Day 4 afternoon – Assessment Institute, Moscow, Idaho
What’s been learned, and what’s next?
Institutional Get Togethers
Assessment of Institute
Closure
Elevator Speeches - what has happened to you this week
Assessment moved up in priority, assessment now only agenda in upcoming 2 day retreat
Before:Assessment poorly understood leads to blank stares, After: now leads to focus on student growth
Before: percpective of evaluation – negative After: about improvemtn of process and product, not about standards or agendas. Open process
Assessment means focus on contic=uous imporovemtn of practice. Heloping individual and self.
Serious change in perception. Evaluation process painful, doesn’t select thouse who aren’t contributors. Assessment based on performance not outcomes, can inform evaluation to make it constructive – TQM Will improve oveall performance
If you would like to see asounding changes in students staff factuly, please adopt a cultre of assesement
Before: though had good idea of assessment from ABET, etc. 2 days breaking previous mindset. After: has better idea of assessment , will probably produce despair next time ABET comes up. Should become a facilitator of others transformaltional processes.
Been assessment director – clarified difference between evaluation and assessment. Shifted perpective towards assessment processes.
Assessment is not about trying to comply with someone elses standards. About setting high standards for self and soliciting feedback , building community and support to exceed those.
Husband will regret asking how day was. Came to institute looking to be fed . everything learned can be applied to rest of life. Can see need to change teaching style. Have tools here to transform ed in state of ID must be done to survive.
Before: thought knew something assessment/evalutation interchangeable. Been helpful to have clear definitions Need some changes and to get out of evaluation mindset.
Entire bar gets raised – by understanding assessment
Graduate and professional education – very rigid curriculum and external standards. How to shift system to enabling students to achieve goals? Assessment should lead to better student experience rather than just get it over with.
Gained tool to improve course, challenge self and students, gained confidence. Won’t be able to do it all at once.
Surveying assessment literature – knowledge in process education very ahead of rest of education research. Uses assessment in marriage. Assessment culture provides way to cross boundries, institutional, departmental, ect.
Gained awarness that assessment is hard to communicate, even to those who have some background.
Professional development – helps to grow quickly, working with others accelerates that.
Developing way of being, not just mindset. Becomes part of larger assessment community. Can’t escape – its part of me.
Area for improvement turn off your cell phone, at least while you’re the speaker.
Before: described learning about assessment. After: Internalized it. Looking forward to using it, will help collaborate between two dept.s working for.
Assessment been part of life for ~20 yrs. Leads to a lifetime of continuous performance improvement. Leads to reluctance for every day to end – excite ment for every day to begin.
To live above the common level of life.
Vision Statements
Now – we have isolated interest in assessment with most people doing it for accreditation purposes and/or because they have to. Understanding of the true meaning of assessment is low or its use is not even on the menu.
Future – have a target % of people who have adopted an assessment culture and appreciate the power of developing this culture. The institution will have a regular schedule of events relating to assessment that have an excitement surrounding them such that they are self-sustaining and people cannot wait to go to the next event. Finally, there will be a vertical alignment of assessment practice throughout the institution.
We aspire to become a Palouse higher education network that bridges boundaries to create a culture that empowers people, stimulates innovative thinking, produces results that matter, and creates professors who continuously improve their performances.
The community of assessors created by this institute has become the catalyst for an expanded community dealing with not only assessment but also with other educational issues on the “Assessment Triangle” (LCSC, U of I, WSU).
Walking the walk versus talking the talk; that the three campuses would from administration to staff, faculty, and students levels all aspire to a culture of assessment.
The enriched learning community of the Palouse will continue its journey as its members practice, support, interact, and assess themselves and their peers on a continual basis for personal and professional growth.
Barriers
- Lack of experience from an assessment workshop
- time
- Adequate investment capital
- Mindset
- Priorities
- Lack of connection between rewards and vision
- Apathy
- Fear of Change
- Tradition of marginalizing other institutions
- Alternative methods
- Activation energy must be overcome
- Lack of a supportive environment for assessment
- Buy-in of all stakeholders without a transformative change experience
- Business of doing what is considerate very important
- State lines
- Communication channels
Activities (next 12 months)
- Administrator Institute
- Program of Activities for the community – Don & Denny & Tris
- Advance Assessment Institute
- Facilitator’s Institute – facilitates the growth of FD facilitators
- 3 showcase examples of effective implementation of Assessment practice/system/process that has evidence based results
- Demonstrate it through modeling and make it infectious (valuing the missionary role)
- CQI of the implementation of the practice of community members
- Locus of control to alternate among the three campus as to host and promote change
- Create a program assessment system of the community practice
- Grow the community significantly over the next 12 months – 200% (100 members) Expanded number of institutions