Assessment grant report
Ruth Schwartz
October 2005
At the end of 2004, Dr. Hossein Hakimzadeh and I received a $2,000 grant
to help us begin the establishment of some assessment guidelines for the
informatics program. The application for the grant stated that most of
the funds would be used to attend an assessment workshop where we could
learn how to develop the new plan and learn about any current trends in
the assessment community.
Dr. Hakimzadeh and I attended a pre-conference workshop held in conjunction
with the Twenty-Second Annual Academic Chairpersons Conference. This workshop
was held on February 7, 2005. The title of the session was "Developing
Program Level Assessment Plans" and the presenter was Susan Hatfield
who is a peer reviewer with the Higher Learning Commission of the North
Central Association along with other academic duties.
The workshop was interactive. We were presented with various tools and
rubrics and then we were asked to apply them to various scenarios including
a subset of our own program plan. She stressed that assessment is an interactive
process and that it is never ending (as I have learned). She stressed
the importance of collecting data that will allow us to determine how
well our performance matches the standards we have set forth for the program.
It is probably most interesting that this session and the session we
had on campus recently both stressed the importance of keeping it simple
- a few goals with a few outcomes. Anything more than that is too complex
to implement. Look for continuous improvement with a constant realignment
of goals and outcomes.
We spent $1,812.84 in airfare, hotel, and registration fees. The remaining
monies have not been spent.
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