The Assessment Institute offers several sessions designed for beginners and for the more experienced practitioner in a variety of special and general tracks. For a list of presentations being offered at the 2017 Assessment Institute, please click on the area of interest below. The dates and times of the presentation will be available mid September in the program schedule.
- Accreditation
Assuring Graduate Readiness for the 21st Century: An Alternative Quality Assurance Approach
Current forms of higher education quality assurance were not designed to address the rapidly changing higher education environment and the needs of the 21st century society and workplace. New approaches are needed to address the increasing diversity of learners; development of new kinds of educational providers; proliferation of credential types; changing nature of careers; and overall student achievement and preparedness. This session will discuss The Quality Assurance Commons’ new program-level QA process, which includes student and employer engagement, to address the skills most frequently cited as critical for personal and professional citizenship, including adaptability, problem-solving, team work, and communication.
Melanie Booth and Bill Plater, The QA Commons; and Peter Ewell, National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS)
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Accreditation (AC)Developing an HLC Quality Initiative: A Decentralized Approach
Ferris State University is pursuing a Quality Initiative (QI) in preparation for reaffirmation by the Higher Learning Commission in 2020-21. Recognizing the QI process as an opportunity to engage the wider campus community, Ferris sought to empower each college/unit to develop projects that matter most at the local level in support of the development of a Center for Academic Literacies. The QI addresses learning environment, academic deficits, faculty support, and student retention. This session describes the processes used to identify QI foci, develop projects, collect data and monitor progress. Project examples and a discussion of successes and challenges provided.
Mandy R. Seiferlein, Lincoln A. Gibbs, and Jennifer Hegenauer, Ferris State University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Accreditation (AC)One for All and All for One: Multi-University Collaboration to Develop Assessments and Improve the Profession
The CAEP Standards require educator preparation programs (EPPs) to ensure the instruments used to assess their candidates are both valid and reliable. In an effort to address CAEP’s expectations, 26 Ohio EPPs formed a collaboration to develop and implement an instrument for use during student teaching (Candidate Preservice Assessment of Student Teaching – CPAST Form). In this presentation we will: describe motivations, benefits and challenges of participating in this multi-university collaboration to meet accreditation needs; describe the processes used to determine the validity and reliability of the CPAST Form; and provide examples of data reports each participating institution receives.
Eric Brownstein, Carolyn Kaplan, and Xiangquan Yao, The Ohio State University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Accreditation (AC)Reporting Strategies of Full Time Faculty Adequacy for Regional Accreditation
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.
Pham T. Nhung, University of Central Missouri; and Valerie Paton, Texas Tech University
Poster Session
Beginners and Advanced
Accreditation (AC)The Assessment and Accreditation of Professional Practice: Connoisseurship or Prescription?
A key challenge in higher education is accrediting professional practice. The nature of professional learning and its demonstrable ‘capture’ within contemporary assessment systems is essentially problematic, set within a context of credentialism and academic up-skilling of the workforce. Aside from issues associated with the nature of learning itself, it presents practical challenges for academics working within regulatory frameworks associated with fundamentally 1 of 4 transactional models of student learning. This paper explores these issues and considers one attempt at a UK university to address them using a learning portfolio and critical reflective commentary, capturing learning from professional practice on a Master’s degree award.
Nick Sutcliffe, Leeds Beckett University
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Accreditation (AC)- Assessment in Online Courses and Programs
Best Practices for Assessment in Competency-Based Education
Learn how assessment in CBE differs from traditional assessment and what to consider when building a CBE assessment strategy.
Christopher Sessums, D2L Ltd.
20-Minute Sponsor Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment in Online Courses and Programs (AO)Comparing Trends in Graduate Assessment: Traditional vs. Online Learning
Analysis of graduate level assessment continues to grow as the overall span of assessment initiatives at the university level increases. At Lewis University, the M.A. in Organizational Leadership program assesses graduate level learning through a Capstone experience that applies student learning using an organizational case/leadership scenario. Our program offers a full curriculum both on ground (face to face courses) and online, thereby making assessment of student learning across both teaching modes critically important. The current presentation compares graduate student learning between on ground and online formats. Implications for student learning, communication of assignment instructions and grading accuracy will be discussed.
Lesley Page and Michael Cherry, Lewis University
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment in Online Courses and Programs (AO)Professor Engagement as a Predictor of Flourishing in the Online, College Classroom
With the increase in enrollment in online courses and programs, factors that result in academic flourishing in the virtual classroom have become more critical to understand than ever before. Seven-hundred students enrolled in an online program completed surveys about the online classroom experience. Student comments were used to identify patterns of responses; just over 25,000 comments were included in the analysis. Preliminary results indicate that it is the professor student relationship, frequency of feedback and overall engagement of both instructors and students that are indicators of flourishing in college programs offered in an online format.
Theresa A. Veach, Amy Carr, Erin Crisp, Shaun Hardie, Melissa Lapinski, Carla Sallee, and Erina Tyree, Indiana Wesleyan University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment in Online Courses and Programs (AO)Program Assessment and Improvement in a Virtual Environment
Program-level assessment of student learning is a critical component of improving program effectiveness. Historically, guidance related program-level assessment assumes a traditional setting where faculty and administrators may carry out assessment activities in a variety of ways. Even with frequent in-person interactions, assessment often becomes a solo task, limiting the potential of comprehensive review. In a virtual setting, these challenges must be addressed directly to ensure successful collaboration and communication. This presentation shares ways to structure annual assessment, connect it to ongoing program review, and manage both processes to foster an action-oriented culture of continuous improvement.
Alison K. Witherspoon, Tiffany Hamlett, and Crystal Neumann, American College of Education
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment in Online Courses and Programs (AO)Quality Through Collegial Eyes: Utilizing Peer Review in a Mixed-Method Process for Assessing Quality in a Distance Education Program
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.
Adam Elias, Bellarmine University
Poster Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment in Online Courses and Programs (AO)- Assessment Methods
A Case Study Analyzing the Implementation, Possibilities, and Barriers of an Outcomes Assessment Pilot
Initiatives to improve the student learning experience are critical to institutional success. When institutions wish to facilitate their assessment through technology, such as an LMS and other assessment tools, those units who support the LMS are called upon to help both the academic units and the outside consultant plan, implement, support, and engage the academic community in gathering and applying learner analytics. This panel will share their lessons learned, and challenges and opportunities discovered, during the consulting and implementation process of implementing Blackboard’s Outcomes Assessment and Analytics tools and EAC Visual Data. Participants will learn about campus readiness strategies, the internal challenges, and project management tactics that can lead to a successful implementation sustainable support and successful campus rollout of these assessment tools.
Jeff Wiggerman and Katherine Fay, Davenport University; Christopher Heisen, Educational Assessment Corporation; and Ruth Newsberry, Blackboard
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)A Lean Approach: Developing a Valid, Reliable, Replicable, and Sustainable Model for Service Courses
A pilot rubric calibration project, focusing on service courses with engineering and technology student enrollment, resulted in development of assignment-specific rubrics for measuring and assessing written communication. Activities included expanding AAC&U Value Rubrics to ensure sufficient stratification of data, norming rubrics, engaging faculty in training to improve inter-rater reliability, and replicating the process across the department’s 14 GEC and service courses. Standardized assignment rubrics, embedded in master course sites in the Canvas LMS, were linked to the learning mastery gradebook, permitting course coordinators to access comprehensive reports and identify trends to inform priorities for improving teaching and student learning outcomes.
Elizabeth Wager, Mary Baechle, Garad Huckleberry, and Corinne Renguette, IUPUI
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Assess, Collect, Reflect: Assessment of Student Learning
This presentation will discuss the process of assessing course, program, discipline, and general education learning outcomes. Strategies to collect and record curriculum-related data will be identified to assess core skills used for each subject area and grade level. The materials presented will become a tool that helps instructors keep track of what has been taught and forecast learning centered activities.
Naima A. Dawson and Brandon Nichols, Kennendy-King College
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners
Assessment Methods (AM)Assessing Intellectual Virtues in the Humanities
It is commonly asserted that the intellectual virtues most valued by humanists cannot be assessed. This session will show (a) how dispositions foundational for intellectual virtues important for humanists have been meaningfully assessed. The session will also (b) illustrate multiple sources of evidence gained for assessing such goals, (c) offer participants an opportunity to identify intellectual dispositions important for their own disciplines, and (d) lead them through preliminary steps involved in developing an instrument for measuring such dispositions. Emphasis will also be placed on (e) how undergraduate students can play a vital role in the assessment process.
Charles W. Wright, College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners
Assessment Methods (AM)Assessing the Institution: Using Mission-Based Learning Outcomes to Guide Institutional Planning
This session is designed for advanced practitioners who want to work with other institutional leaders on their own campuses to better gather data at the institutional level. Participants in this workshop will define and develop models to use that allow for a better understanding of campus-wide learning outcomes and initiatives. These can include general education programs, but also programs focused on ethical behavior and critical thinking that cross disciplinary, curricular, and co-curricular “borders.” Sponsored by Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education (AALHE).
Catherine M. Wehlburg, Texas Christian University
Pre-Institute Session
Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Assessing the Value of Academic Advising: What Do Students Say?
The presenters offer findings gleaned from a content analysis study of anonymous post advising appointment student surveys to understand the value of academic advising as voiced by students. The qualitative approach allowed for the interpretation of student voiced outcomes from the conversation between an academic advisor and student. The question “What do students gain from a one-on-one interaction with advisors” was at the center of the presenters’ search. In a higher education culture that uses technology and media to communicate with students, what is the core value of the individualized meaningful conversations that take place in an advising session?
Morris R. Jones, Matthew B. Boling, and Adam R. Siurek, IUPUI
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Assessment - To Make It Work, Keep It Simple - Some Ideas
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.
Jim Fulmer, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Poster Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Assessment 101
This practical hands-on workshop is useful for large or small institutions, community college, undergraduate, graduate, or professional programs. The workshop has been updated to reflect recent developments in assessment and continuous improvement. Participants will use the Assessment 101 workbook to develop an assessment plan for one academic program, plan data collection and analysis, and anticipate ways to use results to improve student learning and drive budget/planning decisions. The workshop is designed to help new or experienced assessment practitioners or faculty to conduct their own program assessment or to train colleagues at their institutions. Supports institutional/general education assessment and accreditation efforts.
Wanda K. Baker, Council Oak Assessment
Pre-Institute Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Assessment of Artistic Development in Emerging Adult Learners
The purpose of this descriptive case study was to fill a gap-in-knowledge concerning the pedagogical, social, and environmental factors affecting artistic development and self-confidence levels in emerging adult learners. Participants (N=26) were North American undergraduate and graduate students aged 18- to-29 years enrolled in an immersive, high impact summer school course situated at an international site (Provence, France). Instrumentation was two researcher-designed surveys (i.e., entrance survey and exit survey), which collected quantitative and qualitative data on student demographics, pre- and post-levels of artistic confidence, post-narratives of impactful learning experiences, program quality, and other measurable learning outcomes.
Rachel L. Nardo, California State University
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Best Practices in Writing Assessable Student Learning Outcomes
Student learning outcomes (SLOs) are the foundation of the assessment edifice. Yet, many faculty and administrators -- and even assessment professionals -- craft SLOs that would benefit from further development. This session will start with a presentation of guidelines for writing meaningful, assessable SLOs. Participants will then have the opportunity to write SLOs for their course, program, or university and work in small groups with others to give and receive feedback.
Jill A. Kern, Eastern Washington University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Designing a Curriculum Map
A curriculum map is a tool to assure the content is being presented and assessed, all content is directly linked to institutional learning outcomes, and content is sufficient to reach program goals. The curriculum map can also show gaps in learning, overlaps of content, and indicate where weaknesses can and should be addressed. A curriculum map for a degree program is a living document, changing as the information of the profession changes. Here we share with you our development of our program's curriculum map.
Patsy Butterbrodt and Vina Faulkner, Lincoln Memorial University College of Veterinary Medicine; and Sherry Bushong, St. George's University School of Veterinary Medicine
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Designing and Using Rubrics for Program Assessment
Rubrics may be the most important tool in a program’s assessment plan, yet many need guidance on how to develop and use them effectively. This workshop will provide a step-by-step guide for creating rubrics and share approaches to using them for assessment of program student learning outcomes, and examples of programs at our university that have successfully used rubrics to assess student learning.
Laura J. Massa and Margaret Kasimatis, University of Cincinnati
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Designing Assessment Backward to Move It Forward
Thirty-plus years into the Assessment Movement, yet most institutions still struggle to engage faculty and students in and demonstrate the value of assessment. This session offers a research-based, "backward design" solution: Start with the changes we want to promote and design assessment and feedback efforts systematically to achieve them. We will review research-based strategies from behavioral and social sciences for defining goals, building consensus, engaging and sustaining involvement, and enhancing the odds that assessment results are attended to and used. Take-aways will likely include new perspectives, backward assessment design guidelines and strategies, and select references and resources for follow up.
Thomas A. Angelo, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Differentiating Assessments to Meet the Needs of Arabic and/or Turkish Speaking Learners
This presentation is reporting the findings of a cross-linguistic study investigating the applicability of some common assessment criteria of literacy difficulties with Arabic- and/ or Turkish-speaking learners.
Iman Salama Elshawaf, University College London
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners
Assessment Methods (AM)Differentiating Student Learning Outcomes between Undergrad and Graduate Courses with the Same Titles: A Work in Progress
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.
Katrenia Reed Hughes, Elizabeth Wager, and Jabari Artis, IUPUI
Poster Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Effective and Efficient Ways to Incorporate Qualitative Measures into a Mixed Methods Assessment Project
This presentation will explore the use of a qualitative action research study as part of an institution-wide mixed methods assessment project on critical reading skills. After an explanation of the methodology used in the study as well as the findings and recommendations from the study, this presentation will explore the benefits and drawbacks of using qualitative measures in mixed methods assessment projects. After a discussion of the project, specifically, and the benefits and drawbacks of using a qualitative measure, generally, participants will discuss effective and efficient ways to incorporate a qualitative measure as part of an institution-wide mixed methods assessment project.
Victoria L. Van Zandt, University of Dayton School of Law
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Effective Use of Student Ratings in Faculty Evaluation
In this session the effective use of student ratings of instruction (SRI) data in faculty evaluation processes will be discussed. Basic assumptions surrounding student ratings will be explored, and those assumptions will establish the discussion of effective and ineffective use of student ratings when evaluating faculty. Examples of fair evaluation practices will be offered, along with opportunity for discussion.
Ken Ryalls, IDEA
20-Minute Sponsor Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)
Enhancing the Program Assessment Train: Getting Aboard, Moving Out of the Station, and Rerouting for Best Results
This presentation is intended for faculty, staff, and/or program directors who are interested in enhancing program assessment. The session participants may be involved with an undergraduate or graduate level program. The presenters will highlight strategies to enhance an assessment plan from lessons we learned. We discuss the importance of involving industry experts in the assessment process, demonstrate how to link accreditation requirements to learning outcomes and assessment, and address the significance of considering indirect measures within the assessment process. The results of our findings and use for improved assessment moving forward will be included.
Marcia J. Mackey and Jennifer L. Siezputowski, Central Michigan University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Everything I Thought I Knew About Rubrics Was Wrong
Well, not really, but I recently reviewed the literature on rubric development and was surprised by how much I didn’t know. How well do your rubrics follow good practices? How might you make your rubrics more meaningful? Answer some quiz questions and find out!
Linda Suskie, Consultant
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Faculty as Assessment Practitioners: The Future of Academic Program Assessment
This workshop will facilitate a discussion exploring the ways in which faculty can be included in the academic assessment planning process, with a four-year research university’s experience as the example for which the session will be based. As assessment becomes an integral part of the higher educational landscape it is imperative that university faculty stakeholders have an audible voice in the academic assessment processes. This session will enable assessment practitioners to conceptualize how to integrate assessment best practice with faculty as primary stakeholders; and eventually, leaders in assessment on their campuses.
Kimberly Young Walker, South Carolina Commission on Higher Education
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Food Insecurity at Northern Illinois University
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.
Jenee Carprice Carlson, Northern Illinois University
Poster Session
Beginners
Assessment Methods (AM)From Action Projects to Integrated Activities: Institutionalizing Planning and Assessment Practices
Strategic planning and assessment have become critical aspects of university administration as institutions face increasing accountability to external and internal demands such as accreditation and student satisfaction. Even so, the time and resources allocated to these essential activities are often minimal and generated largely in response to specific calls for action. This presentation will outline one division’s planning and assessment processes and share the lessons learned through an interactive examination of the timelines, procedures, and documents created to advance strategic planning, institutional effectiveness, and other assessment efforts at the program, department, and division levels.
Jordan R. Humphrey and Katheryn L. Stattery, Lewis University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Harnessing the Power of Formative Assessment and Feedback for Instruction, Learning, and Motivation
Assessment is treated primarily as a means to evaluate competence. The learning benefits of assessment are often overlooked or under-utilized. Formative assessment in the form of quizzes, tests, and exams has been shown to be one of the most powerful strategies to ensure that students do well on summative assessments and that retention rates increase. This interactive workshop clarifies the concepts of formative assessment, summative assessment, and competency and shows how outcome based assessment can be used for a prior learning measure, a strategy for teaching and learning content, and for motivation, and includes how the brain works when learning.
Ronald S. Carriveau, University of North Texas
Pre-Institute Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Issues in Assessment Practices at Botswana Private Tertiary Institutions as perceived by Undergraduate Students
This study will investigate undergraduate students’ perceptions on the issues of assessment practices at Botswana tertiary institutions. To investigate their perceptions on the issues relating to assessment practices a survey research design will be used. A close-ended questionnaire item with four point Likert scale will be administered to a randomly selected five hundred (500) undergraduates from five (5) randomly selected tertiary institutions of higher Education in Botswana. The quantitative data will be analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency distributions, mean, ans standard deviation of responses), factor analysis, one sample t-test, independent t-test, and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The findings on issues regarding assessment practices at Botswana tertiary institutions as perceived by undergraduate students will be determined, presented and discussed. Based on the findings, recommendations and way forward will be suggested to improve the assessment practices at Botswana tertiary institutions.
Omobola Oluyinka Adedoyin, Ba Isago University
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Jumpstarting General Education Program Review: A Systems Thinking Approach to the Self-Study
Often overlooked in the discussion of a general education program development and assessment is the issue of general education program review. The Association for General and Liberal Studies (AGLS) offers a “Guide to Assessment and Program Review” intended to shake up an outdated program and help the self-study hum with collaborative discussion. At the heart of the “Guide” is a set of twenty systems analysis questions aimed at improving program quality and learning, whether the review goal is program renewal or program refresher. This workshop focuses on the initial stage of the self-study and will give attendees an opportunity to “test-drive” the tool and practice some basic general education program evaluation steps.
John G.M. Frederick, Christine Robinson, and Harriet Hobbs, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Pre-Institute Session
Beginners
Assessment Methods (AM)Making Feedback More Effective and Efficient to Make Assessment More Valuable
Assessment that doesn't provide feedback that's valued and well used is probably not worth doing. We all know that meaningful, evidence-based feedback to students, faculty and administrators is critical to their learning, improvement, and success. But most of us also know from experience just how time-consuming, difficult, and frustrating the feedback process can be – particularly when students and colleagues fail to make use of our well-intentioned feedback. This highly interactive workshop will present useful, sometimes counter-intuitive research findings on effective feedback, along with simple, practical, time-saving strategies for improving the odds that our assessment-based feedback is read/heard, understood, valued, and used in the classroom and beyond. By the workshop's end, participants will be ready to adapt and apply to their own assessment and feedback practice at least three new: research-based guidelines; practical strategies and techniques; core references and resources for follow-up; and, techniques for sharing workshop information with their colleagues.
Thomas A. Angelo, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Pre-Institute Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Making Sense of University-Level Student Writing Assessment Data and Closing the Loop
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.
Tawanda Gipson and Rushika De Bruin, Northern Illinois University
Poster Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Minimizing Bias in Coding
This interactive session will help participants to recognize how ideological biases could affect coding of student products for cognitive and intellectual skills, and to develop strategies for minimizing bias in coding. Facilitators will share how they have dealt with this issue in their own coding scheme as well as how it has been dealt with in coding schemes of other psychologists (e.g., King & Kitchener, Kohlberg, Perry). Participants will be provided examples to code and discuss, and will be invited to share common issues and strategies.
Pam Steinke, University of St. Francis; and Peggy Fitch, Central College
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Multiculturalism Self-Assessment
Multiculturalism was scheduled to be assessed during year three of the 6-year Outcomes Assessment Strategic Plan. In preparing to assess this general education 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 assess students’ multicultural awareness.
Shari McGovern and Jennifer Medlen, South Suburban College
Poster Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Reframing Assessment of Student Learning and Evaluation of Initiatives as Scholarly Research
Although assessment and evaluation have different purposes in academia, both can be approached as scholarship. Such scholarship promotes a deeper and more robust analysis of data -- qualitative and quantitative. This session will help participants think about: 1) the differences between assessment and evaluation, 2) reframing classroom assessment and the evaluation of initiatives as research problems. This new frame allows educators to make assessment and evaluation activities relevant to scholarly goals. Participants will leave with a reframing template and flowchart in hand, as well as a draft of a potential research project in which they could engage.
Susan Andrus Wood, Dona Ana Community College
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Rubrics for Grading and Assessment in and Across Arts Programs
Grading and Assessment in the arts is a difficult thing. It is not easy to find clear criteria for grading and assessment, nor to articulate them to faculty, students and institutions in a manner that allows a clear understanding of the basis for any grade or programmatic assessment. We’ll present one way of breaking down artistic material delivered by students into clear criteria for grading that presents examples of what the students should have achieved, and allows for greater levels of expertise over the course of long-term academic programs, as well as between graduate and undergraduate programs.
Nunzio DeFilippes and Sonny Calderon, The New York Film Academy
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Steal this Method: A Student-Driven Inquiry Process Explained and Modeled in 60 Minutes
Copy us, please! In this session, two professors and two undergraduate School of Education students will explain how the Inquiry Scholars model is used with teacher candidates to bring about change in student learning initiatives on their campus. This process, applicable to any group of students, will be modeled throughout the session, and facilitators will explain the relationship of this work to High Impact Practices and AAC&U Leap Goal language. Participants will also go through a sped-up inquiry process from question creation and refining to collecting and analyzing data in this session to experience the Inquiry Scholar process. Participants will leave this session with a strategy that can be utilized in a course or in a department (for instance Assessment or Center for Teaching and Learning).
Lynn A. Murray-Chandler, Brittany Barry, and Jacqueline Curtin, Southern New Hampshire University; and Thomas E. Bennett, Franklin Pierce University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Student Learning Analysts: Actively Engaging Undergraduates in the Assessment Process
Attend this session to learn about engaging students in the assessment process and involving them in the analysis of learning. A team of eight undergraduates from various class standings and majors were trained in assessment data collection, analysis, reporting, and visualization. These students actively participated in the assessment process by designing and implementing student learning assessment projects, analyzing the data, creating summary reports, and presenting findings to the campus community. Presenters will review lessons learned and the participants will engage in discussion about how to adapt this program and explore learning issues on their campuses.
Jessica M. Turos, Matthew A. Cooney, and Julia M. Matuga, Bowling Green State University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Summiting Everest: How One University Aligned Co-Curricular and Academic Assessment Practices for a Culture of Improvement
Yes, we assess, but….? While academic and co-curricular units usually conduct assessments, they are often unsure of what assessment and improvement data is needed to document compliance with accreditation principles for which they are accountable. In this session participants will gain an understanding of the types of assessment data academic and co-curricular units need to document compliance with these standards, along with the absolute necessity of engaging in mature cycles of assessment that lead toward ongoing improvements. Best practices for designing an assessment system that supports both academic and co-curricular units will be shared.
Tim Fowler, Skip Kastroll, and Erin Schroeder, Liberty University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Theory-Based Remediation Toolkit for Improving Medical Students’ Deficiencies in Seeking, Responding to, and Acting on Feedback
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.
Jeff Barbee and Melissa Alexander, Indiana University School of Medicine
Poster Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Using Inter-Rater Reliability Statistics to Increase Faculty Conversation about Assessment
Arkansas State University (A-State) General Education Committee recently began asking programs to produce inter-rater reliability (IRR) statistics along with student-learning data generated from rubrics. While this request certainly validated the data used to make decisions about student learning, the conversation surrounding the IRR statistics was equally as beneficial to assessment, and perhaps more so, than the statistic themselves. Overall this presentation will catalog the process of two case studies where IRR statistics and faculty conversation improved the student-learning assessment process, and the lessons learned along the way.
Summer DeProw and Topeka Small, Arkansas State University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Utilizing the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Framework to Support Campus Improvement
Do you have difficulties explaining to faculty why assessment is needed for reasons beyond meeting accreditation requirements? Do you find yourself adding more and more complexity to your assessment processes and requirements in order to meet campus, accreditation, legislative, state and other external needs? Attendees will learn about how UW-Stout has used the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award framework to address these concerns and develop integrated processes that meet multiple needs, while keeping the primary focus on using results for campus improvement.
Amanda Brown, Amy McGovern, and Meridith K. Drzakowski, University of Wisconsin-Stout
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Visual Arts Studio Assessment — Research Sharing
This presentation will discuss methods for demonstrating learning outcomes that have been developed for studio art courses at Mount St. Joseph University. An accessible product for those examining student learning at the end of the academic year was needed since not all engaged in this process felt qualified to evaluate visual art. While it was necessary to present a workable artifact for assessment purposes it was also important to design a project adding substance to visual arts courses. Sharing research enhances awareness of the larger historical and stylistic continuum that student artists need for a more comprehensive studio learning experience.
Craig Lloyd, Mount St. Joseph University
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)We See You, We Hear You: Using Mixed-Methods Assessment to Observe Student Activity in Informal Learning Spaces
This presentation describes how a mixed-methods assessment program informed the decision making 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.
Willie Miller and Paul Moffett, IUPUI
Poster Session
Beginners and Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)Why Isn't Assessment Working? Using Design Thinking and Backwards Design
Assessment has been a part of higher education for decades (even longer, depending on how you define it). But, there is still great frustration and misunderstandings about the terminology, the processes, and even why it is done. This session will discuss a different way to think about the assessment process using some design thinking and then some backwards designing in order to try to develop modes of understanding that could lead to even better improvement in student learning.
Catherine M. Wehlburg, Texas Christian University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Advanced
Assessment Methods (AM)- Community Colleges
Assessment for Support Areas: How Spartanburg Community College is Making Assessment Work
Spartanburg Community College (SCC) did an excellent job assessing student learning outcomes in the classroom. However, the institution realized that the Support Areas had been overlooked in the Assessment process. To comply with SACS 3.3.1.2, SCC hired a Director of Student Outcomes Assessment to work with the staff in the Support Areas. A year after reaccreditation, SCC has established a Support Areas Assessment Committee, created an Assessment calendar for staff, offered training opportunities for staff and hosted an Assessment Drop-in for sharing among the Support Areas. We believe these strategies will help us move closer to a Culture of Assessment at SCC.
Gee D. Lockhart Sigman, Lindsey Bartholomew, and Joshua Holmes, Spartanburg Community College
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Community Colleges (CC)- Community Engagement
Assessing Campus-Community Engagement Collective Impact
We have been working with the year-long Civic Health and Equity Initiative to assess Campus-Community Engagement and Community Partner Impact. This initiative is a collective impact project supported by Campus Compact of the Mountain West for institutions of higher education within Colorado. At the University Colorado Denver, an emphasis has been placed on cultivating an asset-based and social justice-informed campus culture of community engagement. Information from the inventory has been used to develop a Civic Action Strategic Plan towards Carnegie Classification. Audience members will leave with a comprehensive toolkit, practical advice, and deeper “big picture” understanding of Community Engagement Assessment.
Megan Frewaldt, Vickie Berkley, Sara Harper, and Chris Herr, University of Colorado Denver
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners
Community Engagement (CE)Assessing, Understanding and Promoting Community Engagement: Educating Students for Engaged Citizenry
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.
Todd Price, Virginia Jagla, Tiffeny Jimenez, Kate Zilla, and Joseph Levy, National Louis University
Poster Session
Beginners and Advanced
Community Engagement (CE)Assessment Strategy as Change Strategy
Assessment is often focused on one unidirectional relationship at a time. When it is, we miss the opportunity to use systems thinking and consider multiple drivers of change. Change strategy often focuses on culture or process without considering outcome metrics. What if we think about assessment as an institutional change strategy?
Mathew Johnson, Brown University
Track Keynote
Beginners and Advanced
Community Engagement (CE)Carnegie Academy Kick-Off: Lessons Learned and Anticipated Changes for the 2020 Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement
The Carnegie Academy is a post-Assessment Institute event for campuses preparing to submit an application for the 2020 Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement, specifically for tracking, monitoring, evaluating, and assessment of outcomes related to community engagement. This session is open to both Assessment Institute registrants and campus teams who have registered for the Carnegie Academy and will be of interest to anyone who would benefit from learning about what has contributed to the success (or failure) of campuses in their pursuit of the designation as well as what can be expected from the 2020 application framework scheduled for release in January of 2018.
John Saltmarsh, College of Education and Human Development
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Community Engagement (CE)Data Labs: Assessment “Experts” at Play
Do people run away when you invite them to serve on the assessment committee? Do you look at piles of data but learn nothing about student learning? Is assessment something done to you rather than by you? We will demonstrate the “data lab”--a participatory assessment method that cultivates inquisitive communities, playfully. Presenters from the University of Richmond and Ursinus College will draw on their experiences running data labs centered around community-engaged learning. We find that data labs enable us to see data in new ways and allow our own questions to emerge so that we become fully invested.
Bryan C. Figura, Terry Dolson, Sylvia Gale, University of Richmond; and Katie Turek, Ursinus College
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Community Engagement (CE)Exercising the Values of Democratic Civic Engagement in Our Assessment Strategies
In assessment practice, we attend to quality of outcomes on students often to the exclusion of communities or other stakeholders. What determines quality and for whom involves value propositions; yet, how often do we unpack the values that inform what we mean by quality in assessment? In this session, we share a developing model called values-engaged assessment. The model uses the lens of democratic civic engagement to amplify at least five core values in assessment: collaboration, reciprocity, generativity, rigor, and practicability. This session will introduce the model, highlight tools for use and invite participants to refine it.
Julia K. Metzker, Stetson University; Sylvia Gale, University of Richmond; Heather Mack, Heather Mack Consulting; Georgia Nigro, Bates College; and Mary F. Price, IUPUI
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Community Engagement (CE)Making it Meaningful: How to Engage Faculty in Lasting Assessment Reform, From Idea Generation to Supported Implementation
Assessment professionals are often tasked with the wholesale reform of assessment processes at their institutions. Lack of faculty engagement can doom such work to failure, even when in the hands of the most capable leader. This workshop looks at building the capacity of your faculty and staff to lead and implement assessment reform. We focus on 4 specific techniques in the morning: appealing to higher ideals, creating a visual communication message, thinking politically and creating microleadership opportunities—all of which support generating ideas and garnering support for assessment reform. In the afternoon, we look more deeply at a form of microleadership, assessment coaching, as an effective model for moving from ideas about assessment reform to implementing a sustainable, high quality assessment process led by faculty for faculty.
Debora Ortloff and Jacob Amidon, Finger Lakes Community College
Pre-Institute Session
Beginners and Advanced
Community Engagement (CE)Measuring Community Impact: Creating and Using Neighborhood Dashboards
IndyVitals.org is a place-based, decision support platform created to measure the long-term impact of community initiatives on the health and sustainability of neighborhoods in Indianapolis. The true power of IndyVitals is its ability to coordinate actions of community partners by highlighting the strengths and challenges of diverse neighborhoods. A dashboard for each neighborhood measures change over time, and a deeper dive into charts and maps show trends and disparities. Learn how the developers engaged community organizations in its creation; discover ways neighborhood indicators can be used by decision makers in high education, government, and nonprofits; and learn where you can access similar data for your community.
Sharon Kandris, IUPUI
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Community Engagement (CE)Perceptions of Faculty/Staff and Scholars Regarding the Service Learning Assistant Scholarship Program
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).
Thomas W. Hahn, Abe Ferguson Roll, and Morgan Lane Studer, IUPUI
Poster Session
Beginners and Advanced
Community Engagement (CE)Realizing our Anchor Mission: Indicators to Discover and Enhance Our Impact
Institutions of higher education have a unique ability to apply their significant economic and decision-making power to contribute to the long-term welfare of their region. Grounded in the work of the Anchor Dashboard Learning Cohort, this presentation will describe the framework developed by the six participating universities that identifies strategic opportunities to leverage purchasing, hiring, investing, and other university resources as a means to create crucial, measurable positive change in the region. Participants will leave with ideas for how to track specific measures and build the internal data collection protocols necessary to support long-term adoption of the anchor mission.
Emily Sladek, Democracy Collaborative; and Valerie Holton, Virginia Commonwealth University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Community Engagement (CE)The NIIICE Way to Chart a Course on the Pathway to Community Engagement: An Inventory and Action Plan for Engaged Campuses
This presentation describes the development and implementation of a robust inventory known as the National Inventory of Institutional Infrastructure for Community Engagement (NIIICE) designed to help campuses assess their current infrastructure and best practice to promote community engagement and/or plan for application to receive the Carnegie Classification for Community engagement.
Marshall Welch, Independent Scholar
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Community Engagement (CE)Two Sides of the Coin: A Continued Exploration of the Potential Benefits and Mitigation of Unintentional Consequences of Applying for and Receiving the Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement
Anecdotal evidence would suggest receiving the elective classification has several benefits. There is, however, limited empirical evidence of how the classification serves centers and institutions. While the classification process is intended or assumed to help shape and guide centers and institutions in advancing community engagement, actual data on its use and benefits are limited. Our dynamic participatory session at the 2015 IARSLCE conference explored challenges associated with the process and award. The 2017 session will parallel it by exploring the benefits, but also narrowing in on what factors or circumstances mitigated the challenges or facilitated the benefits.
Heather Mack, SLCE Assessment Consultant; John Saltmarsh, University of Massachusetts Boston; and Marshall Welch, Independent Scholar and Consultant
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Community Engagement (CE)Understanding Student and Alumni Outcomes: Results from the 2016 Campus Compact Member Survey
This session presents a summary of key findings from the 2016 Campus Compact Member Survey. Presenters focus on analyzing data related to assessment approaches and outcomes identified by member campuses in their 2016 survey responses. Session participants are invited to participate in a discussion about strategies for using participant data to complete on-going civic engagement activities (e.g., Carnegie Classification) and ideas for the future of the member survey.
Danielle R. Leek and Anne H. Weiss, Campus Compact
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Community Engagement (CE)University of Michigan’s Community Technical Assistance Collaborative (CTAC): Improving Data Practices to Build Adaptive Capacity with Local Social Sector Partners
University of Michigan’s Edward Ginsberg Center seeks to ensure reciprocal partnerships informed by community-identified interests. One example is the Community Technical Assistance Collaborative (CTAC), a multi-partner initiative convened by Ginsberg to enhance the data collection and evaluation capacity of community organizations in Washtenaw County, Michigan. Graduate students and faculty from multiple disciplines work with social sector agencies and institutions on self-identified data and evaluation needs, while also providing training and professional development to build agency capacity. In this workshop, we will present on the CTAC model and discuss how participants can replicate elements of this approach at their respective institutions.
Dave Waterhouse and Lauren Beriont, University of Michigan
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Community Engagement (CE)Urban Engagement, Collaboration, & Success: Connecting an Urban State University and an Urban Public High School Focusing on Student Success and Retention Through Teaching, Learning, Curriculum Transformation/Alignment, and Professional Development
Challenging, Energizing, and Rewarding! Building collaborative success between an urban state university and an urban public high school invigorates and enriches both institutions. Careful data collection and assessment has driven program development, policy, and procedure to ensure student success and retention while engaging teaching faculties through professional development opportunities. This session will examine the 10 year history and data of this urban collaboration that has successfully provided opportunity for high school students to enroll in on-campus university courses while completing their high school diploma. Educational goals and objectives, lessons learned, and assessment will be shared along with implementation of best practices.
J.R. Russell and Asha McCauley, IUPUI
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Community Engagement (CE)We're in This Together: Ensuring Community Partners Gain Benefit from Your Software
Your institution has committed to helping students organize their community engagement, including work with your community partners. There are ways to help those partners gain benefit from the software you choose. Come learn some of the best practices for engaging, on-boarding and expanding your pool of community partners.
Allison T. Morgan and Lisa Keyne, TreeTop Commons LLC - NobleHour
20-Minute Sponsor Session
Beginners and Advanced
Community Engagement (CE)Who's counting? Examining the Current State of Tracking and Assessing Community Engagement Activities According to Carnegie 2015 Applications
Increasingly, colleges and universities are systematically collecting information on their engagement with and impact on their communities. This paper presents findings from a review of successful applications for the 2015 Carnegie Community Engagement Classification (n=240). Specifically, this study identifies key areas that were tracked/measured and corresponding data collection infrastructure.
Valerie Holton, Virginia Commonwealth University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Community Engagement (CE)- Competency-Based Education and Assessment
Authentic Assessment in Competency-Based Education: An Untapped Goldmine
Gold can be found in competency-based assessment! The joys of competency-based assessment are explored in this session using effective measures of student performance based on realistic application. Authentic assessment avails multiple opportunities to collect evidence of competence across the curriculum and disciplines. Coupled with corresponding criteria to establish levels of competence, relevant and applicable grading parameters can be achieved. Participants will be presented with how authentic assessment compliments a competency based framework, identify an innovative assessment measure to capture competence, and derive realistic grading parameters to support the assessment.
Christine M. Savi, TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Competency-Based Education and Assessment (CB)Closing the Loop on Clinical Competency Based Assessments
Effectively assessing student competency in a clinical setting is an essential element in professional healthcare education. Moreover, the use of assessment data to improve student learning is essential in order to meet program goals, professional standards and provide quality patient care. Examples of strategies used to develop and implement a process of assessment, analysis, communication, and change will be shared. Participants will be encouraged to develop a process framework while considering the challenges and opportunities that exist within their programs.
Karen A. Bobak and Wendy L. Maneri, New York Chiropractic College
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Competency-Based Education and Assessment (CB)Improving Upon Success: Refining the Comprehensive Competency Review
In 2013, the University of Pittsburgh's Institute for Clinical Research Education introduced the Comprehensive Competency Review (CCR), a mid-degree assessment milestone designed to ensure students are developing competence appropriate to their stage of training in our MS in Clinical Research program. Although the roll-out of the CCR has been largely successful, we have learned a number of lessons from its implementation that have led us to refine theassessment in productive ways. In this presentation, we describe the methodology we used to evaluate and improve the CCR, and offer participants a set of practical tips for implementing similar measures at their own institutions.
Colleen A. Mayowski and Marie K. Norman, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Competency-Based Education and Assessment (CB)Selecting Passages for Large-Scale Assessments of Language Competencies
This session describes the guidelines that test developers and test development committees follow when they select the passages - or stimuli - that appear on standardized assessments of language skills. The presenter, an Assessment Specialist at Educational Testing Service, will outline the general criteria and best practices for selecting free-response stimuli for source-based presentational writing tasks. She will focus on the work that goes into designing the Persuasive Essay task, which appears on the Advanced Placement World Language and Culture Exams. Attendees will gain specific tools for designing their own formative and summative assessments of presentational writing proficiency.
Mette Pedersen, Educational Testing Service
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Competency-Based Education and Assessment (CB)Using Qualitative Pre and Post Tests to Assess Student Voices in Competency Development in Social Work Education
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.
Scott Berlin, Patricia Bolea, Joan Borst, Liza J. Felix, Cassandra Figer, and Shelley Schuurman, Grand Valley State University
Poster Session
Beginners and Advanced
Competency-Based Education and Assessment (CB)- Emerging Trends in Assessment (ET)
Applying Outcome-Based Planning and Evaluation to Public Archaeology
Outcome-based planning and evaluation (OBPE) integrates an outcome-based orientation into the library’s regular planning and evaluation cycles (Gross, Mediavilla, & Walter, 2016). Due to similarities between Library and Information Studies and Public Archaeology, there is the potential that OBPE can be successfully applied to evaluate these programs. Library programming and Public Archaeology projects both have highly trained staff, community stakeholders, and a need for program evaluation to ensure quality. A problem with Public Archaeology programming is that there has not been much published on evaluation and assessment (Simpson & Williams, 2008).
Laura K. Clark, Florida Public Archaeology Network; and Tyler Smith, University of West Florida
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Advanced
Emerging Trends (ET)Assessing the Assessment Plan: Conducting a Meta-Analysis
Many institutions have applied a ‘Git ‘er Done’ approach to assessment reports with less attention being focused on the quality of the reports themselves. In an effort to create greater accountability and transparency, Bergen Community College conducts an annual meta-analysis of assessment reports. This internal review process examines each report to determine if it is comprehensive, meaningful and has been communicated within the department. The findings of the meta-analysis are shared with administrators, faculty and staff. In addition, exemplary reports as evidenced by the meta-analysis are celebrated college wide. The meta-analysis has strengthened a culture that focuses on student learning outcomes and institutional success.
Gail Fernandez, Ilene Kleinman, and Jill Rivera, Bergen Community College
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Emerging Trends (ET)WSCUC's Community of Practice for Advancing Visibility of Learning Outcomes Assessment
In Spring 2017, with funding from Lumina Foundation, WSCUC began offering institutions an opportunity to participate in a free online Community of Practice to lend support, guidance, and consulting around projects related to assessing student learning and demonstrating visibility of that learning. Participating institutions will gain support as they implement their own projects, but, perhaps more importantly, through their work, WSCUC will also develop a collection of good practices, resources, and guides to share, both regionally and nationally. This session will highlight the project and reflect upon the Community of Practice to date.
Errin Heyman and David Chase, WASC Senior College and University Commission
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Emerging Trends (ET)Year in the Life: Trends in Assessment in 2016
The Office of Planning and Institutional Improvement at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) conducted a review of the presentations at the 2016 Assessment Institute and all six 2016 volumes 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.
Zachary J. McDougal, IUPUI
Poster Session
Beginners and Advanced
Emerging Trends (ET)Pathway to Success (P2S): Improving College Readiness for Indiana High School Students
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).
Dan Jones and Cindy Cash, Ball State University
Poster Session
Beginners
Emerging Trends in Assessment (ET)- ePortfolios
Assessing Professional Identity Development among Social Work Students Utilizing a Capstone Peer Assessment Project
Presenters will describe a peer assessment project to assist learners in the completion of their Social Work Program Capstone E-Portfolio Project. Presenters will share how and why the assignment was created, how it promotes student learning, provide the evaluation rubrics used by students and faculty, and present the results of a survey assessing utility and helpfulness of peer assessment.
Shelley Schuurman, Scott Berlin, and Julie Guevara, Grand Valley State University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
ePortfolio (EP)A Developmental Approach to the ePortfolio: Student and Faculty Perspectives
E-portfolios are a great way to get students to deeply engage with the content of a course, but are also often used as a one-size-fits-all approach. Requirements for an e-portfolio often include having an artifact for specific content, applying that content critically and showing what they have learned, but faculty may struggle with knowing how to developmentally scafford support based on the level of students in the class. This poster will share recommendations on how to reach students at every level through an e-portfolio at both the class and program level.
Beth Trammell, Indiana University East
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
ePortfolios (EP)Developing an Internal and External Process for Faculty Review of Capstone ePortfolios
As the culminating experience for a degree program, capstone ePortfolios present the opportunity for faculty implementation of continuous program evaluation. This session will present the steps taken by a capstone course instructor and an external faculty member to develop procedures and rubrics for assessment of capstone ePortfolios, and share early results and next steps for implementation. They conducted an evaluation of the 2017 capstone ePortfolios to identify an approach from the viewpoint of an external faculty evaluator and of an internal faculty member responsible for keeping the curriculum up to date and effective.
Tyrone M. Freeman and Richard Turner, IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
ePortfolios (EP)ePortfolios Supporting Integrative Learning In First-Year Themed Learning Communities
ePortfolios can be a powerful tool to capture the connections students make between their life experiences, courses, and co-curricular activities. The use of ePortfolios in themed learning communities provide an opportunity to help first-year students begin to think in integrative ways, across course boundaries, making connections between academics, co-curricular activities, and their developing identity. A pilot project at IUPUI introduced an integrative ePortfolio in five themed learning communities. This session will look at the structure of the integrative ePortfolio, and direct measures of integrative learning in the student ePortfolios assessed with the AAC&U integrative Learning VALUE Rubric.
Amy Powell and Steve Graunke, IUPUI
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
ePortfolios (EP)ePortfolios, Assessment, and Curriculum: Putting Our Assessment Criteria and Our ePortfolio Curriculum in Dialogue
Electronic Portfolios, digital collections of student work narrated and contextualized by the ePortfolio composer, are often identified as a useful vehicle for assessment. Some researchers and practitioners argue that for several reasons—among them that they include samples of authentic student work, along with narrative and reflection, in a digital, hyperlinked structure—students continue to learn as they assemble ePortfolios, which can both demonstrate and foster interdisciplinary, integrative thinking. If such features as relying on authentic student work for assessment, supporting sustained learning, and fostering integrative thinking are important values for ePortfolios and higher education, two related questions arise: First, how do we assess such ePortfolios; and second, how do we create and enact a curriculum ensuring that students can create such ePortfolios? In this session, we'll pursue these questions as we put the curriculum and the assessment of ePortfolios in dialogue.
Kathleen Blake Yancey, Florida State University
Track Keynote
Beginners and Advanced
ePortfolios (EP)Evolving the Loop: The Role of ePortfolio in Building 21st Century Student Learning Outcomes
At LaGuardia Community College, Outcomes Assessment places a strong focus on a systematic and longitudinal examination, by faculty, of student work as collected on their ePortfolios. ePortfolio is at the center of our assessment practices. More than a technology, ePortfolio is a guided process that helps students tell their stories as they grow personally and academically. Our presentation will begin with a brief summary of Outcomes Assessment at the college, built around “Closing the Loop.” Our presentation will then move on to establish three exciting ways ePortoflio has deepened our work as a learning college and our assessment practices in particular. Members of our Assessment Leadership Team will focus on 1) Our development of a “Core ePortfolio,”; 2)How ePortfolios have become the vehicle for our new General Education Competencies and Abilities; 3) the ways we are helping faculty and students demonstrate Integrative Learning and Digital Communication through student ePortfolios. We will share a key example of how this work is coming to life in our Occupational Therapy Assistant Program.
Niesha Ziehmke, Cristina DiMeo, Regina Lehman, and Justin Rogers-Cooper, LaGuardia Community College
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
ePortfolios (EP)Joined at the HIP: The Integrative Power of High-Impact ePortfolio Practice
How can ePortfolio connect and enhance other High-Impact Practices, such as First Year Experiences, Capstone Courses, and Study Abroad? Our research reveals that high-impact ePortfolio practice improves student learning and success and deepens the student learning experience, increasing engagement as well as higher-order thinking skills. It also suggests that ePortfolios live in a unique institutional space, creating connections that extend vertically across semesters and horizontally across disciplines, as well as co-curricular and life experiences. This enables ePortfolio practice to serve as a unique link between and among other HIPs, supporting deeper and more far-reaching kinds of integration. In this session we will engage participants in thinking about the ways ePortfolio practice can link a range of high-impact learning experiences into a cohesive whole, becoming in the process a unique demonstration of signature learning.
Bret Eynon, LaGuardia Community College; and Laura Gambino, Guttman Community College, CUNY
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
ePortfolios (EP)Learning About the Impact of ePortfolios: What College Alumni Say
In documenting the impact of ePortfolios, members of the ePortfolio community have largely focused on the experiences of college stakeholders, among them students, staff, and faculty. Another way of thinking about impact is to consider what effects, if any, ePortfolios exert on students after they graduate. At Florida State University, students majoring in Editing, Writing, and Media (EWM) are required to complete an ePortfolio in one of the core courses; and several students create a second ePortfolio as part of a required internship. Surveys of EWM graduates who graduated in 2013 or earlier suggest a uniformly positive effect of ePortfolio creation, although students cite different advantages, uses, and values. In this session, we focus on learning from our former students, now college alumni, about how ePortfolios affected their intellectual and professional lives, on campus and afterwards.
Kathleen B. Yancey, Florida State University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
ePortfolios (EP)Manhattanville ATLAS: Using Assessment to Push Innovation in ePortfolio Learning
During the 2014-2015 year, a team at Manhattanville used Design Thinking to develop an alternative to the forty-year-old mandatory Portfolio that had been suspended the previous spring. Explore the creation of this new program and how following a cycle of create, pilot, assess, renovate, pilot, assess, rinse and repeat, has encouraged adjustment to a stronger path despite a minuscule budget. Discuss how assessment can be used as a carrot to gain buy-in. Now, only two years after its creation, this ePortfolio-based program has become a cornerstone in the new college Strategic Plan as Manhattanville commits once again to reflective pedagogy.
Alison Carson and Chistine Dehne, Manhattanville College
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
ePortfolios (EP)Program-Level ePortfolio in Kinesiology to Assess Career Development and Readiness
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.
Rachel Swinford, Lisa Angermeier, Steve Fallowfield, Allison Plopper, Mark Urtel, IUPUI
Poster Session
Beginners and Advanced
ePortfolios (EP)The WatCV Rubric: Scaffolding Student Learning, Supporting Inter-Rater Reliability and Improving Marking Efficiency in Large Classes
In a pilot study with 1700 students at a major Canadian university, this project designed and tested the “WatCV” rubric to provide feedback on an iterative, 750-word career and competency ePortfolio reflection assignment in classes of up to 200 students. The rubric scaffolds student learning and supports inter-rater reliability by describing concrete positive indicators of achievement in non-discipline-specific language; employing a granular points system for rewarding progressive, but not cumulative achievements; and providing an at-a-glance visualization of instructor feedback. It also leverages digital interactivity to reduce marking time. Preliminary study data suggests a high degree of success.
Jennifer Roberts-Smith, Jill Tomasson Goodwin, and Katherine Lithgow, University of Waterloo
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
ePortfolios (EP)Three Birds/One Stone: Leveraging a Required E-Portfolio Course to Meet Multiple Needs
The University of Iowa College of Pharmacy designed a required longitudinal e-portfolio course to meet accreditation, programmatic, and learning improvement needs, while focusing on student self-awareness and lifelong learning. Our portfolio is customized to provide key assessment information to ensure that our curriculum is developing our students’ knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors, as well as fulfill accreditation standards. Students use guided reflection to relate artifacts from learning experiences to program outcomes and establish annual plans in response to self-rating in each area. Course design, assessment rubrics and practices, resource needs, and benefits/pitfalls associated with implementation will be reviewed.
Mary E. Ray and Lisa R. DuBrava, University of Iowa College of Pharmacy
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
ePortfolios (EP)Tracking Student Process Through the Design Process
In the design industry, professionals are concerned with the design process, critical thinking skills, and the finalized design product. This inquiry focuses on how an interior design instructor included instructional technologies of an ePortfolio and digital stories to document and highlight the creative process work, the finished product, and personal reflections from students' designs for the duration of a semester.
Beth Huffman, IUPUI
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
ePortfolios (EP)Using ePortfolio to Document and Enhance the Dispositional Learning Impact of HIPs
The widespread adoption of High Impact Practices (HIPs) is based in large part on the evidence that participation in these kinds of activities is positively related to such dimensions of student success as persistence, completion, satisfaction, and various desired outcomes. As efforts to scale HIPs grow, so does the need for additional assessment data. One key but less frequently measured subset of outcomes associated with HIPS is what is often called dispositional learning representing a range of interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies that are essential for successful performance during and after college. Interpersonal competencies involve expressing information to others as well as interpreting others’ messages and responding appropriately. Intrapersonal competencies involve self-management, growth mindset, and the ability to regulate one’s behavior and emotion to reach goals.We begin the workshop with a brief overview of the HIPs movement, the pedagogical power of effective ePortfolio practice, and the growing recognition of the value of interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies to lifelong learning and many other aspects of exceptional performance. Then, employing a variation of NILOA’s popular assignment design charrette, each participant will (a) bring an assessment tool or approach they are currently using or planning to use to document one or more inter- or intrapersonal outcomes associated with participation in a HIP, (b) briefly describe the HIP and the outcome(s) to be assessed (including relevant elements of LEAP ELOs or DQP proficiencies), and (c) outline the process or tools to be used to document acquisition of the intended outcomes. Other participants will offer advice for how to strengthen the intentional design of the HIP that will help students attain the outcome(s) and improve the assessment approach. The final segment will be devoted to discussing how the ePortfolio framework can enrich and integrate interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies into a holistic, demonstrable, portable, and cumulative record of accomplishment.
George D. Kuh, Indiana University and National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA); Ken O'Donnell, California State University, Dominguez Hills; Laura M. Gambino, Guttman Community College, CUNY; and Marilee Bresciani Ludvik, San Diego State University
Pre-Institute Session
Beginners and Advanced
ePortfolios (EP)- Faculty Development
“Good Practice” Indicators as a Faculty Teaching Tool for Effective Program Assessment
As assessment practice has become more mature in the last ten years, the complexity of the call for meaningful inquiry with parallel processes of documentation and connection with stakeholders may render faculty development efforts ineffective. What if the details could be boiled down to fit on two pages in the form of a checklist of positive statements that when implemented comprise good practice? Participants will review, clarify and add to the most recent version of such a checklist developed at an HLC institution.
Elizabeth L. Evans, Concordia University Wisconsin
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Faculty Development (FD)A Song of Ourselves: Assessing Music, Theatre and Dance in Higher Education
Assessment of student learning in music, theatre, and dance programs is often challenging. Ill-defined learning domains coupled with faculty who are hesitant to embrace authentic assessment strategies can create substantial barriers. While faculty members using innovative assessment approaches deliberately align learning outcomes with assessment strategies (Hanover Research, 2013), Banta (2002) reports that some faculty members still debate the merits of assessment. This presentation recounts the experience of designing and implementing program level assessment plans in music, theatre, and dance. Strategies for designing and implementing outcomes, curriculum maps, end of program assessment plans, reporting mechanisms and continuous improvement plans are included.
Jeffrey Marlatt, Shenandoah Conservatory
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Faculty Development (FD)Assessing Diversity Inclusivity in College Courses: Updates and Trends
Based on results from multiple administrations of the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement, participants in this session will examine how courses include diversity, what faculty and course characteristics predict that inclusion, and whether results have varied over time. The results come from survey items based on a comprehensive framework describing how 9 course elements (e.g., purpose, content, assessment) vary in their inclusion of diversity. Session participants will learn about the framework and results, and will engage with the facilitators to discuss the implications of the results for those working to assess the inclusion of diversity across the curriculum.
Thomas F. Nelson Laird, Sarah S. Hurtado, and Bridget K. Yuhas, Indiana University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Faculty Development (FD)Assessment as Faculty Development: When the Data Analysis Closes Its Own Loop
The learning outcomes assessment committee in the Farmer School of Business conducted an assessment process of our division’s yearly reports. Creating our own rubrics helped us to have difficulty conversations about what we valued in assessment and assessment reporting, providing an education to new participants, and facilitated a process of analyzing our own divisional reports. The analyses of our own reports lead to a shared understanding of best practices in our fields and immediate improvements in the quality of the assessments and the reports.
Janice Rye Kinghorn, Miami University (Ohio)
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Faculty Development (FD)Beginning and Sustaining Faculty Development in Academic Program Assessment
The Office of Academic Assessment at the University of Oklahoma (OU) has implemented objectives related to faculty development, including faculty needs assessment, program review reporting requirements, and faculty skill building. This session intends to share straightforward and practical strategies by covering a three-year journey taken at OU for promoting faculty development, beginning at surveying faculty needs and continuing through to the recent implementation of TracDat assessment software for streamlining and standardizing annual program review assessment reports. By discussing the strategies used at OU, the presenters will provide practical ideas regarding increasing faculty skill development and faculty ownership of program assessment.
Felix Wao, University of Oklahoma
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Faculty Development (FD)Beyond Buzzwords: Meaningfully Engaging Faculty in Developing Innovative and Integrative Classroom Practices
Nazareth College and Marian University were awarded grants from the IDEA Center, awards intended to support projects with goals to positively impact teaching and learning and student well-being. Both institutions have designed initiatives for supporting the pedagogical growth of faculty with the ultimate goal of improving learning outcomes for students. This presentation will describe the ways each institution has moved beyond buzzwords of “innovation” and “integration” to incorporate them meaningfully in faculty development to improve student learning in a diverse and changing educational landscape. Both institutions have collected and analyzed data and have preliminary results to share on the effectiveness of their programs.
Maria Hopkins, Nazareth College of Rochester; Sherry Jimenez, Lincoln Memorial University-Debusk College of Osteopathic Medicine; Rachel Bailey Jones, Nazareth College of Rochester; and Sarah B. Zahl, Marian University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Faculty Development (FD)Closing the Assessment Loop: Integrating Banta and Blaich’s Approaches to Assessment Program Maintenance
Effective assessment coordination and maintenance requires a comprehensive understanding of how stakeholders are interrelated and may uniquely interpret and apply assessment data. This presentation will address how student, faculty, and administrative views of assessment can shape an assessment coordinator’s methods for communicating and justifying assessment data. In particular, presenters will discuss how research methods, awareness of stakeholders’ needs, and communication strategies relate to the implementation of assessment policies within an institution. Attendees will leave with actionable methods and ideas to support assessment program maintenance and improvement.
Olivia L. Livneh and Nick J. Einterz, University of Colorado Boulder
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Faculty Development (FD)Designing and Assessing Learner-Centered Faculty Development Programming
We created a new, more learner-centered, webinar series called the Faculty Teaching Showcase, which features faculty developer-facilitated conversations among faculty participants and faculty presenters who have successfully implemented effective teaching practices. The new webinar format and associated assessment activities encourage webinar participants to take an active role in their learning. A learner-centered approach was used to increase faculty participants’ motivation, confidence in their teaching abilities, and self-efficacy. In our session, we will discuss characteristics of learner-centered faculty development, show clips of more and less learner-centered webinars, and engage participants in identifying ways to assess the effectiveness of learner-centered webinars.
Terri Tarr, Douglas Jerolimov, and Anusha S. Rao, IUPUI
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Faculty Development (FD)Embracing the Mission: A Case Study from an Online Orientation for Adjunct Faculty
Institutions of higher education in distance education face the task of creating a professional community online that incorporates the values and mission of the institution. Harding University designed an online orientation entitled “Embracing the Mission” that introduced all adjunct faculty to the university history and encouraged each participant to think creatively about how to integrate faith into teaching and learning across various academic disciplines. The purpose of this case study was to evaluate how well a problem-based learning (PBL) instructional design had led to helping adjunct faculty understand the mission of the university and integrate the mission into their teaching.
Timothy P. Westbrook, Harding University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Advanced
Faculty Development (FD)Faculty Development in Assessment on Campus: Customized, Relevant, and Transformative!
The Assessment Committee at Olive-Harvey College listened to the needs of faculty in terms of professional development in areas of assessment. Rather than recycling in-house workshops, a university professor and expert in assessment worked with the committee to customize workshops on crucial assessment topics to help faculty develop their skills in assessment. The workshops were based on learning outcomes in the affective and psychomotor domains, design of assessment tasks and scoring instruments. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and faculty asked for more workshops in the future. Come and learn about our program to possibly use the idea at your institution.
Shadi Assaf, Olive-Harvey College
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Faculty Development (FD)Fostering Faculty-Driven Assessment Practice: A Peer-Mentoring Program of Outcomes Assessment in Major Fields
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.
Juliet K. Hurtig and Eunhee Kim, Ohio Northern University
Poster Session
Beginners and Advanced
Faculty Development (FD)Methodologically Rigorous Assessment: Engaging Faculty in Data Collection for Assessment and Publication
Direct, embedded assessment reflects best practices, reduces the burden on students for producing evidence of learning, but also relies heavily on faculty involvement. However, the results of faculty involvement can go beyond the important contribution to the institution’s understanding and demonstration of student achievement. Embedded assessment can serve multiple functions that speak to issues that stakeholders care deeply about. Moreover, a well-designed and methodologically rigorous embedded assessment plan can provide a foundation for faculty publications in discipline-specific fields as well as in the scholarship of teaching and learning. This session will focus on designing and implementing methodologically rigorous assessments that meet the standards for educational research.
Laura A. Maki, Minnesota State University, Mankato
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Faculty Development (FD)Plugging into Opportunity: Assessing Faculty Development Needs in a Fledgling Distance Education Program
In the process of expanding its distance education operations, Bellarmine University has been conducting an ongoing needs assessment to understand areas in which opportunities may be ripe for faculty development initiatives on the subject of teaching online. This presentation highlights the assessment strategies used at Bellarmine, and reveals lessons learned that may be pertinent to similar institutions wishing to increase their distance education footprint.
Adam Elias, Anne Bucalos, and Nancy York, Bellarmine University
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Faculty Development (FD)Skipping Stones or Making Splashes: Embedding Effective Assessment Practice into Faculty Repertoire
This session will present how a community based model of assessment can be effective on multiple levels of faculty development, from university-wide presentations, to smaller group workshops, to one-on one sessions with assessment advocates. The model demonstrates how to give faculty a big picture overview of best practices, to hone-in on areas that need improvement, and to receive 1-1 training and feedback on their specific assessment needs. It will also incorporate a mini speed-workshop where participants will use strategic design tools to identify key issues and insights in their own assessment procedures to generate ideas for impactful faculty development.
Dana Scott, Philadelphia University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Faculty Development (FD)Using Organigraphs to Improve Your Assessment System
Organigraphs are visual interpretations of how organizations work. Unlike organizational charts that depict the hierarchy of authority, organigraphs depict the workflow, communication paths and interfaces of operations within a system. They can be very helpful in seeing processes and understanding strengths and weakness of the system. In this session, participant will use organigraphs to diagram there assessment system and use the process to identify areas for improvement.
Aimee Strang, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners
Faculty Development (FD)- General Education
Assessing General Assessment Across the Curriculum: The Creation, Test, and Implementation of General Education Rubrics at Millersville University
The purpose of this session is to share with participants the steps taken by faculty in cooperation with our Office of Institutional Research to develop four robust general education rubrics that have been adopted and used across campus for course level, departmental level, and institutional level assessment. In this session we discuss how to garner faculty buy-in, the steps taken to create the rubrics, the methods we used to test the rubrics, how we promoted and trained faculty to use the rubrics, and examples of the ways we are currently employing the rubrics. The presentation will be followed with a discussion in which particpants will be asked to share some of the challenges they have faced implementing general education assessment on their own campuses.
Lynn Marquez, Robyn Davis, Ollie Dreon, Rob Spicer, and Lisa Schreiber, Millersville University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
General Education (GE)Engaging Faculty, Developing Learning Outcomes: Shifting the Paradigm from Disciplines to Modes of Inquiry
American University recently approved a Core Curriculum emphasizing metacognition and habits of mind, replacing a traditional general education program requiring students to complete a distribution requirement. To effect a genuine shift from content-centered student learning outcomes to those central to particular modes of inquiry, we facilitated a rigorous, open process where faculty came together and wrestled with this different approach to teaching. This session describes the iterative stages of learning outcome development undertaken by faculty and provides insights from lessons learned. Course proposal examples will be shared, giving participants ideas of the many ways faculty can accomplish the curriculum’s aims.
Brad G. Knight, American University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners
General Education (GE)Growth Over Time: Evolution of a General Education Assessment Initiative
Beginning in Fall 2016, University of Arizona implemented a recertification process of general education courses. Courses were evaluated across three dimensions: student learning outcomes, assessment of learning, and inclusion of writing assignments. Initial results indicate most courses meet the criteria for recertification; however, many courses fail to align outcomes and assessments. A closer look at writing includes results from an instructor survey on how they include writing in their general education courses. This session will facilitate discussion about the design of the general education assessment processes and criteria and including stakeholders in the process.
Elaine Marchello and Lindsay Hansen, University of Arizona
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
General Education (GE)Reproducible Assessment of General Education
The General Education program at Ferris State University is organized around the principles of reproducible research. A standardized, course-level data collection process has been implemented to evaluate program outcomes. Individual student and aggregated class data are systematically collected and analyzed to provide rich and reproducible reports. These documents serve to stimulate ongoing faculty discussions concerning the General Education program outcomes and the status of student learning. In this interactive session, we will share our reports (as well as the de-identified data and code used to generate them) to enable others to reproduce and extend our work at their own institutions.
Clifton Franklund, Ferris State University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
General Education (GE)Should We Think About the Scale When We Weigh the Pig? Does How We Measure Impact Results?
To make a heavier pig, it makes perfect sense to weigh it – twice – prior to feeding him and afterwards. But what if we more interested in the overall health of our pig, or if our pig is rounder post-food, or if our pig can make pig-fattening food choices? To answer those questions, assessors would need to consider a highly-attuned instrument or one that measures something different than the information a scale provides. In this presentation, we hope to engage participants to consider the how of assessment and in particular consider how we assess influences what we find out.
Gretchen A. Hazard, Kathy E. Clarke, and S. Jeanne Horst, James Madison University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
General Education (GE)Using Multi-Stage Program Evaluation to Build Successful Programs
The University of Illinois introduced a pilot general education program, Grand Challenge Learning, consisting of experiential learning and team taught signature courses. A three-stage program evaluation was administered to understand the program’s effectiveness and its impact on student learning, as well as to inform the future directions of the program. First, the evaluators completed an implementation evaluation, and then a theory-driven evaluation, and finally a case study evaluation. The presentation will discuss the rationale for each of the stages, share findings from the first two stages, present the plan for the case study evaluation, and explain how results have been used.
Hannah Choi, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
General Education (GE)Using Multi-Stage Program Evaluation to Build Successful Programs
The University of Illinois introduced a pilot general education program, Grand Challenge Learning, consisting of experiential learning and team taught signature courses. A three-stage program evaluation was administered to understand the program’s effectiveness and its impact on student learning, as well as to inform the future directions of the program. First, the evaluators completed an implementation evaluation, and then a theory driven evaluation, and finally a case study evaluation. The presentation will discuss the rationale for each of the stages, share findings from the first two stages, present the plan for the case study evaluation, and explain how results have been used.
Staci J. Provezis and Hannah Choi, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
General Education (GE)Working Together to Assess Information Literacy in the General Education Curriculum
Join us for an interactive session to learn how librarians and program directors in speech communication and first-year writing collaborated to assess information literacy in the general education curriculum in preparation for an upcoming accreditation visit. The assessment team will describe their methodologies employed over four semesters, share successes and challenges related to planning and implementing a large-scale pre-/post-survey, examine results of the surveys, and engage participants in a demonstration and discussion of data coding and analysis techniques. Using mobile polling, we will invite participants to share their assessment experiences with the group.
Polly Boruff-Jones, Paul Cook, Chris Darr, and Yan He, Indiana University Kokomo
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
General Education (GE)- Global Learning
Are We There Yet?: The Long (and Winding) Road to Global Learning for All
After more than 30 years of work on assessment, we have made progress, but much remains to be done, especially in ensuring global learning for all students. Internationalization and global learning are shaped by evolving international and national trends and an increasingly contested environment. International and national surveys of institutional practices show that institutions have intensified their efforts at internationalization, but the integration of global learning throughout the collegiate experience is slower work and assessment has been a long journey. At the same time, the institutional context for internationalization and for assessment are key factors in the integration of global learning into the undergraduate experience. Green will elaborate on these crucial contextual factors and outline approaches to integrating global learning throughout the collegiate experience and to assessment.
Madeleine F. Green, International Association of Universities and NAFSA: The Association of International Educators
Track Keynote
Beginners and Advanced
Global Learning (GL)Assessing Global Learning Opportunities: Are We Adding Value?
In higher education, we assume that global learning opportunities generate positive learning outcomes. However, while global learning experiences in higher education are the norm, the research has not kept pace – we do not know exactly how learning opportunities translate into learning outcomes. A 5 year longitudinal assessment and student-centered development project at Bentley University sought to gain a clearer understanding of the factors leading to positive changes in global learning outcomes. Results of this endeavor provide insights into whether intercultural effectiveness dimensions are positively or negatively influenced by maturation, international education experiences or student demographics. In addition, the project provided insights into the challenges of engaging in a longitudinal, multi-course assessment project.
Iris Berdrow, Bentley University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Global Learning (GL)Beyond the Gates: Creating a Campus-Wide Program for Cross-Cultural Learning
Our “Beyond the Gates” program is a primarily experiential learning opportunity for all students, and is centered on the the idea that learning through real-world, person-to-person engagement enables students to apply academic knowledge and critical thinking skills in developing critical insight about themselves and others, our mission, and civic responsibility. In this presentation, we share some information about this program both in terms of structure and intent, as well as execution. We also specifically focus on assessing students longitudinally across the entire set of outreach experiences to determine whether the program outcomes are being met.
Heidi Hosey and Dyan Jones, Mercyhurst University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Global Learning (GL)Campus-Wide Assessment at an Internationalizing Institution
If your campus is working toward internationalizing the curricular and co-curricular in a comprehensive, campus-wide format, this program will share the internationalization efforts at TCU including initial assessment results. The campus has been working towards internationalization since Fall of 2013, so we have matched sets of data from student orientation as first-year students to graduation for one cohort as well as cohort comparisons over the course of 4 years. The data provides a clear vision for developing new education strategies. The session will cover campus-wide assessment methods and findings.
Chris T. Hightower, Texas Christian University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Global Learning (GL)Closing the Gap: Using Assessment to Overcome Student Resistance to Global Learning and Intercultural Competency
Many approaches for assessing global learning and intercultural competence in higher education are designed to provide institutional data to determine the overall effectiveness of collective practices in place. At the same time, at the course level, students complete end of the term evaluations. While both forms of assessment are important and useful, often they do not inform each other. This session will present a case study outlining how the results and recommendations of a cross-divisional assessment project facilitated the restructuring of a course to maximize the global learning and intercultural development of previously resistant students.
Donna Evans, Miami University Regional Campuses; and Martha Petrone, Miami University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners
Global Learning (GL)Developing Intercultural Competency Using Formative Assessment: A.S.K.S2 & A.S.K.S2+
The mission statements and strategic plans of most universities claim to prepare graduates for a global society and global citizenship. Most universities do not intentionally identify specific intercultural learning constructs to assess intercultural development. A.S.K.S2 PLUS is a reliable (alpha=.90), free, and open source teaching & learning tool when used as a formative assessment, generates documentation and artifacts of student intercultural learning. Used in conjunction with the AAC&U VALUE Rubric on Intercultural Knowledge and Competence and the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) the results show statistically significant increases in intercultural competence as measured by the IDI.
Charles A. Calahan and Horan Holgate, Purdue University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Global Learning (GL)Global Learning: How To Internationalize Your Courses And Degrees
In this interactive presentation, participants will learn how to integrate international and intercultural examples in their courses and degrees. The key concepts covered in this presentation will allow instructors to internationalize their courses, teaching methods, learning outcomes and assess these outcomes. Several approaches to internationalize courses and degrees will be presented especially targeting the academic curriculum. Strategies will be discussed through case studies and freely available online resources. Participants will design a strategy to achieve this goal and identify metrics to measure their progress.
Hitesh Kathuria, Indiana University Bloomington; and Parul Khurana, Indiana University East
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Global Learning (GL)Jump Start Assessment of Global Learning on Your Campus
Today, most colleges and universities mission statements include an imperative for global learning—a clear indication that these institutions value internationalization. Yet, if it’s important enough to be in these mission statements, it is equally, if not more important, to assess whether students are learning what is necessary to become effective global citizens by the time they graduate. With the growing trend to internationalize curricular and co-curricular programs, assessment professionals, program directors, faculty and staff are likely to be called upon to develop and implement assessment plans and activities. This session will provide guidance on how to approach internationalization assessment on your campus.
Chris T. Cartwright, Intercultural Communication Institute; Iris Berdrow, Bentley University; Donna Evans and Martha Petrone, Miami University; and Chris Hightower, Texas Christian Iniversity
Pre-Institute Session
Beginners
Global Learning (GL)The Language of Global Learning and Assessment
Clarifying terminology is often critical to facilitating dialogue and moving work forward. This session is to highlight key terminology used in the fields of international education and assessment/evaluation.
Leslie A. Bozeman, IUPUI
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Global Learning (GL)What Do I Think About What the Mirror Tells Me? Experiential and Empirical Outcomes of a Transformative Learning Assignment Focused on Self-Reflection and Intercultural Effectiveness
Intercultural effectiveness development involves transformative learning, and starts with self assessment, reflection, and the ability to decenter from self. Yet, developing self-reflection skills is not a pedagogical priority for most institutions of higher learning. This session presents the Intercultural Effectiveness Assignment, designed to engage students in transformative learning through a process of self-assessment and self-reflection. Data analysis results of 400+ student responses to the assignment are presented. The results indicate three attitudinal categories of response which are described using an analogy of a mirror – break the mirror, argue with the mirror, and converse with the mirror. Guidelines for creation of transformative learning opportunities are provided, along with the current research on student self-reflection.
Iris Berdrow, Bentley University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners
Global Learning (GL)- Graduate Education
Crafting Authentic Measures to Promote Double Loop Improvements in Graduate Programs
Educators struggle to build meaningful, useful graduate assessments. While assessment scholars document ways to cultivate authentic assessment culture in undergraduate education, comparable models for graduate assessment have not emerged, confirming perceptions that graduate programs are exempt from systematic learning assessment. How can graduate program directors and their faculty create meaningful assessments to measure graduate program outcomes and improve student learning? UMBC’s integrated assessment plan engages double loop analysis, connects graduate and undergraduate education, fosters authentic assessments embedded in everyday practices, and involves students metacognitively. Participants will engage interactively with UMBC’s cross-disciplinary model through specific examples adaptable to their own practices.
Jennifer M. Harrison and Vickie Williams, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Graduate Education (GR)Assessing Affective Learning Outcomes in Cultural Competence
This session will address formative and summative measures for the development of cultural competency among graduate speech-language pathology students. The faculty developed a multi-step plan for measuring students’ learning. The BEVI: The Beliefs, Events, and Values Inventory (Shealy, 2010) was utilized as a formal pre-/post measure. A faculty designed survey was also used to measure baseline attitudes as well as measure change. In addition, curriculum-based, authentic measures including: reflections, e-portfolios, and student-developed learning objectives were utilized. Initial results indicate changes in students’ awareness and beliefs. Final results will be used in program assessment and continuous improvement.
Phillip A. Hernandez and Amy J. Hadley Stockton University
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Graduate Education (GR)Creating a Law School Assessment Plan
While law faculty have always assessed their students, law schools have never before been required to systematically assess their program of legal education to determine whether they are achieving their goals. With the new ABA assessment standards in place, law schools must now do so. To many, this may seem like a herculean task, but it need not be. This presentation is intended to help make assessment accessible, sustainable, and meaningful to all law school constituencies. It will show how individual faculty members and their institutions can create a genuine culture of assessment through the shared goal of improving student learning. And, it all starts with creating an assessment plan.
Andrea Susnir Funk, Whittier Law School
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Graduate Education (GR)Graduate Course-Level Assessment - A Triangulated Approach
This presentation focuses on a triangulated approach to course-level assessment. It is intended primarily for faculty and program chairs/directors seeking to modify instruction for improving learning based on data; secondarily, for academic and assessment administrators hoping to strengthen assessment practices. Our graduate-level education program uses the comprehensive examination to ensure achievement of student learning outcomes at the program level. The next logical step for our program assessment model was targeted development in course-level assessment. This presentation provides results and examples from our program’s efforts in data triangulation of course-level measures over two years to strengthen teaching, learning and the curriculum.
Debra K. Smith, Northcentral University
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Graduate Education (GR)Predicting Bar Passage: Preliminary Findings from Research Regarding Law Student Success and Supports at the University of Cincinnati
In this session, we present results from a longitudinal research study at University of Cincinnati (UC) exploring the relationship between law student success, bar exam passage, and student support programs. This research is especially timely given the shifting demographics and decreasing enrollment in law schools across the county. Results from this research will not only provide insight into student success at UC and associated programs designed to support students at risk of failing the bar, but also have the potential to contribute to broader national conversations regarding legal education and post-secondary success in general.
Amy N. Farley, Joel Chanvisanuruk, and Christopher Swoboda, University of Cincinnati
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Graduate Education (GR)Putting the "Form" Back in "Formative Assessment": the Pedagogical Value of Outcomes-Based Rubric Forms as Learning/Teaching Tools in Law Schools
In the Legal Research and Writing program at the University of Kentucky College of Law, we use outcomes-based assessment for all of the major assignments in the first-year course. The vehicles used for such assessment are standardized rubrics that are the result of a collaborative design process involving all relevant faculty. In addition to providing data to be used in direct, summative assessment of our students’ achievement of desired learning outcomes, the rubric forms themselves serve a significant pedagogical function in our course and also provide our students with formative assessment.
Beau Steenken and Melissa N. Henke, University of Kentucky College of Law
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Graduate Education (GR)Silver Linings: How Online Constraints Foster Productive Updates to the Live Class Model
An ongoing collaboration between McKinney School of Law and eLearning Design and Services catalyzes a culture shift to rethink assessment as we move to online learning environments. This approach increases access to learners by offering more frequent, engaging, and authentic opportunities for students to gauge (and faculty to guide) their learning. Whereas traditional assessment relies on high-stakes exams after learning has occurred, new technology-enriched alternative assessments provide increased opportunities for scaffolding, remediation, and collaboration. In this session, participants examine traditionally modeled examples alongside available teaching and learning technologies, and propose alternative, authentic, engaging assessment strategies that these tools can support.
Anna Lynch, Max Huffman, and Joanna Ray, Indiana University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Graduate Education (GR)Speed Matters
Is there a relationship between speed and grades on first year law school exams? Are time-pressured exam typing speed tests? Employing statistical models, we present an empirical test on the relationship between first year law school grades and speed, with speed represented by two variables: word count and student typing speed. We found a strong statistically significant positive correlation between total words written on first year law school examinations and grades, suggesting that speed matters. In the end, typing speed was not a statistically significant variable explaining first year law grades. Factors other than speed are relevant to student performance.
Kif Augustine-Adams, Candace Berrett, and James R. Rasband, Brigham Young University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Graduate Education (GR)True Learning Model: A Learning-Centered Approach to Legal Education
This year our College of Law has launched a learning-centered approach to curriculum design and assessment. Legal Education has long been grounded on a teaching-centered approach to legal education that focused on subject matter coverage and its relevancy to bar-tested topics. While a teaching-centered approach an essential appropriate first step to curricular design, program assessment requires a much more in-depth learning-centered approach. This session will discuss this transformation process involved in moving from a teaching-centered approach to a learning-centered approach, as well as engage participants in activities to identify areas for improvement and brainstorm solutions to the challenges encountered.
Sammy Ali Elzarka and Kevin Marshall, University of La Verne
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Graduate Education (GR)Using a First-Year Capstone for Accreditation, Program Review, and Learning Improvement: Design Criteria, Strategies and Tools, and Lessons Learned
What if you could meet accrediting requirements, evaluate program quality, and assess student learning for improvement in just three days? This highly interactive session shares the design of and two years’ findings from an innovative first-year capstone in a new doctor of pharmacy curriculum. This intensive, three-day capstone assesses students’ knowledge of accreditation required foundational content; ability to integrate knowledge across courses; development of core professional skills; and metacognitive self-awareness. This session also offers: transferable lessons for capstone design and development; tips for successful implementation, reporting and feedback; and strategies for engaging students, faculty and external stakeholders pre-, during, and post-capstone.
Thomas A. Angelo, Jessica M. Greene, Jacqueline E. McLaughlin, and Adam M. Persky, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Graduate Education (GR)Using Scaffolding Exercises Across the Criminal Law Curriculum
Although law schools have begun to develop assessment programs, collaborative course development efforts within law schools run against the cultural grain of law professors as independent educators. In this program, we explain how professors who teach criminal law related courses to both entering and advanced students identified a set of key skills to be developed in criminal law courses across the curriculum. The presenters will discuss two assignments that they designed to promote and test the development of those skills in a beginning and advanced level course. Participants will be given the opportunity to draft a skill-related competency and to brainstorm exercises to practice, develop and perfect that competency.
Shawn M. Boyne and Yvonne Dutton, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Graduate Education (GR)Using Self-Assessment in Law School to Improve Meta-cognition
Assessment has become a hot topic in legal education. Unfortunately, many educators struggle with balancing the need to provide substantive material with the need to provide assessment opportunities. How can we teach students the information that they need and still have time left to assess students and provide feedback on those assessments? This is where self-assessment comes into play. Self-assessment allows students to establish goals, identify criteria that will propel them toward the goals, reflect on their learning, and then generate strategies for additional learning. This seminar will show you ways to incorporate self-assessment into your classes.
Katherine A. Gustafson, Western Michigan University - Cooley Law School
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Graduate Education (GR)- High Impact Practices
“Wholistic” Assessment to Develop and Refine a Wholistic First Year Experience for Underrepresented Students: GPS at UW-Green Bay
This session will provide a framework for, and opportunities to apply, a novel perspective on assessing high impact experiences – the perspective of “wholistic” assessment. We will begin with an overview of the basic features of wholistic assessment, using UW Green Bay’s Gateways to Phoenix Success (GPS) program as an example of this approach in practice. We will then engage session participants in a series of activities to begin thinking about implementing a wholistic assessment plan for one of their campus initiatives, using worksheets that they can bring back to their campuses and small and large group discussions.
Denise Bartell, University of Wisconsin Green Bay
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
High Impact Practices (HI)Assessing Academic Internships: Understanding Student Learning and Generating Campus Support
In January 2015, the Center for Career & Professional Development and the Center for Teaching and Learning at Centre College jointly began to assess student learning and growth in academic internships. The assessment was designed to measure student progress toward the college’s learning goals for academic internships, to help the college better understand how academic internships support student learning, and to help generate campus support and faculty buy-in. We will discuss the process of creating an assessment that was jointly managed across departments and explain how we plan to use the results of this assessment to enhance student internships.
Ellen Prusinski and Mindy Wilson, Centre College
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
High Impact Practices (HI)Assessing Curricular Changes in an Adapted WAC/WID Model for Engineering Technology Students
High-Impact Practices such as writing across the curriculum (WAC) and writing in the disciplines (WID) have been shown to promote learning, critical thinking, and communication skills by focusing on writing to learn and learning to write. We will explain how a technical communication program in a school of Engineering and Technology developed a series of 1-credit-hour courses to improve students’ written and oral technical communication skills. Presenters will discuss how we adapted the WAC/WID model and developed learning outcomes and assessment tools and how to adapt this model to other fields to assess communication skills. High-Impact Practices such as writing across the curriculum (WAC) and writing in the disciplines (WID) have been shown to promote learning, critical thinking, and communication skills by focusing on writing to learn and learning to write. We will explain how a technical communication program in a school of Engineering and Technology developed a series of 1-credit-hour courses to improve students’ written and oral technical communication skills. Presenters will discuss how we adapted the WAC/WID model and developed learning outcomes and assessment tools and how to adapt this model to other fields to assess communication skills.
Corinne C. Renguette and Mary Baechle, IUPUI
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
High Impact Practices (HI)Assessing IUPUI’s Diversity Scholars Research Program (DSRP): Lessons Learned
DSRP is an undergraduate merit-based scholarship program at IUPUI that aims at attracting historically underrepresented minority (URM) students in all disciplines. Scholars participate continuously in faculty-mentored co-curricular research while pursuing their degree. A recent program assessment showed that 71% of DSRP scholars have graduated from IUPUI, a number significantly above the average graduation rate for URM students. Graduation rates as they relate to academic major and student status when entering the program will be presented. Lessons learned and future directions will be discussed.
Dominique M. Galli, IUPUI
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
High Impact Practices (HI)Becoming a Student-Ready College: High-Impact Practices and Intentionality by Design
How can we accelerate broad-scale systemic innovation to advance educational practices that engage diversity and challenge inequities in student outcomes to make excellence inclusive? How can institutions increase student participation in high-impact practices (HIPs) and raise student awareness of the value of guided learning pathways that will promote quality and completion? How can we more directly connect measurement of the benefits of high-impact practices, including direct and indirect assessment of student learning outcomes, with justification for the resources needed to expand their usage? This plenary will focus on strategies for developing institutional models for assessment that promote continuous improvement of HIPs and identify the “inconvenient truths” about campus environments that may be barriers to student success and higher learning gains.
Tia Brown McNair, Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)
Track Keynote
Beginners and Advanced
High Impact Practices (HI)Capstone and Experiential Learning at NEU’s College of Professional Studies
Experiential learning, the integration of the classroom and the real world, is a cornerstone of Northeastern University. Although today’s learners have competing priorities, there should always be a way for learners to obtain real world experiences outside of a lengthy Co-op. At the College of Professional studies, we at Academic Quality Assurance (AQA) developed a capstone framework to incorporate experiential learning. Based on the Degree Qualifications Profile and LEAP framework, these capstones, though unique to each program, provide an opportunity for us to define and measure experiential learning for programs. This AQA capstone framework allows learners to engage in a spectrum of experiential activities through professional work, research, and service learning.
Mamta Saxena and Melanie Kasparian, Northeastern University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
High Impact Practices (HI)Conducting Assessment and Research on Service Learning and Student Civic Outcomes
As a high-impact practice, service learning courses demonstrate potential for significant student learning outcomes, including academic, personal, and civic outcomes. Drawing on Research on Service Learning and Student Civic Outcomes: Conceptual Frameworks and Methods (Hatcher, Bringle, & Hahn, 2017), this interactive presentation by chapter authors will focus on methods and designs to improve assessment and research using quantitative and qualitative approaches, authentic data, and local and national data sets. Chapter authors will also discuss implications for practice and make recommendations for future assessment and research to advance understanding of the relationship between service learning, community engagement and student civic outcomes.
Julie A. Hatcher, Robert G. Bringle, Steven S. Graunke, Michele J. Hansen, and Thomas Hahn, IUPUI; Zak Foste, The Ohio State University; Dan Richard, University of North Florida; and Terrel Rhodes, Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Advanced
High Impact Practices (HI)Faculty Fellowship to Support Implementation of a HIP Taxonomy
The Themed Learning Communities (TLC) program at IUPUI developed a high-impact practice taxonomy for the purposes of guiding planning, identifying faculty development needs, and encouraging program fidelity. During the pilot year of implementation, a faculty fellowship was created to coach three themed learning community faculty teams in developing their TLC in alignment with the taxonomy. This session looks at the HIP taxonomy, the process and case studies captured by the faculty fellow, and the findings from the fellowship. Consider how a taxonomy may support growth of a HIP program and the types of faculty development that support such an endeavor.
Amy Powell and Nancy Goldfarb, IUPUI
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
High Impact Practices (HI)High Impact Practices in an Open Curriculum
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 for generating research questions that will drive future, more intentional assessment projects.
Rachael E. Barlow, Wesleyan University
Poster Session
Beginners and Advanced
High Impact Practices (HI)High Impact Practices Within a Capstone Course: Assessing Outcomes
This program will focus on changes within a capstone course to include more high impact practices that improve student outcomes prior to pharmacy rotations. Each year modifications are made to enhance student outcomes. Changes map to the 2016 ACPE standards including reflection and self-awareness. Peer grading and self-reflection have been added to high impact exercises. A pre-test/post-test allows students to do a self-assessment of strengths and opportunities with a plan for improving. Data will be presented on other high impact practices including interprofessional education, OSCE, case presentations, MTM exercises, disease state reviews, new product reviews, and patient counseling.
Karen L. Kier and Michelle Musser, Ohio Northern University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
High Impact Practices (HI)Holism in High-Impact Practices: Creating Models to Simultaneously Advance Teaching, Scholarship, and Service
Immersive, service-learning activities are vital pathways toward deeper disciplinary learning and identify transformation among students. However, faculty and staff are required to adapt to changing political and economic realities that demand reimagined distribution of effort models which may challenge the implementation of high-impact educational practices. Using an academic service-learning course as a case study, we will discuss how to create and implement an assessment plan that serves as a nexus for simultaneously advancing teaching, scholarship, and service. It is essential for faculty, administrators, and staff to establish models that bridge multiple areas of effort to sustain high-impact learning environments.
Jennifer Wies, Ball State University
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
High Impact Practices (HI)Honors as a High Impact Practice: Beyond Brick and Mortar
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.
Garth Lengel, Donna A. Rekau, and Deborah Zelechowski, DeVry University
Poster Session
Beginners and Advanced
High Impact Practices (HI)Implementing and Assessing a University-Wide Experiential Learning Initiative
“The single most important lesson I learned from my experience is that although there are views and beliefs in the world different from my own, it is important to learn more about those views and beliefs and challenge myself to see things from a different point of view.” This excerpt from a student’s reflection is one among many collected through a university-wide initiative to enhance undergraduates’ problem-solving skills through experiential learning. In this session you will learn how to approach the multi-faceted process of implementing and assessing projects focused on the high-impact practice of experiential learning.
Heather M. Pleasants, Mary Ann Connors, and Frannie James, The University of Alabama
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
High Impact Practices (HI)Innovative Classroom Design and Technology Influences Teaching and Learning: A Multi-modal Assessment Project
Over the past two decades, the relationship between student engagement, synonymous with active learning, and student achievement has received significant attention in the education literature. Indeed, Kuh’s 2008 work on high impact practices identifies pedagogical strategies that promote active learning to enhance student success. In addition to pedagogy, aspects of classroom design – including space utilization, furniture arrangement, and technology – can promote active learning. This presentation describes the use of multiple assessment techniques – surveys, interviews, observations, and artifact collection – to explore the impact of classroom design (space, furniture, technology) to promote active learning in undergraduate and graduate classes at Fairfield University.
Christine Siegel and Jennifer Claydon, Fairfield University
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
High Impact Practices (HI)Is There Life After Academic Program Review?
This presentation will focus on the outcomes and recommendations made as a result of self-study and external academic program review. Participants will be engaged in how to address the management of expectations, how to transform lengthy narrative reports into a single page summary for Presidential review, how to realign to improve operating efficiencies, and how to insure that academic programs view the process as a unique opportunity to describe success, document difficulties, and identify specific steps/ resources required to improve the quality of the academic experience.
Stephen L. DiPietro and Joseph M. Hawk, Drexel University
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
High Impact Practices (HI)The Value of Experiential Learning: Assessing Service Learning Projects
While the highly impactful practices (HIPs) for teaching and learning are institution-wide endeavors, the incorporation of many of these effective pedagogical strategies occur at the course-level. Instructors who offer experiential learning opportunities and other HIPs recognize the value this has on the mastery of program outcomes, yet assessing learning outcomes within this context can be challenging. Strategies for assessing HIPs can be done through thoughtfully developed rubrics directly aligned with the learning outcomes that instructors wish students to master. The presenter will share the assessment results of a student service learning project her students completed. She will also discuss HIPs, the challenges of assessing these practices, and examine how to develop meaningful assessments of HIPs through alignment with student learning outcomes.
Melissa S. Krieger, Bergen Community College
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
High Impact Practices (HI)Using Assessment to Reshape the IUPUI Summer Bridge Curriculum
The IUPUI Summer Bridge Program has been a premier program on campus since 2001. As the Bridge faculty and student populations have changed over the last decade of the program, the basic curriculum has remained virtually the same. In 2016, a study was conducted to review the basic Bridge curriculum to determine whether and how it might be updated to help a growing and diverse faculty best serve a new generation of entering students. The results and curricular changes from this assessment will be shared.
David J. Sabol, Heather Bowman, and Jan DeWester, IUPUI
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners
High Impact Practices (HI)- Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use
Applying Human-Centered Design Principles to Co-Curricular Records
Participants in this workshop will explore evidence of how human-centered design principles guided an effort to create a Co-Curricular Record (CCR) for broader institutional value. At MSU, multiple attempts at creating a co-curricular transcript yielded little success in 30 years. In that same period, co-curricular activities became a mainstay of student learning across higher education. Without clear records, better decisions were not accessible to campus leaders. MSU needed strategies to capture comprehensive evidence of non-credit learning. By using human-centered design, we centered the simplicity, efficiency, and goodness of the new CCR while organizational structures became less of a barrier.
Bill Heinrich and Heather Shea, Michigan State University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID)Context Matters: Cultivating Faculty Assessment Engagement in a Research-Intensive University
The University of Florida is a research-intensive university with over 5,000 faculty, 52,000 students, and 16 colleges. In this session, we share the results of a three-phase study of our assessment processes and procedures and the degree to which faculty engage in this process meaningfully. Phase 1 was an initial survey of faculty who develop programmatic assessments for accreditation purposes. The next step was a series of interviews with the 16 college-level accreditation coordinators. The final phase was a series of focus groups held with faculty in each of the colleges. Our results led to modifications of institutional assessment processes.
Timothy Brophy, University of Florida
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID)Creating and Implementing a University Assessment Plan
Do you find yourself trying to convince folks that Assessment is not really a bad word? This session focuses on establishing a step-by-step systematic approach to creating and implementing an assessment plan and getting people to willingly participate. It IS possible to simplify assessment and get people to a point where they appreciate the benefits of doing it correctly.
Anne Figus, Lewis University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID)Designing and Implementing a Sustainable Assessment Process: Practical Strategies for Balancing Accountability and Improvement
While the principal purpose of assessment is continuous improvement of student learning, assessment in most institutions of higher education is traditionally viewed as a means to address accountability/compliance demands. This practice (aka “assessment for accountability”), is quite common in institutions where development and Implementation of a systematic assessment process aimed primarily at promoting continuous improvement of student learning can be a major challenge. This presentation provides practical strategies for developing, implementing and sustaining a systematic institutional assessment processes aimed at cultivating a culture of continuous improvement of student learning, while at the same time, addressing accountability or compliance needs.
Felix Wao, University of Oklahoma
Pre-Institute Session
Beginners and Advanced
Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID)Fun with FLAGS: Assessing the Impact of Early Performance Alerts
Fostering Learning, Achievement, and Graduation Success (FLAGS) is an enterprise initiative at Indiana University (IU) that includes faculty use of early alerts, which “is a communication network that enhances the student experience by providing timely, effective course feedback and recommending resources that support successful progress toward graduation” (http://flags.iu.edu). For the past five years, IU has compiled this performance data to determine its impact on student outcomes related to success, retention, and completion. This presentation focuses on College Algebra and English Composition on all IU campuses and if FLAGS accomplishes its aspirations.
Timothy J. O'Malley, Indiana University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID)Making the Most of NSSE: Customization Options for Survey Administration and Reporting
NSSE’s customizable survey, administration, reporting tools, and reports offer participating institutions more refined ways to assess educational quality. This session highlights new features for the survey administration and reporting. Participants and NSSE staff will exchange ideas about the project and reports. Current and new users are encouraged to attend!
Robert M. Gonyea, Indiana University
20-Minute Sponsor Session
Beginners and Advanced
Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID)Meta-Assessment: Evaluating and Improving Academic Program Assessment to Better Inform Improvement Efforts
Assessment is increasingly practiced in higher education. Less common are high expectations for the quality of assessment work. By quality, we mean assessment that answers important questions, produces results that are trustworthy, and leads to logical interventions to improve programs. From this perspective, James Madison University developed a meta-assessment process to evaluate program-level assessment reports and provide specific feedback to academic programs. These reports are evaluated using a behaviorally anchored rubric. Participants will be introduced to this rubric, which is perhaps the most comprehensive in higher education, and learn to apply these skills to assessment reports at their own institutions.
Nicholas A. Curtis and Chi Hang Au, James Madison University
Pre-Institute Session
Beginners and Advanced
Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID)Mission-Based Outcomes and the Challenges of Assessment
Institutional learning outcomes aligned with an institution's mission often present as complex and conceptually-interrelated. This can make assessment a challenge because these outcomes are a combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation. This presentation will explore the challenges Augsburg faced when attempting to assess Institutional Learning Outcomes related to student civic engagement and intercultural competence. This presentation will also provide insight on the utility of the AAC&U VALUE Rubrics on Civic Engagement and Intercultural Competence when assessing these mission-based outcomes.
Kristen A. Chamberlain and Jenny Hanson, Augsburg College
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID)Open Education Resource Implementation at Valley City State University: Evaluating a Mission-Driven Initiative
This presentation highlights Open Education Resource (OER) implementation at Valley City State University, including: alignment with campus the campus mission and culture of campus innovation, evaluation of research to identify best practices, single course pilot, expanded use within General Education courses, student and faculty assessment of OER program effectiveness, expanded faculty adoption, and integration into campus strategic enrollment initiatives. Evaluation methods have included surveys and focus groups and will feature other measures.
Gregory D. Carlson, Valley City State University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID)Reviews, Reports, and Metrics, Oh my! Where’s the Yellow Brick Road When You Need It?
Do you have difficulties connecting university performance metrics with academic program specific and support unit continuous improvement processes? Do you collect or participate in multiple annual academic program reports, without a clear understanding of how they connect to an overarching campus continuous improvement framework? Learn how University of Wisconsin-Stout has restructured its academic program and support unit assessment reporting cycles and processes, through a governance participatory process, to incorporate university performance metrics and streamline reports. Glean a few ideas to incorporate at your institution.
Andrew Cleveland, Amanda Brown, and Glendali Rodriguez, University of Wisconsin-Stout
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID)Stakeholder Perspective in Institutional Planning: Evaluating Program-Author Experiences in Prioritizing Programs for Resource Reallocation at a Public University.
This presentation highlights stakeholder experiences (i.e., program-author experiences) within the context of a complex institutional program prioritization process at a public university. We will discuss how we reviewed program-author feedback, themes garnered from the feedback, unique challenges identified by academic and administrative program authors, and how this data collection and formative evaluation informed the next steps in the prioritization process.
Carolinda Douglass, Sarah Coley, and Ritu Subramony, Northern Illinois University
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID)Translating Research Center/Institute Activities Into Valuable Assessment Data
Research related centers/institutes (C&I) can be a valuable source of engagement in student learning by supporting hands-on experience. C&I activities can also interlace with program centric and schoolwide student learning outcomes. In order for C&I activities to support (and offer evidence of) such outcomes, it is critical to maintain qualitative and quantitative artifacts. This session will address suggested institutional methods designed to assure that C&I activities are available to be translated into appropriate evidence in support of assessment activities.
Bradford P. Anderson, California Polytechnic State University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID)We're All In This Together: Using Campus-Wide Writing Assessment To Inform Writing Pedagogy
Assessment works best when it is ongoing, integrated into larger institutional contexts, and collaborative (AAHE, 1992; Walvoord, 2004). These principles guide the assessment cycles at Cornell College. This presentation proposes to give the audience an opportunity to understand the design and assessment of writing college wide, while focusing on the use of the gathered assessment data to foster conversations on campus, create a focus for professional development, and the process of changing writing curriculum across the college.
Bethany L. Miller, Cornell College
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID)- Leadership for Assessment
Academic Program Review: Refining Practices to Assure Continuous Improvement in Programs and Processes
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.
Beth Wuest, Texas State University
Poster Session
Beginners and Advanced
Leadership for Assessment (LA)Assessment Tool Box: Appraisal, Readiness Strategies, and Implementation Plan. What’s in Your Box?
Reviewing an institution’s readiness to move forward with program or institutional assessment will provide valuable information to support success in any assessment project. Learning and implementing readiness strategies involves acceptance and understanding of the process, acquisition of needed resources, and knowledge of implementation strategies. It also involves a thoughtful realistic project plan driven by a coalition and supported by a “volunteer army” that can serve as a spokes-person, role model, and leader moving the effort forward.
Catherine Datte, Gannon University; and Ruth Newberry, Blackboard, Inc.
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Leadership for Assessment (LA)Backwards and Forwards: A Model for Using Outcomes Assessment (OA) Planning to Inform New Program Development
Often the planning for programmatic outcomes assessment (OA) occurs only after the first students matriculate, leading to OA efforts that are best described as an afterthought. Johnson & Wales University (JWU) has leveraged an OA-centric approach to program development as a solution. This integrated model serves to further an institutional culture of evidence through a recursive process of backwards design and forward focused alignment as a new curriculum is developed. During this interactive session, participant teams will critique sample proposals and consider how this model might apply within their home institutions.
Jennifer A. Galipeau, Johnson & Wales University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Leadership for Assessment (LA)Improve Your U: Institution-Wide Approach to Continuous Improvement
Do you value institutional quality? Have you struggled to implement a system that uses assessment results for improvement? This session will describe a comprehensive and institution-wide approach to continuous improvement and quality enhancement. Participants will learn one way to demonstrate and verify improvement for units and educational programs across the institution, and will be invited to engage in activities and dialogue about implementing this approach at their own institution.
Jen Wells and Kevin Gwaltney, Kennesaw State University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Leadership for Assessment (LA)Levers for Improving Institutional Capacity and Enthusiasm for Programmatic Assessment
In this session, participants will explore multiple levers by which institutions can generate enthusiasm for authentic, programmatic assessment while simultaneously refining assessment protocols. These levers include faculty development, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, continuous program improvement, and continuous assessment protocol improvement. By examining these levers in the context of implementing assessment protocols for Queensborough Community College’s high-impact practice programs, this session explores ways to promote shared responsibility for assessment while refining programmatic assessment protocols.
Kathleen Landy and Ian Beckford, Queensborough Community College, City University of New York
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Leadership for Assessment (LA)Looking Back and Looking Ahead: What Will Future Effective Assessment Look Like?
In this session attendees will hear a brief history of assessment before fast forwarding to an imaginative glimpse into the future: what would assessment look like 10 years from now? Participants will gain a better understanding of how institutional efforts can improve the assessment landscape and discuss what they would like to see future graduate students and administrators know and be able to do as they step into assessment work.
Cynthia A. Cogswell, Dartmouth College; and Susan Perry, Kent State University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Leadership for Assessment (LA)One for All and All for One: What the Musketeers, Switzerland, and a 90’s R&B Band Have to Do With (Re) designing an Assessment System for a Multi-College Institution
Creating a sustainable system for meaningful assessment of student learning is no easy task – especially if your accreditors are asking for a system that covers associates to doctoral degrees across multiple semi-autonomous colleges. Using Cornerstone University (CU) as a case study, participants will collaboratively explore CU’s methods of creating a “one size fits all” assessment structure for its four undergraduate and postgraduate colleges using the DQP as the starting point. Presenters will give specific examples of systematic interventions and provide an opportunity for participants to brainstorm future ideas for improvements to the system.
Emily Gratson and Pete Muir, Cornerstone University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Leadership for Assessment (LA)Scaling up University and Program-level Assessment Meaningfully
Portland State University (PSU) is on the cusp of fundamentally changing the way we do academic assessment of student learning outcomes. This change has been coming for years, though, and is occurring after a thoughtful review of the history of assessment at PSU (what worked and didn’t work), reflections about assessment from the voices of PSU faculty and staff, and from recommendations by an external reviewer. The new assessment process integrates assessment from the course-level up to the program and institution levels though a formative feedback process.
Vicki LeLand Wise and Janelle DeCarrico Voegele, Portland State University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Advanced
Leadership for Assessment (LA)What Assessment Leaders Do: From Peers to the Provost’s Office
Assessment leadership at the university, college, and program levels is key to supporting broad participation and good practice in program assessment, but little information is available that describes what leaders at each level actually do to achieve the goals of assessment. This presentation provides concrete examples of what leadership looks like in practice reflected in the experience of five assessment practitioners with different levels of responsibility (faculty, program coordinator, department chair/associate dean, college assessment coordinator, and institutional director of assessment). Attendees will learn to describe assessment leadership roles, associated activities, and engagement strategies, and compare leadership structures across institutions.
Cathy Barrette, Brian Crabtree, Sara Maher, Wendy Matthews, and Judith Moldenhauer, Wayne State University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Leadership for Assessment (LA)Academic, Administrative, and Student Affairs Assessment: Internally Valued and Driven
Promoting the internal value of assessment, regardless of any external pressure, is essential for institutions to sustain continuous efforts to enhance the quality of their programs and services. Our comprehensive, coordinated assessment processes and tools designed to maximize student learning and effectiveness will be shared. Guided by “learning organization” literature (Shön and Senge), we will show how we have used our assessment results and plans to promote increased value of assessment for programs, units, and individuals. Participants will draft plans for cultivating outcomes at their institutions to promote deeper understanding of, value toward, and engagement in the assessment process.
Teresa L. Flateby and Cynthia Groover, Georgia Southern University
Pre-Institute Session
Advanced
Leadership in Assessment (LA)- Major Fields
Assessment of Communication Studies Department Major Goals in Core Courses
The Communication Studies Department at Rowan University has conducted assessments of the majors based solely on the Senior Seminar portfolios of students’ works. This year an assessment committee was formed to look at the entire set of seven core courses for the department majors. Individuals who teach each core course are submitting goals for that course. Then assessment rubrics will be submitted to the assessment committee for review. Upon review, the assessment committee will make recommendations. The purpose is to get a better picture of the students’ accomplishments in the department.
Kenneth R. Albone, Rowan University
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners
Major Fields (MJ)Developing and Assessing an "Idea-Based" Curriculum
Following calls to design concept-based rather than content-heavy courses, the Communication Studies Department at Gonzaga University has designed an idea-based curriculum. This curricular model seeks to cultivate learners who can think and solve problems like a disciplinary scholar. The curricular revision process prompted a careful revision of student learning assessment plans as the department developed a systematic approach to concept-based curricular assessment. This session will share insights and challenges from this process. It will also provide a plan and guiding questions that faculty and assessment leaders might employ to guide a similar concept-based curricular revision process.
Jonathan P. Rossing, Gonzaga University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Major Fields (MJ)Enhancing Research Self-Efficacy of Undergraduate Psychology Majors through Scaffolded Undergraduate Research
Assessment experts, think tanks, educators, and employers have suggested value in assessing non-academic skills, often labeled ‘soft skills’, which includes competencies such as teamwork, as well as trait-related concepts such as self-efficacy. Indeed, evidence is accumulating that soft skills are predictive of degree engagement (Chamurro-Premuzic, Arteche, Bremner, Greven, & Furnham, 2010) and later job success (Heckman & Kautz, 2012). As such, curricula should develop and build soft skills by integrating them throughout major coursework. Guided by the APA Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major (APA, 2013), the current project assesses scaffolded undergraduate research and its impact on research self-efficacy.
Kristin C. Flora and Amy L. Bracken, Franklin College
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Major Fields (MJ)Linking Required Courses in the Major with General Education to Improve Retention and Validate Choice of Major
The presentation focuses on the results of a pilot pairing of the first required course in Music Business, The Survey of Music Business, with the required thematic Freshman Seminar, Ways of Knowing, at Belmont University. Presenters designed and co-taught the course with NSSE informed assessment targets in mind (improving students' sense of academic gains and challenges); measurements for retention and persistence while validating choice of major; and, pedagogies of partner teaching. Students completed standard course evaluations and separate evaluations directly related to the pilot which indicated improvements in applied learning and increased satisfaction with choice of major. the presentation will describe this experience and offer suggestions for pairings, success, and institutional planning models.
Beverly Schneller and Larry Wacholtz, Belmont University
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Major Fields (MJ)Using Assessment to Improve Student Learning and Program Quality in the Humanities
Meaningful assessment with respect to real program needs is often difficult. In the humanities, assessment is often seen as a threat. This presentation focuses on how humanities/liberal arts disciplines can use assessment to improve student learning and strengthen programs. Objectives include clarifying problems and solutions to assessing humanities programs, practical suggestions to revising assessment plans and using data for program improvement.
M. Susan Rouse, Kennesaw State University
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners
Major Fields (MJ)- National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA)
A National View of the Field: 2017 NILOA Provost Survey Results
Drawing on findings from the 2017 NILOA National Survey of Provosts, this presentation explores principles of effective use of assessment results which lead to improvements in student learning. Illustrated with institutional examples, this presentation will outline ways in which colleges and universities have made changes in response to assessment results as well as the impact of these changes on student performance.
Jillian Kinzie, Indiana University and National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA); George Kuh, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA)
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
NILOA (NI)An Introduction to DQP and Tuning: Bringing Multiple Strands of Work Together
Over 700 institutions across the United States have used the Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP) and/or Tuning to engage in assessing student learning, aligning and mapping curriculum, and reviewing educational practices to enhance student learning. This session will review the history, current status, and share resources available to campuses to engage meaningfully with DQP or Tuning. Participants will hear about the experience of one campus that used DQP and Tuning to merge multiple initiatives together as well as lessons learned.
Paul Gaston, Kent State University; and Norm Jones, Utah State University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners
NILOA (NI)Assessment at Historically Black Colleges and Universities
This panel draws together assessment practitioners from various Historically Black College & University (HBCUs). Panelists will discuss assessment approaches and practices, specific to their campus, used to improve student learning. In addition, we will moderate a conversation on the relationship between equity and assessment, reflecting on NILOA’s occasional paper released in January, “Equity and assessment: Moving towards culturally responsive assessment.”
Verna Orr (Moderator), National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA)
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Advanced
NILOA (NI)Assessment Modules: Previewing a New Online Professional Development Resource
NILOA is pleased to announce the release of online assessment modules develop by seven New England colleges who joined together to form the Learning Assessment Research Consortium. This session describes the modules and shares how this free resource can be utilized. Participants will experience a part of the module and brainstorm ways that modules can be utilized within their own campus setting.
Christopher Cratsley, Fitchburg State University; Jennifer Herman, Simmons College; Kimberly Hamilton, Manchester Community College; and Victoria Wallace, MGH Institute of Health Professions
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners
NILOA (NI)Building a Case for a Learning System
This keynote provides an overview of the work of the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) as well as the NILOA track, outlining the growing need for an integrated learning system built from demonstrations of student work. Offering an alternative to cultures of compliance, the learning systems paradigm is presented built from four elements – consensus-based, aligned, learner-centered, and communicated. Implications for the field of assessment and future directions for scholarship of assessment will be discussed.
Natasha Jankowski, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Track Keynote
Beginners and Advanced
NILOA (NI)Curriculum Mapping and Assignment Design: Applying the Learning Systems Paradigm
Drawing from their book, “Degrees That Matter: Moving Higher Education to a Learning Systems Paradigm,” the authors apply the paradigm to curriculum mapping and assignment design. This interactive session will provide a variety of tools and campus examples on how to meaningfully engage with mapping learning in all the places it happens.
David Marshall, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA)
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Advanced
NILOA (NI)Engaging Stakeholders and Building Consensus for Publishing the Components of the NILOA Transparency Framework
In a political climate characterized with increased calls for accountability and transparency in student learning outcomes, colleges and universities must carefully navigate how to present information for various publics. So, how do institutions communicate assessment results and tell their stories of student learning? Institutions that participate in the Voluntary System of Accountability must respond by using the NILOA Transparency Framework as a template to publish their student outcome components. This session highlights the process that the University of North Carolina at Charlotte utilized to agree upon what to publish for multiple audiences. Participants will experience an interactive session that will simulate the process used to synergistically align practices and overcome challenges.
Christine Robinson, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
NILOA (NI)On Solid Ground: Assessment for Learning
The session will provide an overview of the findings from AAC&U's VALUE/Multi State Collaborative initiative on direct assessment of student learning. Building on the first overview report on the initiative, On Solid Ground, the findings from the summer 2017 scoring of student work will be included. In addition to inviting the attendees to explore the findings, the session will also explore what campuses and state level policy makers are doing with the results to improve student learning and success.
Terrel L. Rhodes, Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U); Julie Carnahan, State Higher Education Executive Officers Association; Lisa Foss, St. Cloud State University; and Ken Sauer, Indiana Commission on Higher Education
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
NILOA (NI)Transparency Across the Curriculum: Assignments, Alignments, and Learning Outcomes
Many campuses today are looking for ways to embed assessment in the on-going work of teaching and learning where it is most likely to fuel improvements that matter for students. This approach has shaped NILOA's work on the design of assignments that are intentionally aligned with institutional learning outcomes [http://www.assignmentlibrary.org], and the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TiLT) project [https://www.unlv.edu/provost/teachingand learning], which focuses on the features that make assignments powerful catalysts for student learning. Drawing on both of these initiatives, this workshop will explore the power of “transparency”--for students and among campus colleagues--about the purposes, tasks, and criteria for assessment that shape students' learning experiences as they move through the curriculum.We will begin with a focus on classroom assignments, and then move to the course, program and institutional levels, looking at the meaning and importance of transparency in each of these contexts. Participants will work through a series of steps aimed at connecting these levels, and strategize about how this multi-level approach to transparency can adapted for their own campus. We will also point to resources from TiLT and from NILOA's Assignment Library and toolkit that can support effective assessment, learning, and teaching.
Pat Hutchings, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA); Jillian Kinzie, Indiana University and National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA); and Mary-Ann Winkelmes, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Pre-Institute Session
Beginners and Advanced
NILOA (NI)Transparency in Student Learning and Engagement Inside and Out
The University of San Diego’s Outcomes website will be the subject of presenter demonstration and participant exploration in this interactive session. Participants will discover specific site organizational tools and techniques to achieve the team’s three project goals: 1) Create a dynamic interface with different entry points for specific audiences; 2) Conduct website use analyses that will enhance transparency, accessibility, and clarity; 3) Display in highly innovative ways student learning, engagement, success, and career outcomes. Participants will explore how the site functions as an internally organizing mechanism and an outward-facing representations for multiple audiences.
Carole L. Huston and Margaret Leary, University of San Diego
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
NILOA (NI)Using the Excellence in Assessment Designation to Advance Campus Assessment
The Excellence in Assessment (EIA) Designation program recognizes institutions for their efforts in intentional integration of campus-level learning outcomes assessment. The EIA designation evaluation process is directly and intentionally built from NILOA’s Transparency Framework and co-sponsored by the VSA, NILOA, and Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). This presentation will share information on the EIA Designation and application process, provide a campus example of using the evaluation rubric to further campus assessment practice, as well as share promising practices and lessons learned from select 2017 EIA designees.
Harriet Hobbs and Christine Robinson, University of North Carolina at Charlotte; and Gianina Baker (Moderator), National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA)
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners
NILOA (NI)Using VALUE and Tuning to Improve Assessment
Building from the National Communication Association’s work with Tuning, this session shares a brief history of the Learning Outcomes in Communication project and shares the integration of the efforts into program-level and general education assessment within Saint Xavier University. The Department of Communication at Saint Xavier University serves over 100 majors and delivers a public speaking course required of all general education students. Faculty from the department will share how they used the AAC&U oral communication VALUE rubric to improve the general education course, ensure quality across all sections, and assess outcomes in the major through a senior project.
Brad Mello and Cyndi Grobmeier, Saint Xavier University; and David Marshall (Moderator), National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA)
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Advanced
NILOA (NI)- STEM Education
An Overview of Mixed Methods Research Approaches
Throughout the STEM education community there is growing interest in mixed methods research approaches. In this session, Dr. Hess of the STEM Education Innovation and Research Institute will describe a variety of approaches for integrating qualitative and quantitative research methods. First, the talk will provide an overview of common mixed methods approaches. Second, the talk will distinguish between paradigmatic foundations underlying quantitative and qualitative research and the theoretical commitments with which a mixed methods researcher must grapple. Third, participants will consider what validity means across the quantitative and qualitative research contexts, and how mixed approaches can allow a researcher to gather various validity types, thereby achieving a comprehensive picture of the phenomena in question.
Justin L. Hess, IUPUI
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
STEM Education (SE)Assessing Student Learning in Undergraduate STEM Research Using the Principles of Undergraduate Learning
At Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) the Principles of Undergraduate Learning (PUL) provide a principles-based framework for the learning outcomes that every undergraduate student should attain. The IUPUI Center for Research and Learning (CRL) directs various undergraduate research programs that are course independent This session serves three purposes: i) description of activities that align faculty-mentored independent STEM research with undergraduate student learning; ii) outline of an assessment strategy to measure achievement of the PULs in course-independent undergraduate research programs using qualitative and quantitative tools; iii) presentation of data collected to date.
Dominique M. Galli, IUPUI
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
STEM Education (SE)Beyond Anecdotes: Making Use of Qualitative Data in STEM Education Assessment and Evaluation
This presentation explores the potential for qualitative research methods to contribute to the evaluation and assessment of STEM education programming. Qualitative data provides opportunities for the researcher to gain insight into the idiosyncrasies of individual experience, the relational processes in which those individuals are entangled, and the subtle ways that socio-cultural phenomena (e.g., political economy, discourse, etc.) are embodied in the everyday. When used in the assessment and evaluation of educational programming in STEM, qualitative data can aid in the description of how students learn in such programs, of the subtle effects of the teacher/student relationship, and of the nuanced ways through which students come to inhabit STEM identities, to name a few. While qualitative data may reveal generalizable patterns, the strength of qualitative data is in its capacity to contribute to descriptions of how and why such patterns may come to be and how they are locally experienced. In this presentation, different types of qualitative data collection and analysis methods will be presented. Special attention will be given to ethnographic expressions of data collection and analysis.
Grant A. Fore, IUPUI
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
STEM Education (SE)Designing Effective Assignments and Signature Work in Chemistry
El Centro College (ECC) Chemistry faculty worked with the college’s assessment office to create a signature assignment in an introductory chemistry course that directly supports the teaching, learning, and assessment of the four required Texas Core Objectives (communication, critical thinking, empirical and quantitative skills, and teamwork) for the Life and Physical Sciences. This signature assignment is aligned with and scored by the associated VALUE Rubrics. Presenters will share the signature assignment format, how it was implemented, and how the results are used for improvement.
Ollivettee Hill and Victor Agbasi, El Centro College
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners
STEM Education (SE)Evaluating for Student Success: Student Bonds=Student Success
School bonding refers to a meta-construct that encompass several aspects of student engagement and connection with school. Previous studies have constantly shown that school bonding is one of the significant protective factors that affect numerous educational and social outcomes for students. Nevertheless, little research has been conducted to develop a reliable and valid instrument to measure the concept of school bonding. This Gentle-Genitty Perception of School Social Bonding (PSSB) validated instrument can aid STEM programs, working largely with under-resourced and underrepresented students, to identify barriers and challenges to student success by learning how to anticipate what influences students at-risk from disengaging from the learning environment.
Carolyn S. Gentle-Genitty, Natasha Bragg, Jangmin Kim, and Eun-Hye Yi, Indiana University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
STEM Education (SE)Research Findings from a System-Wide STEM Service-Learning Study
Service-Learning (SL) courses partner students with community organizations to provide students with hands-on experience connecting, course concepts with real-world problems, and emphasizes reflections with these experiences (Kuh & O’Donnell, 2013). Although many institutions implement SL courses, little research has systematically assessed the impact of courses on a variety of student outcomes (e.g., civic engagement, academic achievement). The California State University Office of the Chancellor conducted a system-wide study of SL courses in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. The presentation will review these research findings, including taxonomy of high-quality SL courses, and further implications for the field.
Judy Botelho and Cathy Avila-Linn, California State University; Rebecca Eddy and Nichole Galport, Cobblestone Applied Research & Evaluation, Inc.
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
STEM Education (SE)Support Systems for Black Women STEM College Students at Predominately White Institutions (PWI)
Research found that few minorities earn bachelors’ degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). This qualitative case study examined the challenges that Black women faced in STEM majors at a predominantly white institution. It also examined the support systems Black women used to succeed and graduate in STEM majors.
Ezella McPherson, Indiana University South Bend
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
STEM Education (SE)The Importance and Implementation of Confirmatory Factor Analyses in STEM Educational Research
Many STEM education researchers employ validated survey instruments within their research studies. These instruments often include subscales provided by the developers. Psychometric testing often supports the use of subscales, however these subscales may not in fact be reliable for every specific dataset. In this presentation, participants will be introduced to Confirmatory Factor Analysis as a way of validating or changing subscales of instruments based upon their specific dataset. Sample datasets will be used to show how theory informs the construction of factors and what can be done with the resultant factors in a study. Issues of model fit, model identification, and covariance of items will be addressed.
Anthony M. Chase, IUPUI
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
STEM Education (SE)- Student Affairs Programs and Services
Assessing Undergraduate Career Outcomes Using Institutional Survey Data
This study explores whether career services usage and experiential learning experience while in college are related to career outcomes at the time of graduation. Career outcomes of interest were twofold: the employment status (i.e., whether or not employed) and the employment status in relation to career goals (i.e., whether the position was related to their career goals). To identify significant patterns of undergraduate career outcomes, logistic regression and decision tree analysis were employed based on institutional survey data (i.e., the Career Plans Survey). The findings help understand what is working and how to use institutional data for practice improvement.
Eunkyoung Park and Thulasi Kumar, George Mason University
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Student Affairs Programs and Services (SA)Engagement Insights: Applying NSSE to Student Affairs Assessment
Student affairs is under pressure to improve student success and demonstrate the effectiveness of programs and contributions to student outcomes. One practical approach to address this issue is for student affairs assessment professionals to take advantage of available data and assessment resources such as the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). In this session, participants will learn about recent findings about student engagement, persistence and student learning relevant to student affairs, practice applying existing student engagement data to inform strategic goals and initiatives related to the co-curriculum, and exchange ideas about effective approaches to using NSSE data in student affairs.
Jillian Kinzie, Indiana University and National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA); Amy Ribera and Sarah Hurtado, Indiana University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Student Affairs Programs and Services (SA)Leveraging the Power of Co-Curricular Assessment
Assessment is an essential aspect of effective student affairs practice (Fitzpatrick, Sanders, & Worthen, 2004), yet providing evidence of student learning to stakeholders is a challenge for every institution (Banta & Palomba, 2015). In this session, we will examine one large public university’s assessment journey, discover ways to leverage existing resources to build partnerships, and learn how to engage in effective cross-curricular assessment to enact real, meaningful change on campus.
Belinda McCarthy, Missouri State University; and Jennifer Schiller, Campus Labs, Accreditation (HLC)
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Student Affairs Programs and Services (SA)Making it REAL, Transformative, Going Beyond the Classroom! Records of Assessed Learning Outside of the Classroom
There’s a whole lot of learning going on outside of the classroom! We are encouraging our students to engage more deeply in their learning, to translate and integrate their course knowledge to practical, real life experiences that occur while they are still in school. We provide an official transcript to report curricular and degree accomplishments. Let’s provide a validated record of the other exceptional learning that is happening in the community, research labs, abroad, etc. Come listen to and ask questions of representatives from three institutions who are doing just that --- providing a record that represents student experiential learning!
Mary Beth Myers, IUPUI; Jeff King, University of Central Oklahoma; and Pam Bowers, University of South Carolina
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Advanced
Student Affairs Programs and Services (SA)Other Duties as Assigned: Why Graduate Students in Student Affairs Programs Need Assessment Projects
To many graduate students in Higher Education and Student Affairs programs, “Assessment” seems to be a daunting new experience. However, with the right guidance and support, they can build a strong foundational knowledge through literature and then apply what is learned to unique projects. As graduate students, our early experiences of engaging with assessment led us to learn how beneficial these “other duties as assigned” have come to be. Through our presentation, we will share our learning process and projects to showcase how current student affairs professionals can incorporate assessment competencies into graduate student job responsibilities.
Cassi Winslow-Edmonson, Manjari Agrawal, and Lindsey Snow, Indiana University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Student Affairs Programs and Services (SA)Quality and Rigor as Essential Practices in Assessment
Schuh and Upcraft (2000) distinguished between perfect versus “good enough” assessment. This consideration often has been misinterpreted to mean that establishing quality and rigor can be sacrificed for easily achievable data. This session focuses on practices for ensuring quality and promoting rigor while supporting necessities to produce efficient and applicable results.
J. Patrick Biddix, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Track Keynote
Beginners and Advanced
Student Affairs Programs and Services (SA)The Process of Student Affairs Assessment to Support Institutional Effectiveness
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.
Brandon J. Nichols and Kristy Lisle, Kennedy-King College
Poster Session
Beginners
Student Affairs Programs and Services (SA)- Use of Technologies in Assessment
Assessing Learning Outcomes Using Blackboard Technologies
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.
Jason Rhode, Stephanie Richter, and Ritu Subramony, Northern Illinois University
Poster Session
Beginners and Advanced
Use of Technologies in Assessment (UT)Assessment with a Crimson HEART
The mission of the Office of Institutional Effectiveness at The University of Alabama is to “support the community in meaningful, measurable, and manageable processes of quality improvement.” In this session, speakers from The University of Alabama will share how they engage their academic and non-academic units in the assessment processes that meet the individual needs of those units. You’ll learn how they leverage Taskstream-Tk20 as a centralized tool to support a diverse approach to assessment, accreditation, the QEP, and e-Portfolios. Join us to hear how a thoughtful, intentional approach to assessment helps The University of Alabama put their students at the HEART of education. Roll Tide!
Ginger Bishop and Mary Ann Connors, University of Alabama; and Matthew Gulliford, Taskstream-Tk20
60-Minute Sponsor Session
Beginners and Advanced
Use of Technologies in Assessment (UT)Beyond Exams: Innovative Applications of Formative Assessments in Higher Education
Research indicates that formative assessments help facilitate student learning when appropriately implemented. Additionally, research supports the belief that effective feedback practice fosters self-regulated learning through active monitoring of various learning processes, of which higher education should help build upon. We contend that exploring formative assessment as a framework for monitoring student progress, timely realignment of instruction, and enhancing student achievement can be achieved pedagogically through the use of innovative low-stakes assessment methods. This presentation discusses the utilization of ExamSoft software in a unique and creative way to formatively assess student knowledge and provide useful and timely feedback to enhance student learning.
Dan Thompson and Brandy Close, Oklahoma State University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Use of Technologies in Assessment (UT)Designing Effective Rubrics for Key Performance Assessments of Student Learning
Rationale: One of the most challenging tasks in assessment is developing highly effective rubrics that will improve accuracy and consistency in evaluating students’ acquisition of performance skills included in target learning outcomes. A major goal of such rubrics is to minimize subjectivity in assessing activities that are, by their very nature, highly subjective. This requires a systematic approach to rubric design. Participants will learn the benefits of using valid and reliable rubrics when assessing student performance, become familiar with common rubric design problems, and learn a variety of rubric design strategies to help avoid those pitfalls.
Lance Tomei, University of Central Florida
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Use of Technologies in Assessment (UT)Developing a Smartphone-Based Integrated Student Assessment Data Collection System to Enhance Yamagata University's Education
To improve student learning and success, we have developed a smartphone-based assessment data collection system that has two main features. First, this can automatically collect student class attendance and a use of university library with beacon technology. Second, we can also collect direct and indirect evidence of student learning via smartphone. We will let new incoming students take “Big Five Personality Test” and internally-developed scientific reasoning tests using Item Response Theory models. We plan to use those assessment data for early intervention and measuring student learning gains. More details and demonstration using a beacon will be given during this presentation.
Katsumi Senyo, Shigeru Asano, Koji Fujiwara, and Takao Hashizume, Yamagata University
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Use of Technologies in Assessment (UT)Effective Use of Taskstream for Assessment Management
One of the primary goals of any university is to advance academic quality by focusing on improving student learning and programs. Taskstream Assessment Management System (AMS) was implemented to help programs gather, generate, and use data to improve student learning and program quality. This mixed-method study explored the effectiveness of Taskstream from a user standpoint to identify how programs use Taskstream, identify what works well, identify opportunities for improvement, and make recommendations for improvements. While this study focused on a specific AMS, results are generalizable to other AMS due to the common goals of all AMS and user needs.
Beth Carle, Rochester Institute of Technology
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Use of Technologies in Assessment (UT)The Utilization of Student Assessment Data to Drive Faculty Development and Improve Learning Outcomes
The extraction and aggregation of student assessment data provides educators the opportunity to illustrate student performance well beyond a general exam grade. Specifically, through implementing the use of ExamSoft categories, educators can more accurately identify which instructional methods will provide the best opportunity to maximize student outcomes, and create the course materials needed to implement those methods. This presentation addresses the idea that by utilizing embedded assessment to compile assessment data, enabling educators to identify the most effective instructional methods possible, which both drives faculty development and promotes the improvement of student learning outcomes.
Dan Thompson, Oklahoma State University; and Emma Schartner, ExamSoft
20-Minute Sponsor Session
Beginners and Advanced
Use of Technologies in Assessment (UT)Unlock the Power of Your Data with Campus Labs
Connected data leads to more informed decisions. Join us to learn how an enterprise-wide approach to data management can facilitate better results for your campus. From accreditation and planning to faculty development and learning outcomes, see how the Campus Labs® platform brings everything together for a holistic solution.
Jennifer Schiller and Cathy Fowler, Campus Labs
20-Minute Sponsor Session
Beginners and Advanced
Use of Technologies in Assessment (UT)Using Dashboards to Tell the Story in Student Affairs Assessment
Dashboards have been used in the business world to help assess business practices and goals. Recently this practice has been taken into higher education by allowing professionals to visualize and assess data in a more efficient way. Using dashboards in residence life helps staff interact with data in an easy, user-friendly way. In addition, by using PowerPivot technology, these dashboards can be created with minimal resources. This session will introduce the dashboard process, explain how dashboards are created, and describe how they are used to tell the story in residence life.
Sara F. Reinhardt and Catherine T. Sturm, University of South Carolina
20-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Use of Technologies in Assessment (UT)Using Taskstream to Strengthen the Culture of Assessment
This session is designed to provide participants with an overview of one department’s success in creating a culture of assessment and how technology has assisted in developing this culture, as well as increased students’ perception of assessment. The discussants have implemented and managed a programmatic assessment plan for the largest department on their campus. They will demonstrate their assessment process through the utilization of Taskstream, a software platform designed to collect data and facilitate programmatic and institutional assessment. Learn how this one department created a culture of assessment and discover their best practices of assessment.
Anne L. Power and Mary Zink, Morningside College
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners
Use of Technologies in Assessment (UT)Visual Data Tools for Targeted Student Learning Assessment
Faced with the need to more efficiently and precisely assess all levels of learning outcomes as well as moving their student learning assessment and analysis over more completely into the digital realm, the University of Arkansas - Pulaski Technical College turned to tools from Blackboard Outcomes and EAC Visual Data. Through these tools, the faculty were able to easily perform data analysis on student work in a number of ways that displayed data sets through various lenses. Using the visualization tools from EAC, instructors could fully use their rubric data and specific test questions to pinpoint learning needs.
Susanne C. Ashby and Terry L. Patterson, Pulaski Technology College - University of Arkansas; Christopher Heisen, Educational Assessment Corporation; and Ruth E. Newsberry, Blackboard Consulting Services
60-Minute Concurrent Session
Beginners and Advanced
Use of Technologies in Assessment (UT)