Culture Change:
Engaging Colleagues to
Improve Student Learning
Dr. Karen Ann Tarnoff
Assistant Dean for Assurance of Learning and Assessment
College of Business and Technology
The Basic Process
Questioning
Seeking
Evaluating
Using
Communicating
Recognizing
Define
Information
Fluency
Evaluate
Improvements’
Effectiveness
Gather
Student
Data
Seeking Excellence
through
Continuous
Improvement
Implement
Targeted
Improvements
Create
Fluency
Measure
Gather
Student
Data
Evaluate
Students’
Fluency Skills
“Okay, I get what we need to do.
But my question is…”
“How am I going to get my
colleagues to engage and do this?”
Share Key Concepts
• Information fluency is a key skill for our students.
• This is evaluation/assessment of student learning.
• Many things impact learning over which faculty have no
control.
• Student learning/mastery is a curriculum function not a
course function.
• Faculty own the curriculum; faculty shown own its
assessment.
Addressing Resistance…
Some Best Practices
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Understand Drivers of Resistance
A Solution
The Concern
• “I don’t know how…”
• Train
• “I shouldn’t have to…”
• Show how it counts
• “You can’t make me…”
• Tie participation to
evaluation and rewards
• Leave them alone until
they come around
• “I don’t want to…”
A Strategic Engagement Model
Y1-15%
Early
Adopters&
Innovators
Y2-35%
Early
Majority
Y3-35%
Late Majority
5%
5%
Reasoned
Skeptics
Incredibly
Productive
35%
Late
Majority
5%
Just Plain
Mean
The single worst hammer ever
invented to motivate engagement…
SACS
35%
Late
Majority
Tips to Increase Engagement
• Teach colleagues that this process is designed to help
students.
• Teach, assure, and reassure colleagues that student data
gathered using course-embedded measures (e.g., rubrics)
will be used to evaluate only student learning and will
NEVER be used to evaluate teaching effectiveness or
faculty classroom performance in annual or promotion and
tenure evaluations.
• NEVER USE DATA FROM COURSE-EMBEDDED
MEASURES TO EVALUATE FACULTY PERFORMANCE!
Tips to Increase Engagement
• Don’t ever explain or justify the need to assess as an
accreditation requirement.
• Don’t ever request participation in assessment…request
participation to help students improve.
• Couch assessment as total quality management of
students drawing upon continuous improvement
principles.
• Invite participation based on individual interests (e.g., “I
know that you care about students’ critical thinking skills
because of the assignments you give in your classes…”)
Tips to Increase Engagement
• Show how assessment (e.g., rubrics) can save time.
• Share successful experiences.
• Request the faculty’s time and input only when it’s truly
needed.
• Be appreciative of contributions and effort.
• Show how participation in assessment can be doubledipping (i.e., teaching/service and research).
Tips to Increase Engagement
• Meet them where they are:
– Build upon pedagogical practices in their own
classes.
– Build upon rich history of course assessment and
course improvement and then help faculty understand
that INtopFORM is an extension of their ongoing
improvement efforts for their students and their
courses.
An Important Lesson from the Farm
The livestock doesn’t get fatter merely by weighing it…
The students won’t improve merely by measurement…
You have to share the data with and use
the data to drive improvements!