The pandemic exacerbated inequities in student success that many institutions discussed pre-2020. Diverse students’ needs became more evident even while assessment practices remained relatively static. Institutions must move to a more nuanced, mosaic-like approach to assessment that reflects their campus populations and can accomplish this by inviting stakeholders to participate. Assessment can whitewash; even projects designed to respond to DEI can fail. The key is to engage many, divergent perspectives in the development, practice, and interpretation of learning assessment, in response to the needs/interests of diverse and changing student populations, rather than continue to reify past or more homogenous ones. This session will discuss real-world challenges to DEI in assessment, offering a framework for responsive assessment, opportunities to identify potential stakeholders and their possible roles, and the means by which to activate a more inclusive, accessible, and productive assessment ecology by engaging students, faculty, and administrators’ active and direct participation.
Audience Level: Intermediate
Learning Outcomes:
Participants will leave the session with clear ideas about how to reconcile the homogenizing forces of institutional assessment with the more atomistic requirements of meaningful DEI work, in and through assessment.
Participants will leave the session with clear ideas and options for how to bring stakeholders into the process, how to engage them in a negotiated and shared purpose for both global and local emphases, and who to look to on their campuses as allies in this complex and satisfying work.
S1: Students' wants and needs have changed in the wake of a continued pandemic and great resignation. We have been left trying to understand the best service delivery models - in-person, hybrid, or online. The Temple University Career Center began a proactive assessment strategy to answer these questions. Understanding which services and modalities students utilize allows administrative support offices at universities to remain relevant. This is important as the purpose and structure of higher education are reevaluated. Formative assessment of behaviors allows departments to create innovative methods of support and programming and respond to changing student needs. Attendees will walk away with strategies for this to be implemented in a variety of settings.
Session Level: Intermediate
Learning Outcomes:
Participants will learn how a central university department has approached changes to student appointment schedule behavior.
Participants will learn ways to take assessment about appointments to their own offices.
S2: Grading assessments using the same rubric for multiple speeches in the Public Speaking courses proved less engaging, so there arose a need to rethink student engagement strategies in the virtual-focused post –pandemic context. The speeches yet to be done after mid-terms had become of “less quality” once students noticed that they could still get a good grade if they barely touched the rubric expectations. The strategies employed to help improve student engagement, boost creative skills were informed by the NCA’s performance based evaluation Public Speaking Competence Rubric (PSCR), and the use of class created rubrics to leverage on pedagogical partnerships. Use of mixed assessments help engage students in the post pandemic virtual focused context. We included the previously used clear behavioral objectives and contract grading strategies coupled with peer reviews designed along the five canons of rhetoric. Speech evaluations were student-to-student comprehensive peer reviews in both verbal and discussion formats. The final project was a website with all speech videos done during the class, images, audio and other items to illustrate their ideas. Approach helped students to observe significant improvement in their speech-making skills by the end of the class.
Audience Level: Intermediate
Learning Outcomes:
Participants will observe that a great rubric should “show’ not “tell” the skill that needs to be internalized by learners especially for an important creative skill like Public Speaking on the virtual space (video speeches).
Participants will see rubrics for other types of feedback type including peer review rubrics and discussion board to help build individual, internalized skills.