IU South Bend ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE -Annual Report

Presented to the Academic Senate October, 2008

Previous Reports to Academic Senate

 The IU South Bend Assessment Committee, in existence since 1995, is responsible for promoting, supporting and monitoring departmental assessment programs. The primary activity of the Assessment Committee is the Third Year Assessment Review. These are conducted each spring on a rotating calendar so that each academic program's assessment processes and data are evaluated every third year. The Assessment Committee also requests annual updates from each department, provides grants on a competitive basis, and maintains a website and resource center. The Assessment Committee is currently a joint committee of the Academic Senate and Academic Affairs. Five members are appointed by the Academic Senate and four members by the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. From the membership, the Committee selects a Chair who is appointed by the Vice-Chancellor.

1. Ten academic programs presented Third Year Reviews in the spring of 2008.  In each category, the Committee assigned a rubric score based on the following definitions: 1 - Undeveloped, 2 - Developing, 3- Established, and 4- Exemplary. The following categories were evaluated with the resulting average scores: Educational Goals – 3.1, Assessment Techniques – 3.5; Data - 2.9; Analysis – 3.1; Response – 3.1; Constituency Participation - 2.7; and Record Keeping - 2.7. Total scores ranged from 10 to 27.5, with a mean score of 21.
A summary table of rubric scores is attached.  More details are available on the assessment committee website.

2. The Assessment Committee distributed $8832 for four assessment grants during 2007/08.

• Randy Isaacson will be evaluating the U100 course data.
• The Nursing Program was awarded a grant to obtain detailed reports of the results of the NCLEX exam. This is the standardized test which allows graduating students to practice nursing.
• The School of Education received a grant to send additional faculty to the NCATE conference, including faculty from LAS who partner with the SOE in service courses. The SOE will also have the help of a professional consultant in aligning their graduate programs with national teaching standards.
• The Economics program will be piloting the TUCE standardized test in the principles of economics classes.

3. The Assessment Committee hosted a workshop on Friday, March 28th, led by Douglas Davenport, the Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Truman University.  He presented two half-day assessment workshops.  One was on using assessment in the classroom.  The other explored institutional effectiveness measures.  Dr. Davenport gave a dynamic presentation which included very practical and specific ways to improve assessment at IU South Bend.  Approximately 20 people were in attendance.  His power-point materials are available on the Assessment Committee website.

4.  The assessment committee played an important role in the successful Higher Learning Commission accreditation review by providing data and information to many of the groups writing the self-study report, and by meeting with the accreditation team to discuss the assessment culture and activities on campus.

5.  The assessment committee is looking forward to a full year in 2008/09.  In addition to its regular activities, the committee is planning an assessment workshop for this fall.  This workshop will be a valuable opportunity for anyone striving to make the student learning experience on our campus the best possible.    Also this fall, the assessment committee plans to take advantage of the new IU South Bend website format to completely overhaul the assessment website to make it even more useful and user-friendly.   The committee is welcoming several new members this year:  Michelle Bakerson from Education, Julie Allee from Communications and Feng Shan from the library.  The committee will benefit from their fresh perspectives.