Insights from Experts: 3 Strategies for Faculty Engagement in Assessment

Posted by Jayme Kerr on Feb 29, 2024 3:32:53 PM

Engaging faculty in program learning assessment is a critical aspect of fostering a robust institutional culture focused on meaningful student learning outcomes. We sat down with a few institutional experts to explore three effective strategies they have used to cultivate faculty involvement on their campuses and share a few highlights of our conversation below.

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Topics: Assessment

Moving Student Assessment Online to Deliver Optimal Learning Outcomes

Posted by Sabrina Balmick on Apr 28, 2020 10:00:00 AM

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, institutions have quickly adopted online learning environments. The move online promotes social distance and safety for students and staff, especially as the coronavirus outbreak continues to grow. This move also provides institutions with the unique opportunity to modernize their assessment processes.

Below, we share some insight into how your institution can incorporate assessment into your online learning environment and why the move online can help your faculty get more done without extra effort.

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Topics: Continuous Improvement, Institutional Effectiveness, Assessment

Higher Education: Maintaining Business Continuity During COVID-19

Posted by Sabrina Balmick on Apr 14, 2020 11:42:13 AM

The COVID-19 pandemic has palpably reshaped lives and businesses. Higher education, in particular, has found itself pivoting rapidly to ensure safety, adjust myriad processes, maintain academic rigor, drive administrative productivity, and keep institutions on mission.

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Topics: Accreditation, Institutional Effectiveness, Budgeting, Assessment, Strategic Planning

How North Dakota University System Implemented SPOL

Posted by SPOL on Jan 23, 2020 5:22:12 PM
A toolkit introduced to the North Dakota University System’s 11 public colleges and universities has taken a few steps forward.

According to Ryan Jockers, institutional and strategic analytics coordinator at the NDUS system office, the cloud-based planning SPOL software was purchased after the launch of the State Board of Higher Education’s strategic plan. SPOL was determined to be the best fit to further SBHE goals for the system, as well as track metrics of success. Additionally, the SPOL platform helps address prior concerns on documenting evidence related to increased performance of operations.

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Topics: Institutional Effectiveness, Assessment, Strategic Planning

What do Regional Accreditors Expect for Assessment?

Posted by Joe Bauman, M.S. on Dec 12, 2019 4:53:27 PM

Many times, when we are examining our institution’s assessment processes, we find ourselves asking the question, “What does our regional accrediting agency expect in terms of our assessment processes?” In some ways, this hearkens back to when we were doing our chores because our parents made us. Mom wants us to wash the dishes…okay, how well does she want them washed? Now, as adults, we don’t wash the dishes “well enough,” we wash the dishes until they’re clean. Similarly, if we approach our assessment processes focused on the external demands, we’re more likely to run into problems down the road. Rather than doing assessment because “the accreditor says so,” far better to focus on the intrinsic motivations for assessment: we want to improve our programs. We want our students to learn and to be successful after they leave the institution.

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Topics: Accreditation, Institutional Effectiveness, Assessment

Assessment in Higher Education: 10 Things to Know

Posted by Joe Bauman, M.S. on Oct 31, 2019 2:10:50 PM

Assessment practices in higher education directly impact many aspects of the institution. This can include student success and continuous improvement, among other areas. Below, we share ten ways your institution can improve your assessment process.

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Topics: Continuous Improvement, Institutional Effectiveness, Assessment

Assessment of Administrative Units and Support Services

Posted by Joe Bauman, M.S. on May 6, 2019 5:23:40 PM

Each institution generally has the flexibility to define its administrative and support departments as it sees fit. A good starting point is to define administrative and support departments based on the institution’s organization chart. If you choose to define administrative and support departments differently than those shown on the organization chart, just be sure to have a good (and documented) rationale for doing so – your peer reviewers will probably ask about it during your reaccreditation process.

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Topics: Continuous Improvement, Institutional Effectiveness, Assessment

Assessing Student Learning Outcomes: Which Methods Are Most Successful?

Posted by Joe Bauman, M.S. on Mar 7, 2019 3:31:21 PM

There are many ways in which we can assess how well our programs are reaching their goals or outcomes. If we are trying to assess non-learning program outcomes, the method will depend on the outcome itself.

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Topics: Institutional Effectiveness, Institutional Excellence, Assessment

Assessment and Continuous Improvement in Higher Education

Posted by Joe Bauman, M.S. on Feb 13, 2019 7:12:00 AM

It was more than a decade ago that the field of higher education started to focus on assessment. Educators were asking questions about what, and how much, students were learning throughout their experiences in higher education. At first, just assessing student learning and tracking the results was yeoman’s work.

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Topics: Continuous Improvement, Institutional Effectiveness, Assessment

Comparing Institutional Effectiveness Standards, Part II

Posted by Joe Bauman, M.S. on Nov 8, 2018 11:37:00 AM

In our last post, we talked about what the seven accreditation regions in the U.S. have in common in terms of their standards regarding institutional effectiveness. Now let’s talk about the differences in how the regions address institutional effectiveness.

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Topics: Accreditation, Institutional Effectiveness, Budgeting, Assessment