2019 NEean Fall Forum
"Assessment as Inquiry"
November 1, 2019 at The College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA
Keynote Address: Assessment as Inquiry
In the keynote address, Martha Stassen urges recentering assessment around questions generated by the faculty themselves. As Associate Provost for Assessment and Educational Effectiveness at UMass-Amherst, Dr. Stassen guides assessment efforts by providing academic departments with the resources and expertise to explore what *they* want to know about their own students’ learning and development. She will discuss the philosophy and methods of moving away from “assurance of learning” to “assessment as inquiry,” using examples from her own campus.
Presenter: Martha L. A. Stassen, Associate Provost for Assessment and Educational Effectiveness, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Rethinking Assessment Data: Collaborating with Faculty to Establish a Data-Driven Culture
Quality of curriculum is central to student success. Nonetheless, institutions often report on enrollment or graduation rates rather than students’ academic experience. The Academic Quality Assurance team at Northeastern University ventured to expand the data landscape and collaborate with faculty to drive data-based enhancements to the curriculum and pedagogy.
Presenters: Mamta Saxena and Melanie Kasparian, Northeastern University
Project-Based Assessment Strategies Across Linked Undergraduate and Graduate Programs
This workshop focuses on assessment/curriculum design strategies that scaffold learning between an undergraduate and graduate health care management program. Participants will consider curriculum decisions at the assignment, course, and program level and the role of professional competencies and institutional characteristics. Presenters will share resources to incorporate project-based learning into programs.
Presenters: Kathleen Patenaude, Courtney Rice, and Carina Self; Granite State College
Beyond Grading: Competency Assessment and Classroom Pedagogy
How can we shift students’ focus onto learning away from grades? We outline classroom level approaches in two different disciplines (Math and Interdisciplinary Humanities) that use competency-based feedback without grades. Repeated assessment of, and feedback on, learning outcomes encourages student improvement over time and attention to the actual learning of a class.
Presenters: Craig Pepin and Michael Opperman, Champlain College
Building Your Assessment Toolkit
With the right tools, assessment can be embedded into everyday practice, provide useful feedback, be simple to implement, and maybe even fun! In this session participants will leave with a set of tools they will be eager to try out when they get back to campus.
Presenter: Gavin Henning, New England College
See presentation here
One Particular Idea Sessions (3 sessions, 1 room, 15 minutes each)
Session A:
Assessing the Unconscious: How Higher Education is Tracking the Dismantling of Unconscious Biases Amongst College Students
This session would detail Westfield State’s approach to supporting students in their journey of dismantling their unconscious biases in their educator preparation program. The assessment involves repeated, semester-long self-reflection bias inventories and a statement of sociological perspective writing would be briefly detailed to serve as an exemplar.
Presenter: Jacquelynne Chase, Westfield State University
See presentation here
Session B:
How an Instrument Review Can Aid Assessment Efforts
This session will introduce using an instrument overview to explore the suitability of assessment measures for gathering evidence of student learning. We will discuss the purpose and benefits of an instrument overview and review both a template for an instrument overview and a sample completed instrument overview.
Presenter: Marlene Clapp, Massachusetts Maritime Academy
Session C:
“I am not the same the student from when I came in.” Senior Exit Interviews - One Particular Idea for College-wide Assessment
While senior exit interviews are typically used by American colleges to conduct focused assessments of specific departments and programs, the student-stakeholder perspective is often overlooked. Presenters will share their model of gathering student feedback on college-wide issues and learning outcomes, and how to adapt it to attendees’ home institutions.
Presenters: Maryann Conrad and Erika Smith, Nichols College
See presentation here
Peer Assessment Requires Trust: Building a Foundation of Trust for Student-Led Peer Review
What pedagogical methods can faculty use to build students’ trust in peer assessment during student-led peer review? This question emerges from ongoing cross-disciplinary action research at Lesley University. We demonstrate practices instructors use across disciplines to create positive peer review environments, and present pedagogical tools which increase engagement and trust in the process.
Presenters: Liv Cummins, Summer Clark, John McCormick, Lisa Spitz, and Bill Porter; Lesley University
See presentation here
Building a Strong Foundation: Incorporating Program Outcomes Assessment Planning as Part of the Curriculum-approval Process
Planning for programmatic outcomes assessment (OA) is often an afterthought. We’ve worked to address this by requiring approval of outcomes (and a plan for assessment!) as part of the curriculum-approval process. We will share our model, which serves to support a culture of evidence at Johnson & Wales University.
Presenters: Jennifer Galipeau and Terry Novak, Johnson & Wales University
Formative Feedback: Strategies for Success
This presentation provides insights not only into what researchers say about the importance of feedback, but also into how feedback is perceived by students. Strategies for effective high-quality feedback will be provided, along with techniques for efficient feedback delivery.
Presenters: Heather Myers and Jane Boyland, Johnson & Wales University
Writing Proficiency Assessment in the General Education Program using Electronic Portfolios
This session will present a successful approach to electronic portfolio assessment of writing proficiency within the General Education program that informs the success of the General Education program in a comprehensive way and sets a foundation for the assessment of the alignment of the General Education and Major Programs.
Presenters: Karen Ricciardi, Daniel Messier, and Brittany Peterson; University of Massachusetts Boston
See presentation here
Socially Just Assessment: A Tool for Equity and Inclusion
As the student populations at our colleges and universities continue to diversify, we must create processes to ensure equity and inclusion. Presenters will share a continuum of socially just assessment built on philosophical paradigms of critical theory and post-structuralism and identify specific strategies for implementing assessment that is socially just.
Presenter: Gavin Henning, New England College
See presentation here
Curriculum Map as an Assessment Tool
Curriculum Map as an Assessment Tool: How to develop the program curriculum map and turn it into an effective assessment, planning and communication tool. Participants will review and identify the strengths, gaps and program misalignments of curriculum maps for the purpose of improving the coherence of the curriculum and student learning outcomes.
Presenters: Narine Hakobyan and Vera Mauk, Becker College
Joint Assessment for Regional and Programmatic Accreditors – Can it Work for Program Review?
Participants will learn what happened when an institution organized its assessment process into annual, incremental segments. Three goals were set (and met): on-going Program Review of multiple majors, faculty workload balance, and fulfillment of the needs of multiple reporting constituencies.
Presenter: Carlos Gonzalez Campos, CETYS University
Assisting Students on Being Self-Directed Learners
Following Gerald Grow’s Self-Directed Learning model, we will discuss how our students can advance through the four stages by increasing self-direction. The goal of this presentation is to introduce Grow’s model but more specifically to evaluate our current courses, assignments, students and assessments.
Presenter: Carla White Ellis, Johnson & Wales University
Big Wheel Keeps on Turning: Updates from the 12 Year Assessment of the English Major at SCSU
The SCSU English department has conducted an ongoing assessment of its major since 2007. This session will provide information about the project, including its use of data in curriculum and course revision, and results of spring 2019 data collection that show significant improvement in student reading and writing skills.
Presenters: Robert McEachern, Brian Johnson, Mike Shea, and Cindy Stretch; Southern Connecticut State University
See presentation here
Making Assessment Visible
Tools and methods that make assessment visible to college professors can occur by using a variety of simple scaffolds in the classroom setting. These scaffolds can prompt and expand thinking while concurrently assessing learning. Effective tools can be used across all content areas to uncover what students know and understand.
Presenters: Matthew Connell and Aimee Dalenta, Goodwin College
SPSS Macros for Beginners
Learn how to use SPSS to create mini programs or macros that will greatly reduce the time it takes to create reports. This workshop will provide you with an overview of SPSS macros and introduce you to syntax that will automate reports.
Presenter: Vera Mauk, Becker College
We’ve Never Been Asked to Do This Before: Designing, Teaching and Assessing the Required Junior Ethics Experience at Lasell University
Using course materials, data from applying the AACU Ethical Reasoning rubric to two course assignments, and personal experience, we will share some of the challenges and joys of offering a required, rigorous ethical reasoning course to the entire Junior class at Lasell University.
Presenters: Thomas Sullivan and Vincent Bisson, Lasell University
See presentation here
Using Assessment of Students’ Critical Inquiry Capacities to Spark Adjunct Faculty Reflection
Adjunct faculty rarely engage in design of assessment tools and reflection on student outcomes. At Granite State College, learn how we engaged over 40 adjunct faculty in modifying courses to embed institutional and degree-level outcomes and in reflection on learning outcomes and pedagogical practices.
Presenters: Sarah Batterson, Carina Self, Tamara VonGeorge, and Justin Chase; Granite State College
Teaching the History of the Present
Historians whose courses continue “…to The Present” can maintain factual accuracy and enhance student learning utilizing “historical cosmology” ---the shared mental equipment of the people of a region alive at the same time. The audience will discuss the powers of the U.S. government using the cosmological moments of 1866, 1936, and the present.
Presenter: Richard Gerber, Charter Oak State College
See presentation here
What is Media Literacy? The Challenge of Assessing an Undefined Discipline
Assessing the effectiveness of media literacy initiatives is problematic because the academic discipline is undefined and even in dispute. Is media literacy the ability to spot propaganda? To create media content? To verify credible information? To appreciate the importance of journalists and the free press? This session will explore various approaches to effective media literacy assessment.
Presenter: Amy Callahan, Northern Essex Community College
See presentation here
Lessons Learned: Implementing a Comprehensive Data Management System College-wide
During this session, participants will learn about the steps taken to implement the Tk20 by Watermark™ system, what worked well, challenges encountered, and recommendations of what to do in the future.
Presenter: Sharon Noel, University of Houston-Downtown
See presentation here
Hearing Students’ Voices: Assessing Strategies’ Effectiveness
This session will share the successful implementation of a student-led participatory action research project conducted within a Connecticut grade 9 English classroom. The collaborative project assessed students’ perceptions of effective teaching and assessment strategies, including community circles, formative assessment, and assessments using a growth mindset approach. Extending beyond K-12, the assessment approach applies to Higher Education classrooms.
Presenter: Kimberly Hellerich, New England College
See presentation here
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