Addressing and Assessing Learners' Essential Employability Qualities:  Promising Practices from Two Institutions
In the 2017-2018 academic year, The QA Commons partnered with 27 programs from 14 institutions to co-design the Essential Employability Qualities Certification, or EEQ CERT.  This new learning-focused quality assurance process addresses the gaps between higher education and employers (whether real or perceived) by certifying programs that graduate individuals who have the essential qualities for 21st century employability, including adaptability, problem-solving, team work, and communication. Participants will learn about the EEQ CERT co-design process and resulting collection of promising practices, as well as elements that two participating institutions contributed: UWW’s extension of its LEAP initiatives, and Brandman University's CBE  design.
Melanie Booth, The Quality Assurance Commons for Higher & Postsecondary Education; Joan Littlefield Cook, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater; and Laurie Dodge, Brandman University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Accreditation (AC) 

Fixing Assessment
This session follows up on the January-February, 2018 public exchanges about assessment that appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education. The purpose is to begin to create an awareness that assessment leaders can—and should—be concerned with the state of assessment, including how it is perceived and how well it functions. This is part of a long-term goal to improve the culture of assessment as maintained by accreditation reviews so that faculty are happier and we do a better job of understanding student development.
David A. Eubanks, Furman University; and Josie Welsh, Missouri Southern State University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Accreditation (AC) 

Health Informatics Education: from Content-Based Courses to Competency-Driven Curricula
This paper proposes a pathway and a frame of reference for Health Informatics (HI) programs to move away from content based courses to more comprehensive competency driven curricula in response to the rephrased foundational domains of Health Informatics (AMIA Accreditation Committee (AAC), 2016). The model was developed through collaboration of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) and the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM) to move from an accreditation model of standards driven by curriculum content to a model driven by attainment of competency.
Josette F. Jones, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Accreditation (AC) 

Maximizing Partnerships in the Assessment of Graduates’ Impact
To reach the standards of teacher education accreditation, our College of Education engaged key partners to link graduates’ teacher performance data to their preparation program. This process led to the alignment of program assessments with the assessments our graduates encounter upon entering the workforce and highlighted the importance of establishing and nurturing mutually beneficial partnerships with external agencies. In this session, participants will learn strategies that can be used to develop meaningful partnerships with an external agency and about the benefits of adopting assessments that are consistent with evaluation measures that students will encounter post-graduation.
Jessica Miranda, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Accreditation (AC) 

Moving from a Disconnected Campus to a Culture of Assessment
Many institutions struggle with engaging the entire campus community in the assessment process. In 2015, UT Martin was placed on probation by SACSCOC because it lacked a well-defined, established assessment process. This session will discuss our institution's transformation from having highly decentralized, minimally engaged assessment practices to practices that include centralized reporting, campus-wide engagement, accountability, and a culture of assessment. The roles of campus leadership, faculty and staff training, unit definition and ownership of goals and assessments, and transparency of the process will be discussed. The materials and resources used to resolve probation in 2016 will be shared.
Patty Q. Flowers and Stephanie Kolitsch, University of Tennessee at Martin
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Accreditation (AC) 

Summiting Everest: Demonstrating Improvement with Mature Data
The goal of this presentation will be to present a functional program-level assessment model that uses mature program learning outcome assessment data to demonstrate improvement in residential and distance education programs. This model includes an assessment design that foresees a two-part action plan. The first part attempts to document improvement plans; the second to determine if improvement was actually attained. Two case studies will be provided to illustrate how this process works. Further, the way this was successfully documented and judged as compliant in the institutions 2015 SACSCOC off-site reaffirmation report will be shown.
Skip Kastroll and Phil Fischer, Liberty University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Accreditation (AC) 

Why Assessment Works (And Why it Doesn't)
This session analyzes the practices of assessment to identify three different ways of knowing that must effectively interact in order to use results meaningfully. Within this easy-to-understand framework, real examples of success and failure will be given. These cover many aspects of student success, including learning outcomes, predicting retention, and assessing curriculum cohesiveness with data. The goal is to provide attendees with useful vocabulary and skills that can be used to improve their own assessment practices.
David A. Eubanks, Furman University; and Josie Welsh, Missouri Southern State University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Accreditation (AC) 

The Washington & Jefferson Approach for Self-Study: Open, Participatory, and Transparent
In 2016, Washington & Jefferson started to prepare for reaccreditation.  The W&J model for self-study focuses on assessing strengths and weaknesses, identifying opportunities and challenges, and developing plans to make our college stronger, our students wiser, and our world better. Our strategic-planning process will be using the discoveries so we can continue W&J’s move forward for all at the College—students, staff, and faculty.  Participants will leave the workshop with an understanding of how to develop and implement an open, participatory, and transparent self-study model. Attention will be given on how to incorporate and engage the community in the process.
Lindsey Rae Guinn, Washington & Jefferson College
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Accreditation (AC)

‘Mary Had a Little LAM’: How to Use Assessment Comments to Measure and Monitor Student Engagement and Learning
Analysis of my assessment data collected during three years for an American History II course in online format, offers findings to show the value of ‘teacher feedback’ for student learning. By composing robust ‘learning advisement messages’ (LAM) and offering them promptly to each student for every assignment, a teacher can boost student learning of the course material and develop student skill at making improvements in their learning practice. The LAM system also permits the teacher to probe student engagement practices and thus even better assess the practice of assessment itself.
John J. Cooney, Ivy Tech Community College
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment in Online Courses and Programs (AO) 

Assessing an Online Program: The Process and Product of a Centralized Instructional Design Unit
This presentation focuses on the process and instruments used by a centralized instructional design unit to perform an online program assessment. The purpose of the assessment was to provide a 5-year review for a graduate professional program. Course design, technology, student satisfaction, and faculty support/development were analyzed to identify program strengths and areas for improvement. The report offers actionable recommendations to guide both faculty and instructional designers in continuous course improvement in the areas of learning objectives, alignment, assessment, instructional materials, and course interaction. Participants will review a sample assessment report and discuss challenges and implications for all stakeholders.
Rae Mancilla and Barbara Frey, University of Pittsburgh
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment in Online Courses and Programs (AO) 

Evolution of an Institutional-Wide Assessment Plan:  Using Data to Improve Student Learning
Our institution has implemented a multifaceted approach to student learning outcomes assessment. This datadriven program has evolved over nearly ten years and informs institutional decision-making, improves instructional design, and increases the career options for our students. A more recent improvement to the program comes in the form of a report that helps students assess their knowledge and skills acquisition and demonstrate these skills to employers. In this session, the presenters will share insights into the institution-wide assessment plan, how the data-driven results are used to improve student learning, and the possible applications at other universities.
Jody DeKorte and Kathy Ingram, Kaplan University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment in Online Courses and Programs (AO) 

Investigating the Impact of Online Classes on Undergraduate Degree Completion
This study builds on existing research that examines the impact of online courses on student success. Using existing graduation rate and enrollment data for undergraduate students, we used logistic regression to determine the impact of online classes on degree completion, controlling for a variety of student demographic and academic factors. Preliminary results indicate that regardless of campus type, taking one or more online classes during their program of study significantly increased students’ likelihood of degree completion. Dependent t-tests compared student performance in online and on-campus classes, with mixed results, depending on type of campus.
Sharon M. Wavle, Indiana University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment in Online Courses and Programs (AO) 

Preparing and Equipping Faculty for Online Course and Program Assessment
Rick Stiggins, founder of Assessment Training Institute, stated, “Students can hit any target that they know about and that stands still for them.” Higher education’s responsibility is to ensure transparency of learning objectives and assessment practices for improved student learning. This presentation will focus on how to prepare and equip faculty, including adjuncts, for effective online course and program assessment. Further, it will discuss how a culture of assessment can be created through various faculty development activities. By use of a specific case example, participants will see the interconnection of student learning, reflection, assessment, and professional development.
Diane M. Monahan and Barbara Caldwell, Saint Leo University
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment in Online Courses and Programs (AO) 

Purposeful Assessment in Online Courses: A Faculty Development Boot Camp
This session describes both a purposeful approach to assessment in online classes and a faculty development opportunity in the form of an 8-week online course where faculty experience the assessment process from a student perspective. The assessment approach leverages 3 criteria: 

• Aligned – aligned to measurable learning outcomes in both content and method
• Transparent – the purpose, task(s), and criteria for success are explained at the student’s level of understanding
• Uses appropriate technology – usable and accessible technology provide necessary affordances

If you are teaching online, please bring a printed version of an assignment from your course to share and discuss.
Jeani Young and Genevieve Shaker, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: Assessment in Online Courses and Programs (AO) 

Quality Counts: How to Create an Interactive, Engaged Online Course (And Get the Evaluations to Prove It!)
The online education space has become crowded lately, as more programs have arisen to meet the needs of those students who are returning, working full-time, or have a long school commute. However, in the rush to meet this demand, the quality of courses has suffered. By implementing a standard of quality in your online courses, it will result not only in better course design, but the reduction in student achievement barriers and a more engaged group of students. Learn how to instill this standard of quality in your online courses through this interactive presentation!
Lamia Scherzinger, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Assessment in Online Courses and Programs (AO) 

Student Success in the Online Classroom: Assessing Cognitive, Professional, and Character Domains
There is a radical shift taking place in higher education. Information on almost any subject can be instantly obtained. Now more than ever, the charge of higher education is not only to address cognitive development, but to ensure a genuine transformation from student to scholar transpires. How do we measure this type intrinsic character development? A new, 100% online Master’s degree program in Psychology was designed to teach content and to strengthen personal character. Project-based learning and reflection assignments are captured in e-portfolios to track students’ overall academic performance, professional development, and personal growth.
Theresa A. Veach, Lindsay Buechal, Jennifer Geyer, Mary Nagell, Cindy Ruder, Melisa Saunders, and David Stefan, Indiana Wesleyan University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Assessment in Online Courses and Programs (AO)

A Simple Framework for Assessing Administrative and Student Service Units
Non-academic assessment, or the assessment of administrative and student service departments is often overlooked by colleges, or improperly assessed using the academic program assessment model.  This workshop will focus on a simplified model for assessing administrative performance for continuous process improvement.  Examples will be provided for a variety of departments.  Special emphasis will be placed on the difference between academic and non-academic assessment, the kinds of data that are used for non-academic assessment, and how that data can be used to drive action plans for institutional resources.
Edward Hummingbird, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute
Presentation Type:  Pre-Institute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Analysis of Correlations and Predictive Value of Student-Specific Curriculum-Imbedded Performance Milestones as Measures of Academic and Professional Success
The University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy has implemented a robust assessment program employing diverse “low stakes” milestones for progressive, sequential student performance across four professional program years. Newly-available are “high stakes” student-specific assessments including “Readiness to Practice” Summative Performance, national Pharmacy Curriculum Outcomes Assessment (PCOA) tests, preceptor assessment in advanced practice settings, and the National Pharmacy Licensure Exam (NAPLEX). The Assessment Program will, in a randomly-selected student cohort, perform student-specific analysis of selected milestones to determine correlations and predictive values, particularly in comparison to national standardized testing, preceptor evaluations, and professional success measures.
Denise L. Howrie Schiff, Neal Benedict, Karen Pater, and Kristine Schonder, University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Answering the “Whys”: Incorporating Indirect Measures of Student Outcomes Into Course and Program Assessment
Although indirect measures are known to be an important part of program or course assessment plans, there still exists considerable mystery about the value of indirect student assessment data. Are they reliable? Are they valid? How meaningful are they? This session will impact the utility of indirect measures of student learning and achievement and how appreciation for student perceptions can inform and improve teaching, learning, and direct assessment methods. Participants will leave with a set of indirect measures they can use in their course or program assessment to expand on understanding of the way students experience their learning and success.
Andrea M. Quenette, Indiana University East
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Assessing the First Year of a First-Year Seminar
The University of Guam launched a new First-Year Seminar (FY101) in summer 2017, incorporating two anchor texts: Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective College Students and Ben Blaz’s local memoir, Nihi Ta Hasso, Let Us Remember, which provides an example of the resiliency of Pacific Islanders. This presentation explains the process of creating this course, including faculty development and assessment strategies. Results of surveys conducted in the first two semesters will be examined. To conclude, participants will engage in a calibration exercise for the assessment rubric of student resiliency statements.
Troy McVey and Arline Leon Guerrero, University of Guam
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Assessment 101
This practical hands-on workshop is useful for large or small institutions, community colleges, undergraduate, graduate, or professional programs.  The workshop has been updated to reflect recent developments in assessment and continuous improvement.  Participants will use the Assessment 101 workbook to develop an assessment plan for one academic program, plan data collection and analysis, and anticipate ways to use results to improve student learning and drive budget/planning decisions.  The workshop is designed to help new or experienced assessment practitioners or faculty to conduct their own program assessment or to train colleagues at their institutions. This information supports institutional/general education assessment and accreditation efforts.
Wanda K. Baker, Council Oak Assessment; and Jared Runck and Cullen Chrestman, Urshan College
Presentation Type:  Pre-Institute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Assessment After Dark:  Improv and the Art of Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
Prepare to move, laugh, and interact with colleagues as we explore activities from the art of improvisational theater and apply them to the art of teaching, learning, and assessment. You’re guaranteed to leave with new connections and new ideas – plus, one lucky participant will receive a complimentary registration for the 2019 Assessment Institute.  Join us for an informal and enjoyable evening, complete with coffee bar, which promises to be entertaining, educational, and fun!
Jonathan P. Rossing, Gonzaga University
Presentation Type:  Special Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Special Session (AM)

Best Practices in Curriculum Mapping
Curriculum mapping is a core assessment practice. Although many faculty and administrators know what a curriculum map is and how to craft a basic one, most are not familiar with the finer points of how to use assesment principles to structure curricula to produce program learning outcomes. This session will present the benefits of curriculum mapping, detail best practices in assessment-based curricular design, and provide a step-by-step process for mapping the curriculum.
Jill A. Kern, Eastern Washington University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Best Practices in Writing Assessable Student Learning Outcomes
Student learning outcomes (SLOs) are the foundation of the assessment edifice. Yet, many faculty and administrators -- and even assessment professionals -- craft SLOs that would benefit from further development. This session will start with a presentation of guidelines for writing meaningful, assessable SLOs.
Jill A. Kern, Eastern Washington University
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Building Effective Assessment at Small Institutions
This panel brings together assessment practitioners from three small institutions to discuss specific assessment efforts at their institutions that have been effective. Topics include: a highly customized, faculty-driven departmental assessment program at Colorado College; generating a large quantity of SLO data quickly while increasing faculty engagement at Furman University; and using multiple sources of data to bolster assessment when working with a small sample at Cornell College.
Amanda Udis-Kessler, Colorado College; David Eubanks, Furman University; and Bethany Miller, Cornell College
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Cognitive Complexity and First-Year Retention in Housing and Residence Life
In considering programming within Housing and Residence Life, implementation of Astin's (1991) I-E-O model, college impact model, should be discussed. Incoming first year students are overly heavy on input, and, at times, they do not fully understand the college environment. Of the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education’s six domains for student learning, cognitive complexity is critical. The assessment of cognitive complexity among first-year students who live on campus could provide evidence in how intentional programming in residence halls can increase or predict retention and improve skills of critical thinking and community building.
Kellie M. Dixon and Corey Owens, North Carolina A&T State University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Comparing Apples and Oranges: Using Visual Scaling for Meaningful Program Evaluation, Assessment, and Accreditation Decisions
One of the largest challenges in educator preparation in higher education is the use of data for comparisons across content, program, level, and degree/certification types. Visual Scaling effectively addresses this challenge. In this presentation the facilitators share a research-based, effective strategy for establishing consistent, reliable, and valid comparisons within and across identified data sets.  Comparative data sets, examples, and implications are shared in an engaging way for participants.  Materials, links, and examples are provided for participants.
Ray W. Francis and Mark Deschaine, Central Michigan University
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM)

Curriculum Mapping in all its Glory
Designing and writing a curriculum map is only the first step. Once the map is in place, what are the next steps?  What is the map used for? What good is it, or does it just provide a check in the accreditation checklist? This session discusses ways the curriculum map is used in a degree program for curricular review and revision, cross-curricular studies, and yes, answering those accreditation questions. Uses by administration, faculty, and institution reviewers show the flexibility of a strong curriculum map.
Patsy Butterbrodt, Lincoln Memorial University - College of Veterinary Medicine
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Degree Completion for Adult Students and Ivy Tech Transfer Students
The Lilly-funded project provided the Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences Program the opportunity to serve seventy-five (75) adult degree completers and a number of Ivy Tech transfer students.  A team, which included a project director, two Academic Advisors, and three student mentors conducted the project.  The mentors had ongoing contact with the identified student population to keep students involved in campus events, answer graduation questions, facilitate connection to campus resources, and generally support the students.  The project also participated in the IUPUI Prior Learning Assessment program by identifying and qualifying one BSHS course to facilitate students earning course credit.
Kathy Weaver, Ashley Burelison, and Ashley Msikinya, Indiana University
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Development of a Degree in Three Transfer Sophomore Merit Programs at Indiana University Southeast
This program supports transfer students and helps to ease their transition to Indiana University Southeast while simultaneously helping them to persist to graduation in the major of their choice. High performing transfer sophomores were recruited into this mentoring scholarship program. Mentoring through advising, a one-credit career planning course, and faculty guidance within a major area was combined with small scholarships and priority scheduling for the students in the program. Progress of each student is tracked and compared to a set of matched GPA transfer control group students to demonstrate the impact of the program.
Donna Dahlgren, Indiana University Southeast
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Does Your Assessment System Need a Tune-up?
Something “not quite right” about your assessment processes? Faculty confused or frustrated about unclear expectations or lack of perceived value to them or their students? Worried about an upcoming accreditation visit or a recent one that didn’t go well?  If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, this session can help you identify areas where improvement might be needed and offer suggestions for making those improvements.
Wanda K. Baker, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Effective Survey Use for Improving Student Learning and Experience at Small Institutions
This panel highlights the use of survey data for improving student learning and experiences at small institutions.  Specifically, panelists will discuss: using Tableau to create interactive data visualizations of survey data that can be examined over time, at various academic levels, and across demographics from St. Norbert College; using results from the HEDS Sexual Assault Campus Climate Survey to make significant changes to policy and procedure at Washington & Jefferson College; and using longitudinal data from the HEDS Research Practices Survey to improve information literacy and research skill development within the freshman program and across the curriculum at Principia College.
Carolyn Uhl and Raymond Zurawski, St. Norbert College; Lindsey Guinn, Washington & Jefferson College; and Edith Pfeifer List, Principia College
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Examining the Meaning of Vague Quantifiers in Assessment Surveys: How Often is “Often”?
Assessment professionals often use surveys as a means to gather data. Survey response options are usually vague and include responses such as “sometimes” and “often.” However, the meaning that respondents give to these vague responses may vary. In this presentation, we examine the efficacy of using vague quantifiers. Using data from the National Survey of Student Engagement, we explore the meaning respondents ascribe to vague response options and whether those meanings vary by student and institutional characteristics. Results suggest that students seem to adapt the meaning of sometimes, often, and very often based on the appropriate reference for the question.
Louis M. Rocconi and Brenna Berry, University of Tennessee; and Amber Dumford, University of South Florida
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Facilitating Degree Completion Among Returning Adults in Communication Studies
The primary purpose of this project was to identify and remove faculty-identified barriers to degree-completion among adult learners in a Communication Studies department. Identified barriers were: 1) required core classes that were only offered on campus during the day and 2) difficulty in identifying/reestablishing contact with students who have interrupted their studies. The first challenge was addressed by developing online/hybrid versions of required core classes; the second challenge was addressed by developing a Strategic Communication Plan for sustainably and efficiently identifying students who have interrupted their studies and reestablishing contact with those students.
Elizabeth Goering, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

From Tests to Rubrics: Strategies for Assessing Information Literacy at Three Institutions
Information literacy is an important competency for student learning and success. While most regional and disciplinary accrediting bodies expect institutions to offer library services and collections, several specifically encourage institutions to demonstrate student proficiency and progress in information literacy, a.k.a. library skills, digital literacy, or information fluency. Librarians embrace this call as an opportunity to collaborate with classroom faculty on teaching and assessing information literacy. This presentation will focus on using data from information literacy assessments to drive change at course, program, and curricular levels, changes that are designed to improve student learning outcomes.
Carolyn Radcliff, Carrick Enterprises; Kathy Clarke, James Madison University; Carolyn Gardner; California State University, Dominguez Hills; and Cynthia Kane, Emporia State University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Global Learning and the Academic Program Review Process: A Sustainable System for Continuous Improvement
Most educators and program developers are familiar with assessment processes at the assignment and course level. However, conducting a complete program review is often viewed as a daunting and overwhelming task. A clear protocol for both annual and comprehensive reviews at the program level is discussed in a step-by-step format and in terms of both content and process. The importance of the cyclical nature of the review process is underscored and examples of action plans will be provided. Next steps for continuous program improvement will be outlined for both annual and comprehensive program reviews.
Erin Crisp and Theresa Veach, Indiana Wesleyan University
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Inclusive Leadership: Assessing Faculty Development Programs for Women and Faculty of Color
The limited number of female faculty and faculty of color in leadership positions within the academy is a long-standing problem. In response, institutions of higher education have engaged in targeted faculty development to address such inequities. This session will provide participants with information on a particular program that seeks to create a broader, more inclusive leadership pool of faculty (and staff) equipped to assume administrative positions. A focus of the session will be on how program assessment acts as a tool with which to ensure fidelity of faculty development programs with a social justice agenda to affect institutional change.
Gina Sanchez Gibau, Josh Manlove, and Shanna Stuckey, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Jumpstarting General Education Program Review: A Systems Thinking Approach to the Self-Study
Often overlooked in the discussion of a general education program development and assessment is the issue of general education program review.  The Association for General and Liberal Studies (AGLS) offers a “Guide to Assessment and Program Review” intended to shake up an outdated program and help the self-study hum with collaborative discussion.  At the heart of the “Guide” is a set of twenty systems analysis questions aimed at improving program quality and learning, whether the review goal is program renewal or program refresher.  This workshop focuses on the initial stage of the self-study and will give participants an opportunity to “test-drive” the tool and practice some basic general education program evaluation steps.
John G M Frederick, Central  Piedmont Community College; Harriet Hobbs and Christine Robinson, University of North Carolina at Charlotte; and Jody Dekorte, Purdue University Global
Presentation Type:  Pre-Institute Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Looking for Results?  Get Students Involved!
Institutional missions and priorities belong to all stakeholders. Yet assessment findings related to outcomes are most commonly shared with and analyzed by one or two constituents, namely administrators and faculty. Students are often neglected in the process.  This presentation describes how Lebanon Valley College involved students in rich, meaningful conversations about assessment findings. In addition, the presentation highlights how results from assessments related to institutional priorities were used to implement institutional change—and how students helped shape and plan that change.
Ann E. Damiano, Utica College; and Jill Russell, Lebanon Valley College
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Nursing Program Admission Criteria:   Finding the Right Mix for Improving Program and NCLEX-RN Outcomes
Current admission criteria may not be adequately assessing students’ abilities to gain entry into nursing programs, complete the program, and achieve first-time NCLEX-RN success. 

• Purpose: Determine if select admission criteria leads to improved outcomes.
• Methods: Examine admission criteria for predictive variables in nursing programs
• Analysis: Retrospective, linear regression models along with inferential statistics was used to determine predictive admission criteria.
• Significance: Identifying admission criteria to improve program attrition, completion, and first-time NCLEX-RN pass rates.

Results indicated pre-requisite grade point averages (GPA), KAT score, and Pathophysiology GPA were most predictive of overall nursing program and NCLEX-RN success.
Shannon M. Meijer, Baker College Kaplan Nursing
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Revising our Institutional Learning Outcomes--the IUPUI+
In 1997 IUPUI launched our Principles of Undergraduate Learning (PULs) which were influential in the development of AAC&U’s Essential Learning Outcomes. While cutting edge over 20 years ago, the PULs haven’t been revised or evaluated since. In the meantime, the campus also developed the Principles of Co-curricular Learning (PCLs), which mirrored and added to the PULs. During the 2017-18 academic year, a task force of faculty and staff were charged with reviewing the PULs within the context of the General Education curriculum as well as the mission and values of the campus. We were also tasked with integrating the PULs and PCLs into one document, engaging the campus community, and securing the necessary approvals by May 1. This session will discuss the process for achieving such a hefty charge, the outcome of our work, IUPUI’s Profiles of Learning for Undergraduate Success (PLUS), or the IUPUI+, and the steps we’re taking in 2018-19 to generate enthusiasm as we begin the implementation process across the campus.
Suzann Lupton, Kristina Horn Sheeler, Jane R. Williams, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

SPEA Adult Student Engagement Survey
The School of Public and Environmental Affairs embarked on several projects designed to support the deeper integration of advising and career outcomes of Management and Civic Leadership majors, specifically related to addressing the Academic Advising, Career Services, Communication, and Community needs of returning degree completers. A priority area was the creation and distribution of an Academic Advising and Career Services needs assessment to 235 adult students within SPEA, with a specific look at Civic Leadership and Management students. The survey identified and established best practices and areas for growth in the service of SPEA adult and transfer students.
Nicole Amonette, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Assessing the Effectiveness of a Welcoming Campus Initiative
IUPUI launched its Welcoming Campus Initiative to make the campus more welcoming for students, faculty, staff, community members and alumni. Through an innovation fund, campus stakeholders develop innovative and collaborative solutions to recommendations of initiative. The first round of funded projects is complete, each having a plan for evaluating its effectiveness, and through 2019 and beyond, campus leaders will evaluate the initiative in affecting culture change at IUPUI. This session discusses approaches and early findings from projects focused on creating a vibrant and inclusive student experience. Presenters will also discuss plans to evaluate the effectiveness of the initiative overall.
Christine Fitzpatrick and Shawn Peters, IUPUI; and IUPUI Representatives
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Teaching Health Professions Teachers: Blending Empathy and Knowledge of the Classroom Environment in Lesson Plan Development
When developing a lesson plan we may rely heavily on content richness to deliver what we think is important without really thinking of the learner in the process. Herein, we share strategies connected to educational psychology in how they apply to teaching faculty members in the health professions to think of the total learning environment. Developing as teachers requires us to create lesson plans capturing the operational side of the activities for the day, incorporating how we feel/think, and extending that practice into how students feel/think.  Demonstration of empathy can be structured, taught, communicated, and shared using these approaches.
David G. Fuentes, California Health Sciences University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Advanced
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

The Effect of Writing-Infused Courses on Student Outcomes
In a pursuit to help students improve their writing skills, in Fall 2016 Northern Illinois University implemented writing-infused courses. Students have the option of taking these courses within their general education program, their major program, or through course electives. This poster will discuss the relationships between the number of writing-infused courses taken and student assessment data; specifically, data from The University Writing Project, an institutional-wide assessment project administered each year. This type of data is important in stressing the need for students to practice their writing skills throughout their baccalaureate experience.
Tawanda Gipson and Rushika D Bruin, Northern Illinois University
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Timing of Student Evaluations of Teaching in a Veterinary Medical Education Setting
Each semester, University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine (UTCVM) students receive an average of 30 student evaluations of teaching (SETs) to complete. Response rates at the UTCVM have decreased, and students have requested time to complete SETs after final exams. This study’s purpose was to determine if issuing SETs after finals (versus before) would affect SET completion rate and scores. For each course, students (N = 263) were randomly assigned to a before or after finals group. Statistical analyses showed no significant differences in completion rates nor between scores for evaluation questions on SETs completed before versus after.
Misty R. Bailey, University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Transforming IE, Assessment, and IR to Create Data-Informed Decision Cultures
This session features AIR’s Statement of Aspirational Practice for IR, designed for the greater IE, assessment, and IR community. We place it in context of data-informed decision cultures and use IUPUI’s experience to illustrate these concepts in action. IUPUI’s IE/ IR functions were reorganized around the statement’s themes, including an expanded definition of decision makers, a student-focused paradigm, and leadership. Join us for a conversation about this dynamic work poised to grow with our field.
Michele J. Hansen, IUPUI; and Leah Ewing Ross, Association for Institutional Research (AIR)
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Using Brookfield's Reflexive Praxis for University-Wide Course Assessment
Upon completing instruction at the end of a term, faculty are asked to choose one course for an exercise in reflective praxis. The results of this exercise not only benefits the individual instructor, but also the university as this data is collected via survey. Data, both qualitative and quantitative is analyzed to determine faculty development topics of interest, classroom resources, and assessment of learning aligned with outcomes at multiple levels. This practice allows faculty to engage in continuous improvement, one course at a time.
Janet Thiel, Georgian Court University
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Using Logic Models to Plan, Implement, and Assess Services in an Institutional Effectiveness Office
Logic models are systematic and visual tools that describe logical linkages among program resources, activities, outputs, outcomes, and long-term impact. They serve as practical tools for a programmatic touchstone that facilitates communication and participation, program planning, implementation, assessment, and strategic planning. This session will discuss how logic models can be used in an Institutional Effectiveness office’s planning, implementation, evaluation, and reporting for annual administrative assessment practices. By applying logic models to a specific office’s activities, the session will explain how logic models can be a useful tool to help us assess processes and outcomes and provide potential directions for administrative assessment.
Xiaomei Song and Cynthia Groover, Georgia Southern University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM) 

Using Rubrics to Assess General Education: Power and Pitfalls
Rubrics are widely used across the country to assess student learning. The application of rubrics was transformative in providing a strategy to obtain more reliable ways to directly assess embedded assignments. Whether adopting a national rubric or designing one’s own, constructing and applying rubrics involves several decisions that ultimately influence the validity and usefulness of the data. We will cover several issues that emerge when faculty use rubrics, and we will use examples from our experiences with assessing writing as part of general education at both the core and program level to illustrate the power and pitfalls of rubrics.
Joanne Liebman Matson and Belinda Blevins-Knabe, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Assessment Methods (AM)

A Journey Into Instructional Assessment: A Faculty-Led Beginner's Tale
East Central College has empowered their faculty to take the lead on Instructional Assessment Practices. The current instructional assessment committee has been redesigning all aspects of the assessment cycle and our journey is just beginning to see the culture change regarding the current practices within our institution. Currently the work has been focused on means of trying to get the entire process transparent and sustainable.  Transparancy is key so all stakeholders of the institution are able to see the current focus and the means of addressing the outcomes on campus.
Gregory J. Stotler, DeAnna Cassat, and Chris Swanson, East Central College
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Community Colleges (CC) 

Five Years In: Lessons Learned
In the Spring of 2012, Ivy Tech Community College launched a statewide Freshman Composition Assessment Project. Now in the fifth year of steering and tweaking the project, the Assessment Committee has learned valuable lessons about the importance of establishing guiding principles, the values and risks of technology, and the long road to winning over hearts and minds. The data has been interesting, too.
Annie M. Gray, Jeanne Graham, Sandra Hackemann, and Anthony Sams, Ivy Tech Community College
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: Community Colleges (CC)

South Suburban College Outcomes Assessment: The Grand Plan
South Suburban College has developed a system for general education that employes a number of tools.  Some of these tools include a cycle to assess, analyze, and institute changes, a curriculum map connecting courses to general education outcomes, rubrics, course assesment plans, departmental/program assessment plans, and institution-wide results from this cycle. Examples of each facet of assessment will be provided, as well as what the College has learned in this first cycle and the types of changes faculty want to see in generating the next grand plan.
Jennifer Medlen, South Suburban College
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Community Colleges (CC) 

Using an Evaluation Framework to Drive Academic Program Review
This session shares a unique community college Program Review model that utilizes an evaluation framework, is guided by summative and formative evaluation questions, and is differentiated by and specifically aligns to diverse academic program offerings (career; transfer; articulated programs). A workshop format brings faculty and administrators together to use assessment data to make strategic decisions for academic programs. This model has been used successfully at a mid-west community college for several years and is adaptable to a variety of higher education contexts. The Program Review process, materials, report structures, and examples of finished reports with findings will be shared.
Katie Daniels and Matt Novakoski, Grand Rapids Community College
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Community Colleges (CC)

Beyond the Gates: Creating a Campus-Wide Program for Cross-Cultural Learning and Promoting Mission Integration
Our “Beyond the Gates” program is an experiential learning opportunity for all students, centered on the the idea that learning through real-world, personal engagement enables students to apply academic knowledge and skills in developing critical insight about themselves and others, our mission, and civic responsibility. Now in the third year, we are measuring the growth of students in these dimensions. In this presentation, we share information about this program structure, intent, and execution. We also specifically focus on assessing students longitudinally across the entire set of outreach experiences to determine whether the program outcomes are being met.
Dyan L. Jones and Heidi Hosey-McGurk, Mercyhurst University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Community Engagement (CE) 

Building a Data-Informed Approach to Community Engagement
IUPUI has developed an interactive, web-based community engagement map which includes socio-economic and demographic community data for the purpose of visualizing the campus’ engagement with the community. This tool enables leadership, faculty, staff, community partners, students, elected officials, and development officers to: 1) identify pressing community issues and how and where the campus is working to address them, and 2) make connections with others who are working on the same issue or with the same community partners. This tool serves as a catalyst for conversations about how the campus can develop a more strategic and effective approach to community engagement.
Jennifer Boehm and Sharon Kandris, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Community Engagement (CE) 

Faculty Experiences with Community Engaged Research: Challenges, Successes, and Recommendations for the Future
Promotion and tenure processes continue to be critiqued for disadvantaging the communal, interdisciplinary work of faculty and encouraging traditional, siloed research distanced from community (Colbeck & Wharton-Michael, 2006). Many faculty who pursue community engaged research (CER) do so on the periphery of their institutions, at risk of not achieving promotion and tenure. This study explores CER through a content analysis of institution-level promotion and tenure guidelines of four engaged institutions, identifying the variations of language and terminology used to describe CER and how frequently it is highlighted across the domains of Teaching, Research, and Service.
Lauren Wendling, IUPUI; and H. Anne Weiss, Campus Compact of Indiana
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Community Engagement (CE) 

Gauging Engagement: Tracking, Reporting, and Assessing Student Engagement
At Indiana State University, we have been capturing and reporting student engagement for several years, encapsulating curricular engagement hours in several categories as well as student participation in organizations, volunteerism, activities, and community engagement. This has provided us with rich data in a dynamic business intelligence platform as we continually improve our assessment of student engagement, partnering the quantitative aspect with our qualitative information. Our Center for Community Engagement blends this data with their direct assessment methods to cultivate a more comprehensive and systematic assessment of student learning and program effectiveness. In this session, we will share specific examples as well as practical strategies for developing, implementing, and assessing student engagement data.
Maggie Dalrymple, Linda Ferguson, and Heather Miklozek, Indiana State University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Community Engagement (CE) 

One Assessment Instrument, Many Outcomes: Development of a Community-Based Learning Assessment Tool to Guide Program Improvement for Faculty, Community Partners, and the Institution
Within this session we report on the evolution over time of a student-centered assessment tool for community-based learning at Santa Clara University. We share the progression and current version of the tool in measuring social justice learning outcomes among our undergraduates and discuss the ways in which the assessment informs and serves community partners, faculty members, and other units on campus, enabling each stakeholder to gain valuable perspectives about the goals of the program and the student experience. We will also address the ease with which the assessment tool can contribute meaningful data to close the assessment loop every term.
Andrea Brewster, Christine Bachen, Rosa Guerra-Sarabia, and Jennifer Merritt, Santa Clara University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Community Engagement (CE) 

Rethinking What We Want and Need to Know about Partnerships
While partnership principles are central to community engagement, practical understanding of how reciprocity and mutual benefit are actually enacted is challenging due to interrelatedness of issues, layers of interactions, and diversity of people, purpose, and process. How can we improve how we track, assess, and research community-campus partnerships such that we can see institutional portraits of community engagement and improve both the study and practice of reciprocal and mutually beneficial partnerships?
Emily Janke, University of North Carolina - Greensboro
Presentation Type:  Keynote Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Community Engagement (CE) 

TBD
Anne Weiss, Campus Compact of Indiana; and Kristen Norris, IUPUI
Presentation Type: 60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level: All
Primary Track: Community Engagement (CE) 

Techniques for Stakeholder Assessment: Learn Three Stakeholder Assessment Techniques to Help Begin Your Strategic Planning Process
Have you been asked to lead or take part in a strategic planning committee at your institution? Do you know the stakeholders outside of your unit, department, or division who should participate in the planning process? If the answer is no, then you’re in luck. By attending this session, you’ll walk away with three new skills in identifying important stakeholders. Additionally, you’ll participate in exercises to help you begin your journey in understanding who your organization truly partners with and who it serves.
Wade R. Brown, Indiana University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Community Engagement (CE) 

The Ecology of Change: Learning Community, Assessment, and Accountability in Service-Learning
How are assessment efforts optimally configured to actually help community engagement programs develop and improve? Service-Learning on our campus has a long record of embracing and successfully implementing meaningful assessment. The assessment process has developed within a certain “ecology:” to become more holistic and interconnected with faculty and community partner development. Learning is deepened and stakeholders are supported in the context of a vibrant learning community aligned with our goals. In this workshop you will learn how to launch a learning community approach to assessment and test-drive the rubric that we developed to evaluate student work in these courses.
Julia van der Ryn and Matthew Bronson, Dominican University of California
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Community Engagement (CE) 

Working Towards Reciprocity: A Continuous Improvement Assessment Strategy for Building Equitable and Mutually-Beneficial Community-University Partnerships
This presentation describes the process Virginia Commonwealth University has used to gather information from service-learning community partners with the goal of improving the quality and mutual-benefit of community university partnership relationships. The presenter will overview the assessment framework, process, and content, including the questions used; and will describe how the assessment results have been translated into actionable changes to operations and services within the VCU Division of Community Engagement. Participants will have opportunities to share their own campus successes and challenges in assessing community-university partnerships and in deriving actionable information from these assessments.
Lynn E. Pelco, Virginia Commonwealth University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Community Engagement (CE)

Assessment of a Small Group Permanent Group Project
The course ‘Small Group Communication’ at Rowan University includes a semester long permanent group project.  Students are assigned to the groups and follow a five step process during the semester to work on a problem of the group's choosing concerning Rowan students and the Rowan service and/or campus. This project is assessed as the work progresses and at the end when a final report is submitted.
Kenneth R. Albone, Rowan University
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: Competency-Based Education and Assessment (CB)

Assessment of an Innovative Personal and Professional Development Course in Pharmacy: Service Learning, Lifelong Learning, and Self-Awareness, Oh my!
Phar 463: Personal and Professional Development is a new core course for second professional year doctor of pharmacy students at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Phar 463 employs a weekly presentation and application-discussion format to engage and educate students; utilizing an emotional intelligence framework to impart knowledge, skills, abilities, behaviors and attitudes necessary for personal and professional competence. Service learning, entrepreneurship, and research skills are intentionally incorporated. This session discusses competency-based assessment of outcomes and evaluations of the course. Participants may apply information gained to evaluate teaching, learning, and assessment strategies in personal and professional development at their institution.
Rosalyn P. Vellurattil and Nicholas Popovich, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Competency-Based Education and Assessment (CB) 

Competency-Based Assessment in General Education
At a time when flexible learning models, online education, and the value of a college education are consistently in the headlines, competency-based education is being discussed more than ever in higher education. Combine all of those factors with General Education, and there can be a lot to tackle in terms of not only course and program design, but assessment as well! This session will focus on General Education in a competency-based environment, including a discussion of assessment considerations as well as designing and developing competency-based outcomes.
Laura M. Williams and Lauren Serpati, Western Governors University
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Competency-Based Education and Assessment (CB) 

Reflective Learning: Assessment Benefits of the Student Experience at the Global Case Competition at Harvard
This presentation details the University of Minnesota Crookston Business Department’s reflective learning experience for their team at the Global Case Competition at Harvard over the course of two years of the competition to enhance both student benefit through value-added experience and as a means of assessing currency and relevancy of the overall business curriculum. A reflective learning approach was applied to the UMC teams that participated in the 2017 and 2018 competitions. The process was used to deepen the meaning and long-term value-added benefit of their experience and help department faculty assess effectiveness of overall programme courses.
Rutherford C. Johnson, Abdulaziz Ahmed, and Oxana Wieland, University of Minnesota Crookston
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Competency-Based Education and Assessment (CB) 

Science Assessment Phobia: Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) to the Rescue
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) can be used to retool traditional, disciplinary content-heavy college science assessments into competency-based education (CBE) assessments. The National Research Council and education stakeholders proposed that states teach three dimensions of science: 1) disciplinary core ideas (2) science and engineering practices and (3) crosscutting concepts. Subsequently, states and universities are creating 3-D assessments that align with 3-D instruction. The session will demonstrate how the NGSS can inform good CBE assessment design, use science demos as assessment analogies, teach 3-D color-coding of the NGSS performance expectations, promote fluency through games and show examples of 3-D assessments.
Esther Dale, Western Governors University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Competency-Based Education and Assessment (CB) 

Student-Centered Assessment: Using Outcomes Transcripts for Visible Learning
The visible learning assessment model enables students to use feedback to individualize learning and practice essential skills, while also providing evidence for programmatic and instructional improvement.  This session provides a deep dive into an innovative approach to curricular, co-curricular and experiential assessment for learning, which is student-centered and outcomes-driven. Participants will drill down into an assessment structure within a competency-driven program to reveal how students’ demonstrate mastery of essential skills. This model enables students to collect unique evidence of their learning, which translate into a transcript of competency artifacts informing progress and mastery of skills necessary for today’s society.
Suzanne Carbonaro and Carolyn Giordano, University of the Sciences; Caitlin Meehan and Mustafa Sualp, AEFIS
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Competency-Based Education and Assessment (CB)

2018 The State of Affairs of Assessment in Higher Education – Professional Development Needs
Utilizing past research and results from multiple national surveys, a group of professionals selected by the Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education (AALHE) and Watermark explored the roles/positions of assessment practitioners, the assessment activities typically performed within these roles, practitioners’ perceptions about their work and the importance of assessment, and what they identified as their own professional development needs. In this interactive session we will discuss what professional development needs should be addressed if assessment is to fulfill its promise of using evidence to change institutions and practices with the aim of improving student learning.
Laura Ariovich, Conna Bral, Patricia Gregg, Matthew Gulliford, and Jennifer Morrow, Prince George’s Community College
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Emerging Trends in Assessment (ET) 

Assessment Across the Arts
Assessment in the arts has unique challenges, such as developing learning outcomes for programs containing a variety of media, choosing the appropriate assessments (e.g., portfolios, performance juries), maintaining consistency of evaluation among multiple reviewers, evaluating individual growth within groups of students such as music and dance ensembles, and providing balanced feedback on students’ motivation to pursue a career path in the arts. Panelists from design, dance, art and art history, theater, music, and communication will share their assessment approaches and lead a discussion on applying assessment best practices in the arts to attendees’ institutional contexts.
Wendy K. Matthews, Mary Anderson, Jessica Greenwald, Judith Moldenhauer, and Michele Porter, Wayne State University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Emerging Trends in Assessment (ET) 

Beyond Disaggregating Data: Bridging the Gap Between Assessment and Equity in Higher Education
Building a bridge between equity and assessment to create inclusive assessment practices requires moving beyond data disaggregation and towards an assessment approach that leverages data to advance more equitable outcomes for all students. This presentation will draw upon current articles from the National Institute of Learning Outcomes Assessment, literature on higher education assessment, and the field of Culturally Responsive Evaluation in order to establish and operationalize a bridge from assessment to equity to foster student success. In addition to the literature, concrete examples of practice will be shared and discussed.
Ciji A. Heiser, Western Michigan University, and Joseph Levy, National Louis University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Emerging Trends in Assessment (ET) 

Building on Impact: The Cycle of Program Assessment and Strategic Planning at DukeEngage
The process of renewing DukeEngage’s strategic plan has called on us to consider how the development of an actionable plan is rooted in the work of program assessment. Using methods similar to those we employee for evaluation, DukeEngage developed a planning process that reached out to global stakeholders, relied on data to assess work on past goals, and used data to set new, measurable goals. Our new strategic plan informs the structure and content of ongoing program evaluation. This session examines the cycle of strategic planning and program assessment, and looks at how work in one area informs the other.
Jaclyne Demarse Purtell and Leslie Madison, Duke University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Emerging Trends in Assessment (ET) 

Concept Maps, Promotion, and Tenure: Demonstrating Effective Teaching Through Authentic Student Assessments
College faculty face the ongoing dilemma of balancing a professional emphasis on student learning with the administrative task of documenting student performance related to reappointment, promotion, and tenure. The effective use of concept maps can give students and faculty meaningful information about student learning and performance. These authentic tools are objective, meaningful assessments through which the instructor can monitor student progress, self-evaluate classroom performance, and revise the delivery of instruction in the collegiate environment. As such, these same tools can be effective instruments in demonstrating effective faculty teaching, student learning, student performance, and growth by both faculty and students.
Ray W. Francis and Mark Deschaine, Central Michigan University
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: Emerging Trends in Assessment (ET) 

Intentionality in Assessment: Using Institutional Data to Support Minoritized Student Persistence and Success
The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) is a valuable tool for exploring the experiences of specific student populations. The intentional use of institutional data can meaningfully support improvements in minoritized student success. Specifically, utilizing this instrument as a tool for institutional assessment and effectiveness can guide campus agents as they develop initiatives tailored to meet the unique needs of their minoritized students. This session will discuss identifying and analyzing variables that bolster minoritized students’ collegiate success with an eye toward how deeper analyses reveal important differences in the needs of various student constituencies.
Marjorie Luce Dorime-Williams and Michael Williams, University of Missouri
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Emerging Trends in Assessment (ET) 

Share and Compare Day – Making Assessment Transparent
A Share and Compare Day event to share assessment results across the entire college community was implemented at Southwestern Illinois College. Through a strategically organized program, every department and program prepared and delivered a short presentation pertaining to an assessment that was used to address one or more program, departmental, or college-wide learning outcome. The event spurred departments and programs to complete required student learning reports, as well as to improve the quality of the reports. Share and Compare Day has evolved into a biennial event that will focus on a specific college-wide core competency each time.
Mitchell J. Robertson and Joyce Ray, Southwestern Illinois College
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Emerging Trends in Assessment (ET) 

Taking the Pain Out of A**essment
Many colleagues think assessment is a pain, so our institutional assessment committee developed an innovative week of events designed to reach student, faculty, staff, administrative, and community audiences. Events included cookie decorating as a metaphor for assessment, an assessment trivia showdown, a courtroom assessment dramedy, a provost-led town hall on assessment, a workshop on assessing student learning, and a luncheon to recognize outstanding contributors to program assessment. The impact of the week’s events were assessed through an online poll and participation data. Attendees will gain first-hand experience with the activities and discuss their application at their own institutions.
Cathy Barrette, Stephanie Baier, Amy Cooper, Mark Evely, and Heather Sandlin, Wayne State University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Emerging Trends in Assessment (ET) 

Transforming Assessment Practice Through the Lens of Democratic Engagement
Is your assessment practice value-laden, value-free or value-neutral? What role do your own value commitments play when you design learning assessments or program evaluation metrics? What impact do values have on outcomes? This session introduces an emerging framework, Democratically Engaged Assessment (DEA) that attends to these questions. DEA reimagines assessment as a cultural practice through which we can transform our universities, our communities, and ourselves. Participants will use the model to surface values inherent in our assessments and explore implications of using the framework to inform how we assess and what becomes the focus of assessment with students, faculty, staff, community partners, and institutions.
Mary F. Price, IUPUI; Joe Bandy, Vanderbilt University; Patti Clayton, Independent Consultant; Sylvia Gale, University of Richmond; and John Metzker, Stetson University
Presentation Type:  Pre-Institute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Emerging Trends in Assessment (ET)

Trends in Assessment: Implications and Opportunities for Higher Education
In this presentation, we describe the results of an extensive review of the literature in higher education assessment. The literature review covered the 2016 and 2017 editions of the Assessment Update bi-monthly journal and the 2016 and 2017 conferences of the Assessment Institute, along with a supporting review of the broader literature. The review analyzed the literature to determine trends in the study and practice of higher education assessment. From this work, higher education professionals can identify cutting-edge research in their field and develop a deeper understanding of their assessment efforts in the broader context of the higher education community.
Zachary J. McDougal, Yunah Kim, and Arthur Pearcy, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Emerging Trends in Assessment (ET) 

Visualizing Multi-Year Trends in Alumni Survey Data with Static Dashboards: Advantages and Challenges Experienced While Informing Academic Programs of their Programmatic Outcomes
This presentation will focus on how Northern Illinois University (NIU) has leveraged Alumni Survey data to promote awareness of programmatic outcomes and continuous improvement in its academic programs. This provided the academic programs with evidence for a systematic Program Review conducted by the university.  Because the survey questions evolved over time, unique challenges were experienced while reporting multi-year trends. The impact these changes had on the representativeness and interpretability of the data will be discussed.  This presentation will include samples of the static dashboard visualizations generated for the university’s academic programs.
Sarah L. Coley and Aditi Khoje, Northern Illiois University
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Emerging Trends in Assessment (ET)

“I Can Learn from My Previous Self:” Student Voices and Perspectives on Doing ePortfolios
In this session, IUPUI students who developed senior capstone ePortfolios during Spring 2018 will present their ePortfolios and reflections upon contributions the process made to their personal and professional learning and development.  The capstone course in philanthropic studies engaged seniors in the three-stage process of collecting, selecting, and reflecting upon artifacts of their learning, both inside and outside of the classroom, in relation to established program and institutional learning outcomes and their own personal goals. Students wrote reflections and created webfolios to respond to the capstone’s leading question, “Who am I as an emerging graduate and professional in philanthropic studies?” and presented them at a campus-wide showcase event. In this interactive session, while sharing their ePortfolios, students will provide insights on how the entire process enabled them to build confidence, integrate their learning, and support their personal and professional identity development, and engage questions about the student experience of doing ePortfolios that will benefit instructors and assessment leaders.
Tyrone Freeman, Elliot Dunbar, Jastyne Jackson-Burnett, Emily Jones, and Erin Wuertz, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: ePortfolios (EP) 

Assessing Student and Program Outcomes with Taskstream Student Portfolios
Electronic portfolios are ideal for tracking outcomes of a large number of students and allowing student pharmacists to share artifacts with potential employers. This presentation is intended for schools that are interested in learning more about available portfolio technology to assess student and program curricular and cocurricular outcomes. Development, implementation, and assessment of a Taskstream electronic portfolio will be presented, along with lessons learned.
Elizabeth A. Sheaffer, Samford University McWhorter School of Pharmacy
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: ePortfolios (EP) 

Deepening the Loop: The Role of ePortfolio in Building 21st Century Student Learning Outcomes
ePortfolio is central to Outcomes Assessment at LaGuardia Community College supporting students’ reflection on personal and academic growth as well as faculty’s systematic, longitudinal examination of student learning. Our presentation provides a “Closing the Loop” framework that highlights how faculty use data-driven assessment results to effect educational change, and establishes how ePortoflio has deepened our work. Key examples from programs and courses from across the college, and recent data from our Benchmark Reading process about Integrative Learning and Digital Communication will be used to demonstrate “Core ePortfolio” pedagogy and how ePortfolio supports the development of Integrative Learning and Digital Communication.
Regina M. Lehman, LaGuardia Community College
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: ePortfolios (EP) 

ePortfolio in Action: Identity, Integration and Cohesive Learning Pathways
Eynon and Gambino’s new edited collection, Catalyst in Action: Case Studies of High-Impact ePortfolio Practice, presents 20 case studies of high-impact ePortfolio practices, ranging from Yale University to Bronx Community College, from the University of South Carolina to Salt Lake Community College and Arizona State.  How does this new collection change our understanding of high-impact ePortfolio practice and its role in higher education?  In this keynote, we will draw on the Catalyst in Action case studies to spotlight emerging ePortfolio strategies that deepen students integrative learning and identity development. We will connect those strategies to broader efforts at programmatic integration and cohesive learning pathways.  Together we’ll identify next steps and future research opportunities for ePortfolio researchers and practitioners.
Bret Eynon, LaGuardia Community College; and Laura M. Gambino, New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC)
Presentation Type:  Keynote Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: ePortfolios (EP) 

ePortfolio Platforms: It Is Not A One Size Fits All Environment
There are many educational technology platforms with varying functionality to shape high impact ePortfolio practice. A common concern is determining which platform to utilize that best balances all user needs as well as maintain robustness with the ever-growing virtual landscape. At Michigan State University, we began the process by determining broad ePortfolio requirements—functional, institutional, technical, support and training—and developed a Request for Proposals (RFP) to solicit portfolio vendor interest and feedback. This session highlights our findings and shares suggestions to consider when embarking on the process of selecting an ePortfolio platform.
Jennifer E. Rivera and Jen-nien Yang, Michigan State University
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: ePortfolios (EP) 

ePortfolios and Advising:  High-Touch, Technology-Mediated Engagement, and Structured Career Discernment via ePortfolio
This session combines two presentations.  Danielle Insalaco-Egan will address Guttman Community College’s use of ePortfolios for educational planning to create a cycle of advising engagement, wherein students pre-engage prior to meeting with their advisors, and make their planning visible and longitudinal.  Advisors have incorporated folio thinking into their teaching and learning practices, and have developed a series of ePortfolio activities utilized by all students and their advisors at critical junctures across students’ academic trajectory.  The session will illustrate how ePortfolio is “done well” across the Guttman advising curriculum, wholly incorporating the Catalyst for Learning value propositions of advancing student success, making learning visible, and promoting learning-centered institutional change.  John Collins will discuss structured career discernment via ePortfolio as an approach to advising students in today’s rapidly changing environment.  With a limited amount of time, faculty and advisors must contend with students who present a variety of difficulties and constraints.  Learn how ePortfolio can be leveraged to help students examine their career options, not once, but at multiple points to help students shape their future path based on an emerging sense of themselves as professionals.  Using a structured sequence of career discernment, discover how the Catalyst Framework principles and strategies can create a high-impact ePortfolio experience for students.  Note:  Collins’s presentation will be presented in American Sign Language with voice interpretation.
Danielle Insalaco-Egan, Montclair State University; and John Collins, LaGuardia Community College
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: ePortfolios (EP)  

Increasing Equity in General Education through the Use of Self-Relevant ePortfolio Writing
We describe the use of self-reflective writing in ePortfolios to increase student writing and improve equity in a large general education course. Incorporating frequent writing into courses is a high impact practice that is associated with deep learning, engagement, and persistence. Providing students with opportunities to demonstrate knowledge through autobiographical writing and shared reflections enhances cultural inclusiveness. The use of rubrics supports fairness and equity in assessment. We describe methods by which students can create self-reflective ePortfolios in large classes and report findings that support the proposition that self-reflective ePortfolio curricula encourage writing, reduce achievement gaps, and support student wellness.
Karen Singer-Freeman and Linda Bastone, Purchase College, State University of New York
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: ePortfolios (EP) 

Learning Communities + ePortfolio = Integrative Learning
This session will focus on a direct assessment of integrative learning in first-year student ePortfolios in IUPUI’s Themed Learning Communities, using the Integrative Learning VALUE rubric.  An assessment of first-year students’ ePortfolios across three Themed Learning Communities courses indicated that students are able to articulate multiple aspects of integrative learning through artifacts and reflections captured in the ePortfolio. Presenters will discuss implications of findings with regard to planning faculty development, providing students with opportunities for reflection, creating integrative learning assignments, and using assessment results for program improvements.  A revised 2018 ePortfolio 2.0 initiative based on the assessment project will be shared.
Amy Powell, Steven Graunke, and Lisa Angermeier, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: ePortfolios (EP) 

Making the Shift: Student Reflections About the Learning ePortfolio
Recently, there has been an increase of higher education programs adopting the use of ePortfolios.  Historically, a common use of ePortfolios is to assess learning. Students use this digital space to upload course requirements, where then instructors can grade or use an artifact to demonstrate competency of a specific learning outcome. However, what happens when making the shift from assessment ePortfolio to a learning ePortfolio? Based on student voices, this presentation provides information for instructors to consider when adopting the ePortfolio as HIP. Participants will leave the session with materials to adopt a learning ePortfolio into their individual curriculums or programs.
Jennifer E. Rivera, Michigan State University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: ePortfolios (EP)

Shifting the Focus from Assessment as an Event to Assessment as a Process: Portfolios as an Enabler of Change
We have heard it many times: “ePortfolios help us shift from assessment of learning to assessment for learning.”  Yet higher education assessment practices remain skewed towards assessment of learning (Race, 2008), despite students’ need for support in the process of learning. Through the use of ePortfolios, we can support a more formative approach to assessment.  In this presentation, we will share techniques that support learner-centered assessment, including use of social pedagogies; online spaces that offer “live” views of student work and enable timely feedback; and use of multiple forms of evidence.  We will spotlight innovative practices at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies, which scaffolds students in reflective practice through templates and workbooks and applies social pedagogies to support internal and external feedback.
Domi Enders, Columbia University in the City of New York; and Gail Ring and Shane Sutherland, PebblePad
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: ePortfolios (EP) 

The Learning Landscape, Assessment, and ePortfolios
The landscape of higher education is changing, and, within this new landscape, assessment focuses and strategies are changing too.  By now, many, if not most, higher education institutions and programs have mastered the basics of assessment and are shifting their focus from compliance to improvement (Jankowski, Kinzie, Timmer, & Kuh, 2018).  Some are also realizing that attention to student mastery of discrete competencies counts for little if it is not coupled with attention to integrative learning and personal/professional development. This workshop will introduce participants to ePortfolios as a high-impact practice for student learning and development and as an assessment strategy that resonates with emergent ideas about important college learning.  Participants will learn how ePortfolios intersect with current assessment trends; how well-guided reflective narratives within ePortfolios can help students shape and articulate identity, integrate learning, and enhance their metacognitive fluency; and how ePortfolios can be used as an approach to assessing these important, but complex, outcomes.  Join us and come away with ideas for getting started with ePortfolios or refining your current ePortfolio practices.
Susan Kahn, IUPUI; and Tracy Penny Light, Thompson Rivers University
Presentation Type:  Pre-Institute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: ePortfolios (EP) 

Using ePortfolios to Align Institutional Efforts for Assessment and Accreditation
Building upon the conceptual metaphor of “organized anarchy,” this presentation explores the challenges faced by the very nature of institutions of higher education when preparing for regional accreditation. Presenters will highlight the properties of an organized anarchy and engage participants in conversation of how these properties traditionally manifest themselves. Discussion will follow, addressing the challenges of imposing a uniform hierarchical order to meet the demands of accreditation. Presenters will highlight the roles of assessment and evaluation in the accreditation process, and they will share one institution’s solution to prepare for accreditation by using ePortfolios to make its value visible to both members of the institution and accreditors, alike.
Jordi Getman Eraso, Bronx Community College - CUNY; and Joan Monahan Watson, Digication, Inc.
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Advanced
Primary Track: ePortfolios (EP) 

Utilizing ePortfolios for an Interior Design Studio Course
This session will highlight the successes and learning outcomes discovered through the inclusion of ePortfolios in an interior design studio course. Both the instructor and students will demonstrate the usability and accessibility of various ePortfolio platforms. The instructor's perspective will focus on the learning outcomes and assignment deliverables housed within the ePortfolio, and the students' perspective will focus on showcasing their finalized product and step-by-step process.
Beth N. Huffman, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: ePortfolios (EP) 

We Learn From Reflecting on Experience: A Decade of ePortfolio and Assessment Practice at Boston University’s College of General Studies
As we at Boston University’s College General Studies enter our second decade of program assessment using ePortfolios, we believe it is a good time to take stock of what we have done, reflect on our successes, and reconsider some of our less effective practices. Key takeaways include the importance of connecting with others beyond one’s campus, the value of cultivating a “second wave” of faculty assessment leaders, and the need to maintain continuous dialogue with resistant faculty.
John Regan and Karen Guendel, Boston University
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: ePortfolios (EP)

A Model of Faculty Development for Student Learning Outcomes Assessment
Assessment of student learning has been an important component of regional accreditation since 1986. Some 30 years later, faculty still lack the knowledge and training necessary to fully comprehend the benefits of assessment for their teaching and student learning. The result is that the student learning outcomes developed by faculty may not be measurable or accurately specify what they want their students to know, value, or be able to do resulting in data that is not meaningful for improving teaching and/or student learning. This workshop will present assessment professionals with a strategy when working with faculty for developing quality student learning outcomes.
Cecelia G. Martin and David Williams, University of South Alabama
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Faculty Development (FD) 

Engaging Faculty in Assessment by Assignment Design
“Assignments are powerful teaching tools, and their design is one of the most consequential intellectual tasks that faculty undertake in their work as educators” (NILOA, 2016). Palo Alto College faculty engaged in ‘assignment design working groups’ to improve alignment with institutional learning outcomes, and thus improve general education assessment. The process provoked deeper conversations around the scholarship of teaching and learning and facilitated a renewed interest in collaboration and shared insights for improving student learning. In this presentation we will share example of revised assignments, explain our design process and provide resources for implementing the working groups on your campus.
Julie McDevitt Hector Garza, and Edlyn De Oliveira, Palo Alto College
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Faculty Development (FD) 

Faculty and Lifelong Learning Identity: A Constellation Model for Learner-Centered Growth and Development
This session introduces a new model of faculty motivation for learner-centered teaching by sharing findings from a dissertation research study. During this workshop, participants will be able to demonstrate how faculty learning and classroom assessment can be strengthened, paying specific attention to the influence of personal and professional experiences on teaching growth. Attendees will discover how faculty and student involvement at multiple decision-making levels is beneficial in building a learner-centered teaching commitment and thereby changing assessment culture at a private liberal arts college. Participants will evaluate the relevance of these findings for institutions with similar characteristics.
Emilie J. Clucas Leaderman, Learning Unveiled (Consulting Practice)
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Faculty Development (FD) 

Mapping Student Success: Activating Faculty Imagination in Collaborative Curriculum Mapping
In this train-the-trainer, gamified approach to curriculum mapping, we explore best practices in cultivating faculty assessment leadership. We discuss how to anticipate faculty assessment needs and objections, so we can engage desire for student success while countering obstacles to a culture of assessment. Our focus on mapping the curriculum to build common ground and consensus about program improvement will leverage your faculty development skills to help you craft engaging and productive approaches to curriculum mapping. Learn to help faculty internalize the significance of aligning vertically and horizontally, closing the loop with evidence-informed interventions, and using double-loop analysis to assess interventions.
Jennifer M. Harrison and Vickie Williams, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Faculty Development (FD) 

Measuring Faculty Learning about Teaching
Outcomes-based assessment evidences the value of center programs not only by documenting indicators such as participation and satisfaction but also by measuring changes in the target audience - faculty. While direct measures of the impact of center programs on teaching, assessed via classroom observations tools or syllabus and assignment rubrics, are desirable, these methods are time-consuming and resource intensive. Our research provides an expert validated survey that assesses faculty learning related to several key dimensions of effective teaching. Additionally the survey provides centers assessment results related to how programs impact faculty awareness, confidence, values, behaviors and reflection about the teaching.
Carol A. Hurney, Colby College
Presentation Type:  Keynote Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Faculty Development (FD) 

Practicing What We Preach: Designing Authentic Assessment for Faculty Development Programs
This session will explore the development, implementation, and initial results of an authentic assessment protocol for a specific faculty development program at Queensborough Community College of the City University of New York. By the end of this session, participants will:

• Identify key components of a faculty development program assessment protocol
• Design a work flow and timeline to implement an assessment protocol for their own program(s)
• Strengthen the validity of their own program assessment protocols by evaluating the alignment of their efforts

Kathleen Landy and Ian Beckford, Queensborough Community College, City University of New York
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Faculty Development (FD) 

Providing Faculty Meaningful Mid-Semester Feedback, For and By Students
Do you want better course evaluation data? Meaningful and actionable mid-semester feedback? The Center for Teaching and Learning at Southern New Hampshire University has developed a program whereby School of Education students are prepared to observe faculty, run focus groups, and provide feedback to faculty in a way that preserves anonymity. In this session, you will hear from these student-observers and faculty who will give you the "nuts and bolts" in doing this on your own campus. This session is appropriate for faculty, faculty developers, and administrators who want to improve the quality of instruction on their campus.
Lynn A. Murray-Chandler, Brittany Barry, Jacqueline Curtin, and Kasey Smith, Southern New Hampshire University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Faculty Development (FD) 

Strategically Planning and Evaluating Teaching Center Faculty Development Activities
Teaching centers are increasingly being asked to provide evidence of the effectiveness of their faculty development activities. Guided by Hines’ (2015) mission-driven five-step approach for faculty development evaluation, the XXXX teaching center embarked on a curriculum mapping project to align the center’s goals, programming, assessment approach, and identify areas for new programming. Presenters will discuss the processes used to map teaching center mission, goals, and activities in order to inform program planning and the development of a comprehensive evaluation plan. Attendees will examine assessment instruments and reflect on their own center’s or program’s progress towards a comprehensive evaluation plan.
Terri A. Tarr, Anusha Rao, and Andi Rehak, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Faculty Development (FD) 

Strategies to Promote Use of Program Assessment at the Institutional Level
Meaningful program assessment entails that faculty collaboratively use assessment processes and results for program improvement. Meaningful and skillful use of assessment requires institutional support. This presentation offers such support strategies in a large public research university, which includes: assessment report synthesis and presentation, showcasing (e.g., awards, workshop training, map-of-excellence), offering data presentation and discussion, facilitation strategies, packaging low-hanging fruit options, and building grassroots leaders.
Yao Zhang Hill, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Advanced
Primary Track: Faculty Development (FD) 

Support By Any Other Name: Disaggregating Supportive Environments for Faculty
This session aims to provide a deeper understanding of the importance of disaggregating data to improve campus environments for minoritized faculty members. Responses from faculty members at approximately 30 institutions who participated in the Inclusiveness and Engagement with Cultural Diversity topical module of the Faculty Survey for Student Engagement will be used to examine how identity and discipline influence differing perspectives of supportive environments. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about approaches to working with disaggregated data and discuss ways in which supportive environments can be improved for different faculty populations.
Christen A. Priddie, Allison BrckaLorenz, and Samantha Silberstein, Indiana University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Faculty Development (FD) 

Systematically Assessing Instructional Effectiveness and Faculty Impact on Health Sciences Student Performance
Using a systemic approach to evaluate faculty instructional and professional development will help increase overall student performance. There are three areas we have identified as direct measures to be assessed for instructional effectiveness and faculty improvement: Instructional Methods, Preparation, and Quality Assessment. If students do not consider the instruction they receive to be of reasonably high quality, there is little likelihood there will be increased performance. If faculty are not prepared, this transitions to student overall performance and perception of the course and faculty.
Angelita P. Howard and Mark Howse, Morehouse School of Medicine
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Faculty Development (FD) 

Talking the Talk: Leading Supportive and Meaningful Conversations About Assessment
Assessment leaders dedicate their work to student success, helping colleagues use assessment to strengthen student learning. However, our work is often misconstrued as being primarily related to compliance. Join fellow assessment leaders to discuss using supportive rhetoric and focused questions to engage colleagues in assessment and improvement. We’ll share dialogue and professional development techniques that focus efforts on how assessment benefits and complements work in the classroom. We’ll also discuss ideas for avoiding the pitfall of intertwining assessment with accreditation and compliance. Both faculty and staff assessment leaders looking to build positive relationships around assessment will benefit from this session.
Faon Grandinetti, Harper College; Matthew DeSantis, St. Edward's University; and Catherine Wehlburg, Texas Christian University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Faculty Development (FD) 

Urban Legends, Fables and Myths: A Guide to Assessment
Assessment is one of the most commonly misunderstood practices in higher education. This session will explore the common barrier to successful assessment, as well as practices related to using Action Research design as a framework for faculty to improve student learning in the classroom and in programs. Participants will complete an “Assessment Research Question” exercise as well as review the most common assessment tools and when to use them.
Sheri H. Barrett and Darla Green, Johnson County Community College
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Faculty Development (FD) 

What Faculty Perceptions Can Tell Us About our Program’s Summative Assessments
Some faculty struggle with assessment and resist being involved in assessment efforts. This presentation will discuss faculty’s definitions of summative assessment, describe faculty beliefs regarding the use of assessments for curriculum change, describe beliefs regarding the use of assessments for determining practice readiness, discuss how data might change the way an institution looks at their use of summative assessments, and discuss how this type of study might be used at their institution. The presenter will discuss results from a phenomenological, qualitative study to guide the discussion.
Kimberly Daugherty, Sullivan University College of Pharmacy
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Faculty Development (FD)

Assessing Quantitative Reasoning Core Competency at the Institutional Level
Quantitative literacy is an important skill in the higher education and workforce and it is one of the core competencies. We use the Quantitative Literacy and Reasoning Assessment (QLRA) Instrument to assess the students who have completed their entry level general education requirement. The same instrument is also administered to all graduating seniors. In this presentation we will compare the results of freshman and seniors to evaluate the alignment between the Institutional Student Learning Outcomes (ILO) and the scope, quality, and impact of the courses offered in the Quantitative Reasoning GE category.
Grazyna Badowski and Leslie Aquino, University of Guam
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: General Education (GE)

Best Practices in Using Survey Research to Assess Academic Interventions
Higher education professionals routinely encounter the problem of how to effectively assess student learning outcomes for programs that cannot be evaluated through experimental design (Banta & Palomba 2014). Along with standard data collection and analysis, survey research can be used to gain better understanding of program impact (Umbach 2005). This presentation will provide an overview of how the Student Success Center at UT, Knoxville utilizes surveys to better understand and evaluate three key academic interventions: academic coaching, tutoring, and supplemental instruction. The presentation will include an overview of all components of this assessment method, results, and best practices.
Jessica Osborne and Richard Parlier, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: General Education (GE) 

Data-Driven Framework for Student Success and Inclusive Excellence
Morgan State University serves the community, region, state, nation, and world as an intellectual and creative resource by supporting, empowering and preparing high-quality, diverse graduates to lead the world. Through collaborative pursuits, scholarly research, creative endeavors, and dedicated public service, the University gives significant priority to addressing societal problems, particularly those prevalent in urban communities. Key aspects of our data-driven framework for increasing student success and inclusive excellence is the focus of this presentation.
Solomon Alao and Archana Sharma, Morgan State University
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: General Education (GE) 

Enhancing Faculty Engagement in Assessment Using Interactive Reporting
The use of assessment results to improve student learning requires substantial faculty dialog. These discussions are necessary to establish the validity of the data, provide context for the results, and ensure buy-in for any proposed assessment initiatives. Ferris State University has implemented a system of transparent and public reports to promote faculty engagement in General Education assessment efforts. Using a set of free online resources, our faculty actively participate in the assessment process. In this session, the workflow for creating these reports will be demonstrated and the lessons learned over the first year of use at Ferris will be discussed.
Clifton V. Franklund, Ferris State University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: General Education (GE) 

The Inspiring True-Life Story of General Education Assessment and Improvement
Assessing general education or institutional outcomes can be challenging, but communicating those results and using results for improvement is even more so. Join us in reviewing the process Harper College developed to ensure our general education outcomes are regularly assessed, results are shared across the institution, and improvements are planned, communicated and implemented. We will also share Harper’s general education assessment dashboard, which includes results and improvement plans.
Julie Ellefson, Patty Bruner, Faon Grandinetti, and Rich Johnson, Harper College
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: General Education (GE) 

Thinking Ahead: Designing an Institutional Survey Around Campus Outcomes and Program-Level Use
Using a design thinking framework, the University of Illinois revised its Chancellor’s Senior Survey (CSS), centering it on the campus student learning outcomes and considering program-level use. The CSS committee focused on the utility of the survey from both an institutional and departmental perspective. Data visualizations were created to make survey data available for departmental use and workshops were held to help facilitate data use. The presenters will share information about the strategy of redesigning the survey, the dashboard that was created as a tool, and the efforts to assure the usefulness of the survey by training the end users.
Linell Edwards and Staci Provezis, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: General Education (GE) 

Transforming the General Education Assessment Process: From Failure to Success
Our institution (public medium-sized liberal arts university) went from a non-existent General Education assessment process in 2012 to a successful SACSCOC accreditation reaffirmation in 2017. Faculty participated in the creation of measurable SLOs and definition of rubrics, design of the assessment process/assessment methods, recertification of General Education courses, creation of a GenEd assessment team, and continuous improvement cycle of assessment. The session will summarize each of these stages and close with specific examples of closing the loop strategies and methods to measure improvements.
Gioconda Quesada, Lynne Ford, Shawn Morrison, and Karen Smail; College of Charleston
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: General Education (GE)

A Systems Thinking Approach to Assessing All Students’ Global Learning
Simply put, a system is a group of interrelated parts that form a complex and unified whole with a specific purpose. Higher education initiatives that aim to provide global learning to all students are systems; all parts of the college or university are needed to engage all of the institution’s diverse students in global learning. Doscher defines global learning as the process of collaboratively analyzing and addressing complex problems that transcend borders. Faculty, student affairs staff, community members, advisors, technologists, administrators, and professional developers—all play a role in determining the extent to which students engage in global learning inside and outside of the classroom and achieve intended learning outcomes. Doscher will dissect the parts of systems that effectively support all students’ global learning and reveal new sources of information for determining how and why different students benefit from global learning. Doscher will share results from multiple assessment strategies used in her institution over the past 10 years and discuss how these have been used to improve the system constructed to provide global learning to all.
Stephanie Paul Doscher, Florida International University
Presentation Type:  Keynote Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Global Learning (GL) 

Application, Not Seat Time: Language Learning and Assessment Beyond the Language Classroom
Most college-level language requirements, when they exist at all, are defined in terms of the number of courses or credits needed to graduate. But maybe there’s a better way. Instead of a course requirement, why not a language integration requirement? Following coursework, students could apply their language skills each semester in an activity of their choice, documenting these activities in an e-portfolio presented for the degree audit. The benefits would be significant: students’ language skills would develop instead of decaying; the connections between language and culture would be reinforced; and students could create a language passport to the international workplace.
Barbara D. Wright, Consultant
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Global Learning (GL) 

Assessing for Diversity: Evidence from NSSE’s Inclusiveness and Engagement with Cultural Diversity and Global Learning Modules
The assessment of inclusivity and cultural responsiveness and global learning are current imperatives for higher education. The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) recently added two new modules asking students more about inclusive educational practices and perceptions of their global learning experiences. This session highlights findings from these sets, examines common items for course-based learning and how results vary by institution and student characteristics, what results suggest about global learning practice and inclusivity, and includes a discussion about campuses’ use of these findings to create environments that support all students and leverage the educational benefits of diversity and internationalization.
Jillian Kinzie and Alexander McCormick, Indiana University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Global Learning (GL) 

Assessing Global Learning Using e-Portfolios
This poster will explore the use of e-portfolios in assessing global learning. UNC Charlotte launched its Global Engagement Scholars Program (GESP) using an e-portfolio to demonstrate the global learning from the program’s three pillars: Academic, Co-Curricular and International Experience. The poster will discuss the rubric used to assess the e-portfolios developed by the students. The rubric was created in collaboration with faculty/staff from different academic departments.
Joseph G. Hoff, University of North Carolina Charlotte
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Global Learning (GL) 

Encounters with Difference: Assessing Global Learning Outcomes at the Community College
The AAC&U has identified global competencies and intercultural skills as essential components of a 21^st century college education. Community colleges, however, have been slow to acknowledge the importance of global education in their curricula, learning outcomes, faculty development, and mission statements. In this session, our team will present how the Office of International Education at Harper College has addressed this deficit by developing, adopting, mapping, and assessing five Global Learning Outcomes across a variety of curricula through an open, inclusive, and interdisciplinary process.
Richard F. Johnson, David Antonides, Kimberly Jaeger, and Nellie Khalil, Harper College
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Global Learning (GL) 

Evaluating Multi-Institution Student Collaboration Via Study Abroad
The Computer Information Technology (CIT) program at IUPUI created a "Global IT Citizenship” course intended to explore issues related to multi-cultural integration within global companies and the concerns of citizens working and studying abroad. The course included a collaborative IT-related project with students from a university in China during an embedded study abroad opportunity.  Students from both universities were surveyed before and after the collaborative experience to determine if the collaboration had any effect on program participation and the students’ perception of their ability to navigate their career in a global context.
Rob Elliott and Xiao Luo, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Global Learning (GL) 

Global Learning Assessment Roundtable
This roundtable session will provide attendees and presenters an opportunity to share strategies, discuss challenges, and receive feedback on ideas related to the assessment of global learning. It is open to faculty, staff, administrators and students of any level of experience with global learning and/or assessment.
Leslie Bozeman, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Global Learning (GL) 

Lessons Learned: Making Sense of Assessment Data for Global Learning
Are you gathering your global learning assessment data and getting results that seem ... Dare we say it? Inconclusive? Are the 'best' practices giving you migraines? Are your favorite faculty advocates getting disillusioned, and your students, Associate Deans and or assessment team becoming frustrated with your muddled results? Listen and gain from the experience of campus teams that have done this for years and learned to re-evaluate their assessment practice. We will address and work with participants to re-think what to do with their global assessment data.
Chris T. Cartwright, Intercultural Communication Institute; Iris Berdrow, Bentley University; Donna Evans and Martha Petrone, Miami University; and Christopher Hightower, Texas Christian University
Presentation Type:  Pre-Institute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Global Learning (GL) 

Moving the Intercultural Effectiveness Needle: A Comprehensive Design for Effective International Education Programs
While global learning experiences in higher education are the norm, the research has not kept pace – we do not know exactly how learning opportunities translate into learning outcomes. A 5-year longitudinal assessment and student-centered development project at Bentley University sought to gain a clearer understanding of the factors leading to positive changes in global learning outcomes. Results of this endeavor provide insights into whether intercultural effectiveness dimensions are positively or negatively influenced by maturation, international education experiences or student demographics. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis leads to a comprehensive design for international education opportunities that incorporate key components for enhancing intercultural effectiveness.
Iris Berdrow, Bentley University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: Global Learning (GL) 

Student Perspective of Community Dental Care in England: A Study Abroad Experience
This session will introduce the first study abroad experience for dental students with a description of how this differs from International Service Learning experiences. During this 2-semester long program the IU students “meet” electronically with English dental students to exchange understanding of the different approaches to health care. Both groups of students read and research the same subjects and discuss these by video link. The students keep reflective, evidence-based journals during the preparation as well as when in England. The thematic analysis conducted addresses two central questions about student’s views related to cultural competencies and overall professional outcomes.
Joan E. Kowolik and Stuart Schrader, Indiana University School of Dentistry
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Global Learning (GL) 

Teaching Faculty to Value Rubrics, Master Formative Assessment and Become Better Intercultural Mentors
Effectively nurturing affective & behavioral intercultural development is difficult. Formative assessment can help undergraduates master complex socio-cognitive skills. This session presents a student learning outcomes meta-analysis of an incentivized workshop series created to: help study-abroad leaders operationalize a rubric-based definition of intercultural competence; gain comfort with formative assessment; fit in (more) meaningful intercultural learning activities; and ensure that “stickier” learning occurs during short-term faculty-led study abroad. The session will also introduce multiple research-validated instruments (many cost-free) which may be used to enhance and/or measure students’ intercultural learning outcomes. Finally, presenters will discuss pros and cons of incentivizing large-scale faculty development.
Katherine N. Yngve and Kris Acheson-Clair, Purdue University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Global Learning (GL) 

Transformative Intercultural Learning Through a Faculty Led Program:  The Journey to Scotland
Following principles of transformative learning and intercultural transformation, this faculty led program (FLP) was designed for students to learn about a management topic, to learn about cultures, and to develop their own intercultural competence. This presentation explains how this FLP modelled best practices for global learning through pre-departure preparation, in-country activities and location, as well as post-trip assignments. Beyond a typical FLP, this program utilizes a specific location in Scotland, Burn House, at which students work with management to engage in both a service day and a consulting experience. The close interactions with locals were key to transformative learning.
Iris Berdrow, Bentley University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: Global Learning (GL) 

Using "Big Data" Approaches to Better Understand the International Student Experience
At many large universities, international students make up 15-20% of the student body and come from 100 or more nations. There is no other student group on these campuses which is so large, so disparate, and so often treated, statistically, as if "they are all the same." In this presentation, we examine the results of grouping international student data by societal value cluster (a methodology derived from the Wharton School's GLOBE study of over 17,000 informants from 62 countries), in an attempt to uncover previously unrevealed patterns in student engagement and learning experiences, hypothesized as being related to cultural value orientations.
Katherine N. Yngve and Lisa Lambert Snodgrass, Purdue University
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Advanced
Primary Track: Global Learning (GL) 

Using ePortfolio as a Direct Measure for Global Learning
ePortfolios are amazing and provide incredible insight of student learning, but what are the challenges and opportunities of using them to measure global learning? This session will look at a case study to see how the ePortfolio is being used on a campus at the course, program, and institution levels. We’ll talk about what works and what is challenging so that, when choosing this data collection method, you go in with your eyes wide open. If you are using an ePortfolio as a method to measure global learning, bring your experiences to the session.
Christopher T. Hightower, Texas Christian University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Global Learning (GL)

Assessing Experential Learning in Graduate and Professional Education: What Does the Future Hold?
This Graduate Education track keynote presentation will provide an overview of issues in graduate and professional education that are influencing the design and assessment of experiential learning experiences. Competency-based education, interprofessional education, and entrustable professional activities are three contemporary educational initiatives that require educators to reconsider their approach to outcomes assessment of student learning. Implications for faculty development and future research efforts in outcomes assessment of experiential learning will be addressed.
Judith A. Halstead, National League for Nursing (NLN)
Presentation Type:  Keynote Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Graduate Education (GR) 

Assessment of Medical Student Competencies in a Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship Curriculum: Do They Measure a Unique Construct?
The University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine developed an assessment model after changing its curriculum to integrate and assess student performance in six medical student competencies across seven clinical disciplines. A system of centralized grading during the clinical year was developed. Competency-driven grading, where competencies are integrated into the disciplines, was a part of this new model. Numerous data sources are used to calculate competency grades. This presentation will describe the results of our research into how well the competencies measure unique constructs of learning and how we have used that information to change our curriculum.
Shane Schellpfeffer and Mark Beard, University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Graduate Education (GR) 

Building a Bridge Between Experiential Skills Development and Skills Assessment on Professional Licensing Exams
In this session, we will explore the relationship between student participation in experiential skills programs and scores earned on the skills assessment component of a professional licensing exam. Results from a longitudinal research study of University of Cincinnati Law students’ participation in clinics, externships, and clerkships and corresponding scores on the bar exam performance test will be presented. Participants will be encouraged to share the clinical and skills assessment contained in licensing exams for their associated fields, as well as approaches to better align clinical skills development and testing of clinical skills as a requirement for professional licensure.
Joel Chanvisanuruk, Amy Farley, and Christopher Swoboda, University of Cincinnati
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Graduate Education (GR) 

Comprehensive Clinical Assessment of Medical Students: Best Practices in a Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship Curriculum Model
A multilevel and multifaceted assessment approach for the primary clinical year of training was developed by The University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine when it transformed its curriculum to a longitudinal integrated clerkship model. An assessment model was developed to assess student performance in each of the six competencies across all seven clinical disciplines, combining traditional assessment methods with competency-based assessment. This integration became crucial to the successful longitudinal assessment of student performance during their primary clinical year in order to assess students’ progress in acquiring these clinical competencies while also assessing clinical performance in each discipline.
Shane Schellpfeffer and Mark Beard, University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Graduate Education (GR) 

Drugs and Docs: A Tale of Two Professional Programs’ Assessment of Students’ Personal and Professional Development
An increasing emphasis is being made on the assessment of personal and professional skills, attributes, and attitudes in the health professions in order to better prepare the future workforce. Given student numbers and limited faculty resources, competency-based assessment of these skills are challenging to implement. Session attendees will be presented with models utilized from 2 programs (Pharmacy, Medicine). Both programs assess progression of students toward competencies of self-awareness, professionalism, leadership, and engagement.  Approaches include faculty-driven and student self-assessment of attributes based on observed behaviors and constructed assignments within (1) a student advising program and (2) problem-based learning and clinical environments.
Justine S. Gortney, Jason Booza, Minaskhi Lahiri, and Robert Reaves, Wayne State University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Graduate Education (GR) 

I’m Gonna Be (500+ Pages): Utilizing a Portfolio to Assess Graduate Students’ Competencies in Evaluation, Statistics, and Measurement
What can we use to assess our students on competencies such as evaluation management and assessment development? To ensure our students have mastered these competencies, we use a portfolio that assesses students in areas such as evaluation, assessment, and data analysis. We will discuss the sections of this portfolio and provide suggestions for others on how they can use portfolios as an assessment tool. We will further demonstrate how we: a) map our curriculum to the student performance standards, b) link these standards to the portfolio, and c) close the loop through instructional improvement based upon student portfolio performance.
Jennifer A. Morrow, Louis Rocconi, and Gary Skolits; University of Tennessee
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Graduate Education (GR) 

Isn't the Bar Exam the Ultimate Assessment?:  Learning Outcomes, ABA Standard 302, and Law Schools
The American Bar Association, the accrediting entity for American law schools, has recently adopted Standard 302, which requires law schools to "establish" learning outcomes related to knowledge of substantive and procedural law, legal analysis and reasoning, legal research, oral and written communication, professional responsibility (ethics), and other professional skills. The overwhelming majority of law school graduates also take a bar examination, the licensing exam required for admission to practice as a lawyer. How do these relate to each other? And how do both of them relate to law school exams and grades? Come find out!
Diane J. Klein, University of La Verne College of Law; Linda Jellum, Mercer School of Law; Larry Cunningham, St. Johns’s University School of Law; and Debra R. Cohen, David A. Clarke School of Law, University of the District of Columbia
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Graduate Education (GR) 

Let’s Ask the Students: Evaluating Learning Outcomes from the Student Perspective
For several years the Organizational Leadership department at Lewis University has assessed graduate student learning outcomes in the M.A. Organizational Leadership (MAOL) program using the student’s Capstone paper.  Faculty have assessed student learning and compared trends in online vs. face-to-face classes. However, have we missed an important part of the assessment process? This year we included a student survey to ask students if they felt the Capstone paper offered a chance to demonstrate their learning and mastery as a result of the program. Implications for action planning and student involvement in the assessment experience will be discussed.
Lesley Page, Lewis University
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Graduate Education (GR) 

Methods for Assessing Interprofessional Collaborative Practice During Clinical Rotations
Lincoln Memorial University-DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine (LMU-DCOM) assesses IPEC competencies utilizing a dual-method approach during clinical rotations. This session will introduce the Clerkship Student Evaluation instrument and an e-reflection/journal component both designed to gather student performance data based on the IPEC competency framework. Both methods align with the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation Standard 6.8 and Entrustable Professional Activity (EPA) 9. Efforts are underway to validate these approaches and instruments to predict students’ future success in residency performance.
Sherry Jimenez, Randal Batchelor, Lisa Shelburne, Amy Drittler, and Michael Wieting, Lincoln Memorial University-Debusk College of Osteopathic Medicine
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Graduate Education (GR) 

Reflection as Formative Assessment in an Executive Higher Ed EdD Program
Current research on executive education programs cites a number of benefits to students, such as career advancement, enhanced research skills, and expanded professional networks. Most of those findings, however, are elicited by post-program data elicitation. To what extent do students call upon theories, tools, or skills learned during active program enrollment when confronting issues arising through career, academic work, or interpersonal challenges? This study examines the reflections of executive doctoral students (N=16) who used Slack for regular reflection on application of coursework and dissertation research to their careers as higher education administrators.
Leslie Gordon, University of Georgia
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Graduate Education (GR) 

Rethinking the MPH Internship: Helping Faculty Make Radical Changes
The University of New England’s fully-online Graduate Programs in Public Health embarked on an ambitious redesign of their academically-successful but co-curricularly-disappointing internship, eventually leading to a reimagining of the curriculum’s sequencing and key assessments. This presentation will guide attendees through the ripple-effect that changing the internship had on the rest of the curriculum, focusing on the assessment challenges and opportunities presented by this large-scale revision, and the student learning and satisfaction data that guided and support the process.
Richard E. Parent, University of New England
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Graduate Education (GR) 

Reviewing the Review: Evaluating and Revising a Course Review Process to Enhance Alignment
At the Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine, we recently revised the framework for our course review process. In this presentation, participants will learn about the development of a functional course review process that facilitates review by the Curriculum Committee and fosters alignment with our accreditation standards. The fundamental elements of course review and curricular quality assurance will be addressed.
Sarah Zahl, Marian University
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: Graduate Education (GR) 

The Relationship Between Formative and Summative Exams and Licensure Exam Pass Rates
The relevance of this presentation is for participants to learn how assessment instruments can be used to measure students’ acquisition of knowledge. This assessment system can determine if students have acquired the appropriate level of cognitive proficiency at fixed points during the clinical phase of the graduate program. This data can be used based upon retrospective analysis to determine a stratified level of risk of not passing the graduate licensure exam.  This data can determine students at risk and provide an opportunity for remedial intervention. For those programs that require a comprehensive summative exam prior to graduation, this provides an example of how this data can be used to correlate performance against graduate licensure exams.
Scott L. Massey, Central Michigan University
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Advanced
Primary Track: Graduate Education (GR) 

Use of Assessment Days within the Curriculum to Evaluate Student Readiness to Enter Practice Experiences
Assessment days were created for each semester of each year of the pharmacy program to evaluate student readiness to enter both introductory and advanced practice experiences. ACPE standard 24.3 requires colleges to assess student readiness for practice. The exercises are mapped to ACPE Educational Outcomes. Singlepoint rubrics are used to evaluate. Students are provided with feedback and remediation is provided for those not performing at the minimum competency. A final OSCE is included within the capstone course. Data has been evaluated for the last two years and has resulted in curricular and course level changes.
Karen L. Kier and Michelle Musser, Ohio Northern University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Graduate Education (GR)

A Systems-Level Assessment Plan: Keys to Effective and Efficient Assessment of an Honors Program
Assessing an honors program living learning community is challenging, as faculty’s home departments are not located within the honors program, learning enrichment services are complex, and staff resources are limited.  This presentation will explore how honors programs can assess learning effectively and efficiently at a systems level. Presenters will discuss challenges in developing an honors program assessment plan; lessons learned in creating a diagnostic, informative, and student-centered plan; and ideas for continued development. Participants will engage in discussion on balancing operational and student learning outcomes, relying on existing research in student learning, and applying these ideas to their own programs.
Casey L. Chaviano and Roberta Berry, Georgia Institute of Technology
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: High Impact Practices (HI) 

Assessing a High-Impact Practice Using VALUE Rubrics
In this pilot study, we attempted to embody Edward Tufte’s belief that “good design is clear thinking made visible.”  In doing so, we explored how a high-impact practice (undergraduate research) could be assessed for Critical Thinking and Communication, two of the six Texas Core Curriculum objectives. As institutions incorporate HIPs into strategic plans, we must determine how to responsibly assess their impact. Our assessment goal was to enable higher education decision-makers to better “see” the student learning outcomes using VALUE rubric dimensions. Considering student attainment of core objectives like Critical Thinking and Communication is one important way to begin this conversation.
Julie S. Gray, The University of Texas at Arlington
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: High Impact Practices (HI) 

Assessing Learning Communities Based on the Eight Key Elements of High-Impact Practices
As part of the Learning Community assessment each semester, faculty coordinators, peer mentors, and students complete a survey that asks them about their experience with the “Eight Key Elements of High-Impact Practices”.  Survey results and findings from open-ended questions are used to improve the quality of the program. This presentation explains the assessment process, analyses, and the survey results and describes how program staff, learning community faculty coordinators, and peer mentors use the findings for ongoing program improvement efforts. Outcome-based strategies to improve assessment of High-Impact Practices for similar student service programs will be discussed.
Stefanie T. Baier, Wayne State University
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: High Impact Practices (HI) 

Assessing the Heart of High-Impact Practices: Transfer of Learning
What makes something a high-impact educational practice? In 2008, George Kuh outlined key elements of every HIP, including: “Participation in these activities provides opportunities for students to see how what they are learning works in different settings, on and off campus. These opportunities to integrate, synthesize, and apply knowledge are essential to deep, meaningful learning experiences” (p. 17). Put another way, in HIPs, students are prompted to transfer what they have learned in one context into new and novel settings. In this interactive session, we will consider how recent research on transfer and David Perkins’ conception of “proactive knowledge” could inform how we scaffold and assess student learning in (and beyond) high-impact practices.
Peter Felten, Elon University
Presentation Type:  Keynote Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: High Impact Practices (HI) 

Authentic Assessment of High-Impact Practices and their Impact on Student Success
Presenters will review methods of authentic assessment of student artifacts with a focus on measuring the impact that implementation of High-Impact Practices into transfer pathways has on student outcomes. Presenters will share the results of an assessment of a community college learning community pilot program using a modified VALUE Rubric measuring integration of learning between general education courses and the major.  The review will examine assessment methods, rubric criteria, student artifacts, outcomes and make comparisons between learning community and non-learning community sections.
Barbra Wylie and Andrea Buckle, Ivy Tech Community College-Indianapolis
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: High Impact Practices (HI) 

Community-Based Internships: Hybridized High-Impact Practice and Enhanced Learning Outcomes
Internships have proven to be a meaningful high-impact practice (HIP), as has community engagement through course-based service-learning. This session will explore combining the two, through an internship program aimed at the public good. Participants will see the impact by way of data comparing graduation rates of participants versus non-participants, and are encouraged to bring models and ideas of ways that they examine success in their university internship programs. Further, a discussion about what course materials best prepare students for community work will be encouraged.
Laurie A. Marks and Ben Trager, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: High Impact Practices (HI) 

Developing and Implementing an Interdisciplinary Capstone Course
Our multi-disciplinary faculty group accepted the invitation to explore new ways to educate successful and engaged citizens with special consideration to the challenges in our diverse campus models and the incoming Generation Z.  Generation Z learners design their own learning experiences, support internships and capstones, and value interpersonal interactions. 

After meeting with representatives from various experiential learning programs, reviewing the literature, and examining similar programs at other universities, our group developed an interdisciplinary capstone course with a focus on civic engagement, partnering with a vibrant community agency.  The course was successfully implemented and offered in spring 2018 for the first time.  

The group interviewed participating students and community partner staff, and reviewed student work and the experience of the pilot course faculty. We will share our findings about not only the capstone itself but also the process of working as an interdisciplinary team across institutional boundaries.
Steve Fox, Sue Hendricks, Seemein Shayesteh, Richard Turner, Mark Urtel, and Angela White, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: High Impact Practices (HI) 

Enhancing Service Learning: Including Assessment of Team Experience and Coaching Student Teams to Develop Leadership and Membership Skills
Service learning is one of the High-Impact Practices in 2008 particularly engaging teams in real world context to develop teamwork skills. We put forward that such programs have a good team learning and development aspect in place as part of its design to help students develop teamwork skills. In our case study, results show that the action learning teams improved after assessing their experience of teamwork and providing team coaching. Our case study has implications for educators considering service learning as a high-impact practice with the added intent to improve teamwork skills for students.
Tony Lingham, Antioch University; and Bonnie Richley, Chatham University
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  Advanced
Primary Track: High Impact Practices (HI) 

Examining the National Picture of Assessment of First-Year Experience Programs
Programs aimed at supporting first-year student success have become nearly ubiquitous high-impact practices in higher education today. With such widespread implementation, ongoing assessment of first-year experience programs has become important to demonstrate their effectiveness. This presentation aims to provide an up-to-date overview of assessment practices in first-year experience programs nationwide, based on responses to the 2017 National Survey of the First-Year Experience conducted by the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition. Attendees can expect to learn about recent evidence that describes assessment methods, student outcomes, and important findings.
Dallin G. Young, University of South Carolina
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: High Impact Practices (HI) 

First-Year Student Retention:  Impact of Sense of Belonging and Motivation
Higher education institutions around the world are experiencing challenges with student persistence and retention. Sense of belonging, motivation, and the university environment are associated with academic progress, academic achievement, and social acceptance. Additional factors that may impact student persistence and retention include: first generation status, ethnic minority, academic disadvantage, disabilities, low socioeconomic status, and probationary status. Students with any of these factors are at a greater risk of not completing their degrees. How can colleges and universities use existing data to engage various stakeholders in meaningful conversation? This session will discuss high-impact practices for engaging students, promoting learning and student success, including the use of institutional data to effect change.
Elizabeth Owolabi, Concordia University Chicago
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: High Impact Practices (HI) 

From Matriculation to Graduation: A University-Wide Assessment of Student Engagement and Success
What are the significant contributors to student success and retention? This presentation seeks to answer this question by exploring student engagement and integration into both the formal and informal academic and social systems of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The university library, along with representatives from the Provost’s Office, Student Affairs, the Career Center, and Academic and Student Support Services, joined together to align student engagement metrics with measures of student success. Key findings and processes used to conduct this study will be shared with attendees and can be used as a model for assessment at their own institutions.
Rebecca A. Croxton and Anne Cooper Moore, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: High Impact Practices (HI)

Implementing an Assessment Program for Residential Learning Communities
Attend this session to learn about the steps and processes involved in developing and implementing targeted learning outcomes and an assessment plan for residential learning communities. Presenters will review lessons learned and strategies to connect assessment to institutional assessment plans and systems, the use of AAC&U VALUE Rubrics, how to gain buy-in from various constituents, challenges and successes in developing the assessment plan, learning outcomes data, closing the loop, and next steps. Participants will engage in discussion about how to adapt an assessment program on their campuses.
Jessica M. Turos, Kim Brooks, and Brett Holden, Bowling Green State University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: High Impact Practices (HI) 

Scaffolding Research Throughout Program Curriculum
This session will provide participants with classroom and assessment activities to prepare students for upper-division undergraduate research. Scaffolding research throughout the curriculum broadens participation and understanding of research. A strong foundation of skills helps prepare students for upper-division research projects. Students benefit from scaffolding content area and research-related skills in introductory courses.  Improving inquiry, comfort with research, and interpersonal skills may result in more critically thought-through projects. Activities provided will be practical in nature and may be incorporated in a single course or at a broader curricular level.
Kyra L. Noerr, Franklin College
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: High Impact Practices (HI) 

The Impact of Leader Educators’ Emotional Intelligence in the Classroom
Educators as leaders throughout the United States (U.S.) are researching solutions to address the challenges within the public education system. According to Mason (2015), the “on-time” high-school graduation rate in the U.S. is one of the lowest among developed countries exceeding only Austria, Greece, Luxemburg, Mexico, and Sweden (para. 6). Perhaps employing educators who possess a high degree of emotional intelligence competencies could successfully alter the fabric of the U.S. public education system.
Gretta R. Sharp, Indiana Wesleyan University
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: High Impact Practices (HI) 

Themed Learning Communities and Service Learning Leverage for Student Success
This session will focus on how two High-Impact Practices were leveraged to improve student success and learning: Themed Learning Communities (TLCs) and Service Learning (SL). Assessment results suggested that students who participated in TLCs with SL experiences had significantly higher levels of critical thinking, integrated and civic learning, quality interactions with diverse peers, and persistence rates compared to students who participated in TLCs with no SL. Presenters will discuss implications of findings with regard to faculty development, providing students with opportunities for reflection, integrative learning assignments, intentionally linking themes with SL experiences, and using assessment results for program improvements.
Michele J. Hansen, Thomas Hahn, Amy Powell, and Morgan Studer, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: High Impact Practices (HI) 

Using Assessment Results to Re-Tool the First-Year Seminar
In the spring of 2014, the University of Mary Washington implemented its Quality Enhancement Plan focusing on the First-Year Seminar (FSEM): Research, Write, Speak. In this session, I will discuss how the University of Mary Washington has used an assessment cycle to make changes to the FSEM and build out a more robust first year academic experience for new students.
Anand Rao, University of Mary Washington
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: High Impact Practices (HI)

Using NSSE Data to Understand First-Year Student Retention
This study identified which of the ten NSSE engagement indicators showed significant differences in first-year student retention, namely quality interactions and effective teaching practices. This presentation will teach participants how to combine the external data with internal data in order to run the statistical analysis to answer the research question. In addition, this presentation will demonstrate effective practices in convening discussions related to data-informed decision making. The central theme of the session is how to get more out of the National Survey of Student Engagement data to help improve student retention.
Meg Wright Sidle, University of Pikeville
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: High Impact Practices (HI) 

What Does a High-Impact Practice Internship Look Like?: Using the IUPUI HIP Internship Taxonomy to Improve Student  Workplace and Learning Experiences
Internships are commonplace in American higher education. There are, however, great variations in how they are administered and assessed. The IUPUI Taxonomy for Internship Courses was developed as a resource for improving the practice and assessment of undergraduate internship experiences. This session will present the taxonomy, which defines research-based strategies for implementing undergraduate internships as a high-impact practice, and share case examples of how it has been used to revise and enhance for-credit undergraduate internship experiences in liberal arts and STEM fields. Participants will learn to apply the taxonomy to their courses and outline potential course revisions.
Tyrone Freeman, Brian Benedict, Jennifer Williams, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: High Impact Practices (HI) 

Writing to Learn: Making Assessment Easier with the "Growth Mindset"
In addition to assessing outcomes, credentialing organizations expect evidence of assessment that is ongoing within a course and across the courses of a whole program. Carol Dweck’s analysis of “fixed” and “growth” mindsets offers a way to implement assessment in designing assignments and in responding to student work. Brief, intentional feedback on work produced in stages of a process can be designed to promote a growth mindset. To know whether the growth mindset has taken hold, each stage allows for collecting ongoing, easy-to-interpret assessment data in such forms as short reflective statements and targeted questions on one item surveys.
Mel Wininger, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: High Impact Practices (HI)

"Hacking" Assessment: Saving Time and Labor by Re-Purposing Existing Systems
With the goal of making assessment processes smarter and simpler, Missouri State’s Assessment team has attempted to build on existing infrastructure to avoid duplication of labor, build on proven systems, and integrate data-collection efforts. Several real-life examples of how this has worked at multiple levels of assessment will be presented and discussed.
Keri Franklin, Julia Cottrell, and Matt Woolsey, Missouri State University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID) 

Alignment of Essential Learning Outcomes across General Studies and Major Programs
Common to many institutions’ experience, student learning outcomes alignment became necessary at Stockton when the institution identified and began implementing essential learning outcomes (ELOs). ELOs at Stockton grew out of campus-wide discussion to generate outcomes that teachers agreed they already provided. This logic underpinned the alignment project at Stockton, which aimed to demonstrate connection between ELOs and existing outcomes and replacement of some existing outcomes with ELOs. At this session, participants will have a chance to practice aligning various types of outcomes, including essential learning outcomes, general education objectives, major program goals, accreditation standards, and student ratings of instruction objectives.
Carra L. Hood and Diane Holtzman, Stockton University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID) 

Assess for Impact: Student Success as a Measure of Effectiveness
Successful students are the key indicator of institutional effectiveness. If your campus is like other campuses, you have access to data that tells you what aspects of college may challenge particular students, where students have learning opportunities (or don’t), how much they learned (or didn’t) and student feedback about courses, resources, experiences, and programs. In this session, we’ll discuss new ways to view, analyze, and use data and where to find it when you need it.
Matt Jackson, Campus Labs
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID) 

Building, Sustaining, and Improving an Institutional Academic Assessment System
This session focuses on the purpose, development, and maintenance of the University of Florida (UF) Assessment System. Participants will learn how the system was developed, and how we sustain and improve the system through our internal research. I will describe our system components and explain the systematic processes for review of assessment plans and data reports. An integral part of the system is the faculty control and review of system processes through the Academic Assessment Committee, and I will share the committee’s role in improving our system through studies of UF faculty engagement with assessment.
Timothy S. Brophy, University of Florida
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID) 

Coming and Going: Assessing Information Literacy to Shape Curriculum
In the era of fake news, assessing students’ Information Literacy competencies is especially important.  Understanding first-year and senior students’ ability to find, evaluate, and use information provides powerful assessment data to capture what students come to college with, how they leave, and how that can shape the curriculum. This presentation details the results of a project which combined indirect (survey, n=630) and direct (rubric analysis of final papers, n=775) measures to assess students’ Information Literacy competencies.  Participants will learn about implementation, results, and lessons learned as well as strategies for instituting a similar ground-up assessment project.
Sara Lowe and Abby Currier, IUPUI; and Sean Stone, Indiana University School of Dentistry
Presentation Type: Poster Session
Audience Level: All
Primary Track: Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID) 

Connecting the Dots: Synthesizing Outcomes, Measures, and Success to Inform Institution-Wide Decision Making
How can we help institutions create a data-enabled culture grounded in authentic assessment strategies that yields meaningful results and effective decision making? How can we empower educators to identify key performance indicators and create data-informed interventions that improve student learning and success? Our session answers these questions by defining student success through a gamified exercise, delving into the technologies that collect and manage data, and preparing participants to lead engaging data discussions. Our dashboarding activity challenges attendees to classify student success indicators, practice bridging direct and indirect evidence, and collaborate to synthesize meaning from scenarios representative of real institutional problems.
Jennifer Harrison and Sherri Braxton, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID) 

Creating and Executing a Direct Assessment Plan at the Institutional Level
The session will showcase Sinclair Community College’s use of faculty-driven direct assessment of General Education outcomes, including rubric creation, rubric and outcome revision, course selection for maximum student coverage, institution-wide data collection, and use of data to make substantive changes.
Charles Freeland, Michelle Abreu, Jared Cutler, Cari Gigliotti, Heidi McGrew, Jaclynn Myers, Sinclair Community College
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID) 

Evidentiary Considerations for Assessment Activities
Assessment is only meaningful if there is concomitant analysis and necessary corrective action based upon reliable data, supported by an evidentiary record for the veracity of the data collected, integrity of the analysis, and completion of the corrective action loop. This session will address various evidentiary considerations so that you can substantiate each phase, with a view towards supporting both assessment and accreditation activities.
Bradford P. Anderson, California Polytechnic State University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID) 

From "Necessary Condition" to "Fruitful Discussion:" The Evolution of a University's Assessment Culture
Aside from specialized accreditations, our University’s student learning outcomes assessment was not being sustained and our efforts needed a jumpstart. This session will highlight our framework and how we engaged with and supported faculty and staff as they developed and implemented assessment and action plans for academic programs and administrative/support units. This session will provide participants with the tools needed to enhance their campus’ culture of assessment. Through presentation and small group discussions, participants will learn about strategies and resources for connecting with and supporting faculty and staff in assessment activities.
Laura Harrington and Amanda Johnson Sanguiliano, Syracuse University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID) 

Instituting an Institution-Wide Assessment Mindset for Service Units
During this session, the participants will learn about A&F CARES program and how its implementation has helped units in the Division of Administration and Finance (A&F) develop formalized assessment plans to evaluate their programs and services and engage in institution-wide data collection efforts and receive feedback from the implementers of the A&F CARES program.
Emily A. Messa and Moumita Mukherjee, University of Houston
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID) 

Making Sense of University Data to Improve Student Success
Student data, collected at the university level, is challenging to link as a decision-making tool to improve student success. How can institutions look at data and make sense of it from across university sources? The University Assessment Committee at The University of Toledo implemented data retreats to examine student data, find strengths, and challenges that are then communicated to the Provost’s office as recommendations for improvement.  The group examined both internal and nationally benchmarked sources of data. This presentation shares the planning and implementation of the data retreat, findings, and next steps.
Nancy A. Staub, Alana Malik, and Holly Monsos, The University of Toledo
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID) 

Meta-Assessment: Evaluating and Improving Academic Program Assessment to Better Inform Improvement Efforts
Assessment is increasingly practiced in higher education. Less common are high expectations for the quality of assessment work. By quality, we mean assessment that answers important questions, produces results that are trustworthy, and leads to logical interventions to improve programs. From this perspective, James Madison University developed a meta-assessment process to evaluate program-level assessment reports and provide specific feedback to academic programs. These reports are evaluated using a behaviorally anchored rubric. Participants will be introduced to this rubric, which is perhaps the most comprehensive in higher education, and learn to apply these skills to assessment reports at their own institutions.
Nicholas A. Curtis and Tom Waterbury, James Madison University
Presentation Type:  Pre-Institute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID) 

Personal Branding and Digital Citizenry: Harnessing the Power of Data and IoT
This session presents a Personal Branding and Digital Citizenry application as an example of Informatics solutions to harness the power of the oceans of data created in IoT, and help students as aspiring career professionals solve problems or explore opportunities in all disciplines and industries. Personal Branding and Digital Citizenry is a digitally based application that enables students to express and manage a multi-dimensional, drill down-able presentation of their academic and non-academic achievements, experiences, skills, interests, aptitudes and career highlights in one's own unique style while building their personal brand, and managing their web presence and digital footprint, both social and professional using a built-in customizable Digital Footprint Analyzer and Databots.
Fawzi BenMessaoud and Mathew Powers, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID) 

Pivoting Within a Loosely Coupled System to Build a Campus-Wide Co-Curricular Record
Significant evidence exists showing that co-curricular involvement is an important component of pathways for student success; at the same time, loosely coupled systems can contribute to an inability to—at the institutional level—track, document, and learn from these educative co-curricular experiences campuswide.  At Michigan State University, this changed with the pilot and launch of a campus-wide co-curricular record in 2018. In this session, we will explore how we, through leveraging complexities of loosely coupled systems, addressed institutional barriers and challenges by grounding the work in an underlying evidence of the value of co-curricular engagement to undergraduate student experiences.
Bill Heinrich, Heather Shea, Korine Wawrzynski, Michigan State University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID) 

Soft Skills for Workplace Success: What Educators and Healthcare Leaders Need to Know
The importance of soft skills beyond academic knowledge has become a pervasive concern among business executives and educators. This exploratory study examined the importance of soft skills in the context of higher education and the workplace. Content analysis using focus group data from students, faculty, and business leaders in northeast Louisiana revealed major themes regarding the necessity of soft skill development in higher education and today’s work settings. Findings offer practical suggestions for development of soft skills training within curricula and organizations. The presentation concludes with the impact of these practices on student success, job placement and the workforce.
Jessica R. Dolecheck and Paula Griswold, University of Louisiana Monroe
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID) 

The Value of a Year-End Assessment Summit
Lindenwood University held its first annual Assessment Summit on May 10, 2017, one part of the end-of-the-year Assessment Days. Voluntarily attended by over 200 faculty and staff, the three-hour event provided an opportunity for academic schools and other units on campus to discuss a broad array of assessment findings and to develop plans for acting on those findings. In large measure, the Summit is a means of ensuring that the campus community is aware of institutional data that have been collected (e.g., survey findings) and that the information is used toward institutional improvement. Participant satisfaction ratings of the event have been quite positive.
Geremy Carnes and David Wilson, Lindenwood University
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID) 

Using Data, Evidence, and Technology To Build An Ecosystem of Student Success Supported By Assessment
The American Women’s College of Bay Path University, which serves adult women undergraduates studying online, developed an ecosystem of academics, adjunct faculty, advisors, academic technologists, and IT professionals that uses data-driven decisions to enhance student mastery of course competencies. Reports and dashboards from our data warehouse facilitate real-time assessment of learning and inform teaching, course design, and advising practices. Use of data in our accelerated courses allows for shortened assessment cycles and real-time assessment of student learning. We have developed a culture of assessment across functional divisions that facilitates use of data to improve practices and drive curricular revisions.
Maura E. Devlin, The American Women's College at Bay Path University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Institution-Wide Data Collection/Use (ID)

A Multifaceted Approach to Student Learning Assessment at a Large and Decentralized Research Institution
In 2014-15, UW–Madison more actively engaged academic programs in student learning assessment efforts.  Aligning with the updated UW-Madison Plan for the Assessment of Student Learning, academic programs refined their student learning outcomes and sought methods of assessment. Campus supports large-scale efforts connected to student learning assessment, such as utilizing digital course evaluations, a learning management system, and online approval and assessment reporting tools. These efforts are illustrated in the campus’ Student Digital Ecosystem. This poster will showcase how a centralized support approach may prompt meaningful assessment at the course and program levels at a large, decentralized, research institution.
Mo Bischof and Regina Lowery, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Leadership for Assessment (LA) 

Assessing the Readiness for Nursing Home Administration
Nursing home administrators have a daily responsibility to lead and operate nursing home communities and short-term rehabilitation centers. The primary call is to improve nursing home quality of care by serving the personalized needs of the aging population in a safe and caring manner. Nursing home administrators have a challenging task of influencing nursing staff and direct caregivers in providing quality of care and services for nursing home residents. These complexities have created a need for organizations and schools to assess the readiness of skills and competenices for NHAs.
Soukhy M. Clark, Indiana Wesleyan Univeristy
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Leadership for Assessment (LA) 

Assessment as Leadership for Change
Using assessment for improving student learning requires more than gathering and working with evidence. It requires leaders who are change agents and willing to work collaboratively with colleagues to make sense of and develop responses to assessment evidence in our institutions’ messy, busy, and increasingly resource constrained environments. Using assessment evidence to improve student learning also requires effective leadership skills to set goals, plan, and implement projects. This workshop will focus on helping participants understand and develop leadership skills and practices to mobilize assessment efforts to improve student learning.
Kathleen Wise and Charles Blaich; Cynthia Crimmins, York College of Pennsylvania; and Mandy Moore, Rogers State University
Presentation Type:  Pre-Institute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Leadership for Assessment (LA) 

Building Institutional Learning Outcomes Readiness: The Work on High and on the Ground
Humber College has begun articulating Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs) for students, faculty, employers and the community. We present our efforts as a case study. We include perspectives from the balcony (Institutional view) and the ground (Departmental view) to outline the processes used to develop these outcomes in an organic and authentic way. From the balcony, we focus on ILOs as a transformative institutional strategic initiative and policy. On the ground, we focus on departmental visioning and methods to connect faculty to the larger policy framework in a way that supports them but encourages them to stretch beyond the discipline.
Vera Beletzan and Dawn Macaulay, Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: Leadership for Assessment (LA) 

Buy-In at the Top: Bringing Together Leadership and Constituents to Support The Cycle of Assessment
Many of the challenges of implementing and supporting assessment programs surround a lack of buy-in from senior leadership to support assessment activities.  This session offers examples of assessment practices utilized by university leadership to guide institutional decision-making, build buy-in for strategic planning, and formalize of university budgeting and hiring.
Mac Powell, Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Leadership for Assessment (LA) 

Change Management for Academic Innovation
Change is inevitable in any institution of higher education, but unless institutions apply a structured process for leading the people side of change to achieve a desired outcome, the desire to support and participate in academic innovation will most likely be lackluster. This presentation discusses the role and impact of Change Management, employing a systematic cycle of project and group assessment and integrated planning within an institution. Using a case study from a partner institution, a conceptual model is presented that addresses stakeholders’ assessment, proactive resistance management, change network, training strategies, communication plans, and metrics to measure success.
Tara Kai, IDEA
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: Leadership for Assessment (LA) 

Cultivating Collaborative Leaders with a Facilitative Approach to Assessment
We describe a model to cultivate collaborative assessment leaders who use facilitative approaches to the assessment process. The model consists of (a) multi-day assessment training for faculty/staff that includes building collaborative and facilitative skills, (b) long-term follow-up support, and (c) a campus showcase of projects. A key aspect is active learning techniques: faculty/staff learn and practice collaboration and facilitation skills. Participants will learn theoretical foundations, practice assessment facilitation activities, and adapt strategies for their own use. They will plan an assessment leadership development project for their campus that includes a facilitative approach to the assessment process. [Sponsored by AALHE]
Yao, Zhang Hill, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa; and and Monica Stitt-Bergh, Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education (AALHE)
Presentation Type:  Pre-Institute Session
Audience Level:  Advanced
Primary Track: Leadership for Assessment (LA) 

Designing and Implementing a Sustainable Assessment Process: Practical Strategies for Balancing Accountability and Improvement
The principal purpose of assessment is continuous improvement of student learning. However, in most institutions, the design and implementation of an assessment process, as well as outcomes of the process, are often linked primarily to compliance with external requirements such as accreditation and/or state mandates. This approach renders systematic enhancement of student learning and programmatic improvement as simply a byproduct of the assessment process. This presentation provides practical strategies for developing, implementing, and sustaining a systematic institutional assessment process aimed at cultivating a culture of continuous improvement of student learning, while at the same time, addressing accountability needs.
Felix Wao, University of Oklahoma
Presentation Type:  Pre-Institute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Leadership for Assessment (LA) 

Fearing to Fail: How Common Assessment Practices Cause Stagnation
Many of the assessment reports that come in from academic and co-curricular programs indicate that “all outcomes are met” – as if that were a good thing. When programs can demonstrate that they are reaching all of their learning goals, there is no reason to change. Curriculum doesn’t need to change, pedagogy can remain the same, student engagement seems to be fine, and there is no need to really talk about transformation. This session explores the fear-of-failure that is part of higher education and develop action plans to overcome this so that we find the opportunities to improve and transform.
Catherine Wehlburg, Texas Christian University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Leadership for Assessment (LA) 

Filling the Gap: The Role of Leadership Assessment in Healthcare Organizations Succession Planning
Succession planning is imperative for organizations to maintain sustainability. Healthcare organizations rely heavily on its leaders to provide a strategic vision for patient safety. Many healthcare organizations lack a defined process for identifying potential organizational leaders. This session is designed to discuss the role of leadership in conducting meaningful organizational assessments to identify employee potential and develop leadership competencies. Participants are introduced to assessment tools for organizational leaders to guide the assessment process, and ensure that employees are learning, understanding, and developing the capacity to lead healthcare organizations in the future.
Alexandra E. Menefee, Indiana Wesleyan University
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: Leadership for Assessment (LA) 

Getting Sisyphus’ Boulder Over the Mountain: How Assessment Leaders Forward Their Vision
Most of us have big aspirations for our assessment work. Realizing those aspirations requires navigating complex organizational hierarchies and a multitude of barriers. We reflect on what makes successful change occur in assessment and provide principles based on organization, leadership, and change theory that can be applied at other institutions. At our campus, we revised institutional and general education learning outcomes, created the meta-analysis of assessment with dean buy-in, and implemented a new assessment software. We share the common principles that contributed to wide-scale adoption of our vision. Participants generate action plans and brainstorm strategic pathways to success across campus divisions.
Susan R. Donat and Kate Simcox, Messiah College
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Leadership for Assessment (LA) 

Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing: How to Strategically Plan and Innovate for Higher Education and Assessment in a Rapidly Changing World
The purpose of this session is to discuss how to think through and create solutions for current and emerging issues in higher education and assessment. The presenters will examine the importance of monitoring internal and external factors affecting institutions, as well as organizational life cycles and decline, and lead participants through a strategic thinking exercise. Presenters will then discuss practical ways to plan and implement solutions, relying on principles from Organizational Theorists and Consultants, Richard L. Daft, Elspeth J. Murray and Peter R. Richardson. The session will be highly interactive with activities participants can glean from for their own contexts.
Erin Schroeder and Tim Fowler, Liberty University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Leadership for Assessment (LA) 

Leading the Revision of Campus-Level Student Learning Outcomes: Obstacles and Accomplishments
During the previous academic year, the institutional assessment committee at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology identified a need to revise campus-level student learning outcomes. Motivating factors included, but were not limited to, a need to: (a) ensure the alignment of campus-level student learning outcomes with new ABET outcomes; (b) emphasize entrepreneurial-minded learning; and (c) incorporate the co-curriculum and high-impact practices (e.g., global learning). As a result of engaging in this session, participants will be able to critique the process utilized at one institution for revising campus-level student learning outcomes and better understand the challenges and accomplishments encountered during the process.
Tony Ribera, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Leadership for Assessment (LA) 

Meaningful and Valued Assessment: Toward a Learning Organization
Promoting internally valued assessment, regardless of any external pressure, is essential for institutions to sustain continuous efforts to enhance the quality of student learning and their academic and student affairs programs and services. Guided by the “learning organization” literature of Garvin, Edmondson, and Gino (2008), Schön (1973), and Senge (1990), we will share our work to create an institutional environment where administrators, faculty, and staff value assessment as a formative process that can meaningfully inform the work of programs, units, and individuals. Participants will draft plans to foster a learning organization on their campuses, where assessment is meaningful and valued.
Teresa L. Flateby and Cynthia Groover, Georgia Southern University
Presentation Type:  Pre-Institute Session
Audience Level:  Advanced
Primary Track: Leadership for Assessment (LA) 

Relationship Help Needed: Navigating Accountability and Assessment
Literature argues assessment the responsibility of many people. Professional organizations and campuses demonstrate assessment is beneficial to many areas. Yet, accountability for and actions taken as a result of assessment remains a challenge. This session reviews literature and campus examples illustrating assessment’s relevance and application, then examines complicating factors like buy-in, power dynamics, and data negligence. Attendees will engage in activities to mitigate barriers and apply concepts to their roles.
Joseph D. Levy, Natioal Louis University; and Ciji Heiser, Western Michigan University
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  Advanced
Primary Track: Leadership for Assessment (LA) 

Responding to Assessment Naysayers: Some Good Options and Some Not-So-Good Options
Much public, negative discussion about assessment occurred this year. From The Chronicle, IHE, NYT, to our own campuses, some faculty have unenthusiastic thoughts about assessment. We’ll highlight the main arguments that faculty may have and offer possible responses. Both “Dr. Snarky” and “Dr. Wise” will respond—and participants discuss what to use. The two perspectives acknowledge that we might have a kneejerk, “snarky” reaction, but a defensive position is usually unhelpful. More useful is a respectful position that recognizes the values underlying the arguments. This session previews an “assessment toolkit” being planned by AALHE to help many on their campuses. [Sponsored by AALHE.]
Catherine Wehlburg, Texas Christian University; and Monica Stitt-Bergh University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Leadership for Assessment (LA) 

Some Things Just Can't Be Measured: Busting Assessment Myths, Engaging, Faculty, and Closing Loops
Getting buy-in from instructors on assessment can sometimes be more challenging than the assessment work itself, due to misconceptions about assessment. Such misconceptions that assessment data do not provide insight into student learning, that data will be used to punish instructors, or that assessment data sit perpetually in “data purgatory” can make the process challenging. This session will present best practices in addressing those misconceptions, securing buy-in from instructors, utilizing assessment data for continuous reflection and refinement, and finally addressing the question of “we collected the data, now what?”
Amanda L. Brown, Cody Reimer, Glendali Rodriguez, University of Wisconsin-Stout
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: Leadership for Assessment (LA) 

Thoughtfulness:  An Impassioned Plea for an Unmeasurable Outcome
This presentation makes an impassioned plea for a frequently overlooked educational outcome: thoughtfulness.  The relative ease of teaching and measuring intellectual skills has led many to neglect the essential work of helping students become more curious and contemplative people. More than ever, we need people who are willing and able to ponder issues of enduring importance: what are justice and truth? What does it take to create good communities? Cross-disciplinary experiences can foster thoughtfulness in our students. But before we can tackle big questions and wicked problems, we must first assert the value of—and model—thoughtfulness for our students.
Matthew Schneider, High Point University
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Leadership for Assessment (LA)

A Practical Step Towards Creating a Culture of Improvement
Assessment designs are the cornerstone of program level assessment. A poor design will produce unreliable data that proves useless in driving meaningful improvement. In order to address the many challenges associated with designing assessments, one university has incorporated the use of research questions. This practice has been instrumental in defining the scope of the assessment, ensuring alignment with learning outcomes, promoting faculty engagement, and providing context to various stakeholders. The purpose of this session is to introduce participants to this model and provide them with the knowledge and skills needed to implement the model at their own institution.
Tim Fowler, Peter Lee, and Erin Schroeder, Liberty University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Learning Improvement and Innovation (LI) 

Assessing Faculty Experiences Teaching a Flipped Course
The session explores flipped classrooms as an innovative pedagogical practice. Facilitators in this session will offer insights from hundreds of faculty who have applied flipped classroom techniques in their courses. Presenters will share findings on the types of courses that faculty tend to flip as well as ways in which they structure the delivery of their course content. Session participants will also learn about the challenges and benefits faculty experienced in flipping a course and why they turned to this pedagogical approach.  Discussion will focus on how assessment professionals may gauge institutional support for innovative teaching practices.
Amy Ribera, Allison BrckaLorenz, Kyle Fassett, and Joe Stickland, Indiana University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: Learning Improvement and Innovation (LI) 

Assessing Perspectives of PharmD Students’ Learning Experience of a Renewed-Curriculum Implementation Longitudinally Using Student Focus Groups
A non-directive moderator-style exploratory focus group was used after each semester of P1 and P2 years to assess Pharmacy students’ learning experience with newly-implemented curriculum. This qualitative assessment was a component of a program improvement initiative and was supplemented by student-scores on exams and course-review by a Curriculum Committee. Purposive sampling was done to recruit participants. Pre-designed semester specific question prompts were used. Focus groups were facilitated by non-faculty to eliminate bias.  Sessions were audio recorded; additional feedback from participants and facilitators notes were collected. Data were coded, analyzed and triangulated using Miles & Huberman’s model. Findings, results and implications will be shared with the audience.
Minakshi Lahiri and Justine Gortney, Wayne State University
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Learning Improvement and Innovation (LI) 

Assessing the Change in Career Knowledge, Commitment, and Readiness Through Integrating a Professional Video Series in the Classroom
This session will describe the use of a professional career video series to measure career knowledge, commitment and readiness in tourism sport and event managment students at IUPUI. The students were enrolled in a Career and Leadership Principles course. The assessment is designed to measures students' behaviors, attitudes and perceptions of the major. The video series was developed with industry professionals and community partners to include an overview of the tourism industry, best practices from industry practitioners, and human resources counseling. Attendees will be encouraged to explore how this appraoch to assessment could be utilized at their own campus.
Amy E. Vaughan and David Pierce, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Learning Improvement and Innovation (LI) 

Assessment Doesn’t Work? Says Who?
Recent comments in the national media have argued that assessment doesn’t work. However, many institutions have first-hand experience using assessment results to improve our students’ learning. We will share our experiences implementing meaningful assessment practices and using assessment results to make improvements, including information from a variety of disciplines and levels of assessment. Our goal is for you to return to your institution with at least one technique that will help ensure your assessment efforts have a positive impact on student learning.
Patty Bruner, Julie Ellefson, and Faon Grandinetti, Harper College
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Learning Improvement and Innovation (LI) 

Cultivating Interpersonal Soft Skills: An Innovative Professional Business Luncheon for Health Science Students
Traditionally, health science students learn important technical skills that are directly related to their discipline specific careers. Technical skills, also known as hard skills, were once the only skills necessary for career employment. Soft skills or people skills are quickly becoming core recruitment criteria for many healthcare positions. This project, funded by ULM’s Academic Innovation Center, used funds to implement a Professional Business Luncheon for students in the School of Health Professions in an effort to enhance soft skills and support professional development. The purpose of this poster presentation is to provide insight into soft skill development and methods for assessment.
Jennifer F. Perodeau and Stacy Starks, University of Louisiana Monroe
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Learning Improvement and Innovation (LI)

Designing Sophomore and Senior-Level Capstone Classes to Prepare College Students for the Workplace
The presentation describes two assessment courses developed by the English Department at Pittsburg State University: an introductory course for our new majors and a senior capstone course, both of which help the department retain majors and build positive feedback. The first course helps students design ways to optimize their time at college, and the second works to help each student succeed in the transition from college to career.  The participants will work together to a) create ways this program could be adapted to their home institutions and b) design similar courses that might fit their own school or university departments.
Susan A. Carlson and Nora Hatton, Pittsburg State University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Learning Improvement and Innovation (LI) 

Herding Cats: Organizing Faculty from Course Assessment Through Program Review
Streamlining assessment activities can be challenging amid an ever-changing process. Often assessment data is harvested and shelved without producing useful benefits. This presentation will explain proven techniques for more efficient assessment data collection, managing results, and preparing an action plan to promote continuous improvement throughout the assessment process. The presenters will describe how to apply these practices from the course level assessment through an entire program review, including the use of e-portfolios. Participants will come away with actionable items and valuable tools to assist with annual assessment and program review.
Michele D. Kegley and Monica Widdig, University of Cincinnati, Blue Ash College
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Learning Improvement and Innovation (LI) 

Improving Improvement: Engaging Students as Partners in the Assessment Process
Too often institutions invest in the assessment of student learning with too little return on investment in relation to learning improvement. While improvement of learning has become a greater focus of the assessment process, key stakeholders such as students do not have a seat at the table. The purpose of this workshop is to assist participants in engaging students in the assessment process to enhance learning improvement efforts. Participants will learn how to recruit students as well as engage students in a way that brings new insights into students’ educational experience and elevates their voice in the learning improvement process. Participants will develop strategies for partnering with students to reduce resistance to assessment among other key stakeholders (e.g. faculty and administrators).
Nicholas A. Curtis and Robin Anderson, James Madison University
Presentation Type:  Pre-Institute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Learning Improvement and Innovation (LI) 

Learning Improvement: The Roles of Assessment and Engagement
Use of Results and Improvement are common terms in higher education. Unfortunately, most institutions struggle to connect the results of assessment with student learning improvement. This session is designed to clarify what improvement means and how engagement and assessment can help achieve it. Keston uses humorous examples to help faculty and staff move beyond assessment-for-compliance onto more meaningful practice that benefits students.
Keston Fulcher, James Madison University
Presentation Type:  Keynote Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Learning Improvement and Innovation (LI) 

Project Management Self-Efficacy: An Integrated Approach to Improving Learning Outcomes, Curriculum Development, and Industry Connections
Have you ever questioned whether the things your students are learning in your class will prepare them to be successful in a domain-specific role? Have your students ever challenged your assertions that graduate learning objectives are applicable to the skills needed in the “real” world? We now know that technical skill alone will not prepare students to be successful in future work environments. This session will describe an integrated approach to creating a transformational learning experience and discuss the use of a domain-specific Project Management Self-Efficacy scale to assess the impact of industry engagement on student learning and success.
Katrenia Y. Reed Hughes, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Learning Improvement and Innovation (LI)

Scaling the Molehill Before Mount Everest: Assessing Peer Educators in a Learning Assistance Program
This presentation will discuss the challenges of assessing two populations that learning assistance programs serve: clients (tutees) and peer educators (tutors). The first population is particularly difficult to assess because a number of confounding variables can influence tutoring outcomes. Due to the challenging nature of assessing client-oriented learning outcomes, this presentation will suggest that professionals first create and assess peer educators’ learning outcomes. Presenters will offer a trail map for developing learning outcomes and invite attendees to consider applications for their own unique institutional contexts.
Laura Schubert, Brian Leventhal, and Matt Trybus, James Madison University
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: Learning Improvement and Innovation (LI)

Transparent Teaching at Indiana University
This session will focus on efforts to incorporate and assess the Transparency in Teaching and Learning (TILT) framework across several Indiana University campuses. The TILT project is a nationally award-winning educational development project dedicated to fostering student success through the use of transparent teaching practices. Research from the TILT project empirically demonstrates that students, particularly students from historically marginalized backgrounds, are more successful when they have a clear understanding of assignments, the purpose, and criteria for evaluating their work. While beneficial for all students, findings demonstrate that transparent teaching practices are particularly impactful for students from historically marginalized backgrounds.
Stephanie Whitehead, Chera LaForge, and TJ Rivard, Indiana University East; Julie Saam, Indiana University Kokomo; Terri Tarr, IUPUI; and Gwinn Mettetal, Indiana University South Bend
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Learning Improvement and Innovation (LI) 

Using A Typology of Faculty to Assess Undergraduate Education and Plan for Faculty Development
In this session, participants will learn about the relationships between a typology of faculty members and measures of effective educational practice. The typology comes from faculty responses on the time they spend on teaching activities; research, creative, or scholarly activities; and service activities from over 24,000 faculty at 154 institutions that participated in the 2017 administration of the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement. After an interactive presentation of findings, participants will discuss the implications for assessing undergraduate education and planning for faculty development at their campuses.
Allison BrckaLorenz, Kyle Fassett, and Thomas Nelson Laird, Indiana University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Learning Improvement and Innovation (LI)

Academic Program Assessment - The Nuts and Bolts
This workshop strategically focuses on the nuts and bolts to create an academic program assessment plan that is faculty led and sustainable. An assessment plan template will be shared with participants offering best practices, tips and tricks, and adaptable structures to create a mission statement, program learning objectives, curriculum mapping/learning opportunities, means and methods for assessment, logistics for assessment (when, what, where, how, and who).  

This approach offers a scalable “system” for program assessment that can also help meet requirements for regional or national accrediting agencies. It is intended to serve as a practical guide for program chairs, individual faculty or assessment professionals charged with implementing program assessment for individual programs or at the campus level. Participants should walk away from the session with a clear rationale and charge for doing program assessment and with a feeling that program assessment is manageable and doable.
Mark Nicholas, Framingham State University
Presentation Type:  Pre-Institute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Major Fields (MJ) 

Factors That Predict Passing Scores on the Core Academic Skills Assessment Test (CASA)
Standardized tests are commonly used as part of the admissions process into Teacher Education Programs in universities. Passing rates for African American and Hispanic/Latino students lag behind white students on these tests, leading to fewer underrepresented students graduating with a degree in education. This study explores factors that predict passing scores on the Core Academic Skills and Assessment Test (CASA). The results from this analysis indicate that academic preparedness in math and English are significant factors that predict passing scores on the test. The presentation makes recommendations on how education units can better prepare students to pass the CASA test.
Mary Beth Mitchell and John Novak, Indiana University Northwest
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Major Fields (MJ)

An Introduction to Assessment and Navigating the Assessment Institute
New to the Assessment Institute and/or new to assessment? Want to make the most of your time here? Interested in learning some basics on assessment to help navigate the language, approaches, and information you will hear in the sessions? Join us for a Sunday afternoon workshop prior to the kick-off of the Institute. We’ll cover an introduction to assessment for beginners, outline how best to navigate the Institute and pick which sessions for folks to attend based on their needs, and provide opportunities for networking. 

This introductory workshop is intended for individuals new to assessment and the Institute.  Beginning with basic terms, concepts, and a brief history of assessment, we'll explore the core principles of effective assessment, emerging trends, and lessons learned. Designed to be interactive throughout, this will be an occasion to raise questions, hear from colleagues, learn about successful efforts on a wide range of campuses, and identify resources you can tap into when the need arises. We will share the resources available through the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) to address the issues you are most likely to face as you begin your work. We will wrap up our time together planning out which sessions to attend during the Institute to best get your needs met.
Gianina Baker and Pat Hutchings, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA)
Presentation Type:  Pre-Institute Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: NILOA (NI) 

Assessing Co-Curricular Learning and Comprehensive Learning Records
This session will provide an overview of trends in documenting and assessing co-curricular learning that are emerging across the U.S. Specifically, the example of Northeastern University’s initiative that is aimed at leveraging the full learning ecosystem of the University, helping learners to describe and transfer developed skills, become more reflective, intentional and self-directed in their learning, will be shared as a means to highlight effective student and academic affairs assessment partnerships. The session will also include an overview of NASPA’s work with the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) to prototype and scale a verified record that includes documented learning from the many places learning occurs.
Amelia Parnell, NASPA Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education; and Laura Wankel, Northeastern University and National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) Coach
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: NILOA (NI)

Competency-Based Education:  Quality Program Design and Assessments
Competency-based education (CBE) addresses key needs in higher education by providing credentials and programs that are affordable, accessible, and high quality. CBE programs are based on evidence of student mastery of learning. In this session, participants will learn about CBE program design with assessment at its center. Using the Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN) Quality Framework, participants will learn how to build authentic assessments and quality rubrics. The presenters will guide participants through the process for developing a CBE program using backward design from 1) Outcomes to 2) Assessment to 3) Educational Journey. Presenters will share relevant resources and lessons learned.
Ellen Baker Derwin and Laurie Dodge, Brandman University and National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) Coaches
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: NILOA (NI) 

Designing Assignment Charrettes to Improve Learning on Your Campus
Assignments are key to improving learning. Assignment design charrettes are carefully structured and planned workshops in which faculty members work on individual or group assignments in a collaborative and supportive setting. Well-designed, transparent assignments can both promote learning and provide better evidence for faculty members to measure student achievement. This session will provide participants with the knowledge and tools they will need to design a NILOA-type assignment design charrette on their own campuses. Suggestions for developing assignment design workshops for various types of courses -- general education, end-of-course capstones, and active learning environments -- will be covered as well.
Nancy Quam-Wickham, California State University Long Beach; and Ruth Slotnick, Bridgewater State University and National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) Coaches
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: NILOA (NI) 

Effective Communication of Student Learning Assessment: Telling our Stories Better
This session focuses on how to effectively communicate institutional assessment of student learning to external audiences through evidence-based storytelling. Findings from NILOA’s national survey of provosts, NILOA policy statement, and Excellence in Assessment (EIA) applications express the need for such work to be done. This session will equip attendees with resources and examples to better share narratives around assessing student learning on their campus by pulling examples from the field and engaging with attendees on how to move from current reporting and transparency efforts toward more effective communication.
Ereka Williams, North Carolina A&T State University and National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) Coach; and Gianina Baker, University of Illinois and National Institute for Learning Outcomes and Assessment (NILOA)
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: NILOA (NI) 

Finding Freedom in General Education Learning Outcomes: Rethinking Assignment Design and Pathways
Why, with all the innovations in general education (GE) in recent years, do we continue to assign students the same old research papers? And why, with all the ways they connect, do we continue to think about GE as separate from programs of study or majors? In this interactive session, NILOA Coaches explore the ways in which reconsidering GE outcomes can free our thinking about assignment design and guided pathway reform efforts, helping us to better prepare students for their next steps beyond graduation. Participants are encouraged to bring their experiences with general education reform and guided pathways to the conversation.
Laura Gambino, New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC); and Paul Hanstedt, Roanoke College and National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) Coach
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: NILOA (NI) 

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Assessment Trends:  Provosts' Perspectives
According to Ikenberry (2015), college and university leaders have an opportunity to shape the institutional agenda and a mandate to think about and act strategically on two central priorities: How will we strengthen and secure the long-term future of this campus, and what can we do to improve student success?  HBCUs/institution’s historical strength lies within its culturally relevant approach to teaching and learning. This panel draws together Provosts from various Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs). Panelists will discuss assessment approaches and practices, specific to their campus used to improve student learning. This provost perspective will shine light on how HBCUs create pathways to create, cultivate, confirm, and communicate student learning and success.
Verna F. Orr, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA); Peter Nwosu, Clark Atlanta University; Lynda Brown-Wright, Jackson State University; Michael Hodge, Morehouse College; and Beryl McEwen, North Carolina A&T State University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: NILOA (NI) 

Mapping Integrative Learning Between General Education and the Major
Participants will work to make sense of student learning experiences across an institution. Presenters will share their experience from two institutions including mapping of curriculum, integration of general education, and reenvisioning of assessment within the Learning Systems Paradigm—a framework to help participants reflect on the organization of their institution, whom they might involve, and how to accomplish work within that organization. Participants will leave with next steps to implement general education and major integrative efforts on their own campus. Presenters will share various resources available to assist in efforts to better align and integrate general education and the major.
Sandra Bailey, Oregon Institute of Technology and National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) Coach; David Marshall, California State University San Bernardino and National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) Senior Scholar
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: NILOA (NI) 

National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA):  Reflecting on 10 Years and Beyond
The National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) is celebrating its tenth year. This track keynote will provide an overview of where we have been focused upon movement within the field of assessment around changing faculty development, use of technology, shifting roles of various stakeholders including support staff and students, and the move from compliance to meaningful use of evidence to improve student learning. Together, we will explore emerging trends in assessment and discuss what the next ten years might hold for assessment practice, especially in light of commentary and critiques about the role and effectiveness of assessing student learning.  This session will be offered once on Monday, October 22 and again on Tuesday, October 23, 2018. 
Natasha Jankowski, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA)
Presentation Type:  Keynote Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: NILOA (NI) 

The VALUE of Learning
After a brief introduction to the VALUE rubrics and the work of the VALUE Institute, the session will provide an overview of the findings from the inaugural year of AAC&U’s VALUE Institute and the VALUE/Multi State Collaborative initiative on direct assessment of student learning. Building on the first overview report on the initiative, On Solid Ground, the findings from the summer 2018 scoring of student work will be presented. In addition to inviting the attendees to explore the findings, the session will also explore what campuses and state level policy makers are doing with the results to improve student learning and success.
Terrel Rhodes, Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U); Jillian Kinzie, NSSE Institute and National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) Senior Scholar
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: NILOA (NI) 

Using the Excellence in Assessment Designation to Advance Campus Assessment
The Excellence in Assessment (EIA) Designation program recognizes institutions for their efforts in intentional integration of campus-level learning outcomes assessment. The EIA designation evaluation process is directly and intentionally built from NILOA’s Transparency Framework and is co-sponsored by the VSA, NILOA, and Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). This presentation will share information on the EIA Designation and application process, as well as engage 2018 EIA designees in reflecting on lessons learned and promising practices from their application.
Stephanie Poczos, National Louis University and National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) Coach; Faon Grandinetti, Harper College; Melinda Treml, Northern Arizona University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: NILOA (NI)

Are Certain Types of Assessments Privileged Over Others?
This session will provide a process for investigating Culturally Responsive Assessment. Typically, culturally responsive assessment encompasses a range of diverse meanings and understandings but is often thought of as assessment relating to the cultural practices, beliefs, and knowledge of ‘ethnic or cultural minorities’ (Afrin, 2009).  In this study, we examined the types of knowledge that were valued based on the course assessments given. This session will also discuss the data that was analyzed from six computing and informatics courses collected in Canvas, and the scores that were aligned to student demographics.
Christine Robinson and Harriet Hobbs, University of North Carolina Charlotte
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: STEM Education (ST) 

Assessing Student Learning in Chemical Engineering Laboratory Courses: A Multi-Dimensional Approach
The goal of this project was to improve the quality of learning in Chemical Engineering laboratory courses and better equip students for entry into the workforce and/or graduate research. A multi-dimensional assessment approach was utilized with both direct and indirect assessments that included, but was not limited to, the Undergraduate Research Skills Self-Assessment and VALUE rubric for written communication. Those who attend this session will gain an understanding of the assessment approach utilized, how results will be used at the course level, and the accomplishments and barriers encountered in the collaboration between course faculty and the institutional assessment office.
Tony Ribera, Daniel Anastasio, Heather Chenette, and Gregory Neumann, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: STEM Education (ST) 

Assessing Underrepresented STEM Students Success in the Emerging Scholars Program at West Virginia University
The Emerging Scholars Program (ESP) at West Virginia University teaches Calculus through group and inquiry-based learning where students work in small groups on white boards to solve problems and present their solutions in a whole-class discussion. Students are supported by the instructor and class assistants as they work through the problems. The problems range from concept building, that focus on students understanding why; procedural problems, so students understand how; and more challenging problems, so that students are pushed to think more deeply and practice problem solving. In this presentation, we will discuss the ESP and present data on success.
David A. Miller and Edgar Fuller, West Virginia University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: STEM Education (ST) 

Assessment of a Science Identity Development Model with Minority STEM Community College Students:  Did it Work?
IN LSAMP implemented a pilot program of professional development for minority community college students serving as Learning Assistants in Gateway courses. The goal was to prepare students for a competitive summer research internship by focusing on increasing student’s self-efficacy and their professional science identity. Presenters share the theory behind the design, challenges faced in the early stages, and how working proactively with faculty mentors and administrators improved student confidence and increased the number of students accepted. Evidence provided from the mixed-method study will highlight the success of the implementation and outcomes for sustainability and scalability to future campuses.
Jorge L. Lopez and Michelle Quirke, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: STEM Education (ST) 

Building (Intercultural) Empathy into the Pharmacy Curriculum: A Faculty Development Journey
Educating “culturally competent” pharmacy professionals has been of concern to US pharmacy educators (and accreditation bodies) since at least 2006. This presentation will describe lessons learned (and assessment tools utilized) as two faculty “graduates” of a rubric-based intercultural pedagogy workshop series have become confident champions of a pharmacy curriculum re-design which also challenges their faculty peers to reflect on the relationship between instructor intercultural competence and student outcomes. This will include discussions of outcomes data from a ground-breaking on-campus STEM-focused intercultural empathy course, and the leveraging of intercultural outcomes findings as a tool for college-wide change.
Monica L. Miller and Katherine Yngve, Purdue University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: STEM Education (ST) 

Can Free-Response Assessment Strategies Survive in Large-Enrollment STEM Courses?
This presentation focuses on how an online grading/feedback platform can increase the efficiency and consistency of grading open-ended paper-and-pen assessments for large enrollment STEM courses. The webbased grading platform enables flexible task distribution among a large instructional team while assuring chain of custody. A rubrics-based assessment feature provides consistent scoring and richer feedback than is achievable with pen-and-paper grading. The technology features detailed learning analytics that inform faculty of students’ learning to further enhance their teaching. The presenters will share their experiences piloting this technology with ten instructors and 1800 students during the fall 2017 term.
Debora Steffen and Wanju Huang, Purdue University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: STEM Education (ST) 

Characteristics of Early Career STEM Students:  Do They See Themselves as Science Students?
Indiana LSAMP (IN LSAMP) is an NSF-funded program designed to increase the number of STEM baccalaureate degrees awarded to historically underrepresented minority (URM) students in STEM disciplines. Among other activities, students participate in a summer research experience guided by a faculty mentor and an IN LSAMP campus coordinator. To determine the programming needs of incoming students, an online survey was administered to identify environmental barriers, self-efficacy, and strengths as part of an application to participate in the LSAMP program. Major themes were discovered using open coding and constant comparative method.
Patricia Lang and Kari Terhune, Ball State University; and Michelle Quirke, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: STEM Education (ST) 

Engineering Science Intellectual Property Project
This work is related to a novel educational program that includes a three-course sequence which together create an IP concentration in an engineering or science BS curriculum. The intent of the project is to generate within students a deep understanding of how to transform an innovative idea into one that is protectible under US' IP legal rubric and one that does not infringe others' IP, and to do so quickly and with high quality. This task is accomplished by repetitive design processes followed by preparing and filing patent applications while receiving essential lessons in IP constructs.
Hamid R. Piroozi, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: STEM Education (ST) 

How Do You Plan an Assessment When the Questions Are Vague?
Using STEM issues as the frame of reference, this talk will discuss how many of us are called on to help with or plan assessments for projects either within a university, college or department for national grants. We have a set of standard tools and instruments, both quantitative and qualitative that we can use, but will the data produced address the questions that need to be asked? Sometimes assessment should go beyond counting external and easily accessible variables and address more complex issues such as “Did learning take place?” or “Is there a difference when “xyz” is implemented?” 

This talk will address assessment from the point of view of a Discipline-Based Educational Researcher (DBER) who has served as the chief evaluator on several in-house and NSF projects. The main emphasis of the talk will include the importance of listening to what the clients say is their goal, examining the effect of the project  for each of the stake holders, and matching the data collected to the questions that need to be asked. This often requires helping shape the project from the beginning. Examples will be discussed from a wide range of funded projects, including the effectiveness of using videos to help prepare students for chemistry lab, effectiveness of running workshops for teachers who are introduced to a new use of online tools, how to identify and help average (C ) students learn, and our current proposal from IUPUI to institute a new multi-disciplinary science graduate degree.
Diane M. Bunce, The Catholic University of America
Presentation Type:  Keynote Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: STEM Education (ST) 

Implementing Guided Inquiry Learning and Measuring Engagement Using an Electronic Health Record System in an Online Setting
Practical experience is critical for knowledge construction, and evaluating the same in an online setting is difficult. To measure student engagement and actualize a social constructivist approach to team-based learning in an online setting, we developed a student team-based learning monitor in an open-source EHR system. The process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning approach is being used to track student engagement in STLM tool. The aim is to apply a nuanced approach of measuring student engagement using cognitive, behavioral, emotional and social engagement for comparing it in face-to-face and online courses. Also, we attempt at integrating POGIL to track engagement in the EHR clinical practice.
Pallavi Gautam Maity and Saptarshi Purkayastha, Indiana University
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: STEM Education (ST) 

Inaugural STEM Education Innovation and Research Institute (SEIRI) Seed Grant
The STEM Education Innovation and Research Institute (SEIRI) at IUPUI was founded in June 2016. Since 2017, SEIRI has hosted a SEIRI Seed Grant (SSG) competition that facilitates and supports pedagogical innovation and research in STEM education with small grants for up to $30,000. This funding provides STEM faculty with resources to develop, implement, and evaluate the impact of instructional innovations in their courses (undergraduate and graduate). Another goal of this grant is to enhance faculty competitiveness for external funding with agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), Spencer Foundation, and the National Institute for Health (NIH).
Annwesa Dasgupta and Pratibha Varma-Nelson, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: STEM Education (ST) 

Intercultural Technical Communication and the AAC&U VALUE Rubrics: A Multi-Level Assessment of Student Learning
Issues related to diversity, intercultural competence, and social justice must be included in the curriculum to prepare students in technical communication and STEM fields to work in a global workforce. Intergroup dialogue is a pedagogical approach that can provide opportunities for students to gain knowledge in these critical areas.  This presentation will explain how our team used AAC&U VALUE rubrics to examine data from a new course called  Exploring Intercultural Technical Communication and determine the extent to which students achieved course, program, and institutional learning objectives.
Corinne Renguette, Danielle McDougal, and Zachary McDougal, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: STEM Education (ST) 

Pathways to Technology Leadership and Communication:  Pursuing Paths to Completing a Bachelor's Degree
With assistance from the Degree Completion Office Mini-Grants, the Department of Technology Leadership and Communication at IUPUI accomplished two goals: 1) We developed a new prior-learning assessment process and taskforce to facilitate degree completion, and 2) we developed fifteen articulation agreements for associates degrees at Ivy Tech Community College so students will be able to earn BS degrees in two possible pathways: Organizational Leadership or Technical Communication. Presenters will explain the steps, milestones, and implementation along the pathways, as well as outcomes and lessons learned and how this work will be scaled and sustained for both projects.
Corinne Renguette and Katrenia Y. Reed Hughes
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: STEM Education (ST) 

The Meaning of Lines: Assessing the Ethical and Technical Outcomes of a Community-Engaged Architectural Technology Course
This presentation offers a case study of two students who participated in an architectural technology course on commercial construction that used a community-engaged instructional design. Utilizing data from participant observation field notes and ethnographic interviews, we will explore both “technical” and “professional” student outcomes via an analysis of the students’ final project: complete construction documents of a multipurpose building for a community partner. From the lines students drew in their designs, we will unpack the ethical relations and technical knowledge that led to their creation. We will also explore the feasibility of this method as a means of assessment.
Grant A. Fore and Beth Huffman, IUPUI
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Advanced
Primary Track: STEM Education (ST)

All Aboard! How to Get Your Department on the Assessment Train
Assessment has become a crucial component of the division of student affairs. Institutions’ commitment to the field can be seen by the growing number of newly created assessment offices and positions opening across the country. While many recognize the importance, there are still some professionals who have not bought their ticket to board the “assessment train”. This presentation will show how one Unit navigated the landscape of uncertainty and created a culture of assessment among its department’s staff. Attendees will walk away confidently equipped with examples and tangible tips that can be applied to their own department to assist with creating a culture of assessment all staff can buy into.
Catherine T. Sturm and Sara Reinhardt, University of South Carolina
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Student Affairs Programs and Services (SA) 

Assessing and Improving the New Student Transition
This session will discuss an ongoing assessment of the transition for first-year students, with a primary focus on survey data that have been used to improve programming for incoming students. A review of the survey procedures, summary of data, and how data have been used to inform changes to New Student Orientation and other program offerings for new students will be discussed.
Adam E. Christensen and Deborah Lee, Penn State University
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Student Affairs Programs and Services (SA) 

Assessment of a Student Peer Tutoring Program: Benefits to the Tutors
While student peer tutoring is one proven strategy to assist struggling students, benefits to the peer tutor have not been well documented. Tutoring can benefit both tutor and tutee, yet distressed students in professional schools often have difficulty accepting academic assistance. We will discuss how the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine used a multi-pronged assessment strategy to determine benefits of a peer tutoring program for tutors and to conduct an ongoing program review in order to promote a culture in which students seek, accept, and offer assistance. Lessons learned and future directions will be shared.
Zsuzsa Horvath and Christine Wankiiri-Hale; University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Student Affairs Programs and Services (SA) 

Creating Collaborative and Effective Wellbeing Measurement Programs
As universities increase their wellbeing supports in response to students’ growing stressors, they face a number of measurement challenges: (a) wellbeing is complex and multiply-defined; (b) these multiple definitions cover different time and scope parameters and therefore require different measurement approaches; and (c) the two previous factors can make wellbeing data difficult to translate into programming or programming evaluation efforts. We will ask participants to consider how frameworks such as the Engine Model of Well-being can help measurement experts and programmers create collaborative, effective schedules for measuring student wellbeing and programming outcomes using self-report measures and existing data sources.
Nicole Brocato and Laura Hazlett, Wake Forest University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Student Affairs Programs and Services (SA) 

Cultivating Curiosity to Advance a Culture of Evidence
Challenges facing institutions of higher education are tangible and pervasive, including apathy, resistance, fear, limited time, limited resources, and skill development. Encouraging staff to engage in the process of assessment in the face of such challenges presents its own unique difficulties to assessment practitioners working to establish and advance a culture of evidence. This presentation focuses on concrete strategies to cultivate curiosity and engage staff in the process of assessment and improvement.
Ciji A. Heiser, Western Michigan University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Student Affairs Programs and Services (SA) 

Evaluating the Impact of First-Year Student Success Programs on Perceived Sense of Belonging
College students experience a period of major transition upon entering college for the first time. Many institutions utilize first-year programs in order to support and guide students during this time of transition. Not only do these programs provide direction and teach valuable study skills, but it is believed they can positively impact individual sense of belonging within the campus environment. This study will evaluate how these programs affect the students’ sense of belonging, what impact it has on their early college education, and how these programs could be improved.
Shawn R. Peters, Indiana University
Presentation Type:  Poster Session
Audience Level:  ALL
Primary Track: Student Affairs Programs and Services (SA) 

Fast, Good, Cheap – Pick Two! -Developing a Program Review Process That’s Timely, Effective, and Affordable.
“Fast, good, and cheap – pick two.” This phrase is uttered in multiple industries, including higher education, regarding products, initiatives, and processes. At UW-Stout, Student Life & Services created a comprehensive program review process that serves 12 departments, covers 21 CAS assessment areas, and is supplemented by additional university assessment tools. This session focuses on the logistics of our review process, highlighting challenges and successes. Whether you're starting from scratch or revising an existing model, assessment processes can be timely, effective, and affordable.
Andrew Cleveland, University of Wisconsin-Stout
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Beginner
Primary Track: Student Affairs Programs and Services (SA) 

Improving Advising Outcomes through Assessment and Feedback
Evaluation of academic advising should be evidence-based and align with professional standards. Home-grown surveys, commonly used for assessing advising outcomes, typically undergo little validity or reliability testing. A need exists for a valid and reliable standardized instrument for benchmarking across institutions. IDEA and CAS have partnered to develop assessment tools based on CAS standards. This session will present results of a pilot study of the Advising Assessment and Feedback System, which informs best practice for a range of institution types and advising formats.
Ken Ryall, The IDEA Center; and Gavin Henning, New England College
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Student Affairs Programs and Services (SA) 

Make More Happen: Moving to Assessment 2.0
Many institutions find themselves coordinating assessment and wanting to improve or advance their efforts, but are unsure how to take activity to the next level. This session explores methods to elevate assessment practices to be more comprehensive, collaborative, and encouraging of advanced efforts. Topic-based strategies and campus examples will be discussed. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage in discussion and participate in an activity to ensure practical takeaways from the session.
Joseph D. Levy, National Louis University; and Ciji Heiser, Western Michigan University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Student Affairs Programs and Services (SA) 

Retention Alert: A Multi Sector Campus Initiative – A Five Year Retrospective and a Roadmap for the Future
Student retention is an issue faced by higher education institutions today. Come learn about Alma College’s Retention Alert initiative which was launched in the Fall 2012. This session will focus on how Alma College uses technology to facilitate faculty, staff, and student reporting to have successful interventions with students at risk of leaving the institution. Learn about how the cross-sector Retention Alert Team was formed and how they handle retention alerts as they are received. Data gathered over the past five years will be shared along with successes, challenges, lessons learned, and our roadmap for the future.
Dave Blandford, Alma College
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Student Affairs Programs and Services (SA) 

Showcasing the Utility of Implementation Fidelity Data when Evaluating Program Effectiveness
To make evaluative statements about the effectiveness of educational programming, we must assess whether students achieve intended learning and development outcomes. Often intended outcomes are not achieved; however, very few programs are altered using outcomes assessment findings (Banta & Blaich, 2011). A barrier to using outcomes assessment results (i.e., closing the assessment loop) is that we do not always know how to make changes because we do not always know where the problems exist. This barrier can be addressed, in part, via implementation fidelity assessment. In this session, we will introduce implementation fidelity assessment and discuss how it can be coupled with outcomes assessment data to provide more accurate information about program effectiveness, which enables informed changes to programming to improve student learning. 

This session is an introduction to implementation fidelity assessment, appropriate for novices hoping to connect implementation fidelity data with outcomes assessment data to facilitate accurate communication about the quality of programming and to guide program improvement.
Sara J. Finney, James Madison University
Presentation Type:  Keynote Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Student Affairs Programs and Services (SA) 

Using CAS Standards for Evaluating Student Learning and Program Effectiveness
As higher education professionals, we strive to meet the needs of our students. This commitment, coupled with calls for accountability urge, us to evaluate programs and services to demonstrate impact on student learning. The program standards and cross-functional frameworks for self-assessment of student support functional areas developed by the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) are valuable tools for these forms of assessment. In this session participants will learn how to use the standards developed by a consortium of 41 higher education associations for program review and evaluation of student learning.
Gavin Henning, New England College; and Jennifer Wells, Kennesaw State University
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Student Affairs Programs and Services (SA)

Blended Simulation Progress Testing for Assessment of Practice Readiness
Current standards in pharmacy education advocate for curricular assessments identifying student readiness to 1) enter clinical experiences; 2) provide direct patient care in a variety of healthcare settings; and 3) contribute as a member of an interprofessional collaborative patient care team. This program will profile an innovative patient simulation assessment strategy being utilized to afford students practical application of patient care responsibilities, and gauge student readiness for clinical practice. The authentic assessment employs multiple simulation strategies and progress testing to move learners to expert faster. Presenters will present 2 years of assessment data along with curricular modifications resulting from the assessment.
Neal J. Benedict and Susan Meyer, University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Use of Technologies in Assessment (UT) 

From Ashes to Embers: Stoking the Coals to Facilitate Change
When the assessment data runs cold, you must stoke the fires to reinvigorate the data collection processess and enact change. Through multiple data collection methods, program-level outcomes can be evaluated and adjusted to better represent and measure student learning. Exit surveys, ePortoflios, assessment exams, and alumni sruveys can all provide useful data to facilitate change. This research shows how to incorporate data from all of those sources to redesign program-level outcomes for a media-based undergraduate program.
Trey A. Stohlman, Central Michigan University
Presentation Type:  20-Minute Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Use of Technologies in Assessment (UT) 

Go Towards the LITE: The Need for Creating a Business Intelligence Competency Center
At the core of effective assessment is robust underlying data. With the creation of Enterprise Data Management, Georgia Tech had the momentum to start the centralization of tools and services to improve the availability, quality, and visibility of data to our campus customers. After the first roll-out of our enterprise data warehouse, the next logical question was centered around answering important questions from customers, simplifying assessment and reporting, and ensuring security and governance. Through Georgia Tech’s business intelligence center, Leading Insight Through Empowerment (LITE), less time is spent finding and accessing data, and more time is spent making key decisions.
Nick Chaviano, Georgia Institute of Technology
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Use of Technologies in Assessment (UT) 

Texts From Last Night: Student Perceptions of Research and Study Space on Campus
In Fall 2017, librarians undertook a sequential needs assessment in research and space to improve learning objects and library space. A collaborative assessment project identified gaps in those areas throughout the semester. We piloted our methodology, adapted from ethnographic research and user experience, with a small sample size. With SMS technology, however, we were able to collect quantitative and qualitative data.  In this presentation, we will discuss methodology, technology, and study results. We will explore challenges, lessons learned, and next steps of how we are applying the results to inform instruction, learning objects, and library space redesign.
Sara Lowe and Willie Miller, IUPUI; Yoo Young Lee, University of Ottawa
Presentation Type: 20-Minute Session
Audience Level: Beginner
Primary Track: Use of Technologies in Assessment (UT) 

Using a Smartphone-Based Integrated Data Collection System to Measure Student Learning Gains
Yamagata University has developed a smartphone-based assessment framework to collect the evidence of student learning more efficiently. Last year, we administered two assessment tests to the 1,800 new first-year students using their smartphones: (1) Internally-developed scientific concept tests using item response theory (2) Big Five Personality Test. The possible personality predictors of student success were found. We also plan to conduct those two tests at the beginning of their second year to measure the progress of learning. In this presentation, we will share the results of those pre- and post- assessment tests and our strategy to help us improve our education.
Katsumi Senyo, Shigeru Asano, Koji Fujiwara, Douglas Gloag, Takao Hashizume, and Junichiro Yasuda, Yamagata University, Japan
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  All
Primary Track: Use of Technologies in Assessment (UT)

Who’s Better at Assessment – Humans or Algorithms? A Three-part Analysis Comparing the Results of Human Experts and Automated Assessment Technology
Our presentation will provide the results of a study conducted to determine how automated assessment technology compares to human experts. This three part study examined how humans and technology compare in both numeric and general scoring of student work. The results of these three phases offer significant insights into the reliability of human assessment, which in turn speaks to the potential role automated assessment can, and perhaps should, play in traditional assessment models.
Jamey Heit, Walden University and ecree.com; Kristin Bundesen, Walden University; Robin Donaldson, ecree.com; Todd Edmonson, Milligan College; and Wes Goldsberry, Independent Researcher
Presentation Type:  60-Minute Concurrent Session
Audience Level:  Intermediate
Primary Track: Use of Technologies in Assessment (UT)