Transcript Empowering Student Services Staff to Become Learning Centered

Empowering Student Services
Staff to Become Learning
Centered
Bette M. Simmons, Ed. D.
County College of Morris
July 13, 2007
Welcome, Introduction, and Presentation
Overview
• The Need for Learning Centered Assessment
• History of Assessment at County College of Morris
• Bringing the Division of Student Development & Enrollment Management
On Board
• Identifying Student Learning Outcomes and Establishing a Divisional
Outcomes Assessment Plan
• Implementation of Outcomes Assessment Plan
• Empowering Others on Campus to Demonstrate Student Learning
• Wrap-up and Questions
The Need for Learning Centered Assessment
• Demonstrates that students have knowledge, skills, and
competencies consistent with institutional goals and that
students at graduation have achieved appropriate higher
education goals.
• Essential to help students improve and to monitor and
maintain academic quality.
• Fit between what we expect our students to understand
and be able to do and what they actually demonstrate at
points along their educational careers.
The Need for Learning Centered Assessment
(Cont’d)
• Assists in reviewing and revising academic programs and
support services.
• Assists in planning, conducting, and supporting
professional development activities.
• Assists in planning and budgeting for the provision of
academic programs and services
History of Assessment at County College of
Morris – Prior to the Last 6 Years
• Academic Affairs Only
• Departmental Self-Study Process every 5 – 6
Years
• Quest for Division of Student Development
• Pilot Project of Office of Career Services &
Cooperative Education
History of Assessment at CCM (Cont’d)
• Middle States Commission on Higher Education
Standards
– Standard 7 – Institutional Assessment
• Evaluates institution’s overall effectiveness in achieving stated
mission and goals and assures that institutional processes and
resources support appropriate learning and other outcomes for
students and graduates.
– Standard 14 – Assessment of Student Learning
• Demonstrates that students have knowledge, skills, and
competencies consistent with institutional goals and that students at
graduation have achieved appropriate higher education goals.
Bringing the Division of Student
Development & Enrollment Management On
Board
• Linking student learning outcomes with Middle
States Standards of Excellence
– Cognitive abilities
– Content literacy
– Competence in information management
– Value awareness
Linkage with New Jersey Community College
Academic Officers Association General
Education Objectives
• Diversity and global perspective: Students will analyze the implications of
commonalities and differences among culturally diverse peoples.
• Ethical dimension: Students will recognize, analyze, and assess ethical
issues and situations.
• Oral and written communication: Students will communicate effectively in
both speech and writing.
• Technological competency: Students will use computer systems or other
appropriate forms of technology to achieve educational and personal goals.
• Society and human behavior: Students will use social science theories and
concepts to analyze human behavior and social and political institutions.
Statewide initiative for establishing student
learning objectives
• Students will demonstrate self-directed or independent learning by using
available resources to define and resolve problems.
• Students will demonstrate understanding of ethical, civic, and social
responsibility.
• Students will understand and articulate the impact of diversity in our
society.
• Students will use technology to access information, perform routine
transactions, and communicate effectively.
• Students will demonstrate effective communication, critical thinking, and
decision-making skills in analyzing information, presenting ideas, and
executing programs and activities.
Bringing the Division of Student
Development & Enrollment Management On
Board (Cont’d)
• Career Services & Cooperative Education professionals
become divisional assessment experts
• Assessment In-service Training
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2002
2004
2004
2005
2006
Division-wide training
Directors and Coordinators training
Division-wide retraining
Expanded division-wide training
Institutional departments training
• Individual departmental consultations
Infusing student learning and outcomes
assessment philosophy in all we do
• Conduct an analysis of programs and services provided by the Division
– Led staff to identify strengths of Division
– Exercise revealed that some work of Division was already oriented toward
student learning, especially leadership training and development of selfunderstanding and self-confidence
– Also identified number of areas where staff felt it was deficient and that needed
improvement
• Vice President charged staff with responsibility to create series of key
documents at divisional level that articulated division’s intent to place
student learning at center of its work
– Mission statements
– Departmental objectives
– Intended learning outcomes
Infusing student learning and outcomes
assessment philosophy in all we do
(Cont’d)
• After these documents drafted, critiqued, revised, and agreed upon
by staff, each department asked to develop or revise mission and
objectives statements keeping in mind that each department’s
mission statements and objectives had to flow from division’s
mission statement and broad goals developed previously
• After training, staff was assigned to investigate kinds of instruments
available to assess fulfillment of mission, objectives, and learning
outcomes of their departments
• Finally, staff requested to develop assessment plan to measure
effectiveness in fulfilling mission, objectives, and intended learning
outcomes
Infusing student learning and outcomes
assessment philosophy in all we do
(Cont’d)
• Because a focus on student learning requires that staff
be able to assess its impact on student learning, staff
directed to complete an inventory of ongoing assessment
activities in each department
– Revealed that while a number of assessment
initiatives were taking place, many needed to be more
intentionally focused on student learning
Developing framework of student learning
outcomes assessment plan
• Mission
–
In just a few sentences a mission statement communicates the essence of the unit to
stakeholders and to the general public.
• “The Division of Student Development & Enrollment Management is committed to providing
comprehensive programs, services, and activities that complement the learning process, encourage
community identity, and maximize students’ abilities to realize their educational, career, and life
goals.”
• Objectives
–
Broad, general statements of what the unit wants students to be able to do and to know, or
what the program will do to ensure what students will be able to do and to know.
• Provide students with opportunities to develop their leadership skills.
• Educate in the areas of wellness and health promotion.
• Provide resources to help students assess and relate their interests, skill, education, and experience
to possible careers.
• Programs and Services
–
Actual accounting of what the unit does that evaluates its objectives.
Developing framework of student learning
outcomes assessment plan (Cont’d)
• Intended Outcomes
– Outcomes are more detailed and specific statements derived
from the objectives that explain why a specific program or
service is offered.
– Outcomes are specifically about what the end result of a unit’s
efforts are to be. They describe how a student demonstrates
what he/she knows or can do.
• Assessment
• Feedback and Change
Implementation of Outcomes Assessment
Plan
• Developing Outcomes Assessment Plans for each
department
• Developing Implementation Plans for each department’s
Assessment Plan
• Sample of Outcomes Assessment Plan
Empowering Others on Campus to
Demonstrate Student Learning
• Developing Outcomes Assessment Template
• Outcomes Assessment Notebooks
• Campus-wide training
• Institutional Student Learning and Outcomes Assessment Internal
Website
• Continuous improvement
Wrap-up and Questions

References
• Angelo, T. (1995). Reassessing (and Defining) Assessment. The AAHE Bulletin, 48
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(2), pp. 7-9.
Bresciani, M.J. (September 2002). The relationship between outcomes,
measurement, and directions for continuous improvement. National Association for
Student Personnel Administrators, Inc. NetResults E-Zine.
Bresciani, M.J., Zelna, C.L., and Anderson, J.A. (2004). Techniques for Assessing
Student Learning and Development in Academic Student Support Services.
Washington D.C.: NASPA.
Ewell, P.T. (2003). Specific Roles of Assessment within this Larger Vision.
Presentation given at the Assessment Institute at IUPUI. Indiana University – Purdue
University, Indianapolis.
Keeling, R.P., ed. (2006). Learning Reconsidered 2: Practical Guide to Implementing a
Campus-wide Focus on the Student Experience. Washington, D.C.: NASPA, Inc.
Maki, P. (2001). Program review assessment. Presentation to the Committee on
Undergraduate Academic Review at NC State University.
Paloma, C. A. and Banta, T.W. (1999). Assessment essentials: planning,
implementing, and improving assessment in higher education. San Francisco: JosseyBass.