Opportunities for Growth
The assessment committee anticipates that the bulk of the
momentum for the assessment process has been a direct result of the
upcoming focused visit. There is concern that the process will
stagnate after the team leaves in April; steps have been taken to
avoid this. Relying on the principle that an effective and
sustainable system requires the entire faculty to participate so
that no one individual or committee is overburdened, the Core Team
has designed the maintenance phase of the system to be largely
self-sustaining, requiring less time on the part of faculty than
the intensive development phase. Collection cycles will be annual,
with time for faculty aggregation and discussion built into the
faculty in-service and workshop schedule. These activities will be
completed as discrete steps in the yearly process, leaving
participants at each phase with a sense of accomplishment and
contribution without leaving them to feel as if there is an
overwhelming workload they must complete in isolation.
The use of increasingly customized data reporting forms and the
exploration of a commercial database means that the incredibly
time-consuming process of maintaining and updating the electronic
system can slowly be moved into partial automation with many
functions able to be completed by faculty themselves, and many by
support staff.
The final critical element of expanded purpose is creating
connections for students between the processes of the College, the
objectives of their courses and programs, and their own learning.
This year one member of the Core Team was assigned to the student
engagement process, and many positive steps have been taken. A
student brochure has been printed and distributed in classes. Many
faculty members have taken the initiative to speak with students
about how the assessment process affects not just the educational
quality of the institution, but the educational goals and
accomplishments of individual students. We hope to further engage
students in their own learning process by demonstrating to them
that taking charge of their own learning means they can learn about
their own learning styles, know their own strengths and weaknesses,
and better approach each learning opportunity.
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