University of Minnesota Crookston faculty attended two assessment workshops on campus in early May focused on reviewing data gathered from liberal education assessment practices as well as program assessment activities. Lecturer TJ Chapman and Assistant Professor Rachel Lundbohm led the workshops titled “Assessment of Liberal Education” and “Program Assessment.”
Chapman recently attended the annual Higher Learning Commission conference and applied lessons learned at the assessment workshops.
“The biggest lesson I brought back from the HLC conference was the importance of getting our assessment results back into the hands of faculty in a format they can easily investigate things of interest to them so they can use it to make meaningful changes to their courses and pedagogy to improve student learning,” Chapman stated. “In Liberal Education we are realizing this through a collaborative campuswide data collection process and development of data dashboards for faculty to use for their investigations.”
“The (campus) sessions were designed to highlight a myriad of ways to collect student assessment data,” explained Associate Vice Chancellor for Business, Arts, and Education Shawn Boyne. “TJ walked faculty through data gathered in math classes which highlighted concepts that some students struggle to master and then discussed how faculty redesigned aspects of the curriculum to improve student learning.”
Boyne said the focus of a strong assessment process is not on collecting data, but rather on reviewing data and then "closing the loop" by changing course content or restructuring course assessments to ensure that students are achieving course and program learning outcomes.
The HLC Annual Conference brings the higher ed community together in Chicago to share ideas and insights on the latest in the field. There, they explore ways colleges and universities use higher learning to meet the needs of their students and society. https://www.hlcommission.org/Programs-Events/conference.html
