LET Minutes
Wed., Jan. 18, 2006
East 3-113
Present: Linda Anthon, Nick Bekas, Kira Bishop, Philip Bishop, Melody BoeringerHartnup, Mike Bosley, Jenny Britton, Helen Clarke, Aida Diaz, Suzette Dohany, Kurt
Ewen, Emily Hooker, Celine Kavalec-Miller, Maryke Lee, Patrick Nellis, Melissa
Pedone, Julie Phelps, Ann Puyana, David Rogers, Allison, Sloan, Roberta Vandermast
Regrets: Cheryl Robinson, Judi Delisle, Mary Pepe, Sharon Wyly
Guest: Jared Graber
Agreements
The following items were agreed upon during the meeting.
 The professional development program on critical thinking and sponsored by the LET
will be open to full-time faculty only. The program includes both professional
development and assessment components. Faculty members who complete the entire
program will receive a $300 stipend. (Limit: 23 participants).
 There was support for the concept of a central steering committee with satellite
competency work teams as a model for an organizational redesign of our working
processes. In our next meetings we will need to work on transitioning to the new
model.
Dean’s Assessment Plans: Jared Graber
Jared Graber discussed the division action plans and processes currently used by
academic deans and the Valencia Institute to assess student learning outcomes and
comply with SACS principles of accreditation. These action plans tie the assessment of
learning outcomes to the academic division to document an ongoing cycle of continuous
improvement. Some current action plans may be appropriate to include in a Year of
Think report. Planning for the next academic year will begin as early as summer 2006. If
the LET wishes to partner with any academic deans on Year of Communicate assessment
projects, we should contact the IAC Chair, Tim Grogan, to get on an agenda this spring
or early summer. A suggestion was made to mirror the division action plan reporting
format for LET projects for consistency.
Strategic Planning Workteam Report
Work continued after the last meeting on the organizational redesign model
originally proposed by Kurt Ewen. The revised model includes a central steering
committee and satellite work teams centered on the core competencies. A lengthy
discussion revealed there are still many questions related to how the LET fits into the
larger institutional assessment picture. A general understanding was reached that our
focus will remain assessment of the core competencies. A transition to the new design
will require an increased number of participants for the various work teams, primarily
faculty members, as well as a plan for orienting and incorporating new members.
Discussion of Think Survey Usage Report
A preliminary analysis of the usage report for the online survey “Measuring My Critical
Thinking” revealed a high level of interest in taking the survey and critical thinking.
(4,076 surveys were completed in 2005) Students perceived themselves to be more
competent in indicators 3 (multiple points of view) and 4 (drawing conclusions) than the
other indicators.
Nick Bekas, Allison Sloan, and Cheryl Robinson will investigate the use to the CAPP
survey instrument as a standardized method for assessing critical thinking and other
constructs.
Work Team Reports
Planning for COMMUNICATE Team
The team is actively soliciting activities, assignments, and rubrics that faculty
currently use to teach and assess communication skills. These materials will be used to
develop a draft instrument to evaluate Communicate at Valencia.
Workshop Planning Team/Gathering Evidence Team
Members of the two teams created a schedule of workshops and guidelines for
workshop leaders for the spring 2006 semester. The schedule is below.
Understanding the Think Rubric Workshops
1. Date: Wednesday, February 1
Presenter: Jennifer Britton
Location: West Campus, Room 6-202
Time: 2-4
2. Date: Tuesday, February 7
Presenter: Celine Kavalec-Miller
Location: East Campus, Room 3-113
Time: 2-4
3. Date, Friday, Feb. 10
Presenter: Melissa Pedone
Location: Osceola Campus, Room 1-171
Time 2-4
Thinkability Assignment Workshops
1. Date: Tuesday, February 28
Presenter: Philip Bishop
Location: East, Room 8-105D
Time: 2-4
2. Date: Wednesday, March 1
Presenter: Philip Bishop
Location: West, Room 6-202
Time: 2-4
3. Date: Friday, March 3
Presenter: Melissa Pedone/Emily Hooker
Location: Osceola, Room 1-171
Time 2-4
Implementation and Assessment
March/Early April in individual classes
Focus Groups to Follow-up Spring Implementation
April: Time/Place to be determined by participant groups
Marketing Team
Everyone needs to participate in promoting the Year of Think events. We will try
to get the back page of The Bulletin for an advertisement.
Next LET Meeting*
Wed., Feb. 8, 2006
2:30pm-4:30pm
East Campus, 3-113
*Work teams should create their own meeting schedule.