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Assessment Unpacked Workshop

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Today, Lehman College will be holding a workshop entitled, “Assessment Unpacked: Why? How? Now What?” The workshop will run from 10 am through 2: 30 pm.

The workshop facilitator will be Dr. Su Swarat, Assistant Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness at California State University, Fullerton.

California State University, Fullerton pioneered a General Education assessment model centered around a General Education Faculty Learning Community (FLC). The model proved promising in increasing faculty participation, especially adjunct faculty members, in General Education assessment and coincided with improvement in student learning outcomes.

The FLC model works as follows:

Early fall semester: During the early part of the fall semester, a FLC is formed based on the General Education learning goal that will be assessed. The FLC is comprised of faculty from multiple disciplines that teach courses wit the shared General Education learning goal. Selected faculty range from adjunct faculty members to tenured professors. A dedicated assessment professional serves as the FLC coordinator. For example, during the 2016-17 academic year, the FLC faculty representatives were 9 tenured/tenure-track faculty, 2 full-time lecturers, and 4 part-time faculty.

October: The FLC develops, reviews, and revises the assessment assignment/exercise that will be used to measure progress toward the designated General Education learning goal.

November: The rubric that will be used to score the assignment is developed or adopted.

December: The rubric is normed/calibrated.

January: Instructors in participating courses are trained on use of the assignment and rubric.

Spring: The assessment assignment is administered (direct evidence) and a student survey (indirect evidence) is given.

Summer: Data is analyzed, conclusions drawn, and action plans developed. FLC members share assessment findings with their colleagues.

The underlying premise of the General Education model is that engaging, meaningful, and sustainable assessment needs to be “fully grounded in regular teaching and learning practices” rather than meeting external compliance (often accreditation) requirements.