University Assessment Council(UAC) Meeting
September 10, 2010
In Attendance:
UAC
Anna Bosch, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
Karen Badger, Assistant Professor; Director of Undergraduate Studies, College of Social Work
Scoobie Ryan,Associate Professor, College of Communications and Information Studies
Kaveh Tagavi, Professor, College of Engineering
Patricia Burkhart, Associate Professor; Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies, College of Nursing
Betsey Mahoney, Director, Student Affairs Administration
JS Butler, Professor, Martin School of Public Policy
Mary Davis,Professor; Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Law
Nathan Phelps, Assessment Director, College of Business & Administration
Terry Stratton, Assistant Dean for Student Assessment and Program Evaluation, College of Medicine
Mike Smith, Professor, College of Public Health
Rena Murphy, Assessment Specialist, College of Health Sciences
Sharon Stewart, Associate Dean, College of Health Sciences
Lisa Collins, Assistant Dean, College of Agriculture
Karen Novak, Professor, College of Dentistry
Karin Lewis, Student Affairs Director, Undergraduate Education
Nicki Knutson, Special Initiatives Director, Undergraduate Education
Matthew Deffendall, Program Coordinator, Undergraduate Education
Office of Assessment
Marsha Watson, Director of Assessment
Tara Rose, Assistant Director of Assessment
Leah Simpson, Assessment Specialist
Natasha Mamaril, Graduate Assistant
Jill Priesmeyer, Graduate Assistant
UK Administration
Kumble Subbaswamy, Provost
Connie Ray, Vice President of Institutional Research, Planning, and Effectiveness
Meeting Minutes:
- Greetings-Marsha Watson welcomed the group. She informed the group that, “today is my last day at the University of Kentucky. I have accepted a job as Provost of Chancellor University in Cleveland, OH.”The group proceeded to introduce themselves and their college affiliations.
- How did we get here?–Watson: The Office of Assessment is a sub-section of the Office of Institutional Research, Planning, and Effectiveness. Last year a Learning Outcomes Assessment Coordinators (LOAC) committee was developed. The committee was comprised of faculty representatives from across the university. The group met on a regular basis to discuss program and college progress on the development of assessment plans, learning outcomes, and other assessment topics. The University Assessment Council (UAC) has been designed in a similar fashion. It is comprised of a representative from each college and the committee will work in tandem with the Office of Assessment to facilitate assessment plan development and learning outcome monitoring. Watson continued, “It has always been my philosophy that assessment will only work at a university if it is faculty driven.”
- The charge of the UAC –Provost Subbaswamy began, “I never recognized the value of assessment before, now I see its importance. Thanks in part to Margaret Thatcher; the value of assessment in education has become widely recognized.” The effectiveness of an institution and the extent to which students meet learning outcomes is measured through assessment. Assessment on an institutional level can help the institution increase its effectiveness, and who doesn’t want that? The Provost continued that assessment has become a part of his thinking. “Our institution needs to assess to become effective. We need to start measuring student learning outcomes. However, this is easier said than done.” The Provost stated that UK had gotten lucky when Marsha Watson was hired as the Director of Assessment. Under her guidance, assessment at the University of Kentucky has advanced and grown. The Provost then presented Watson with a gift from him and Vice President, Connie Ray.
Provost Subbaswamy concluded his speech by saying, “What we need right now is faculty support. We thank you for taking this process seriously and helping others in your colleges and departments.”
The charges of the UAC are as follows:
-You will give advice to peers as they develop assessment plans.
-You will advice my office and Connie’s office about what you need from us.
-You will keep us updated on the progress that has been made.
- You will seriously engage your faculty in the assessment process (especially in the college of Arts & Sciences, because they aren’t used to thinking this way).
“Even though Marsha is leaving, we will pick up where she left off, and we will still be doing assessment. Also, if you ever get the sense that assessment in your program or department is stalling, send out an alert and we will help.”
- Blackboard Update- Leah Simpson introduced the new Blackboard assessment process. Simpson stated that a formal pilot of the Blackboard assessment system had begun in the summer of 2010, using artifacts gathered in the Spring 2010 semester. The artifacts were all taken from those general education courses that had been piloted during the previous semester.
Simpson admitted that the first norming session went very well, almost too well for comfort. The second norming session also went well until the participants began evaluating actual documents. During this process several problems were discovered, but this resulted in gathering good data about what needs to be fixed. Currently we are involved with a third norming session with education graduate students. This is going well so far, but there are still processes that need to be fixed within the system. In the Spring large scale assessment via Blackboard will begin. We hope that the pilot assessment that has been done this past summer and this semester will have provided us with all the information we need to troubleshoot any assessment issues. It is our hope that the spring assessors will be able to work independently with little outside intervention
a.Pat Burkhart asked,“Is there going to be a software recommendation?”
b.Watson answered,“The system we built is flexible. However, the Blackboard system is already in place at UK. Individual colleges can choose to buy other packages if they wish and if they have the money.”
c.Vice President Ray added,“You should look very carefully at the Blackboard product and what it can do for you, it actually has very good features and we have already collectively purchased it.”
d.Provost Subbaswamy concluded, “It would be harmful to the university to buy something else, since we already have Blackboard. Vince and I will be going to a conference to understand how Blackboard is currently improving its interface.”
e.Burkhart asked if the Office of Assessment would help the College of Nursing use Blackboard for assessment purposes.
f.Simpsonstated that she could meet or interface with Burkhart on Office Communicator System (OCS). Simpson took the opportunity to remind the group that if any memberdid not have a web cam should inform a graduate assistant and one would be provided.
g.Provost Subbaswamy informed the UAC members that the IEG group concluded that Blackboard was the ultimate software that the University of Kentucky should be using for assessment and strategic planning purposes.
h.Watson added,“Blackboard is improving and making changes that are based somewhat on us. We are currently the biggest university they have worked with on this level.”
- Office of Assessment Update- Tara Rose informed the group that the Office of Assessment has six graduate level workshops scheduled for this semester. She noted that she had already added these workshops to each of the UAC members’ calendars and asked the members to forward them to other faculty and staff.
Rose continued the update by noting that the Office of Assessment has also been working with Nicki Knutson from Undergraduate Education. Seventy-six staff and faculty members have participated in these workshops.
The Office of Assessment continues to collect assessment plans and improvement action plans. So far we have collected
- 52% of undergraduate assessment plans
- 40% of graduate assessment plans.
- 2% of undergraduate assessment plans from the College of Arts and Sciences
- 11% of graduate assessment plans from the College of Arts and Sciences
- 34% of undergraduate improvement action plans
- 6% of graduate improvement action plans
- 0% of Arts & Sciences improvement action plans.
- Anna Bosch stated that she did not believe the numbers presented to be accurate or up to date.
- Watson replied, “We only included the complete plans that we currently have.”
- Rose concluded, “The only college we have no documents from is the College of Law.”
- Watson reminded the council of its responsibility as a committee to review the assessment plans that have been submitted, and to send them back to faculty with feedback. “We don’t want the plans to end up in a black hole. We won’t need heavy reviewing, but the plans do need to be looked at to see if they are missing any major components.”
- Rose announced that the next meeting is scheduled for October 8th.
- Provost Subbaswamy announced that the UAC are participatory, so members should feel free to send agenda items. He then asked if anyone had any questions or comments.
- Matthew Deffendall asked, “How other faculty and staff can be encouraged to assess, especially in student support areas such as advising?”
- Watson answered that the Office of Assessment thinks these student support units are very important and they have an important place on the Office of Assessment Strategic Plan. “We should not neglect looking at units that are not academic and we need to measure these critical outside the classroom learning experiences. They are a very important piece of education.”
- Provost Subbaswamy asked what happened to the proposed rewards for best plans.
- Vice President Ray answered that Due to budgeting the awards were taken off the table.
- Provost Subbaswamy suggested that the awards should be reconsidered.
- Watson asked for final comments or questions. The meeting was adjourned and a group picture was taken for the Sizzle.