UIS Assessment Task Force
Presentations & Workshops
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This page offers a summary of the workshops held on the UIS campus about assessment, as well as the presentations about assessment issues given by UIS faculty elsewhere.
Workshops at UIS | Presentations by UIS Faculty Elsewhere
Workshops on Assessment at UIS
November 8, 2005 - Departmental Assessment Workshop
The Assessment Task Force connected this annual workshop to the program review process: programs that are beginning the process of writing their reviews were invited to participate. The following programs, divisions, and faculty participated:
- Human Services (Rachell Anderson, Carol Rankin, Neil Headman and Carolyn Peck)
- History (Bill Siles and Cecilia Cornell)
- Social Work (Martin Martsch)
- Sociology/Anthropology (Lynn Fisher and Jennifer Manthei)
- Criminal Justice (Bev Rivera, Leanne Brecklin, and GA)
- Student Affairs Division (Judy Shipp and Jeff Maras)
Assessment Task Force members who assisted programs included Beverly Bunch, Jeff Decker, Dyanne Ferk, Neil Headman, Taiebeh Hosseinali, Karen Kirkendall, Ielleen Miller, Karen Moranski, and Lynn Pardie.
The objectives of the workshop included:
- An overview of assessment and the Program Review process
- An evaluation of the program's recent efforts to advance assessment to identify areas for future development
- A productive conversation with an experienced facilitator about how to advance assessment at the program level, including discussion about how to "close the feedback loop" and make assessment part of an on-going dialogue in the program about student learning
- Concrete progress towards development of assessment products such as learning outcomes, the measurement of student learning, the aggregation and evaluation of assessment information, course-embedded assessment, and using data to make changes in program curricula or processes for student learning
- Time for sharing ideas between programs
Documents from workshop, in PDF:
March 29, 2005 - Assessment & Academic Freedom
The Assessment Task Force hosted a panel on assessment and it's perceived and actual effects on academic freedom. Dianne C. Gardner, Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Administration & Foundations at Illinois State University, discussed "Assessment or Academic Freedom: Must They Be at Odds?" Allan Cook, Associate Professor in Teacher Education discussed the state-mandated teacher education standards, and Jim Ottery, Assistant Professor in English discussed how the UIS English Department overcame their fears of the impact assessment would have on individual's academic freedom.
Links to PowerPoint presentations, in PDF format:
March 24, 2005 - Departmental Assessment Workshop
The Assessment Task Force held a workshop for UIS faculty to assist departments with their ongoing assessment of learning outcomes. Harry Berman kicked off the workshop, and Beverly Bunch, Taiebeh Hosseinali, Ielleen Miller, Pinky Wassenberg, and Kyle Weir facilitated discussions among faculty. Then Taiebeh Hosseinali demonstrated Taskstream, the e-portfolio software that the Teacher Education Program is using.
Participants were: Leanne Brecklin, Hilary Frost-Kumpf, Meredith Newman, Bev Rivera, Dennis Rendleman, and Steve Schwark.
March 25, 2004 - Objectives & Outcomes Workshop
The Assessment Task Force held a workshop for UIS faculty to help with assessment of learning outcomes in the various departments. Harry Berman, Scott Day, Karen Kirkendall, Sharron LaFollette, Karen Moranski, and Kyle Weir presented and facilitated discussions among faculty.
Participants were: Rachell Anderson, Carolyn Peck, and Carol Rankin in Human Services; Tim Miller and Pinky Wassenberg in Political Studies; Cecilia Cornell and Bill Siles in History; Hank Nicholson and Hazel Rozema in Communication; Leanne Breklin in Criminal Justice; and Lynn Fisher and Doug Marshall in Sociology/Anthropology.
Relevant websites:
February 27, 2004 - Electronic Portfolios Presentation
Carl Hoagland, Emerson Electric Endowed Professor of Technology and Learning at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, gave a presentation on the use of electronic portfolios in the assessment of learning outcomes. 21 UIS faculty attended the presentation.
UMSL College of Education spent one year screening software and another year field testing software. They implemented starting in the summer of 2003, selecting two products: Livetext and Lanit. Students have to pay a fee, though the campus also pays for Lanit. Were UMSL to do it over again, they would look for an open source solution.
UIS needs to be clear about the purpose of the portfolios, whether they are meant to be a showcase or developmental for the students, as well as whether we want a campus-wide, college-level, or departmental-level solution. There must be advantages to commercial or open source products versus simple web templates. Some critical features in a system are continued access by students to their portfolios, portability or minimum downloadability.
October 24, 2003 - Electronic Portfolios Brown Bag
Student portfolios can serve as valuable tools for assessment of learning outcomes. They can be designed to serve purposes such as to:
- showcase students' best work
- showcase students' growth
- provide evidence of students' capacities for self-assessment
- provide a complete collection of students' work for documentation and archiving
Electronic storage makes it far more feasible to manage and analyze student portfolios than storage of paper files.
Nancy Forth, Marcellus Leonard, Ted Matula, Amir Parssian, and Kyle Weir attended a week-long workshop at NIU and led a discussion on electronic portfolios with nineteen of their colleagues.
April 3, 2003 - Student Portfolios as Assessment Tools
UIS hosted a panel discussion on using student portfolios as an assessment tool. Panelists included:
- Peggy Dunn, Program Coordinator, Public Policy High School Initiative, UIS
- Douglas Love, Assistant Professor, Accounting, ISU
- Wendy Troxel, Director, University Assessment Office, ISU
- Cindy Wilson, Assistant Professor, Teacher Education, UIS
Kyle Weir, Assistant Professor, Human Development Counseling, UIS was the facilitator.
Issues discussed included:
- Goals and overview of use of portfolios for both formative and summative assessment.
- Portfolios in action: student electronic portfolios; use of portfolios for program assessment and curriculum evaluation; and special projects and the use of portfolios
- Open discussion of double dipping with what you are already doing in the classroom and create a new assessment tool.
March 7, 2003 - English & History Collaboration, SIUE and UIS
Participants were:
SIUE:
- Carolyn Handa, Professor, Department of English and Literature
- Lynn Maurer, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science
- Dwight Smith, Assistant Provost for Planning
- Jack Voller, Associate Professor, Department of English and Literature
UIS:
- Heather Bailey, Assistant Professor, History
- Harry Berman, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Planning/Associate Vice Chancellor for Graduate Education & Research
- Jennifer Haytock, Assistant Professor, English
- Karen Moranski, Associate Director, Capital Scholars/Associate Professor, English
- Kris Muschal, Instructor, English
- Calvin Mouw, Associate Professor, Political Studies
- Bill Bloemer, Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences/Professor, Chemistry & Clinical Laboratory Science
February 20, 2003 - Assessment in Graduate Programs
Brown-bag discussion of the use of closure activities for assessment of learning outcomes.
January 31, 2003 - Public Administration Collaboration, SIUE and UIS
Brown-bag discussion of assessment efforts at UIS and SIUE and other accreditation-related issues.
November 12, 2002 - Primary Trait Analysis
Douglas J. Eder, Associate Professor (Neuroscience) and Director of the Undergraduate Assessment & Program Review at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and Karen Moranski, UIS Associate Professor (English), gave this workshop, with 27 UIS faculty in attendance.
Primary Trait Analysis (PTA) is a way to take what we already do -- record grades -- and translate that process into an assessment device. Advantages of PTA for assessment include (1) using information that is already available, (2) bringing to consciousness the most subconscious processes that go into recording grades, and (3) looking at performance strengths and weaknesses in individual pieces of an assignment, course, or curriculum.
Presentations by UIS Faculty Elsewhere
If you have given a presentation about assessment, please contact Karen Moranski, and we'll add you to this website.
March 21, 2003 - Putting Students First: IBHE General Education Assessment Workshops, Bloomington IL
Moranski, K., Haytock, J., Nicholson, H., & Eder, D., Assessing a Complex System: Crossing Disciplines in General Education
Abstract: Courses that cross disciplinary boundaries constitute particular challenges in assessment. They constitute complex systems that involve nonlinear processes, extend temporally in time commitments for faculty and students, and extend spatially in their involvement of people and scope. Variables in such courses include the personalities, skills and expertise of the faculty, the disciplines involved and their possible interrelationships, and student reactions to facing multiple perspectives. Assessment of such complex systems is essential to improving student learning and to improving the delivery of the courses. This interactive workshop has three primary goals: (1) to help participants define what they mean by interdisciplinarity, (2) to afford participants the opportunity to envision an interdisciplinary course and/or assignment and set clear objectives for it, and (3) to assist participants in the design of assessment tools that measure student learning according to the objectives that have been set.
July 24, 2002 - Putting Students First: Assessing Mastery of Student Learning Workshop, Heartland Community College, Normal IL
Berman, H., Bloemer, W., Kirkendall, K., LaFollette, S., Moranski, K., and Weir, K., "Renewing Assessment Processes"
Abstract: The purpose of this presentation will be to review progress made during the past academic year on an institution-wide initiative to raise the level of implementation of assessment of learning outcomes at the University of Illinois at Springfield.
In the mid-1980s, the University of Illinois at Springfield (then known as Sangamon State University) began to develop an assessment process that was consistent with both the IBHE's expectations and the mission and scope of the institution. The campus developed a statement of principles of assessment and a process that focused on assessment of general education baccalaureate skills. During the next decade the campus expended considerable resources into developing a working assessment plan, including appointing a director of assessment and establishing the Assessment
Office.
In recent years it became increasingly evident that the assessment process as originally structured was not providing reliable information on learning outcomes; assessment of learning outcomes in the major was only being addressed by a small number of programs; and, although assessment practices had advanced significantly across the country, the campus had not incorporated those changes into its processes.
In Fall 2001, the Provost established a campus-wide task force to review UIS’ assessment processes and make recommendations for improvement. Panelists will describe the work of the task force to this point and highlight the steps planned for next year to more fully integrate assessment of learning outcomes into the routine work of departments.
Born, A., "Design Effective Web-based Student Assessment: Lessons Learned from the Technology Management Course"
Abstract: One of the areas in online education that has not yet received much attention is student assessment. As the number of colleges and universities that offer online courses is increasing rapidly, the impact of student assessment on teaching and learning has not been realized. A great deal of effort has been spent on examining technologies including infrastructure and course management systems that can be used to create and deliver an online course. Student assessment in the online educational environment, on the contrary, has not been widely discussed and incorrectly assumed that it is the same as what is done in a traditional classroom. Lack of understanding of what Web-based student assessment is can pose an obstacle to the learning process.
The purpose of this workshop is two-fold. First, it intends to present an overview of student assessment techniques and strategies used in an online course. Issues, concerns, and controversies related to student assessment will be raised. Those issues include traditional assessment versus alternative assessment, value of feedback, and dealing with cheating. Second, it will provide guidelines for designing and developing effective student assessment tools. Materials discussed in this workshop will be based on not only the literature but also the presenter’s experience in online teaching. Discussion in this workshop will focus mainly on one of the online courses that the presenter develops and instructs. The course titled “Technology Management” has been offered fully online to graduate students in all majors since Spring 2001. The presenter will discuss lessons learned from designing and implementing different assessment tools as a means to achieve the desired learning outcomes. The presentation will include demonstration of different types of assessment tools
and discussion of their pros and cons.
This workshop is expected to benefit instructors and course developers who are interested in developing effective Web-based student assessment tools and techniques. Using appropriate assessment tools can have far-reaching implications for faculty development and student learning. For faculty, student assessment has vast potential for rendering a positive effect on student learning, which we value the most. In the same token, the assessment provides a means to enhance our teaching and professional development opportunities. It is hoped that this workshop will raise awareness among participants and provide useful recommendations for faculty members who are currently teaching an online course and those who plan to do so in the future.
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