Dive Brief:

• A new study looked at academic quality and the quality of teaching in new ways and found that while the two colleges studied were not "in crisis," they were not reaching their full potential.
• The researchers spent a week observing 153 courses and analyzed 149 syllabi at two selective  research institutions, one public and the other private.
• The researchers plan to conduct a second study this year on 7 to 10 institutions.

Dive Insight:

While the study only looked at two colleges, making it hard to draw too many conclusions, the results summarized in the snapshot report do provide some topics of reflection for educators. For example, the study found that most students attended class, but only about half of students were expected to participate and that participation was often not tied to a grade.