Assessment Advisory Group

 

Minutes – October 4, 2002

 

Present: J. Bernier, T. Boggess, L. Daily, W. Fogleman, V. Garlitz, J. Krueckeberg, J. Kulig, J. Maata, N. Mathis, B. McCahan, Z. Shen, A. Staples

 

1)                  Minutes of 9/27/02 were approved by consensus.

2)                  Alice Staples appointed as scribe, duty will rotate through the alphabet in reverse order.

3)                  Wavell announced the IUPUI Assessment Institute in Indianapolis 11/3-11/5. Contact Wavell if you are interested in attending.

4)                  Julie is working on finding and compiling assessment work that is presently being done on campus.

5)                  Discussion regarding CPC and AAG working together to identify assessment goals; CPC is currently working on re-writing the university mission statement.

Barbara mentioned that assessment is happening, but it needs to be documented. Wavell stated that NEASC is looking for direct measures of outcomes, and that assessable goals will be stated with action verbs.  Barbara stated that syllabi need to be re-written to include outcome based goals, and to link assignments, etc. to outcomes. Julie suggested a workshop for faculty on

syllabus development.

6)                  Next steps for AAG - 

·         Look at latest version of Strategic Plan, www.plymouth.edu/psc/cpc/plan02.htm

·         Julie is working on assessment chapter for NEASC report

·         Julie suggested forming a subcommittee to look at the NSSE survey; Boggess, Mathis, Krueckeberg and Fogleman volunteered.

7)                  Looking at commercial instruments – Julie suggested that they need to be examined to see if they meet the needs of PSU; some are being used presently.  Barbara suggested that portfolios are a direct measure, and Wavell remarked that a rubric would be beneficial to help measure what makes a good portfolio. Ken Heuser’s web site was mentioned in reference to portfolio development.

8)                  What is the status of General Education assessment? –

·         Virginia is on Gen Ed committee, they have measures developed many years ago by Bob Fitzpatrick, but did not get cooperation from departments. Is it time to try again?

·         Zhizhang wondered if the likelihood of a new program would change the assessment process.

·         Alice distributed the text of the General Education Assessment process as written by Bob, Wavell will obtain electronic version.

·         Barbara stressed the need for this, based on statistics that show student difficulty in integrating the Gen Ed program with their majors.

 

Next meeting will be October 17, location TBA.