LEARNING EVIDENCE TEAM November 19, 2009 Knight Campus – Room 3082/3083 MEETING OUTCOMES 1. Agenda Item Goal Greetings/ Sign-In Information Previous Meeting Minutes Vote Topic, Summary of Discussion Attendance sheet circulated. October 1, 2009 meeting minutes reviewed and approved. Posted on the CCRI Web Site (Yvonne Kadelski) 2. Presentation: Foreign Languages & Cultures Information Deb Notarianni-Girard gave her presentation on Liberal Arts with a Concentration in Foreign Languages. As background information, Deb described the courses and languages offered in the foreign language (FL) department. Four courses are the main components in the foreign language concentration, Elementary I and II, Intermediate I and II, and Advanced in several languages. The concentration is offered in French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. The department also offers Basic Spoken courses in Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Russian. Many students take basic courses in Foreign Languages (1000 level); they don’t have to but many take it to see if they like it, as a review, used as an elective, etc. Deb said that the assessment process has been very interesting because it has prompted the department to look at things from different perspectives, even after her own 35 years of teaching experience. It allowed her to develop a good dialogue with her 9 full-time and 15 adjunct faculty members who were in line with course and program assessments. The process provided the impetus for talking about pedagogical issue and how we can offer the best education to our students. The latest draft of he FL Program Assessment form lists student learning outcomes, performance criteria, commitment to address and assess outcomes, expected and actual level of achievement, analysis and interpretation of data, actions taken and timetable for reassessment. The key work in the Foreign Language department started two years ago. 2/3 of the department members were present at meetings held to assess student Decision, Next Step(s) Attendees: Jeanne Mullaney, Ruth Sullivan, Peter Woodberry, Margaret Burke, Dan Donovan, Deb Notarianni-Girard Information Person Responsible, Due Date J. Mullaney Committee Members D. NotarianniGirard Learning Evidence Team 11/19/09 Meeting Outcomes Page 1 of 3 writing in the foreign language. Faculty members culled writing samples from their spring 2009 final exams. Department members worked to establish standards that formed the basis of a rubric to assess the samples and The next step for the department will be closing the loop and discussing what the results of the pilot study mean for the department. For example, should there be new pedagogical methods used or new assignments? The department has also established a cycle of assessing the four skills and culture with a fullday each May set aside for assessment activities. The department is currently using this opportunity to revamp the concentration brochure and the curriculum at the same time. Further, it is working to establish a tracking system to identify FL majors and retain them. 3. Announcements/ Updates Information 4. Foundations of Excellence Information The NEEAN Dialogues in the Disciplines, focus on Assessment in History, Writing, Literature and Film Studies conference will be held on March 26, 2010 at UMass-Amherst, Massachusetts. The National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) report highlights the abundance of assessment activity across the nation, but also emphasizes the scarcity of actions taken based on assessment results. NEASC wants to see more results in the area of budget and also wants students to be more aware of assessment activity and results. At CCRI, our program outcomes are complete for almost all programs, but course outcomes are around 50% complete. Outcomes should be published on the web. Spring workshop series for faculty to be offered on Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATS) In February there will be a workshop on CATs, in March it will be on using Classroom Response Systems (or "clickers"), and in April it will be on using Rypple to get feedback on teaching effectiveness. Jeanne hopes to ask Bill Pellicio or Karen Kortz to demonstrate the clickers and Jack Owens to demonstrate a similar technique that uses only a piece of paper to get student responses. Update: Faculty/staff surveys came back at a 42% response rate. The student surveys are out and waiting for the responses. There is an incentive of a $100 gift certificate to the bookstore and 10 students won gift certificates. The Foundations of Excellence initiative dovetails with the Wabash Study. It is a self-study process to evaluate how CCRI manages students in the first year. There are nine Foundational Dimensions and the first one, Philosophy, is cochaired by Elizabeth Arendt and Tracy Karasinski. Dimension committees meet for 6-8 weeks so it is a very focused process. The Philosophy committee is a model for the others and sets the tone for the study. Members of the committee will have some recommendations at the end of the process for change. The goal is to get a lot of people involved and have good Information J. Mullaney Information R. Sullivan Learning Evidence Team 11/19/09 Meeting Outcomes Page 2 of 3 recommendations for improvement. 5. Wabash Fall 2009 Information Tabled to next meeting 6. University of Northern Arizona Website and Seals Process Discussion Jeanne meets monthly with the assessment coordinators from Rhode Island College and University of Rhode Island. Discussion topic has been transitioning form OHE approving our program assessment reports to institutions reviewing their own. In a recent Internet search, Jeanne came across the Academic Assessment website at Northern Arizona University. Faculty is rewarded by earning either the Seal of Assessment Achievement or Seal of Assessment Excellence based on their thorough annual assessment reports and Jeanne thought this was a good idea. She sent an email to Dr. Tom Paradis who is the Academic Assessment director at North Arizona University. Tom was flattered that their Seal process would be useful to CCRI and agreed to let us adapt the idea for CCRI. Jeanne worked with Dave Fischbach to devise a Seal that we could use. We will also need a small committee to review the program assessment reports and recommend them for a seal of achievement or excellence before sending them to the VPAA for a final recommendation. 7. Ideas for CCRI Workshop at Professional Development Day Discussion Need one or two ideas for an assessment workshop from the LET on Professional Development Day. Closure Meeting adjourned: 2:55pm 8. Wrap-up/ Adjournment J. Mullaney Discussion J. Mullaney Please submit any ideas you have to Jeanne via email. J. Mullaney/ Committee Member J. Mullaney Learning Evidence Team 11/19/09 Meeting Outcomes Page 3 of 3