LET Minutes
Wed., Feb. 8, 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, Sharon Wyly
Regrets: Cheryl Robinson, Judi Delisle, Mary Pepe, Roberta Vandermast
Guest: Francisco Perez
Agreements
The following items were agreed upon during the meeting.
 The proposal for the future direction and organization of the Learning Evidence
Team received consensus approval from LET membership. The decision whether
or not the name of the LET should change to reflect our vision of the future was
tabled for a future meeting.
Think Projects on Destinations Website
Patrick Nellis gave an overview of the work submitted by faculty to the
Destinations website. Faculty projects are divided up into linked courses, learning
outcomes assessment, and COPPER action research projects. Future submissions will be
entered into a searchable database. Connecting LET work with Destination 2006 projects
was discussed. It is possible that this work may include the holistic scoring project, but
we may need to write a separate assessment budget initiative for funding.
Strategic Planning Work Team Report
Work continued after the last meeting on the organizational redesign model to
guide future LET work. A proposal was made to clarify our mission and define our
assessment “territory” in the document. The discussion about a possible change of title
for the LET was tabled for another meeting. The proposal was accepted with the
following additions.
 Add a short section on accomplishments as a foundation for our future
direction.
 Add a reference for building close connections with academic
departments to the charge proposal.
 Clarify that LET work officially began in Feb. 2004.
 Change all references of IR to IRLA.
Next steps include clarifying the composition of work teams and discussions on the
transition process as the work expands.
Discussion of Think Survey Usage Report
A preliminary analysis of the usage report for the online survey “Measuring My Critical
Thinking” shows a positive correlation between student scores on the survey with both
g.p.a. and credit hours completed. It is not known whether this positive correlation is
representing an improvement in student thinking through coursework or if it can be
attributed to a natural attrition process. (The better students are staying longer.) However,
the results do indicate that the survey instrument does discriminate levels of critical
thinking in relation to g.p.a. so this does help to validate the instrument.
Work Team Reports
Planning for COMMUNICATE Team
The team has collected activities, assignments, and rubrics that faculty currently
use to teach and assess communication skills. They plan to go through them next week
and begin developing a draft COMMUNICATE assessment instrument that will be
available to pilot with Destination 2006 participants this summer.
Workshop Planning Team/Gathering Evidence Team
Forty-one participants signed up for the THINK project this spring. The first
round of workshops on Understanding the THINK rubric has taken place. The schedule
for the second round of workshops is below. Nick Bekas was added as a member to the
Gathering Evidence Team.
Thinkability Assignment Workshops
Date: Tuesday, February 28
Presenter: Philip Bishop
Location: East, Room 8-105D
Time: 2-4
Date: Wednesday, March 1
Presenter: Philip Bishop
Location: West, Room 6-202
Time: 2-4
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
A proposal was made for an electronic marketing form for submission of LET
events. This process will allow for the development of a master calendar of events and
deadlines. There is a desire to make recognition of faculty and staff contributions to
assessment projects the focus of some marketing efforts.
The suggestion was made to realign our assessment calendar to begin in January
of each year. The discussion was continued until the March meeting where a decision
will be made. We will also need a new editor for the newsletter.
Next LET Meeting
Wed., March 8, 2006
2:30pm-4:30pm
East Campus, 3-113