Sharon Silverman, Library, Olive-Harvey College
2013 Assessment Institute in Indianapolis, Indiana Reflection
As I reflect on the various workshops presented at IUPUI, I can not comment on any attended as innovative. Many were heavily lead by administrators prompting me to reflect on this same influx of administrator presentations at HLC. This new movement of administrator presentations strikes me odd since although assessment affects the college as a whole this process in my opinion must be faculty lead.
Another disappointment was the void of librarian presenters. I realize this is bias, but I would be remiss if not to remind colleagues that Library Information Literacy Instruction are sessions taught by librarians. These sessions educates students on research methods, techniques, and pitfalls.
Although this years conference was not as impressive as previous years, one colleges assessment technique peaked my interest. Salt Lake Community College maintains an freely available toolkit for the purpose of assisting faculty with building critical thinking assignments across disciplines. I believe Olive-Harvey College could expound on this idea and encompass not only "critical thinking assignments", but inter-disciplinary assessment ideas/activities.
As I reflect on the various workshops presented at IUPUI, I can not comment on any attended as innovative. Many were heavily lead by administrators prompting me to reflect on this same influx of administrator presentations at HLC. This new movement of administrator presentations strikes me odd since although assessment affects the college as a whole this process in my opinion must be faculty lead.
Another disappointment was the void of librarian presenters. I realize this is bias, but I would be remiss if not to remind colleagues that Library Information Literacy Instruction are sessions taught by librarians. These sessions educates students on research methods, techniques, and pitfalls.
Although this years conference was not as impressive as previous years, one colleges assessment technique peaked my interest. Salt Lake Community College maintains an freely available toolkit for the purpose of assisting faculty with building critical thinking assignments across disciplines. I believe Olive-Harvey College could expound on this idea and encompass not only "critical thinking assignments", but inter-disciplinary assessment ideas/activities.
Stephen Smith, Faculty-Natural Science, Olive-Harvey College
2013 Assessment Institute in Indianapolis, Indiana Reflection
The IUPUI conference on Assessment was an eye opening experience to say the least. As a
faculty member in the natural sciences, many of the concepts learned will not only help me in my
own classroom assessment activities, but also those related to the college. As the Assessment
Chair, these kinds of events are instrumental in helping our institution stay abreast of what needs
to be done to to meet our accreditation goals. The presenters were all quite knowledgeable and
provided us with a wealth of information regarding college level assessment practices. I look
forward to attending this meeting next year!
The IUPUI conference on Assessment was an eye opening experience to say the least. As a
faculty member in the natural sciences, many of the concepts learned will not only help me in my
own classroom assessment activities, but also those related to the college. As the Assessment
Chair, these kinds of events are instrumental in helping our institution stay abreast of what needs
to be done to to meet our accreditation goals. The presenters were all quite knowledgeable and
provided us with a wealth of information regarding college level assessment practices. I look
forward to attending this meeting next year!
Elizabeth Rizzo - Faculty-Reading, Olive-Harvey College
2013 Assessment Institute in Indianapolis, Indiana Reflection
The 2013 Assessment Institute in Indianapolis Conference was beneficial to my instruction, as it has given me ideas for how to more effectively assess student learning. The focus of the workshops I attended focused primarily on assessment at the classroom level.
One session that was particularly relevant to my students was Best Practices for the New Majority: Assessing Underserved Students’ Engagement in High-Impact Practices, hosted by Ashley Finley. Dr. Finley’s session focused mostly on the learning experiences of underserved students, who are defined as transfer, first-generation, and under-represented minority students. The larger influencing factors that help underserved students achieve are First Year Seminars, common intellectual experiences, learning communities, assignments which are writing intensive and collaborative, diversity and global learning, and capstone courses and projects. Essentially, underserved students tend to perform better in schools where these learning supports are offered. Currently, at Olive-Harvey College, we offer College Success, a course which students are encouraged to take to assist them with the soft skills necessary to compete in a higher learning environment. I have embedded, and will continue to embed, instruction for these aforementioned skills in my class, as Dr. Finley’s research supports the idea that these practices have a measurable impact on student learning throughout their college careers. Additionally, this session focused on how learning communities help underserved students succeed. While I have been using texts from other disciplines in my classroom to expose students to a wide variety of writing, I will be teaching a learning community next semester. The research Dr. Finley presented supports the efforts of Olive-Harvey College in encouraging student success through combined coursework. Dr. Finley asserted that students who are enrolled in a learning community are more likely to succeed because they view the class as a greater commitment because it is worth more credit hours and meets more often. They also have a stronger base of support because they see more of the same students throughout the week. Learning communities give underserved students a true sense of community, creating a safe learning environment.
Another session that will influence student learning and assessment at Olive-Harvey was the session hosted by Peter T. Ewell, Pat Hutchings, Elise Martin, and Charlotte Mandell called Mapping the Curriculum: Learning outcomes and Related Assignments. This session focused on building a more structured curriculum by focusing on student learning outcomes and clearly mapping out the methods of instruction and methods of evaluation and assessment. This workshop was particularly informative because the panel shared data with the audience illustrating how using curriculum mapping has helped them document student achievement. The most helpful component of using curriculum maps is that it forces the instructor to be very deliberate when determining what type of assessments will be used and how frequently students should be formally and informally assessed.
Opening the Loop on General Education Written Communication Outcomes in a Community College Setting, presented by Allison D. Carpenter, is a session that focused on writing across the curriculum. The driving focus of this workshop was to inform instructors of all disciplines that if writing (no matter how little) is a requirement in your course, you must teach your students how to write for your specific discipline. For example, students may write essays well for their English class, but my not understand how to accurately write a hypothesis in their science class. Dr. Carpenter encouraged us to model the style of writing that is expected for each assignment so that students understand that they are not solely assessed on whether or not they provided a correct answer, but are also assessed on how they were able to explain and justify their findings. In addition to having my students read text from other content areas, I plan to teach them how to write responses that are expected for that content area.
Overall, my attendance at this conference has had an impact on student learning in my classroom. The research provided by the presenters demonstrated how important learning communities are to underserved students, how curriculum mapping guides instructors to being more effective with focused assessment, and that teaching content-specific writing increases the quality of student work.
The 2013 Assessment Institute in Indianapolis Conference was beneficial to my instruction, as it has given me ideas for how to more effectively assess student learning. The focus of the workshops I attended focused primarily on assessment at the classroom level.
One session that was particularly relevant to my students was Best Practices for the New Majority: Assessing Underserved Students’ Engagement in High-Impact Practices, hosted by Ashley Finley. Dr. Finley’s session focused mostly on the learning experiences of underserved students, who are defined as transfer, first-generation, and under-represented minority students. The larger influencing factors that help underserved students achieve are First Year Seminars, common intellectual experiences, learning communities, assignments which are writing intensive and collaborative, diversity and global learning, and capstone courses and projects. Essentially, underserved students tend to perform better in schools where these learning supports are offered. Currently, at Olive-Harvey College, we offer College Success, a course which students are encouraged to take to assist them with the soft skills necessary to compete in a higher learning environment. I have embedded, and will continue to embed, instruction for these aforementioned skills in my class, as Dr. Finley’s research supports the idea that these practices have a measurable impact on student learning throughout their college careers. Additionally, this session focused on how learning communities help underserved students succeed. While I have been using texts from other disciplines in my classroom to expose students to a wide variety of writing, I will be teaching a learning community next semester. The research Dr. Finley presented supports the efforts of Olive-Harvey College in encouraging student success through combined coursework. Dr. Finley asserted that students who are enrolled in a learning community are more likely to succeed because they view the class as a greater commitment because it is worth more credit hours and meets more often. They also have a stronger base of support because they see more of the same students throughout the week. Learning communities give underserved students a true sense of community, creating a safe learning environment.
Another session that will influence student learning and assessment at Olive-Harvey was the session hosted by Peter T. Ewell, Pat Hutchings, Elise Martin, and Charlotte Mandell called Mapping the Curriculum: Learning outcomes and Related Assignments. This session focused on building a more structured curriculum by focusing on student learning outcomes and clearly mapping out the methods of instruction and methods of evaluation and assessment. This workshop was particularly informative because the panel shared data with the audience illustrating how using curriculum mapping has helped them document student achievement. The most helpful component of using curriculum maps is that it forces the instructor to be very deliberate when determining what type of assessments will be used and how frequently students should be formally and informally assessed.
Opening the Loop on General Education Written Communication Outcomes in a Community College Setting, presented by Allison D. Carpenter, is a session that focused on writing across the curriculum. The driving focus of this workshop was to inform instructors of all disciplines that if writing (no matter how little) is a requirement in your course, you must teach your students how to write for your specific discipline. For example, students may write essays well for their English class, but my not understand how to accurately write a hypothesis in their science class. Dr. Carpenter encouraged us to model the style of writing that is expected for each assignment so that students understand that they are not solely assessed on whether or not they provided a correct answer, but are also assessed on how they were able to explain and justify their findings. In addition to having my students read text from other content areas, I plan to teach them how to write responses that are expected for that content area.
Overall, my attendance at this conference has had an impact on student learning in my classroom. The research provided by the presenters demonstrated how important learning communities are to underserved students, how curriculum mapping guides instructors to being more effective with focused assessment, and that teaching content-specific writing increases the quality of student work.
Lavina Williams - Faculty-English/Reading/Literature, Olive-Harvey College
2013 Assessment Institute in Indianapolis, Indiana Reflection
This semester, I had an opportunity to attend the 2013 Assessment Institute Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. The conference was held October 27-29 2013. “The Assessment Institute in Indianapolis is the nation’s oldest and largest event focused exclusively on outcomes assessment in higher education.” The conference offered pre-workshops, concurrent sessions, a poster session, and numerous networking opportunities. The attendance of more than a thousand educators is anticipated each year. Student presenters, faculty and the vice president of the college joined to participate in every opportunity the conference had to offer.
On the first day of the conference, I attended five concurrent sessions. Although each session I attended taught me something new, there were a few sessions that stood out the most. On October 28th, I attended a session titled “Re-Think: Putting Assessment back into Faculty Hands, for Student Use.” The presenter, Daniel Muzquiz, focused a great deal of the session on a product called Exam Soft and how it made a huge difference at his school. Although I was not interested in using the assessment tool being discussed, the seminar itself was directed towards helping teachers achieve specific classroom goals:
During the presentation, I was reminded of the importance of providing opportunities for feedback during lessons, not just afterwards. Although there was a large amount of people there, easily over a hundred participants, the speaker, Daniel Muzquiz tried to involve the participants in the session as much as possible. Throughout the session, there were demonstrations and activities for us to do.
On the second day of the conference, I attended several concurrent sessions. One session that made the greatest impact was titled, “Collaborating Across Campus to Clarify and Communicate General Education Outcomes.” The presenters, Lisa M. Schreiber and Lynn Marquez began the session by asking the audience to think about the metaphors we use to describe the educational experience. The presenters believe teachers need to begin creating conversations that will make our curriculum visible, allow us to see our collective work, and help us appreciate what we are doing well. Schreiber told attendees to stop referring to our students as "my students" and think of them as "our students." “We must acknowledge the collective performance of a unit and not simply the performances of individuals.” The presenters offered practical ideas for kinds of assessment which I hadn't thought about: one-on-one exit interviews, focus groups with current students and alumni, and course portfolios containing a syllabus, assignments, and sample student work. They stressed the importance of creating a climate in which students, faculty, and service personnel believe that their input counts and that others really want to hear what they have to say.
As a member of the Assessment Committee, my purpose for going to the conference was to increase dialogue on campus about why and how we are doing assessment and how we can do it better. Attending the sessions on “Putting Assessment back into Faculty Hands, for Student Use” and “Collaborating Across Campus to Clarify and Communicate General Education Outcomes” were very educational. The information obtained from these sessions will be applied to my teaching at Olive-Harvey College in a number of ways. Because the conference jogged my imagination, I was encouraged to think about ways to make assessment meaningful to the English/Reading and Literature department. I plan to have conversations with other faculty from my department and other departments on campus to discuss what is happening at Olive-Harvey College and generate meaningful dialogue to improve our current methods. I came away from the conference with new energy and a new perspective on what we might do to make assessment really work for us. Since assessment is definitely not going away, I want to take part in a joint venture.
This semester, I had an opportunity to attend the 2013 Assessment Institute Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. The conference was held October 27-29 2013. “The Assessment Institute in Indianapolis is the nation’s oldest and largest event focused exclusively on outcomes assessment in higher education.” The conference offered pre-workshops, concurrent sessions, a poster session, and numerous networking opportunities. The attendance of more than a thousand educators is anticipated each year. Student presenters, faculty and the vice president of the college joined to participate in every opportunity the conference had to offer.
On the first day of the conference, I attended five concurrent sessions. Although each session I attended taught me something new, there were a few sessions that stood out the most. On October 28th, I attended a session titled “Re-Think: Putting Assessment back into Faculty Hands, for Student Use.” The presenter, Daniel Muzquiz, focused a great deal of the session on a product called Exam Soft and how it made a huge difference at his school. Although I was not interested in using the assessment tool being discussed, the seminar itself was directed towards helping teachers achieve specific classroom goals:
- To help all students feel less intimidated in the classroom
- To help students move beyond memorization of facts to understanding of concepts
- To help engage students in the inquiry process
- To decrease the stress involved in daily teaching chores
During the presentation, I was reminded of the importance of providing opportunities for feedback during lessons, not just afterwards. Although there was a large amount of people there, easily over a hundred participants, the speaker, Daniel Muzquiz tried to involve the participants in the session as much as possible. Throughout the session, there were demonstrations and activities for us to do.
On the second day of the conference, I attended several concurrent sessions. One session that made the greatest impact was titled, “Collaborating Across Campus to Clarify and Communicate General Education Outcomes.” The presenters, Lisa M. Schreiber and Lynn Marquez began the session by asking the audience to think about the metaphors we use to describe the educational experience. The presenters believe teachers need to begin creating conversations that will make our curriculum visible, allow us to see our collective work, and help us appreciate what we are doing well. Schreiber told attendees to stop referring to our students as "my students" and think of them as "our students." “We must acknowledge the collective performance of a unit and not simply the performances of individuals.” The presenters offered practical ideas for kinds of assessment which I hadn't thought about: one-on-one exit interviews, focus groups with current students and alumni, and course portfolios containing a syllabus, assignments, and sample student work. They stressed the importance of creating a climate in which students, faculty, and service personnel believe that their input counts and that others really want to hear what they have to say.
As a member of the Assessment Committee, my purpose for going to the conference was to increase dialogue on campus about why and how we are doing assessment and how we can do it better. Attending the sessions on “Putting Assessment back into Faculty Hands, for Student Use” and “Collaborating Across Campus to Clarify and Communicate General Education Outcomes” were very educational. The information obtained from these sessions will be applied to my teaching at Olive-Harvey College in a number of ways. Because the conference jogged my imagination, I was encouraged to think about ways to make assessment meaningful to the English/Reading and Literature department. I plan to have conversations with other faculty from my department and other departments on campus to discuss what is happening at Olive-Harvey College and generate meaningful dialogue to improve our current methods. I came away from the conference with new energy and a new perspective on what we might do to make assessment really work for us. Since assessment is definitely not going away, I want to take part in a joint venture.
Luis Delgado - Faculty-Foreign Languages, Olive-Harvey College
2013 Assessment Institute in Indianapolis, Indiana Reflection
We, as an educational institution, have the responsibility to verify that our students are gaining the academic skills that they need to have a successful and productive professional life. Comprehensive, consistent, and collaborative assessment is the mechanism that allows us to gauge students´ progress acquiring the learning outcomes set forth by our college in a collective manner. Assessment also permits the entire college to identify instructional areas in need of improvement and act accordingly.
Participating in the Assessment Institute really helped me grasp the whole realm of assessment. It gave me a broad and holistic view of assessment. Now I feel I can confidently “talk assessment.”
We, as an educational institution, have the responsibility to verify that our students are gaining the academic skills that they need to have a successful and productive professional life. Comprehensive, consistent, and collaborative assessment is the mechanism that allows us to gauge students´ progress acquiring the learning outcomes set forth by our college in a collective manner. Assessment also permits the entire college to identify instructional areas in need of improvement and act accordingly.
Participating in the Assessment Institute really helped me grasp the whole realm of assessment. It gave me a broad and holistic view of assessment. Now I feel I can confidently “talk assessment.”
John Jackson - Faculty-Mathematics, Olive-Harvey College
2013 Assessment Institute in Indianapolis, Indiana Reflection
I’ve found this year’s assessment conference to be beneficial as it has provided great insight into assessment practices at varying levels of consumerism. Yet perhaps more beneficially it has added several more dimensions to my instructional practices.
The entire assessment process was described within the context of making certain that it is much more than a fill the box activity for the purpose of compliance. Assessment is best begun with the potential consumers in mind, which includes several parties but primarily assessment serves students. Yet there are stakeholders which advocate student need, and thusly make decisions with student interest in mind. The various forms of assessment, including institutional, program, and class assessments, vary with respect to the pressing issues and concerns of the consumer. My learnings primarily involve the realm of classroom assessment, although I’ve attended workshops involving the other forms.
Capstone and pre-requisite courses are the most important courses to focus upon with respect to maintaining a high quality program. Course design should be research based, high impact practices needs to be integrated into the learning experience. Simple, sustainable assessments need to be aligned to expected student outcomes. Mount Saint Mary College has built a predictive model which “foretold” which students were more likely to be retained/succeed based on various characteristics. Students were identified before even the first day of class so that support services can be targeted to this specific population. The middle deciles were given the most support while the upper and lower deciles were given a relatively lesser amount of support. Support came in the form of academic advising, academic coaches and tutoring – all three prescribed in varying amounts. Interestingly the most predictive factor at the presenting campus was student involvement on a sports team. Also the most “helpful” form of support was tutoring. I envision something like the predictive model readily being duplicated at a campus like ours. Our form of supports and prescription based on the model would be based on research findings. Perhaps enrollment in high impact, differentiated courses might be the prescription.
Joan Ferrini-Mundy from the National Science Foundation, NSF, was the keynote speaker for the STEM series and shared a more nationwide perspective. Ms. Mundy highlighted the country’s need for STEM graduates versus non-STEM graduates. The President’s goal is to have an additional 1 million persons attain a college degree in a STEM field by the year 2022. The reality is that mathematics is the common limiting factor of degree attainment for all STEM majors. It’s suggested that the remedial tracks in math last so long that there is a lessened persistence within STEM majors (SOURCE: Mathematical Sciences report in 2025). Mundy offers that the challenge is to design a more sensitive diagnostic tool for appropriate placement within a Calculus based track versus a Statistics based one. The rationale is that different forms of thinking are necessary for the two tracks. Additionally undergraduate STEM instruction and teacher preparation programs completes the triad of suggested solutions for the issue at hand. The current perception held by students is that introductory courses are relatively “uninspiring”, and that the academic climate is rather harsh and unwelcoming. I look to cultivate an academic brand which welcomes and inspires.
My OH experience will include an ever-expanding adaptation of the ideal to integrate research experiences into the classroom. Research suggests that coverage of less material when coupled with a greater amount of practice or engagement in research oriented processes actually adds value for the student. Students gain more intellectually and are more likely to persist. An additional shift in my educational philosophy includes addressing the areas identified which point to career readiness within STEM. The 21st century is one which is partially characterized by a wealth of data. Instruction needs to data. Areas identified for improvement include reading for information, applied mathematics, locating information, and reading descriptive organizers (such as graphs, charts, tables, etc.).
This conference served a wealth of knowledge and is effectively the epicenter of a shift in the focus of my assessment activity. Instructional strategies including group take home exams (with rolling deadlines), aiding in an electronic portfolio for first year students, and a methodology for assessing graphing are additional topics not mentioned above.
I’ve found this year’s assessment conference to be beneficial as it has provided great insight into assessment practices at varying levels of consumerism. Yet perhaps more beneficially it has added several more dimensions to my instructional practices.
The entire assessment process was described within the context of making certain that it is much more than a fill the box activity for the purpose of compliance. Assessment is best begun with the potential consumers in mind, which includes several parties but primarily assessment serves students. Yet there are stakeholders which advocate student need, and thusly make decisions with student interest in mind. The various forms of assessment, including institutional, program, and class assessments, vary with respect to the pressing issues and concerns of the consumer. My learnings primarily involve the realm of classroom assessment, although I’ve attended workshops involving the other forms.
Capstone and pre-requisite courses are the most important courses to focus upon with respect to maintaining a high quality program. Course design should be research based, high impact practices needs to be integrated into the learning experience. Simple, sustainable assessments need to be aligned to expected student outcomes. Mount Saint Mary College has built a predictive model which “foretold” which students were more likely to be retained/succeed based on various characteristics. Students were identified before even the first day of class so that support services can be targeted to this specific population. The middle deciles were given the most support while the upper and lower deciles were given a relatively lesser amount of support. Support came in the form of academic advising, academic coaches and tutoring – all three prescribed in varying amounts. Interestingly the most predictive factor at the presenting campus was student involvement on a sports team. Also the most “helpful” form of support was tutoring. I envision something like the predictive model readily being duplicated at a campus like ours. Our form of supports and prescription based on the model would be based on research findings. Perhaps enrollment in high impact, differentiated courses might be the prescription.
Joan Ferrini-Mundy from the National Science Foundation, NSF, was the keynote speaker for the STEM series and shared a more nationwide perspective. Ms. Mundy highlighted the country’s need for STEM graduates versus non-STEM graduates. The President’s goal is to have an additional 1 million persons attain a college degree in a STEM field by the year 2022. The reality is that mathematics is the common limiting factor of degree attainment for all STEM majors. It’s suggested that the remedial tracks in math last so long that there is a lessened persistence within STEM majors (SOURCE: Mathematical Sciences report in 2025). Mundy offers that the challenge is to design a more sensitive diagnostic tool for appropriate placement within a Calculus based track versus a Statistics based one. The rationale is that different forms of thinking are necessary for the two tracks. Additionally undergraduate STEM instruction and teacher preparation programs completes the triad of suggested solutions for the issue at hand. The current perception held by students is that introductory courses are relatively “uninspiring”, and that the academic climate is rather harsh and unwelcoming. I look to cultivate an academic brand which welcomes and inspires.
My OH experience will include an ever-expanding adaptation of the ideal to integrate research experiences into the classroom. Research suggests that coverage of less material when coupled with a greater amount of practice or engagement in research oriented processes actually adds value for the student. Students gain more intellectually and are more likely to persist. An additional shift in my educational philosophy includes addressing the areas identified which point to career readiness within STEM. The 21st century is one which is partially characterized by a wealth of data. Instruction needs to data. Areas identified for improvement include reading for information, applied mathematics, locating information, and reading descriptive organizers (such as graphs, charts, tables, etc.).
This conference served a wealth of knowledge and is effectively the epicenter of a shift in the focus of my assessment activity. Instructional strategies including group take home exams (with rolling deadlines), aiding in an electronic portfolio for first year students, and a methodology for assessing graphing are additional topics not mentioned above.
Nathaniel Wilkerson III, Olive-Harvey College Student
Assessment in Indianapolis Review
Today at the Assessment Institute in Indianapolis I listened to many credible educators speak about student learning outcomes and assessment. I sat through an introductory gathering that included a panel discussion, attended a lecture about assessment at small schools like OHC, heard from international scholars about student learning outcomes, and received insight from a professor from Western Michigan University about assessment; all of which gave great ethos to assessment as a whole.
Earlier this morning there was an introduction that kick started today’s events. There was an opening plenary panel which included: Stanley O. Ikenberry, Thomas A. Angelo, Trudy W. Banta, Peter T. Ewell, George D. Kuh, and Jeffrey A. Seybert. The panel was asked questioned provocatively by Mr. Ikenberry about topics such as: How should faculty and staff go about improving assessment? As well as, how should institutional leaders promote and help assessment awareness? Each panelist gave efficient responses to each question like investing more into assessment and setting reachable goals, meeting them, and then exceeding the latter. The intro gave way to a productive day of learning.
In the early afternoon, my counterpart, Ms. Williams and I, attended a lecture about strategies for leveraging limited resources at small colleges. The presenters, Kimberly L. Filer and Tim W. Merrill both introduced Ms. Williams and I to meaningful assessment practices that have demonstrated additional benefits for college constitutes. Some of the practices included quality enhancement plans, making assessment a separate engagement among students, and putting Gen Ed exercises inside assignments in all courses. This presentation gave me a few ideas that I hope to bring to OHC.
In the afternoon special guest speakers Larry A. Braskamp, Darla Deardorff, and Dawn M. Whitehead all echoed upon their study abroad experiences and revealed how assessment was connected worldwide. Unfortunately the guest speakers Q & A session was cancelled due to time constraints. A few minutes later, I arrived at a very well put together presentation by Ewa L. Urban of Western Michigan University. Professor Urban illustrated how a student affairs department’s strategic planning can be aligned with division and university goals and priorities to improve student learning. Ms. Urban also shared an example of a career services strategic plan, which included an outcome delivery map which aided students and helped them complete student learning outcomes. This presentation was very informative, educated me, and gave me ideas about how to improve assessment just like the others.
Today was a very informative day, from start to finish. Now the only thing left to do is present on Tuesday, return back to OHC, and share all of my new acquired knowledge with my peers.
Today at the Assessment Institute in Indianapolis I listened to many credible educators speak about student learning outcomes and assessment. I sat through an introductory gathering that included a panel discussion, attended a lecture about assessment at small schools like OHC, heard from international scholars about student learning outcomes, and received insight from a professor from Western Michigan University about assessment; all of which gave great ethos to assessment as a whole.
Earlier this morning there was an introduction that kick started today’s events. There was an opening plenary panel which included: Stanley O. Ikenberry, Thomas A. Angelo, Trudy W. Banta, Peter T. Ewell, George D. Kuh, and Jeffrey A. Seybert. The panel was asked questioned provocatively by Mr. Ikenberry about topics such as: How should faculty and staff go about improving assessment? As well as, how should institutional leaders promote and help assessment awareness? Each panelist gave efficient responses to each question like investing more into assessment and setting reachable goals, meeting them, and then exceeding the latter. The intro gave way to a productive day of learning.
In the early afternoon, my counterpart, Ms. Williams and I, attended a lecture about strategies for leveraging limited resources at small colleges. The presenters, Kimberly L. Filer and Tim W. Merrill both introduced Ms. Williams and I to meaningful assessment practices that have demonstrated additional benefits for college constitutes. Some of the practices included quality enhancement plans, making assessment a separate engagement among students, and putting Gen Ed exercises inside assignments in all courses. This presentation gave me a few ideas that I hope to bring to OHC.
In the afternoon special guest speakers Larry A. Braskamp, Darla Deardorff, and Dawn M. Whitehead all echoed upon their study abroad experiences and revealed how assessment was connected worldwide. Unfortunately the guest speakers Q & A session was cancelled due to time constraints. A few minutes later, I arrived at a very well put together presentation by Ewa L. Urban of Western Michigan University. Professor Urban illustrated how a student affairs department’s strategic planning can be aligned with division and university goals and priorities to improve student learning. Ms. Urban also shared an example of a career services strategic plan, which included an outcome delivery map which aided students and helped them complete student learning outcomes. This presentation was very informative, educated me, and gave me ideas about how to improve assessment just like the others.
Today was a very informative day, from start to finish. Now the only thing left to do is present on Tuesday, return back to OHC, and share all of my new acquired knowledge with my peers.
Jennifer Williams, Olive-Harvey College Student
PART 1
"The following session day two of the conference dealt with aligning career service strategic planning with institutions goals. This session illustrated how a student affairs department's strategic planning can be aligned with division and university goals and priorities to improve student learning and align with faculty proprieties. The purpose of doing so is to ensure a distinctive learning and foster the success of students. Assisting students with obtaining jobs that align with their values. The presenter Ms. Urban from Western Michigan University, created a customized action plan that takes into consideration a student’s values, interests, skills, and personality in what direction their heading in there career planning. By using proper assessments, pure articulation of their values, interest, skills, and personality characteristics were the focus on interpreting data. This data was then used to describe their skills, interest, and accomplishments through resumes, cover letters, answers to interview questions, and personal commercials. In the matter of which the information was presented I was very impressed about the passion that existed in making sure students career choices matched their present skills. The presenter also, reminded her participants to know the schools mission, accreditation mission, and the mission of student affairs. To create a shared image and dialogue about ways to align the functions to form an action plan.
One of the most interesting things that strike a chord with me, was how effective is our College to Careers at OHC? I, first begin to think about my personal experience with the department. It was when the new Pullman Wal-Mart was being built, at the time I was not aware of that this department existed. I communicated with fellow students and they were not aware of the department or they were under the impression that it was for the logistic programs only. I became extremely concerned with the familiarities of the existing departments of our campus, and how students can utilize this available tool. I had a personal conversation with the dean of college to careers and voiced my concerns. He assured me that marketing strategies will be evaluated to help promote the department’s purpose. Some suggestions from the conference that would be useful to Olive Harvey is to again get departments in sync with one another. Two, discovery, dream, design, and deliver, what Olive Harvey outcomes our for students."
PART 2
"Day two was amazing, the atmosphere was filled with learning and excitement; I was ready to receive the flood of information that was coming. In the first session members from Randolph-Macon College and Florida International University, were discussing strategies for effective, efficient, meaningful assessment practices. These practices are design to help smaller institutions with smaller budgets and smaller resources to activate given tools to make students more effective with their learning outcomes. Similarities begin to spark as the challenges of small institutions and what we currently face at OHC were surfaced. To name a few general education curriculum recognizing key institutional structures, accreditation realities and decentralized assessment were some of the key concerns pointed out by admission. Another important factor discussed was knowing the difference between assessments and evaluation. Although, these words can sometimes be used interchange, there is a major difference between the two. Evaluation deals with more ways to trying to fix the problem, well assessment is more tweaking.
So, what did I learn that would be essential to OHC? I believe re constructing how assessment are done on campus is necessary. Getting more students and faculty to combine ideas to promote the mission of the school. Emerging “culture bonding” strategies to develop unique and unexpected way to motivate students to participate. Build networks with other institutions on assessment and share faculty development solutions with other schools. Finally, on budgeting how much is spent on assessments, we should consider more incentives beside to gear students to get on board."
"The following session day two of the conference dealt with aligning career service strategic planning with institutions goals. This session illustrated how a student affairs department's strategic planning can be aligned with division and university goals and priorities to improve student learning and align with faculty proprieties. The purpose of doing so is to ensure a distinctive learning and foster the success of students. Assisting students with obtaining jobs that align with their values. The presenter Ms. Urban from Western Michigan University, created a customized action plan that takes into consideration a student’s values, interests, skills, and personality in what direction their heading in there career planning. By using proper assessments, pure articulation of their values, interest, skills, and personality characteristics were the focus on interpreting data. This data was then used to describe their skills, interest, and accomplishments through resumes, cover letters, answers to interview questions, and personal commercials. In the matter of which the information was presented I was very impressed about the passion that existed in making sure students career choices matched their present skills. The presenter also, reminded her participants to know the schools mission, accreditation mission, and the mission of student affairs. To create a shared image and dialogue about ways to align the functions to form an action plan.
One of the most interesting things that strike a chord with me, was how effective is our College to Careers at OHC? I, first begin to think about my personal experience with the department. It was when the new Pullman Wal-Mart was being built, at the time I was not aware of that this department existed. I communicated with fellow students and they were not aware of the department or they were under the impression that it was for the logistic programs only. I became extremely concerned with the familiarities of the existing departments of our campus, and how students can utilize this available tool. I had a personal conversation with the dean of college to careers and voiced my concerns. He assured me that marketing strategies will be evaluated to help promote the department’s purpose. Some suggestions from the conference that would be useful to Olive Harvey is to again get departments in sync with one another. Two, discovery, dream, design, and deliver, what Olive Harvey outcomes our for students."
PART 2
"Day two was amazing, the atmosphere was filled with learning and excitement; I was ready to receive the flood of information that was coming. In the first session members from Randolph-Macon College and Florida International University, were discussing strategies for effective, efficient, meaningful assessment practices. These practices are design to help smaller institutions with smaller budgets and smaller resources to activate given tools to make students more effective with their learning outcomes. Similarities begin to spark as the challenges of small institutions and what we currently face at OHC were surfaced. To name a few general education curriculum recognizing key institutional structures, accreditation realities and decentralized assessment were some of the key concerns pointed out by admission. Another important factor discussed was knowing the difference between assessments and evaluation. Although, these words can sometimes be used interchange, there is a major difference between the two. Evaluation deals with more ways to trying to fix the problem, well assessment is more tweaking.
So, what did I learn that would be essential to OHC? I believe re constructing how assessment are done on campus is necessary. Getting more students and faculty to combine ideas to promote the mission of the school. Emerging “culture bonding” strategies to develop unique and unexpected way to motivate students to participate. Build networks with other institutions on assessment and share faculty development solutions with other schools. Finally, on budgeting how much is spent on assessments, we should consider more incentives beside to gear students to get on board."