically weaves elements of growth-mindset messages (i.e., a belief that students can do well, in that course, with evidence) with meta-cognitive context specific study strategies. The Faculty Development Toolkit website provides details and sample intervention slides which can be used/adapted by instructors.

Transparent Assignment Intervention

Pilot program to investigate the implementation of an equity-minded pedagogical intervention called transparent assignment designs (by Mary-Ann Winkelmes, UNLV). Instructors are encouraged to structure their assignments making it clear what the long-term purpose is, all the detailed tasks involved, and what exact grading criteria will be used to evaluate the performance. With initial funding by California State University Chancellor’s Office via the Director of the Institute for Teaching and Learning of $7,500, and additional funds from GI2025 and Oviatt Libarary College, funding for this workshop has become institutionalized into most Faculty Development programs, including the eLearning Institute.

Matador Momentum is a cross-divisional team of staff, faculty, and students who engage to build campus capacity to enable, support, and accelerate first-year student success at CSUN.

The ExCEL program offers a model and strategies to help students gain academic confidence, a greater sense of belonging and tools to access their academic strengths and lived experiences of resiliency and purpose.