Barbara Wiens-Tuers, Penn State Altoona
Wants to see assessment done right for faculty and students. Important: travel to conferences and other places to see what assessment looks like and how it can be implemented on a large campus.
Have a teaching / learning consortium, book discussion group, informal discussions on assessment. Have an ad-hoc assessment committee formed on their campus last spring. Formed by a group of faculty. Driving principle was keep it simple. Questions can be basic starting out.
Mentioned IUPUI Assessment conference and visting Alverno--a school that has done assessment well.
Alan Graefe, Recreation, Parks, Tourism Management
Have eight core courses required in the major. Are looking at objectives and converting them to learning outcomes. Delineating approaches to measuring outcomes. Used student surveys to determine whether course outcomes were achieved.
James Howell, Veterinary Sciences
Sees assessment as a means for enabling curriculum updates, developing lab courses, advising training and support for faculty advisors; building a more deliberate effort to integrate undergraduate research; evaluating placement--are students getting jobs; strengthening the first year experience; strengthening the educational experience for transfer students from other Penn State campuses.
Discussed a blog project he conducted with his classes. Students blogged about concepts they didn't understand. Blog entries contained much food for thought. The class blog James referenced is located here: http://www.personal.psu.edu/jeh37/blogs/james_endres_howell/
Lisa Lenze, Director of Learning Initiatives, College of IST
Her background is in education. College has not collected much data yet. Stressing review of curriculum rather than course. Are planning to use Angel for assessment; communicating broadly throughout the college; keep modifying the assessment plan based on what faculty say they need to make this real. She stressed the need to overcome the belief that faculty cannot agree. Have had retreats and other structured activities focused on assessment and evaluating student work. Stressed 'triangulation'--looking at other sources of assessment, such as the NSSE, first year student surveys, senior exit surveys, student satisfaction surveys, and course projects and exams. This spring, IST will begin their first effort to collect assessment data.
Bill Lasher, Behrend College
Outlined the assessment structure in place. External measures (exams, survey) connected to 10 outcomes, which are informed by student feedback and faculty evaluation. Insights from the process: External measures and student opinion are easy to collect. Evaluation of student work by faculty requires organization (automated reminders to faculty) and training; Are faculty explicitly teaching to the outcome? Assessment must involve the entire university. Are students gaining essential learning outcomes in courses outside of the college (ex., written / oral communication)
Lolita Paff, Penn State Berks
Shared a timeline for Berks Business program assessment. 2002: Mapped courses by content area; developed a mission statement. 2004: Administration developed a mission statement; 2007: Revisited course mapping. 2008: Want AACSB accreditation; mission statement revised by faculty; course objectives standardized across sections of business core courses; Future plans: Developing an implementation plan; collect direct assessment data; Identify 2-3 objectives to be assessed; Evaluate results. Showed an example of their learning outcomes grid.
Wants to see assessment done right for faculty and students. Important: travel to conferences and other places to see what assessment looks like and how it can be implemented on a large campus.
Have a teaching / learning consortium, book discussion group, informal discussions on assessment. Have an ad-hoc assessment committee formed on their campus last spring. Formed by a group of faculty. Driving principle was keep it simple. Questions can be basic starting out.
Mentioned IUPUI Assessment conference and visting Alverno--a school that has done assessment well.
Alan Graefe, Recreation, Parks, Tourism Management
Have eight core courses required in the major. Are looking at objectives and converting them to learning outcomes. Delineating approaches to measuring outcomes. Used student surveys to determine whether course outcomes were achieved.
James Howell, Veterinary Sciences
Sees assessment as a means for enabling curriculum updates, developing lab courses, advising training and support for faculty advisors; building a more deliberate effort to integrate undergraduate research; evaluating placement--are students getting jobs; strengthening the first year experience; strengthening the educational experience for transfer students from other Penn State campuses.
Discussed a blog project he conducted with his classes. Students blogged about concepts they didn't understand. Blog entries contained much food for thought. The class blog James referenced is located here: http://www.personal.psu.edu/jeh37/blogs/james_endres_howell/
Lisa Lenze, Director of Learning Initiatives, College of IST
Her background is in education. College has not collected much data yet. Stressing review of curriculum rather than course. Are planning to use Angel for assessment; communicating broadly throughout the college; keep modifying the assessment plan based on what faculty say they need to make this real. She stressed the need to overcome the belief that faculty cannot agree. Have had retreats and other structured activities focused on assessment and evaluating student work. Stressed 'triangulation'--looking at other sources of assessment, such as the NSSE, first year student surveys, senior exit surveys, student satisfaction surveys, and course projects and exams. This spring, IST will begin their first effort to collect assessment data.
Bill Lasher, Behrend College
Outlined the assessment structure in place. External measures (exams, survey) connected to 10 outcomes, which are informed by student feedback and faculty evaluation. Insights from the process: External measures and student opinion are easy to collect. Evaluation of student work by faculty requires organization (automated reminders to faculty) and training; Are faculty explicitly teaching to the outcome? Assessment must involve the entire university. Are students gaining essential learning outcomes in courses outside of the college (ex., written / oral communication)
Lolita Paff, Penn State Berks
Shared a timeline for Berks Business program assessment. 2002: Mapped courses by content area; developed a mission statement. 2004: Administration developed a mission statement; 2007: Revisited course mapping. 2008: Want AACSB accreditation; mission statement revised by faculty; course objectives standardized across sections of business core courses; Future plans: Developing an implementation plan; collect direct assessment data; Identify 2-3 objectives to be assessed; Evaluate results. Showed an example of their learning outcomes grid.
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