Julie Porterfield (Biology) at Southeast, and Joe
Schicke (English) at West.
We are building an online, self-paced Assessment Basics course that employees will be
able to take via Blackboard. This course will
launch in January.
We are developing training and help resources for the new WEAVE, a template-based
online assessment repository. The new WEAVE
will launch this semester and we will have help
documents that walk you through the system
step-by-step with embedded videos for each
step. We will also begin a traveling road show
providing hands-on computer lab sessions during which programs or individual faculty can
work in the new WEAVE with one of the Assessment team members guiding them through
the process and answering any questions.
In January we will launch the Assessment
Faculty Learning Communities. A campusbased program in which groups of 7-12 faculty
members will meet monthly for a year, developing, implementing, and assessing an innovative
assessment project for their courses or programs. FLC members will learn about assessment practices in a safe and friendly environment, build a community of support, and earn
professional development funds and recognition for their active participation. You can apply to become a member by completing the
online application at http://ira.tulsacc.edu/
assessment.
By Jennifer Ivie Barth
Dir Instl Research & Assessmnt
Inst Research and Assessment
Conference Center
“To stop questioning whether what we do
is working as expected is to invite
stagnation and a collapse in creativity and
innovation (Bresciani, 2011, p. 2).”
Assessment is a dirty word for many educators. Not because anyone truly believes measuring
student learning is a bad thing, but rather because it
has become associated with accountability, accreditation, funding, and more. It has become extrinsically motivated, rather than intrinsically motivated.
Educators have long asked the question, “Are my
students getting what I intended for them to get out
of my classes?” But, now we’re being told to share
the answer to that question with external agents,
threatening our sense of academic freedom and job
security. This shouldn’t be the case. And, it is my
vision that learning outcomes assessment at TCC be
conducted for the purpose of curricular, pedagogical, or support services improvement, not for accountability to HLC and other external agents.
To reach this vision, we must first build an infrastructure with a strong foundation. To this end,
we are developing a myriad resources to help educators at TCC successfully participate in the assessment process. Here are just a few:
For questions about these and anything related
to learning outcomes assessment, please contact Dr.
Jennifer Ivie in Institutional Research and Assessment or any of your FAFs (see below) or visit our
website (http://ira.tulsacc.edu/assessment).
Each campus has an in-house Faculty Assessment Facilitator who’s charged with providing support for faculty from their campus as
well as within their discipline or any related discipline regardless of campus. These FAF’s include Dr. Alicia MacKay (Psychology) at Metro,
Logan Phillips (Computer Science) at Northeast,
References: Bresciani, M. J. (2011, August). Making assessment meaningful: What new student affairs professionals
and those new to assessment need to know (NILOA Assessment Brief: Student Affairs). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois
and Indiana University, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment.
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