Campus Assessment Network
Notes from Meeting of
November 17, 2010
The meeting of the Campus Assessment Network (CAN) was held Thursday, November 17, 2010 at
10:00 a.m. in Altgeld Room 225.
Welcome and Introductions
Meeting was commenced. Members were introduced and thanked for their attendance.
Members present:
Rowene Linden, Carolinda Douglass, Brian Lance, Amy Martin, Greg Long, Amy Franklin, Evelyn
Comber, Shane Schellpfeffer , David Walker, Connie Fox, Deborah Robertson, Mary Pritchard,
Carrie Zach, Dan House, Beth Towell, and Amy Buhrow.
Announcements and Updates
Zack announced that the Teachers Certification informally passed their NCATE review.
Douglass announced that there would be two presentations:
Presentations
(1) Brian Brim, Project Manager, Student Information System (MyNIU), shared how the student
information system can be used for assessment purposes.
-it’s a transaction system
-it’s available to write queries or reports by creating small snapshots of information out of academic
info, financial info and/or bursar info
-gives aggregate info not individual student info
-info is carefully controlled because of the financial piece that is available
-data that are to be published need to go through IR
-there is no additional training that is needed to access the system beyond FERPA training
-this process is being revamped since this is a new system as of Fall 2008
-an important question is what can we get out of the system – because it depends on the question as
to what data is available (this was reiterated by House in Institutional Research)
-a data warehouse is available with some analytic tools – every morning several hundred tables are
uploaded, although not everyone who wants access to these tables has been able to get it
-there are some reporting problems including a lack of standardization of items such as coding of
clinical or lab classes
-familiarity with tables is necessary when working with these data, thus it is hard to ensure accuracy
of data
-Brim is looking to set up an office with analysts to help and is also hoping to add seminars to
address specific questions
-Brim is sending out a call for requests of what info might be the most helpful which could be
uploaded every night and made available for use, Pritchard submitted one
-there is a request to IT to create dashboards, strategies, reports for review
(2) Franklin facilitated a discussion on the topic of what data systems are being used on campus to
manage data and how are they being used for assessment. How are data warehoused across
campus?
The College of Education uses including Livetext to warehouse assessment, Blackboard as a content
manager, and Digital Measures for faculty vitas, FSRs, course evaluations, and report generations,
among others.
College of Business uses Digital Measures including the assessment component of that software at
the college level, it is also set up to be somewhat compatible with their accreditation body.
Digital Measures does not cost any more money and that they have a reasonable (under 3 week)
turnaround for needed changes. Douglass suggested that using systems that are already in place at
NIU, such as Blackboard and Digital Measures, saves money and is more likely to appeal to faculty
and students.
House indicated that he extracts university-wide student data two times per semester (at the 10th day
and again at semester end). He has university-wide information for the past 30 years on data such as
courses, degrees, credits. He stressed that timing is crucial on when data is extracted. He indicated
that some dashboard data is available but not necessarily at the program level. Some data becomes
public and external and some data stays internal. He informed the group of Senate Bill 1828 in
which the state legislation wants to use longitudinal data to follow-up on an instructor/teacher’s
preparation and suggest changes to that program if necessary.
Communication was mentioned as important in relation to the obtaining of data. Communicating
to those who might be helping you extract data and what exactly your goal is in obtaining the needed
information. Also stressed was the importance of using an operational definition to make query
decisions, due to the issues that result when different people use different definitions.
It was stressed that all individual data has to come from registration and records, while aggregate
data can come from IR or the MY NIU system
Final Thoughts
A guest, Nora Lindvall, an undergraduate student, was scheduled to speak but was unable to attend
the meeting. She will be assisting in developing a student advisory committee for assessment. She
will attend a future meeting.
Future Directions
Douglass will send out a call for needed information from the data dashboard referred to by Brim
that could then be uploaded every night.
CAN members who have an assessment practice they would like to share at future meetings are
encouraged to contact Carolinda Douglass at cdoug@niu.edu