Assessment Roadmap
The purpose is to foster a thoughtful and informed Concordia community by working to improve student learning.
Links
Spotlight on: Summer Assessment Workshops
When most College faculty and administrative staff think about how they would like to spend their time during the summer months, working with Elaine Ackerman and department colleagues around the topic of assessment is not usually at the top of the list. In fact, for the “normal” person, it wouldn’t be on the list at all. Well, I am happy to report that 164 faculty and administrative staff DID include assessment work on their summer activities to-do list and wonderful work was accomplished.
Director’s Notes
My favorite time of the year is fall. My appreciation of this season is due only in part to the predictably changing weather conditions. As a child, I loved the “newness” of fall: new teachers, new clothes, new shoes, new books, new friends and new things to learn. Even now, as an adult professional working in higher education, I am re-energized by the return of students to the Concordia campus. The once quiet hallways and buildings of the summer months are made alive again by new and returning students.
Did you know
The National Survey of Student Engagement was administered in the spring of 2012. The following responses were provided by 600 Concordia College students on the 2012 NSSE survey:
Assessment Terminology
Indirect Assessment: Gathering information about student learning by looking at indicators of learning other than student work output. This assessment approach is intended to find out about the quality of the learning process by getting feedback from the student or other persons who may provide relevant information. It may use surveys of employers, exit interviews of graduates, focus groups or any number of Classroom Assessment Techniques (e.g., minute papers, muddiest point papers or one sentence summaries).
Assessment Humor
A small child brags to her friend, “I taught my dog to whistle.”
“Wow,” says the other, “Let’s hear!”
“Oh, he can’t whistle,” replies the first.
“Why not? I thought you said you taught him!”
“I did! He just didn’t learn!”
Assessment News
This is an excerpt from an article by Dr. Vicki L. Wise and Ms. Mary Ann Barham entitled, “Assessment Matters--Moving Beyond Surveys” from the publication About Campus. The August 16, 2011, Chronicle of Higher Education article ‘Want Data? Ask Students. Again and Again’ by Sara Lipka posits that in higher education we have a culture of oversurveying students and too often rely on surveys as our main, or only, way of assessing the impact of our programs and services on student satisfaction and learning. Because of this, students are experiencing survey fatigue, resulting in lower response rates and data of questionable validity. ... Students who choose to respond to a survey even though they are not motivated to engage in the survey process may respond in either socially desirable ways or quickly and without much thought. ...
Upcoming assessment activities
ETS Proficiency Profile administration NSEE/FSSE Dinner & Discussions Next issue of Focus...on Student Learning – Oct. 29, 2012
Sept. 24-27, 30, Oct 1-4.
Jones A/B--Knutson Campus Center
Noon Oct 24
5:30 p.m. Oct 25
5:30 p.m. Oct 29