Assessment Tuesday Full Schedule and Registration Links
Presenters: General Education Task Force Essential Skills Conference Committee
Audience: Faculty
Registration link: See Program Description
Learning Goals
- Understand the definitions of Essential Skills
- Establish how the Essential Skills help students achieve their academic and career goals
- Determine how we assess our/students’ progress in learning the skills
- Demonstrate how we teach and assess Essential Skills in general education courses
- Demonstrate how we build on, develop and assess Essential skills in program courses.
Program Description
During the past three years or so, the Cross Divisional Curriculum Planning (CDCP) group along with the General Education Task Force (GETF) have been working on revising general education, which includes drafting and finalizing the General Education Essential Skills. More than 100 faculty have participated in this general education work so far. Please join us and share your insights and experiences.
Assessment Tuesday Full Schedule and Registration Links
Overview of AEFIS as the College’s Assessment Repository
AEFIS 101—Everything you want to know about AEFIS as a faculty member
9 to 10:15 a.m.
Presenters: Dawn Janich, Lisa Johnson, Ilze Nix
Description:
AEFIS can be a powerful tool when used in a meaningful manner as part of the assessment cycle. Join us for an interactive session where we will explore the ways faculty can use AEFIS to plan, collect, and analyze the data in their own courses. The session will take a step-by-step approach to help faculty brush-up their AEFIS skills specifically answering the most frequent questions: Where to find AEFIS; How to sync AEFIS with CANVAS; How to link assignments; and how to pull your own assessment data. Additionally, we will spend time exploring some general troubleshooting, not only to enable a smoother user experience for all, but also to continuously improve our own assessment processes.
Registration Link | Passcode: 082073
General Education Assessment and AEFIS: General Overview
10:30 to 11:15 am
Presenter: Amy Birge-Caracappa
Description:
In this seminar, participants will learn more about how the College plans to assess the six Essential Skills of general education, according to the general education revision that will go into effect fall 2021. A different Essential Skill will be assessed every year, and plans are underway to begin with the Essential Skill of Writing, Research, and Information Literacy (WRI) in ENGL 101 and ENGL 102 in fall 2021 and spring 2022. Participants will become familiar with the new tools for general education assessment and learn more about how those tools can help faculty to design more transparent assignments that emphasize critical thinking. We will also discuss how we can work collaboratively to assess student learning in the Essential Skills across disciplines and in programs and pathways.
Taking the Pulse: Beyond the Numbers
11:30 am to 12:30 pm
Presenters: Girija Nagaswami, Ilze Nix, Elizabeth Canapary
Description:
Using data to engage in continuous improvement in teaching and learning is an integral part of the assessment culture in our classes. The common data source is generally students’ scores on a given test, quiz, essay, presentation. There are other data sources that yield rich information that can be meaningfully significant for instructors to use to improve students’ learning and enhance their teaching. Such an approach looks at the “whole” student and beyond the scores in a test. However, at times due to our emphasis on statistically significant scores, we tend not to focus on rich data provided by other sources. This session will address the importance of developing a culture of assessment that includes all data sources and how such an assessment can be effectively applied to continuous improvement in teaching and learning.
Registration Link | Passcode: 092841
General Session—Open to all: Aligning Assignments to Course Learning Outcomes
1:30 to 2:15 p.m.
Presenters: Michael Hackett, Girija Nagaswami, Elizabeth Canapary
Description:
Students’ completion of an assignment successfully provides the instructors with evidence that a specific course learning outcomes has been achieved. Therefore, it is necessary to establish the appropriate and accurate alignment of course assignments to course learning outcomes. This session will offer some best practices in relation to identifying appropriate and accurate assignments that align to course learning outcomes. If faculty apply these best practices when engaging in the process of linking assignments to course learning outcomes, it will lead to robust and meaningful assessment of course learning outcomes.
Registration Link | Passcode: 087584
Closing the Loop on Assessment Tuesday
3:45 to 4:15 p.m.
Presenters: Lisa Johnson, Dawn Janich, Laura Davidson, Michael Hackett, Lawrence Liss, Elizabeth Canapary, Girija Nagaswami, Ilze Nix
Description:
Assessment Tuesday’s sessions led by Division Curriculum Assessment Facilitators (DCAF) from across the three academic divisions, engaged faculty in a range of topics from going beyond the numbers to conversations on how to obtain robust data that would lead to continuous improvement. It is therefore important for faculty to come together and share with one another what they learned and what they plan to do as we begin fall semester. This session is open to all faculty who would like to share ideas with their peers on what their goals would be in terms of assessment and how collectively we can build the culture of assessment that focuses on students’ success.
Facilitators: Division Curriculum Assessment Facilitators
Specific Sessions – By Invitation Only
General Education Assessment and AEFIS: Training for Faculty
2 to 3:30 p.m.
Presenters: Amy Birge-Caracappa, Elizabeth Canapary, Jason Esters, Sarah Iepson, Girija Nagaswami, Ilze Nix, Massah Nuni, Stephanie Scordia, Nichole Webster
Description:
This is a 90-minute training session for faculty taking part in the pilot for general education assessment in fall 2021. “General education” refers to the courses that the College and our accreditor, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), require every student to take, regardless of degree program. We recently revised our general education curriculum into six Essential Skills, effective fall 2021. Now that the six Essential Skills are in place, we must begin the work of assessing student achievement in them. We’re starting with the Essential Skill of Writing, Research, and Information Literacy (WRI). Several faculty teaching ENGL 101, ENGL 102, ENGL 101H, and/or ENGL 102H in Fall 2021 who are participating in the pilot are invited to attend this training session. Training will include tutorials on using the WRI rubric and Assignment Alignment tool and a demonstration of how to link assignments to be assessed to the WRI rubric in AEFIS. This session is by invitation only.
AEFIS 201: Brush-up for Program Coordinators and Department Heads
2:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Presenters: Michael Hacket, Ilze Nix
Description:
As a Program Coordinator or Department Head, AEFIS can be a valuable tool to dig deep beyond faculty linking assignments. Join us for an interactive session where we will explore AEFIS to access various reports via the Report Dashboard. We will highlight the key reports that look at aggregated course and program data. Moreover, we will discuss best practices, frequently asked questions, and general troubleshooting around using these to enable you to plan, collect, and analyze data available in AEFIS. Lastly, the session will explore ways in which improvements can be tracked as part of closing the loop.
Registraton link | Passcode: 103706