Celebrate Learning!
Page 7
Academic Assessment Updates
by Steven Wilson, Ph.D.
Thank you to all faculty, and the many staff, who are participating in the College’s ongoing assessment projects. Most of your disciplines have now completed at least one full annual cycle of planning, assessing, and reporting on their student learning outcomes. I am
writing today to encourage you to continue this fine and useful work, and to give you an
update about our progress as a College since the inaugural Learning Effectiveness and
Planning (LEAP) day in January.
As you know, there have been some recent changes in the College organization that promise to focus our resources directly on the goal of continually improving learning and teaching. Among these changes was my own move into a newly created position, Dean of Academic Assessment. In this new role, I have met with several disciplines over the last few
weeks to review student learning outcomes, assessment goals, and action plans, and I hope
to meet with all of you in the near future to have similar discussions. However, I encourage
you not to wait for a meeting to be called by someone else; please contact me directly if
you have questions or concerns about your assessment activities.
Another innovation was the appointment of four faculty as College-wide Student Learning
Fellows (or SLFs), who will assist all academic disciplines with developing and conducting their assessment process. Since the summer,
these four individuals, professors Radonna Tims, Jeanne Urie, Penny Colglazier, and Perri Montgomery, have been meeting with me
for training and discussion that will equip them to answer your questions. To this end, I would like to invite you to attend one of our
upcoming workshops, which will give you an opportunity to review your own discipline’s progress and to ask questions about the assessment program at Tulsa Community College. The locations, dates, and times for these workshops are below.
CAMPUS
DATE
ROOM
TIME
MC
Tuesday, Oct. 23
Student Union, MSU
2:00-3:30
NEC
Thursday, Oct. 25
A108
2:00-3:30
WC
SEC
Thursday, Nov.1
Thursday, Nov. 29
Gallery, Jatras Student
2:00-3:30
2:00-3:30
9111
The SLFs and I hope that you will be able to attend one or more of these “town hall” style meetings, so that we can all ask and answer
a key question about assessment and student learning, which is, “How’s Our Progress?” From such small HOPs are great LEAPs made.
Learning Effectiveness And Planning (LEAP) Day will be held on January 9, 2013.
Please mark your calendars!
“Student Voices” Heard at TCC
Following Convocation 2012, on Sept. 14 at the C4C, a group of thirty three interested faculty members continued the conversation of
capturing student opinions. Dr. Steven Wilson moderated a panel discussion with members: Prof. Melinda Bennett (West), Dean
Heather Hancock (SEC), Prof. Sarah Stecher (Metro), Dr. Lisa Gerow (Metro), and Prof. Angela Sivadon (SEC)as they discussed how
their current teaching/advising practice has been shaped by previous specific student interactions. As a result, faculty groups are
continuing to meet and brainstorm avenues for capturing Student Voices, to inform our practice of teaching and learning. Currently, a
small group of Nursing students are going to be interviewed this month, and a group of Humanities students in December. The plan is
to put the recordings on the Grid (http://tulsacc.edu/thegrid), Cox Cable Channel 21, possibly the TCC website, LEAP Day 2013, Convocation 2013,... the possibilities become endless. If you are interested in having a small group of students share their voices please
contact Dr. Steven Wilson or Prof. Angela Summers to assist you. There is still time for more student groups to be heard this term.