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