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November 2006
Faculty attending: Barbara Peat, Julie Allee, John Novak, E.J. Fenner, Hossein Hakimzadeh, Lynn Williams
Comments from Barbara Peat:
Finding Common Ground: Building a Cross Disciplinary Model for Outcomes Assessment
This was an interactive workshop focused on developing a cross disciplinary assessment approach based on common expectations regardless of the course content. The workshop participants broke into groups of 5 or 6 and were assigned various tasks to complete including foci for skill development, competency areas for graduation, and mapping across the curriculum. The end result was that all of the groups had five basic areas of commonality, regardless of content area, which would be the focus of assessment for students graduating from the programs: critical thinking, writing, reading comprehension, math, and research. In a broader sense students were expected to be problem solvers with good communication skills (verbal and written) as well as being “continuous learners”. The workshop participants learned that assessment strategies can be developed across the curriculum and they learned the usefulness of mapping for identifying courses in which students learn the basic skills.
Assessment Results: How Can They Lead to Curriculum Changes?
This presentation provided information about the history of assessment at Robert Morris College. The presenters were from a business department. Specific information was given on how to gain faculty involvement in assessment activities. They started with curriculum meetings whereat faculty wrote assessment outcome statements and provided examples of assignments to be used to measure outcomes. They focused heavily on the importance of mapping across the curriculum based on agreed upon skill development. The presenters also gave useful information on a senior capstone project used for assessment and distributed an example rubric they developed to score the capstone project as well as a comprehensive exam they use for assessment purposes. Participants of this workshop were involved in determining ways in which challenges faced with assessing specific projects could be met. The presenters discussed how assessment results can impact pedagogy. They told the participants that the administration of their school has used assessment results for making decisions on budgetary requests such as new software programs used for instruction.
Can We Fatten a Hog Just by Weighing It? Using Program Review to Improve Teaching Effectiveness and Learning Outcomes
The presenter led an interactive workshop focused on defining assessment in higher education, rating seven premises underlying the uses of program reviews, and highlighting the elements of what is needed to get the most benefit out of a program review. What was of particular usefulness is the comparisons the participants did of what they are currently doing for academic program review and what program review would look like if we could do it in a way that would be most beneficial. The presenter led the group through an exercise in determining course and assignment to fit key learning outcomes (KLOs). He also emphasized the importance of mapping across the curriculum. He then gave information about diagnostic assessments and formative assessments and the differences between these two. The worksheets and reference page that he distributed are of particular usefulness to anyone in planning an assessment protocol.
Assessment of Critical Thinking in Hampshire College’s Capstone Projects
The two presenters provided the participants with information on assessing a written capstone project. The project they require in their school is a year long activity. The presenters developed a rubric to be used to score the assignment and “blind reviewers” were used to assess the work of 81 different theses from four content areas. The presenters then gave specific information about the benefits and challenges of using this assessment strategy.
Course Embedded Assessment in Service Learning
The presenter provided information about how to assess service learning projects. He walked the group through the application form used by faculty who are designing a service learning course and what is to be used for project evaluation. He then gave specific information about a service learning project from a Spanish course. The faculty who are involved in the service learning projects also conduct a self-evaluation which can impact pedagogy. He gave a handout that provided the questions used in designing and evaluating service learning that could be useful to any faculty who are planning a similar activity.
Improving Teaching and Learning in the Classroom: Strategies to Enhance the Validity of Assessments
After providing definitions and examples of content, criterion, and construct validity, the presenter used case studies to engage the workshop attendees in developing ways in which validity can be improved in assessment strategies. The workshop was heavily research focused and gave important factors to keep in mind when planning assessment.
Comments from Julie Allee:
After attending the National Assessment Institute in Indianapolis, I have gained much information about the implementation and use of electronic portfolios. The ePortfolio tract at the institute allowed me the opportunity to gain valuable insights into what is working for other institutions as well as ways to make portfolios a part of our student assessment process. Since our area is currently in the process of setting up portfolios to evaluate student learning, attendance at the institute will continue to be very helpful. From the institute I have gotten ideas about how to evaluate student portfolios, what they should look like, as well as how they actually assess student learning. Above all, the access to information clearinghouses gained from my attendance at the institute on the topic of ePortfolios will continue to be of use to the area in the implementation and continued use of portfolios. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the National Assessment Institute and feel that I have gained much from the experience
Comments from Hossein Hakimzadeh
Lynn Williams and I attended the 2006 Assessment Institute in Indianapolis. The
primary reason for attending the conference was to present a 75 minute workshop on IUEVAL
and the “Pros and Cons of Electronic Course Evaluations”. Our secondary reason
for attending this conference was to learn from other researchers in areas such as
assessment, accreditation and e-portfolios.
Our IU-EVAL workshop was well attended by approximately 12 to 15 participants.
These were mostly administrators from other institutions with interest in implementing
electronic course evaluation at their campus. Some already used electronic evaluations
and were interested in learning about our experiences in regards to increasing faculty and
student participation. Also, there was at least one individual who was interested in
developing such a system for their institution and asked about gaining access to our
design documentation. In addition to our presentation and the discussion, we allowed the
participant to get hands-on experience with IU-EVAL. In order to accomplish this, we
took a number of laptops and created our own wireless network on site. Then
participants were invited to use their own laptops or one of ours to connect to IU-EVAL
and participate in completing an online survey. After the survey was completed, we
proceeded to demonstrate the report capability of our system.
Overall, the workshop was quite successful. Nearly, everyone stopped to indicate that
they enjoyed the presentation. A number of the attendees asked for electronic copies of
our slides so that they could share it with others at their institutions. One attendee asked
to gain access to the project web site so he may review our technical design
documentation.
Attached for your reference please find a copy of the following items:
1) Our Workshop Proposal (Pros and Cons of Electronic Course Evaluations)
2) Acceptance of the proposal and invitation to present at the conference.
3) Copies of the slides used at the workshop.
In addition to presenting our workshop, we had the opportunity to attend a number of
sessions on outcome assessment, retention, accreditation, and e-portfolios. A topic that I
tried to concentrate on was e-portfolios. I attended a number of sessions on this topic and
spoke with representatives from organizations which develop and market such systems. I
also spoke with a professor from IUPUI who has developed such a system and was
demonstrating it at the conference.
Given our track record in developing successful software tools (IU-EVAL, etc), it is my
hope that in the next 2 to 3 years, we will be working on developing such a system at IU
South Bend. With proper design, such a system should accommodate both student as
well as faculty portfolios.
Comments from Lynn Williams
My primary reason for attending the 2006 Assessment Institute was to deliver a Best Practices Presentation with Hossein Hakimzadeh on the Pros and Cons of Electronic Course Evaluations.
The opining keynote panel helped to from the current national climate concerning assessment and accountability. I attended a number of presentations that were informative. A presentation by George Kuh and Jillian Kinzie on DEEP Lessons for Promoting Student Success and Education Effectiveness contained Benchmarks of Effective Education Practice and indicated how NSSE data could be used in assessment. Another presentation by George Kuh on Using What We Know included information about high impact activities for student learning. A session by Victor Borden and Susan Kahn on Accountability for Student Learning was informative. I attended a session on general education assessment and one on assessing the first year success. However, the most beneficial session that I attended was a presentation on Targeting At-Risk Students by Using a First-Year Learning Community to Increase Success by Carl Burns and Tammy Pratt of the University of Missouri-Rolla. With a relatively small budget, they were able to make about a 10%difference in the one year retention rate for students in developmental mathematics classes. I hope to get more information about their approach to see if we could use something similar at IU South Bend.
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