Poster Session
Assessment methods, practices, and findings shared best in a visual format with one-on-one discussion are presented during the poster session. Individuals will be presenting posters on Monday, October 23, 2017 from 5:45 – 7:00 p.m.
Assessment methods, practices, and findings shared best in a visual format with one-on-one discussion are presented during the poster session. Individuals will be presenting posters on Monday, October 23, 2017 from 5:45 – 7:00 p.m.
Presenter(s): Beth Wuest, Texas State University
Primary Track: Leadership for Assessment (LA)
This presentation illustrates how one institution revised academic program review (APR) into an integrative, comprehensive, and formalized process to achieve continuous improvement. The revised APR includes detailed procedures guiding a self-study, evaluation by external reviewers, and development of an action plan integrated into the strategic plan. The presentation provides strategies for gaining buy-in among constituents, integrating ongoing assessments and university practices, meeting both internal needs and external standards, and developing policies and procedures to ensure an effective yet efficient APR.
Presenter(s): Jason Rhode, Stephanie Richter, and Ritu Subramony, Northern Illinois University
Primary Track: Use of Technologies in Assessment (UT)
This session focuses on robust assessment practices of linking student learning outcomes to program goals (and accreditation standards where applicable) through the use of Blackboard (BB) Technologies, and the use of BB tools to assess student learning outcomes at the student, course, and program levels. A case example will be used to illustrate these concepts. We will discuss how a program's goals can be aligned to their student learning outcomes, how these learning outcomes can be assessed directly by using technologies, and how data collected by use of multiple assessment methods (e.g., rubrics, e-portfolios, tests, graded reflections, quizzes etc.) can be aggregated to inform assessment of outcomes at the programmatic, course, and student level.
Presenter(s): Todd Price, Virginia Jagla, Tiffeny Jimenez, Kate Zilla, and Joseph Levy, National Louis University
Primary Track: Community Engagement (CE)
The assessment of our institution's community engagement has provided us with rich data as we move into phase two of the research--capacity building. Qualitative research methodology included surveys, mapping existing university/partner relationships, and conducting focus groups. We will share our findings, including students' perceptions of community engaged experiences through coursework; our asset map, using lists, resources, anecdotes, and memoranda of understanding with community partners; focus groups conducted with faculty identified as having a community engagement commitment. This session will not only impart our data analysis, but involve participants in identifying points of collaboration to assist in serving our communities.
Presenter(s): Jim Fulmer, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM)
The assessment movement began more than 25 years ago. Assessment has not gone away and is still with us. During this time period, experience with assessment has identified several pitfalls sto be avoided. This poster will explore eleven of those pitfalls, things to be avoided in assessment.
Presenter(s): Katrenia Reed Hughes and Elizabeth Wager, IUPUI
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM)
Advancing quality teaching and appropriate assessment of student learning outcomes is a critical endeavor for any academic program. When curriculum of undergraduate and graduate programs emerge independently, faculty work must include appropriate delineation between expected learning outcomes, assignments, assessments, dialogue, professionalism and rigor at both levels. Recent curriculum development work, for a new B.S./M.S. (4+1) degree option, presented a strategic opportunity to examine both content and pedagogy employed in delivery of two project management courses. A collaborative faculty effort seeks to improve both teaching and learning quality by creating intentional, and clearly measurable differentiation in the depth of knowledge, applied skills, and activities to support and assess student learning outcomes.
Presenter(s): Jenee Carprice Carlson, Northern Illinois University
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM)
Food insecurity on college campuses is often overlooked even though it is a large issue for many students. As a result, using a campus-wide survey, a Northern Illinois University student sought to identify the extent of food insecurity on campus in order to better serve students who did not have access to three meals a day. The results of this survey showed 97% of students were experiencing some level of food insecurity while pursuing their education and helped to build momentum for campus-wide support of an on-campus pantry.
Presenter(s): Juliet K. Hurtig and Eunhee Kim, Ohio Northern University
Primary Track: Faculty Development (FD)
Evaluation process of assessment reports - what matter? This session will share a peer-mentoring program designed to promote the culture of faculty-driven assessment and provide faculty development opportunities. Its implementation strategies consist of credible peer-evaluation procedure of assessment reports, effective communication of faculty-to-faculty feedback, and peer mentoring across disciplines. Effectiveness and challenges of the peer-mentoring program will be discussed using example cases and outcomes from the 3-reporting years. Participants in this session will have opportunities to share and reflect on their own institutions’ practices in evaluation and feedback processes of assessment reports as well as the culture of faculty-driven assessment.
Presenter(s): Rachael E. Barlow, Wesleyan University
Primary Track: High Impact Practices (HI)
This presentation will discuss what it is like to “do assessment” at an institution with an open curriculum. The presenter will describe how she began her assessment work at such an institution by initiating a pilot project interviewing juniors about what high-impact educational experiences they had during their first two years of college. The presenter will discuss the merits of using a qualitative, exploratory methodology as a way to gather information useful forgenerating research questions that will drive future, more intentional assessment projects.
Presenter(s): Garth Lengel, Donna A. Rekau, and Deborah Zelechowski, DeVry University
Primary Track: High Impact Practices (HI)
The presenters will describe a unique online honors certificate program as a high-impact practice and focus on its impact on student success. The presented study involves a mixed-method research approach to maximize understanding of the student profiles and impacts. Two high-achieving groups matched on student demographics will be statistically compared on the student success outcomes of persistence and GPA. Results from a theme analysis of video testimonies will afford a glimpse into the mindset of the honors certificate students and honors faculty. Presenters will discuss findings, including video testimonies, and share innovations used for an online honors certificate program.
Presenter(s): Tawanda Gipson, Northern Illinois University
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM)
This poster will describe the process of gathering university-wide evidence of senior-level written communication and critical thinking skills (evaluated by utilizing a rubric derived from the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ VALUE rubrics for Critical Thinking and Written Communication) and making sense of the results by comparing it to other types of assessment data gathered about the same group of students. The challenge of making this evidence meaningful to faculty will be discussed.
Presenter(s): Shari McGovern and Jennifer Medlen, South Suburban College
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM)
Multiculturalism was scheduled to be assessed during year three of the 6-year Outcomes Assessment Strategic Plan. In preparing to assess this gen ed outcome, the committee quickly realized that even though we have this as a general education objective embedded across multiple programs, we had not developed a method or tool to assess this outcome at the institutional level. With that in mind, faculty engaged in lengthy discussions on how to assessstudents’ multicultural awareness.
Presenter(s): Dan Jones and Cindy Cash, Ball State University
Primary Track: Emerging Trends in Assessment (ET)
Upon entering college, 1 in 5 Indiana students need some form of remediation after an unsuccessful transition to higher education (ICHE, 2016). Adaptive learning present an opportunity for students to avoid remediation by interacting with content personalized to their needs (Metzler-Baddeley & Baddeley, 2009). The goal of this poster is to reflect on a pilot study that was implemented using a new adaptive learning software program to measure how high school students responded to a module on time management and the potential success of creating improved academic habits based on the adaptive learning. (Arnold, Lu, & Armstrong, 2012).
Presenter(s): Thomas W. Hahn, Abe Ferguson Roll, and Morgan Lane Studer, IUPUI
Primary Track: Community Engagement (CE)
This session will focus on the results of survey data from both interviews and questionnaires regarding perceptions of faculty/staff and students participating in the Service Learning Assistant (SLA) Scholarship Program at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis (IUPUI). This scholarship program, administered through the Center for Service and Learning (CSL), provides funds to help faculty and staff manage the extra effort associated with community-engaged scholarly practice (i.e., service learning course development, community-based research, community-engaged research).
Presenter(s): Rachel Swinford, Lisa Angermeier, Steve Fallowfield, Allison Plopper, Mark Urtel, IUPUI
Primary Track: ePortfolios (EP)
The Kinesiology Department at IUPUI is in the process of developing and implementing a program-level ePortfolio project to assess career development/readiness for all Kinesiology students. The ePortfolio includes several courses throughout the entire cu rriculum for each major. The assignments will build upon previous assignments with the end result being an ePortfolio that students can use when applying for internships and jobs. Specific ePortfolio assignments will be given in various courses and evaluated within each course. In their senior year, students will finalize their ePortfolio, which will be evaluated in a senior-level capstone course.
Presenter(s): Adam Elias, Bellarmine University
Primary Track: Assessment in Online Courses and Programs (AO)
As part of its expansion of its distance education operations, Bellarmine University has implemented a new multi-faceted process to assess quality of newly-developed online courses. This poster presentation provides an overview of that process and how peer review is a central element, supplementing the use of the Quality Matters rubric.
Presenter(s): Pham T. Nhung, University of Central Missouri; and Valerie Paton, Texas Tech University
Primary Track: Accreditation (AC)
Adequacy of full-time faculty is an indicator utilized by all regional accreditors in the United States to ensure quality instruction. In order to demonstrate compliance with accreditors’ requirements related to adequacy of full-time faculty, institutions need to assess this requirement in light of their institutional missions. This research study analyzed self-study documents submitted by 18 institutions during their SACSCOC regional reaffirmation of accreditation processes conducted in 2014 and 2015. Three major components of self-study report (faculty characteristics, institutional assessment measures of full-time faculty, and faculty responsibilities) and recommendations are discussed to support institutional examination of the reaffirmation of accreditation requirement.
Presenter(s): Brandon J. Nichols and Kristy Lisle, Kennedy-King College
Primary Track: Student Affairs Programs and Services (SA)
KKC was not meeting the HLC standards for assessing SLOs in the student affairs departments and did not have standardized assessment plans to demonstrate teaching and learning was taking place as evidence for HLCs Criterion 3 and 4. The college therefore restructured the college-wide assessment committee to include a student affairs subcommittee. Once established, the subcommittee started the work of educating student affairs stakeholders of the “why” and importance of assessing student learning. The first step was the identification of 16 student-facing support areas within the college. The work required multiple steps (e.g., mission statement articulation, learning about action verbs, and mapping) including establishing a culture of continuous improvement. KKC has established a strong process for assessing student learning however the comprehensive student affairs assessment plan for moving forward continues.
Presenter(s): Jeff Barbee and Melissa Alexander, Indiana University School of Medicine
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM)
Medical students are assessed on their ability to receive feedback. If students exhibit deficiencies in this competency they are referred to the Competency Director for further assessment of the deficiency and remediation. The authors are contributing to this process by developing a theory-based toolkit for assessing and remediating feedback deficiencies.
Presenter(s): Scott Berlin, Patricia Bolea, Joan Borst, Liza J. Felix, Cassandra Kiger, and Shelley Schuurman, Grand Valley State University
Primary Track: Competency-Based Education and Assessment (CB)
Presenters will discuss the results of a qualitative assessment project examining student perceptions of the qualities and competencies associated with successful, professional social workers as well as their perceptions of their own competency level. These perceptions are measured at the begining, middle and end of student trajectory through the program. Eight years of data will be assessed and presented.
Presenter(s): Willie Miller and Paul Moffett, IUPUI
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM)
This presentation describes how a mixed-methods assessment program informed the decisionmaking process to renovate a significant portion of the IUPUI University Library. The presenters led a team of library staff to ensure that newly renovated library environments would support student learning, address campus needs for more informal learning space, and maximize usability for library visitors. Participants will learn about assessment strategies and evaluation methods for informal learning spaces and libraries. The presenters will also describe how input collected from library users influenced design decisions.
Presenter(s): Zachary J. McDougal, IUPUI
Primary Track: Emerging Trends (ET)
The Office of Planning and Institutional Improvement at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) conducted a review of the presenations at the 2016 Assessment Institute and all 6 2016 volums of Assessment Update to examine what trends consistently appeared across the field. The four primary trends that emerged were 1) assessing assessment, 2) broadening assessment, 3) new methods of assessment, and 4) improving assessment. This review was intended to track progress in assessment efforts and to aid the assessment community in determining what areas to focus on looking forward.