New Mexico Higher Education Assessment and Retention Conference
Using Assessment Outcomes
to Inform Campus Decisions
February 25 and 26, 2016
Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town
Albuquerque, NM
New Mexico Higher Education Assessment and Retention Conference
The twentieth annual New Mexico Higher Education Assessment and Retention (NMHEAR)
Conference 2016 will be held February 25 and 26 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This conference is run
by the New Mexico Higher Education Assessment Association, Inc. (NMHEAA), a New Mexico
non-profit corporation.
The NMHEAA is operated by officers and a board of directors. The annual conferences are planned and operated by a
Conference Planning Committee that includes the officers of the NMHEAA and volunteers from various New Mexico
institutions of higher education.
Each year NMHEAR invites special guest presenters, leaders in the fields of assessment and retention. The conference
also features presentations from state, regional and national experts in assessment and retention strategies. This year’s
featured presenter, Mark Milliron, is Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer of Civitas Learning, an organization
committed to helping students learn well and finish strong on education journeys. An award-winning leader, author, speaker,
and consultant, Dr. Milliron has worked with universities, community colleges, K-12 schools, foundations, corporations,
associations, and government agencies across the country and around the world.
Tentative Conference Schedule
Thursday, February 25
7:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
8:30 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Conference Registration
Pre-Conference Workshops
Workshop 1
Mark David Milliron, Co-Founder & Chief Learning Officer, Civitas Learning, Inc.
Moving into the Next Generation of Learning
In this workshop, we’ll catalyze key conversations about the changing face of education. We’ll weave together issues
and insights from research and practice on a wide variety of topics: (1) the growing diversity of teachers and learners,
including significant generational differences; (2) blended, mobile, and game-based learning; (3) digital courseware,
BYOD efforts, and open education; (4) competency-based education, MOOCs, and other new models; (5) predictive
analytics and related adviser, student, and faculty apps; (6) emerging work on brain science and student non-cognitive
factors; and (7) our shared commitment to deeper learning and maintaining the human touch. Finally, we’ll explore
strategies for engaging these conversations in a thoughtful and inclusive way—avoiding the all-too-common hyperbole
or hysteria, while being open to compelling catalysts that can help move us into the next generation of learning.
Workshop 2
Chris Burnham, Regents Professor, NMSU English Department and Susan Wood, Professor, English, Doña
Ana Community College
Teacher-Inquiry 101: Power of Reflection
In this workshop participants will be introduced to the value of reflective practices to teachers. Learn how class-byclass quick writing assessments that mimic teacher-inquiry best practices help practitioners
 record what is actually done in a given class session
 reflect on what needs re-working/visiting
 anticipate what to do next
Participants will leave the workshop with a better understanding of how reflecting on their own practices can be
formalized into classroom research projects that can address both assessment and retention.
Workshop 3
Jeffrey Seybert, Consultant, National Higher Education Benchmarking Institute
Using Holistic Rubrics to Assess General Education Learning Outcomes
This workshop will present a comprehensive overview of the use of holistic scoring rubrics in assessment of general
education learning outcomes. The background and underlying rationale for the use of rubrics, types of rubrics, and
specific examples of rubrics will be provided. Participants will work in small “assessment teams” to evaluate actual
samples of student work using faculty developed holistic scoring rubrics.
11:30 – 12:45
Lunch and Keynote Address
Dr. Mark Milliron
The Art and Science of Student Success: Using Design Thinking and Data Science to
Help Students Learn Well and Finish Strong
Using examples from other sectors that bring together the best of design thinking and data science to achieve their diverse
missions—from business to athletics to healthcare—we’ll catalyze a conversation about how we leverage this approach in
education. We’ll then dive into examples of these insight and action analytics efforts in education, showing how schools,
colleges, and universities are innovating with everything from predictive modeling to early-warning systems to engaging apps
for students, faculty, and advisers that help more students learn well and successfully navigate their educational journeys.
1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Concurrent Sessions
Poster Session
Friday, February 26
7:00 a.m. –
6:45 a.m. –
7:15 a.m. –
8:00 a.m. –
1:00 p.m.
7:45 a.m.
7:45 a.m.
12:00 noon
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Workshop 1
Conference Registration
Continental Breakfast
New Mexico Higher Education Assessment Association Meeting
Concurrent Sessions
Post-Conference Workshops
Assessment and Persistence
Robert Mundhenk, Retired Senior Scholar for the Higher Learning Commission and Co-Founder of the
Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education
This workshop will address the important link between assessment and student persistence to graduation. After a brief
introduction to the research on that link, we will explore assessment strategies that help students to persist, examine
ways to implement them on campus, and determine ways to engage faculty in the process.
Workshop 2
Annual Meeting of the New Mexico Association for Institutional Research and Planning
Facilitator: Todd DeKay, Institutional Researcher, Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell
The New Mexico Association for Institutional Researchers and Planners (NMAIRP) will hold their annual meeting as
a post conference. One to two presenters will speak on current issues related to Institutional Research and Planning.
All interested are welcome to attend.
New Mexico Higher Education
Assessment and Retention Conference
REGISTRATION
Please type or print. Duplicate form as needed.
Name
________________________________________________________________________________
Title
________________________________________________________________________________
Department
________________________________________________________________________________
Institution
________________________________________________________________________________
Address
________________________________________________________________________________
City, State, Zip
________________________________________________________________________________
Phone and E-Mail ________________________________________________________________________________
Registration Fees
(Check each event you will be attending.)
Check box if you are a presenter for the conference.
Pre-Conference
Workshop
Workshop
#___________
(see previous page or
website for abstracts
http://nmhear.nmsu.edu/
$60.00
Post-Conference
Workshop
Conference
Includes:
Luncheon on Thursday
Sessions Thursday afternoon, Thursday
evening reception and Friday sessions
until noon
Workshop # 1
$40.00
Workshop #2
(NM AIR)
$85.00
Total Submitted
$20.00
$____________________
Registration may be paid by check, purchase order, or credit card.
Credit Cardholder’s name:___________________________________________________________
Credit Card number:_______________________________________________________________
Expiration date:___________________________________________________________________
Three Digit Verification code:________________________________________________________
If paying by Purchase Order, please provide Purchase Order number: _________________________
E-mail to send invoice to:___________________________________________________________
Make checks payable to the NMHEAR. No refunds will be made after February 9, 2016.
Return registration form and fees to:
Eastern New Mexico University
Office of Planning and Analysis, Station 2
Attention: Cristine Watson
Portales, NM 88130
575.562.2315; FAX 575.562.2244
Email: Cristine.Watson@enmu.edu
Conference Hotel
We are pleased to return to the Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town as the conference hotel this year. The Hotel Albuquerque is holding a
limited number of rooms for NMHEAR conference participants until February 3, 2016. The conference rate is $89 per night for single or double
occupancy; all rooms are subject to 13.1875% tax.
When making reservations, please be sure to mention that you are attending the New Mexico Higher Education Assessment and Retention
Conference; otherwise, the hotel will not ensure the quoted group rate or guest room availability. After February 3, 2016, all rooms/suites not
reserved with individual guest names and guarantees will be released to general inventory for sale. The Hotel will continue to accept reservations after
February 3, 2016 on a space available and rate available basis only.
Conference participants should contact the hotel directly for room reservations.
Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town
800 Rio Grande Boulevard
Albuquerque, NM 87104
505.843.6300
For additional conference information, contact
Susan Wood, Conference Director, at 575.527.7711 or sandrusw@nmsu.edu
Visit www.nmsu.edu/NMHEAR/ for the most up-to-date information on the conference schedule.