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Final Program


Date/Time	Session

Sep 7, 2022 9:00 AM - 9:45 AM	Informal Meet and Greet Conference Committee Meet the Conference Committee and your colleagues
Sep 7, 2022 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM	Opening Plenary Opening Panel: Learning is the New Pension Moderator: Suzanne Carbonaro - AEFIS Sherri Braxton PhD - Bowdoin College Christopher Davis PhD - University of Maryland Global Campus Tracy Kaiser-Goebel - Montgomery County Community College Shuktara Das - Montgomery County Community College
Sep 7, 2022 11:15 AM - 12:15 PM	Concurrent Session 1 Visualization of Student Cohort Data: Creating an Interactive Dashboard to Visualize Student Flow and Success Nasrin Fatima - Binghamton University Binghamton University Created an interactive dashboard with visual representation of how students flow between majors and the University using SAS Visual Analytics. The purpose of this dashboard is to provide the University administration a visual representation of the flow of a student cohort between majors on a semester-by-semester basis. Analytics and visualization have become an important tool in higher education. The right data visualizations can make a huge difference between collecting data and making data-driven decisions. Monitoring the student's journey by visualizing all touch-points from enrollment to graduation helps us to identify gaps and improve the overall student experience. This session will provide attendees detailed information and visualizations illustrating the first and last milestones students crossed, and the number of sessions that ended in each final disposition. They will be able to identify hotspots, highlight common trends, and find insights in individual user or aggregated paths. Session Level: Intermediate Learning Outcomes: Participants will be able to identify student interests/needs and major changing behavior. Participants will be able to improve student success by identifying student retention/graduation anomalies. Scaling for Large Enrollment Courses Melissa Kaufman - Drexel University Managing course discussions (both synchronous and asynchronous) and assessing student work presents unique challenges in large enrollment courses. This presentation will describe strategies to engage students in both synchronous and asynchronous discussion, and then provide ideas to assist instructors with assessing student work. We all know how much the dreaded discussion board is hated in online courses and how hard it is to get students to interact in a large lecture hall. Students must also be assessed on work submitted to the course to ensure they have achieved the course learning objectives. The number of students enrolled in a course can vastly change the types of student interactions and the assessments that are appropriate to achieve the learning outcomes for that course. This presentation will discuss strategies for instructors to scale their course for higher enrollment numbers. Session Level: Beginner Learning Outcomes: Participants will be able to describe strategies to engage students in both synchronous and asynchronous discussion Participants will be able discuss strategies to assess student work in large enrollment courses. An Effective and Scalable Framework for Integrating Institutional Strategic Planning, Resourcing, and Assessment Gerald Koblyski - United States Military Academy at West Point The presenters will describe a Framework for integrating planning, resourcing, and assessment across the institution. Several institutional policies will be highlighted that have guided this Framework. Finally, the presenters will showcase methods for maintaining the outputs of this Framework in the “Evidence Inventory” for future self-study work and reaccreditation. In addition to a lack of integration of planning, resourcing, and assessment, institutions are confronted with many unique challenges; there is, however, a common set of challenges experienced by most: too many (or too few) assessments, a plethora of data, no organizing plan, stove piping, and fewer available resources. Attendees can reference and adapt the presentation’s material to meet these challenges. The innovative scalable Framework puts (and keeps) the strategic plan in action. The Framework integrates institutional assessments across MSCHE’s seven Standards into a common picture and then informs improvement actions, prioritizing institutional resourcing and future planning. Session Level: Beginner Learning Outcomes: Participants will learn the Framework, how to use and scale it. Participants will the learn how the framework contributes to planning, resourcing, and maintain any outputs of the Framework in the Evidence Inventory. Starting from the Very Beginning: Reflections on the Experiences of Totally Revamping an Assessment Program in the Setting of a Small Midwestern College Yasmin Rioux - Divine Word College In this session, we discuss how the HLC’s request to examine our assessment processes led to the complete overhaul and restructuring of existing assessment efforts to create a systematic and sustainable assessment program. We address important assessment program subjects like assessment culture and infrastructure, software selection, faculty engagement, college-wide interest and motivation, informal/formal communication, and sustainability. This topic matters because it emphasizes relevant and current best practices and approaches to assessment programs and responses to HLC’s Core Component 4 B. We help audience members to examine their own assessment efforts and offer tips on how to effectively create a sustainable program for unique learning environments in higher education. We offer practical insights into the complete revamping of an existing assessment program at our institution. Further, we explain how our efforts are constantly relying of qualitative and quantitative data and input to ensure our program is effective and sustainable and that the relevant stakeholders/participants are engaged and integrated. Session Level: Beginner Learning Outcomes: Participants will be able to more effectively analyze their own assessment efforts and programs to address possible HLC concerns. Participants will be able to use our information to build more effective assessment infrastructure, communication strategies, improve faculty engagement, and assess the sustainability of their existing assessment programs. Technology and Assessment: Using Multiple Platforms for Cohesive Programming Janet Thiel - Georgian Court University & Suzanne Carbonaro - Heliocampus Various software platforms help integrate assessment data collection, reporting, and practices at my university. This session will outline these technologies, their usage, and integration into overall assessment protocols. Not one technology meets the needs of all practices and constituents for assessment protocols. But some technologies can be used for both academic assessment and institutional effectiveness. Attendees will become more familiar with the software from Qualtrics, HelioCampus (AEFIS), and Inceptia (Financial Avenue). Attendees will be informed on the integration of these programs for assessment reporting. Session Level: Intermediate Learning Outcomes: Attendees will become aware that university protocols determine the best solutions for practice. Attendees will become aware of the possible integration of more than one platform to meet assessment needs. S1: Preparing STEM Trainees for Assessment: Win-Win for Students and Administrators & S2: Teaching from the Middle: Assessing Past Experiences & Future Ambitions to Sustain Learning and Engagement S1: Natalie Chernets - Drexel University & S2: Dhymsy Vixamar-Owens - University of the District of Columbia S1: The quality of HigherEd depends on effective and continuous assessment and evaluation to align student-learning outcomes with the program goals and prepare trainees for future employment. Program and course assessments require a working knowledge of assessment tools; however, trainees in biomedical sciences do not build competencies to lead assessment efforts. We developed a 1-year program to introduce graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in biomedical sciences to best practices in assessment and evaluation. Since assessment and evaluation are continuous endeavors, providing trainees with tools to perform these activities will develop skills for those pursuing biomedical-science faculty careers. We will share the program motivation, design, timeline, and outcomes to inspire participants to replicate the program at their institution. We will share lessons learned, including participants' impressions of the program and its value for the administrators. Lastly, we will share plans to sustain the program and engage participants to brainstorm project ideas to benefit their institutions. Session Level: Beginner Learning Outcomes: Participants will be able to discover how to train graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in STEM to conduct assessments and evaluations through professional development opportunity. Participants will be able to brainstorm ideas for projects at their institutions that can serve as experiential learning component if they choose to replicate the program at their institution. S2: Approximately 32.9% of undergraduates do not complete their degree program (Hanson, 2022). As students reach courses that demand increased conceptualization of abstract ideas, application, and overall higher-level learning, repeated failing and disinterest increases. Said courses can benefit greatly if taught from the middle. Teaching from the Middle (TFM) means honoring what students bring to the learning environment, keeping previously learned information alive, and establishing connections to the courses and practical experiences that follow. This session will explore the value of assessing where students are at the start and end of a course to TFM. TFM implores educators to take inventory of who they are teaching, and intentionally connect to other courses and lived experiences. Through TFM students capitalize on their strengths while developing and improving new skills. During this session we discuss the value of assessment to TFM and explore effective strategies. Session Level: Intermediate Learning Outcomes: Participants will be able to transform concept/theory to application. Participants will be equipped with teaching/learning/assessment strategies with lasting impact that align with TFM.
Sep 7, 2022 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM	Luncheon Discussion Panel Accreditation Plenary Panel Moderator: Joseph Hawk - Drexel University Panel: Colin Suchland PhD - Lincoln Land Community College Karol Batey - Texas A&M International University Terri Shapiro PhD - Hofstra University
Sep 7, 2022 1:45 PM - 2:45 PM	Graduate Student Poster Session Graduate Student Poster Session Various Presenters Please drop in to connect with our talented graduate students about their research posters.
Sep 7, 2022 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM	Concurrent Session 2 Developing Learning Taxonomies to Foster Common Language Across Your Curricular and Co-Curricular Experiences Suzanne Carbonaro - Heliocampus Bridging workforce needs within academic structures is a challenge for many institutions. Having a common language for communicating learning, and identifying what skills students are developing and what outcomes they are achieving through curricular and co-curricular experiences is a key component for lifelong learning and return on investment. This session provides a practical guide to creating more inclusive, equitable learning environments at your institution that infuse a common language for your faculty and staff leading to flexible pathways for learners helping them achieve their career aspirations through unique learning experiences, and job-market aligned upskilling. This session will be informative because it gives practitioners a taxonomy to simplify their processes and serve as a guide as they design and reinvent their programs and assessments linked to skills. The taxonomy fosters communication and promotes consistency by defining levels of competency. Session Level: Beginner Learning Outcomes: Participants will be able to determine how to apply a Digital Badge Taxonomy in practice to articulate levels of learning for faculty, learners and workforce. Participants will be able to identify opportunities to move a skills-based learning initiative forward by examining exemplars who are reimagining their curriculum model to better support faculty, learners and the workforce sector. One institution's lessons learned about institutional readiness for adoption of an assessment management system. Cynthia Burns Martin - New England College Assessment management technology is now within reach of many institutions, not just innovator and early adopter institutions with big budgets. But institutional stakeholders often approach the purchase decision without understanding the importance of institutional readiness as the foundation for successful adoption of technology. Using case method with audience participation, this presentation focuses on New England College’s experience and lessons learned about the importance of institutional readiness for adoption of assessment management system software. Attendees will gain improved understanding of their own organization’s readiness for assessment technology, to either inform pre-purchase planning for readiness or inform post-purchase review of implementation challenges that stem from lack of readiness. Session Level: Intermediate Learning Outcomes: Participants will be able to understand the factors that contribute to institutional readiness for implementation of an assessment/accreditation management technology system. Participants will be able to analyze an institution’s readiness for implementation of an assessment/accreditation management system. Faculty-Facilitated Assessment and Continuous Improvement of DEI Course Design Principles James Snow - Maryland University of Integrative Health This session describes MUIH’s systematic and integrated approach to assess diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles in academic courses and the strategies that have sustained the process for two years. This includes a comprehensive rubric plus guide, faculty DEI champions, faculty training, and a continuous improvement process. This session provides insight to common areas of faculty learning and course enhancements identified through this approach. This approach ensures representation and support of students’ diverse perspectives and needs in course design; provides opportunities for faculty to build capacity, knowledge, and expertise in DEI as related to teaching, learning, and assessment; and a establishes a meaningful and transparent assessment process. This integrated approach provides a framework adaptable by other institutions seeking to build capacity and expertise in DEI principles, engage faculty, establish and implement a set of standards and processes; and ensures sustainable assessment and continuous improvement to lead to meaningful growth and change. Session Level: Intermediate Learning Outcomes: Participants will be able to adapt the MUIH framework and toolset for use at their institution. Participants will be able to identify the opportunities and challenges of establishing and sustaining such a process at their institution. Cross Purposes? Aligning Institutional Assessment with DEI Russell Stone - Boston University 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. The Ongoing Debate: Can Virtual Labs Effectively Replace In-Person Labs in Science Lab Courses? Laura Bianco - Delaware Technical Community College This session will discuss the impact that lab delivery methods, specifically virtual and in-person methods, have on the achievement of learning outcomes, transfer of learning, and and self-perception as it relates to persistence among higher education students in an anatomy & physiology course. Session Level: Intermediate Learning Outcomes: Participants will be able to utilize both virtual and in-person delivery methods in science lab courses and understand the benefits of incorporating both delivery methods into a course. . Participants will be able to develop lab experiences that are interactive and engaging, and understand the impact that these characteristics have on student achievement, transfer of learning, and self-perception of persistence. . S1: What Do Students Want? Assessing Student Engagement in the New Normal & S2; A post-pandemic re-examination of Public Speaking assessment: Mixing feedback types for effective student engagement towards more creative, virtual speaking skills outcomes. S1: Julia Campana - Temple University & S2: Lucy Gichaga - Bowie State University 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. S1: A PBL course centered on advocacy and multi-modal writing that integrates authentic assessment and ethnography & S2: Building Connections between Institutional, Academic, and Student Affairs/Co-Curricular Assessment S1: Jaime Groockett - Rowan University & S2: Bri Lauka - Johns Hopkins University S1: Writing Out Loud! Writing for Social Justice is an overview of a Project-Based Learning course designed for a First-Year Writing program. The course integrates multi-model writing, equitable awareness of audience, and the hallmarks of PBL to create a real-world writing experience that empowers students to advocate for the nonprofit of their choice. Session Level: Beginner Learning Outcomes: Participants will understand the role ethnography plays in developing a real-life, equitable, antiracist awareness of audience. Participants will understand the design principles of PBL and be able to apply them to their own course design. S2: University assessment goals are multi-dimensional. Institutional and academic assessment units typically directly measure student learning for attainment of learning outcomes and quality improvement; whereas student affairs/co-curricular assessment units frequently prioritize indirect and operational outcomes and measures. Despite their disparate processes, all efforts seek to advance institutional priorities, especially student learning and development. This session will discuss benefits, barriers, and strategies for collaboration across divisions and linking institutional, academic, and student affairs/co-curricular learning assessment; provide examples of such collaboration within an institutional context; and propose collaborative assessment practices that center around student learning and promote innovation. Despite barriers to implementation, connecting assessment goals and activities improves the utility of results, builds opportunity for collaboration and innovation across the institution, and helps students, staff, and faculty understand and communicate the value of the holistic learning experience, thus further enhancing student engagement and outcomes. Session Level: Advanced Learning Outcomes: Participants will be able to articulate similarities and differences in the goals and methods of academic, institutional, and student affairs/co-curricular assessment units. Participants will be able to describe the benefits, barriers, and strategies for collaboration between institutional, academic, and student affairs/co-curricular assessment administrators and practitioners.
Sep 7, 2022 4:15 PM - 5:15 PM	Snapshot Session SS1: Describing the strategy and process for improving the assessment program at a STEM graduate school. Andrea Baker PhD - Air Force Institute of Technology This session describes the strategy developed to improve the assessment process at a graduate program offering degrees in STEM fields. The process included greater faculty involvement in assessment and an enhanced awareness of the intent and purpose of assessment and how to use assessment data for quality improvement. Session Level: Beginner Learning Outcomes: Participants will be able to structure a program to improve assessment. Participants will be able to improve faculty awareness and involvement in assessment. SS2: Establishment of a new IDEAS Hub for Capstone Senior Design David Brookstein & Jkeya Sadeghipour - Temple University As a result of graduating senior surveys for ABET assessment we designed and established a new and fully equipped space for multidisciplinary senior design projects. This is a feature of our continuous improvement of our undergraduate engineering programs. Session Level: Intermediate Learning Outcomes: Participants will be able to recognize importance of multidisciplinary design facilities for accreditation. Participants will have exposure to areas of that a multidisciplinary design facility should have. SS3: Assessment and Accreditation: Quality Assurance and/or Quality Improvement Christopher Davis - University of Maryland Global Campus Effective assessment moves past the perception of it as an accreditation requirement (quality assurance) and as a process for institutional effectiveness (quality improvement). The former emphasizes assessment as compliance, but a true culture of assessment requires faculty and staff ownership of assessment as an internal process for improving learning outcomes. Session Level: Intermediate Learning Outcomes: Participants will be able to evaluate the effectiveness of assessment for external and internal needs. Participants will be able to design assessment processes that lead to faculty and staff ownership of the process and outcomes. SS4: Data-Informed Decision-Making in Higher Education: Evidence-based Evaluation of Digital Learning Sima Caspari-Sadeghi & Juta Magdefrau - University of Passau This study, conducted during the Covid-19 Pandemic, reports on a collaborative action research involving a teacher-as-researcher, an expert in evaluation, and students-as-knowledge producers. The goals were to develop digital competence and data literacy by involving the students in using three digital tools, namely PeerWise, Digital Narrative, and Digital Storytelling during assessment-for-learning activities. Session Level: Intermediate Learning Outcomes: Participants will be able to conduct collaborative action research to collect evidence about learning effectiveness. Participants will be able to integrate three digitally-enhanced assessment into learning by considering potential challenges. SS5: Academic course transformation to technologically redesign introductory accounting to improve retention and pass rates Symon Manyara - Bowie State University The discussion is about redesigning a course to address high failure/withdrawal rates to improve students' retention. Study habits and interests of modern students are addressed regarding how to motivate them to complete assigned work to succeed in introductory courses where highest failure rates are experienced. Session Level: Intermediate Learning Outcomes: Participants will be able to redesign an introductory course to ensure students' success. Participants will be able to use ULAs (undergraduate learning assistants) to tutor and keep students on task. SS6: Getting Academic Program Reviews On Track: How our Academic Assessment Team Made it Happen Elizabeth Mosser - Harford Community College The program review process requires a lot of coordination and access to data. This session will describe how we developed a process to administratively support PRs while providing a safe space for faculty to analyze their data, determine next steps based on patterns in the data, and make informed decisions. Session Level: Learning Outcomes: Attendees will understand the common challenges facing a sustainable process for academic program review and best practices for administratively supporting data informed academic program reviews. Attendees will learn about specific tools to support the academic program review process, including their scheduling, completion (e.g., narrative templates, data table examples, suggested rend analysis), and facilitate follow-up. SS7: Assessment Systems: How We Use Them and How Long We Keep Them George Nickels & Dale Carpenter - Western Carolina University We will present results of two surveys we conducted ten years apart of North Carolina teacher education programs regarding their assessment management systems. We will present the longevity of AMSs, how programs utilize them, and satisfaction with them. Session Level: Beginner Learning Outcomes: Attendees will be able to articulate the place of an AMS in an assessment system. Attendees will be able to evaluate pros and cons of long-term use of an AMS. SS8: Closing the Loop: Using end-of-program survey results to improve a Doctor of Physical Therapy curriculum Sheryl Sanders, Tzurei Chen, Michael Bridges & Rebecca Reisch - Pacific University Our program collects comprehensive curricular end-of-program survey results from the graduating class. The results provide valuable information regarding curriculum effectiveness. However, we have not previously assessed the results in a systematic manner that leads to changes. This presentation examines the methodology developed to evaluate end-of-program survey data and reports on our progress to close the loop. Session Level: Beginner Learning Outcomes: Attendees will be able to reflect on closing the loop for data gathered. Attendees will gain insights into assessment strategies for end of program data.
Sep 7, 2022 5:30 PM - 6:00 PM	Closing Closing Remarks Drexel Assessment Conference Planning Committee