Learning Assessment Committee
MINUTES
January, 22 2013
Action items in BOLD.
Present: A. Ward, S. Allen, C. Jones, C. Allen, G. Popiolek, K. Jones, N. Hoke-Wilson, R.
Frank, V. Swain, B. Ekey, D. Mack, J. Grimm, S. King, M. Danner
Guest: Steve Iwanowski, Chair, Gen Ed committee
1. Introduction of new member:
David Mack, Director for Academic Program Enhancement and
Partnerships
2. Approval of November and December minutes:
November and December minutes approved with minor adjustments.
3. Gen Ed update:
Steve—Decision to first decide on assessments by COURSE before embarking on assessments
by category. Gen Ed program review 2014.
4. Assessment Expo:
Update on date for expo. First Weds. in June (June 5) is OK—acknowledging need to work to
find better date for term-faculty involvement. Continue with poster format—paper or
electronic. IRPE will supply poster display boards and paper poster supplies. LAC to help
“recruit” participants by alerting divisions to upcoming event. No limitation on
number of participants.
5. Assessment Timeline Review and Update:
Some items related to Gen Ed not complete as Gen Ed program/course review not yet done.
No need to assess courses for Gen Ed that are no longer going to be considered Gen Ed.
Need to make sure course-level assessment connects to Gen Ed goals and Academic
Outcomes. May need change at course-level. Recently there has been more emphasis on
program-level assessment. Discussed ways to highlight and share experimental methods of
assessment. Faculty are not always aware of program-level change resulting from
assessment. (Ed. Note: see below-- Sharing Assessment Projects).
Committee also discussed accountability for follow-up to Program Review (PR)
recommendations. Mid-point check on PR not carried out. This was revealed during SelfStudy, but also there is no posting of updates on g drive. Many recommendations are budget
dependent. There needs to be more sharing and understanding of connection of PR to
assessment between and among divisions.
There was some discussion of value of TracDat as a tool for PR. Repository also shows
history. Institutional structure is perhaps unnecessarily complex with nearly identical goals
for Gen Ed and Academic Outcomes. Goals have different purposes. For MSCHE, Gen Ed
would suffice for institutional goals; if we state we have other institutional goals (Academic
Outcomes), we must assess them and show change/improvement. Committee returned to the
question of transparency: What is public? Internally available? Sharing does occur at A3T in
Program Review reviews. Program reviews on g drive, but PR does not necessarily contain
info that is useful to faculty. Need to not only share PR but also details about how prereq
courses are preparing students for various majors. Members referenced a MACC
presentation featuring TK 20 software (presented by Allen Richman). How we gather and
report data have to reflect the ways we need to use the data.
Valerie to share the MSCHE internal and team recommendations. Some
recommendations may factor into timeline revisions.
Continue to review timeline at Feb meeting. Members expressed concern about LAC not
having authority to carry out recommendations. Recommendations go to FAC for action.
LAC members to discuss with divisions where they see assessment going.
BRAINSTORMING NOTES
 expo on assessments and collection of data
 Connect course, program, institution, Gen Ed, SP, MS
 How does assessment change courses/classes
 How does it change programs?
 Accountability for program review
 Program review in TD
 Transparency
 Breaking out of silos
 MS recommendations—make learning objectives available; TracDat ease of use
6. Sharing Assessment Projects:
IDEAS
News and Whoos possible to give assessment snapshots.
Assessment newsletter--online. Monthly maybe or maybe occasionally. Solicit faculty
contributions. Bill/Valerie to edit. Offer opportunity to connect with faculty for further
discussion and questions. Chris and Sheila to send email announcement/solicitation to
faculty.
ISSU is a possible format. (IR research briefs are pdf format.)
Spring Meeting Schedule: Everyone update GW schedules by Thursday. Chris and
Sheila to schedule spring meetings.
Question about including AO in SLO posting. Not to include them now.
Adjournment at 3:27.
Committee Members
Carol Allen
Bill Ekey
Miriam Huddleston
David Mack
Sheila Allen
Rob Frank
Chris Jones
Gene Popiolek
Gina Calia-Lotz
Judy Grimm
Kenneth Jones
Valerie Swain
Madelyn Danner
Nicole Hoke-Wilson
Supawan King
Avery Ward