How to Improve Instruction and Satisfy Accreditation Demand

Posted by on March 01, 2010

Assessment of Student Learning: How to Improve Instruction and Satisfy Accreditation Demand
Friday, March 19th ~ 1:00-2:30pm EDT

Registration Information
If you can not make this date and time, you can watch the recording.

http://www.innovativeeducators.org/retention_p/786.htm

Webinar Description
Accreditation is sometimes viewed separately from assessment, with accreditation having a decidedly summative focus and assessment having more of an improvement, formative focus.  This distinction interferes with sending a clear message to faculty that the formative, improvement purpose is what the institution values.  In this workshop, faculty, assessment administrators and accreditation team members will learn how to combine these two purposes to gain the information needed for accreditation, as well as the information needed to improve student learning.

The discussion will include how to clearly define outcomes for either purpose. The importance of designing and aligning the curriculum, teaching strategies, and assignments to foster these outcomes will also be discussed.

Objectives
Workshop participants will:

*      Understand that validity considerations must drive the selection of measures for both summative and formative purposes
*      Learn when an external standardized instrument is appropriate to measure learning outcomes
*      Discover why grades are typically inappropriate for either purpose
*      Understand why it is necessary to specifically define outcomes
*      Learn teaching strategies that will foster these outcomes
*      Design assignments that will foster these outcomes

Who Should Attend?

*      Assessment leaders
*      Accreditation team/committee members
*      Faculty (Part-Time and Full-Time)
*      Deans of Instruction
*      Anyone involved in assessment of student learning
*      Anyone involved in accreditation efforts

Who is the Speaker?
Terri Flateby, Ph.D. served as the Director of Assessment at the University of South Florida, prior to her retirement and the formation of her assessment consulting business. Dr. Flateby earned the baccalaureate at CapitalUniversity and her Ph.D. from USF. She was the Director of Evaluation and Testing for fifteen years, during which time she facilitated faculty development workshops on constructing classroom tests to foster deeper learning and began coordinating assessment activities to strengthen learning.  During this time, she engaged in assessment of the General Education curriculum.  Her work in assessing and developing writing and cognitive levels (Cognitive Level and Quality of Writing Assessment) and extensive work with other institutions on how to assess learning outcomes has been published in a variety of venues. A frequent workshop presenter at national and regional conferences, she has consulted with institutions on writing and thinking assessment and developing institutional capacity to effectively assess and improve learning.