1st Edition
Exemplars of Assessment in Higher Education, Volume Two Strategies for a Changing Higher Education Environment
In this second volume of the successful Exemplars of Assessment in Higher Education, editors Souza and Rose share examples of assessment practice from over fifteen distinct and diverse Higher Education Institutions, including international contributions. Building upon the work of the first volume, the case studies in this book reflect the changes in assessment and higher education in the post-Covid education environment.
The institutions that appear in this book were chosen for having an effective assessment approach in one or more of the following areas: career readiness; distance education; diversity, equity, and inclusion; or general education. Each part of the book discusses one of these four areas, with chapters that feature real-life examples from the educators who teach at the college or university. Featuring a Foreword by AAC&U President Lynn Pasquerella, the work highlighted in this book is also aligned with AAC&U’s Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education (VALUE) initiative to help educators make the best decisions about measuring student learning.
This book is ideal for university educators and assessment practitioners looking to diversify and enhance their assessment practices.
A Co-Publication with AAC&U
Tara A. Rose
PART ONE: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
1. Good Practice: Storytelling as Assessment (R)Evolution
Glenn Allen Phillips, Kyle Shanks, Britt Spears-Rhymes, Daphne Bernard and Anthony K. Wutoh
2. Aligning Strategic Planning, Accreditation, and Institutional Assessment for a Future-Ready University
Sharlene Sayegh and Jody Cormack
3. Supporting Diverse Faculty to Make Assessment Meaningful through Peer-Led Coaching
Rosalie Bojos, Elizabeth Switaj and Cheryl Vila
4. Assessing Equity with Traditional and Novel Metrics in Times of Change
Terrence Willett
PART TWO: Distance Education
5. Distance Learning in the Time of COVID: Increasing LMS Usage through Focused Faculty Development
Kristine Pruett, Meagan Mielczarek and Brian Bogert
6. Trauma-Informed Course Design: Using Neurobiological Frameworks to Understand the Impacts of Trauma and Remove Barriers to Learning
Patrick Dempsey and Christine Mahady
7. Standardizing the Process: A Unified Framework for Assessing Student Learning in Distance Education
Khalilah V. Burton and John T. Hope
8. Assessing an Online Nuclear Engineering Technology Program
Jessica Lamendola
9. Embedded Assessment to Measure Student Achievement in the Online Modality
Joanne Weiss
PART THREE: Career Readiness
10. Assessment Practices that Support Career Transitions for Doctoral Students
Janet Simon Schreck and Chadia N. Abras
11. Using Portfolio-Based Assessments to Demonstrate Academic Competency, Encourage Professional Growth, and Inform Curricular Innovation
Judith L. Millesen and Holly Raffle
12. Assessment That Impacts Career Success
Sydney Yau
13. A Holistic Approach to Career Readiness Assessment in a Guided Pathways Framework
Maura Devlin, Heather Gould, Gretchen Heaton and Claire Jenson
PART FOUR: General Education
14. Building a Signature General Education Program with Alignment and Assessment among Its Founding Principals
Claudio Piani, Elizabeth Kinne, Michael Stöpel, Linda Martz and Sneharika Roy
15. General Education Assessment: Course-Based to Comprehensive Assessment of Student Learning
Beth Wuest and Lon Olson
16. Collaborative General-Education Assessment among Mission-focused Institutions
Aaron D. Profitt and Rebecca Pohl
17. Remodeling Academic Advising into a Holistic Case Management Model and Assessing the Effectiveness of the Model and the Impact on Student Success
Penny A. Kelly, Kimberly B. McLain and Gina Chase
Biography
Jane Marie Souza is Associate Vice Provost for Accreditation and Accreditation Liaison Officer at the University of Rochester, USA.
Tara A. Rose is Director of Assessment and Interim Associate Vice Provost at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USA.
"In my roles at my institution and AGLS, I live and breathe general education and its continuous improvement… so I naturally skipped to the gen ed chapters first. However, I was quickly drawn to sections that can inform our broader work on timely and pressing issues of DEI, the pandemic and online learning, and career readiness. Having real case studies with successes and lessons learned (particularly from the crazy last few years) with nuts-and-bolts tools from a variety of institutional types means no one has to start their assessment efforts from scratch. I will advertise this volume to all our members!"
Stephen Biscotte, PhD, Assistant Provost for Undergraduate Education and Instructor, School of Education at Virginia Tech; President, Association for General and Liberal Studies
"Employers today are constantly reporting that employees often don’t have the requisite communication, critical thinking, information literacy, quantitative reasoning, and social and cultural awareness skills needed in today’s global economic workforce. This book points out not only the fact that these skills are taught across the curriculum in postsecondary educational institutions but that their attainment is measured and revisions to the curriculum are made as a result of the data. A must read for any higher education professional who has a genuine interest in ensuring the best prepared graduates for today’s world and beyond."
Belle Wheelan, PhD, President, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges
"College assessment practices need to be designed and implemented considering the changing environments brought about by the pandemic, calls for social justice, and heightened attacks on the value of higher education. The volume provides diverse examples of innovative ways institutions are successfully using assessment data to prepare students for the 21st century explicitly taking into account these structural contexts. Highlighting both the quantitatively and qualitatively rich understandings of success, each chapter details how assessment data can be used to work toward more equitable student experiences and outcomes and demonstrate how students are mastering career competencies within degree programs."
Mary Gatta, PhD, Director of Research and Public Policy, National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE)
"This volume of Exemplars in Assessment offers readers plentiful examples of assessment’s significance and impact in a variety of contexts. Each individual chapter provides rich information to enhance knowledge and inform professional practice. Collectively, the chapters provide a mosaic of compelling, contemporary issues facing the higher education sector. Faculty members, student affairs educators, assessment professionals, administrators, policymakers, researchers—indeed, anyone with a stake in improving student learning—will find this book a beneficial addition to their professional library."
Stephen P. Hundley, Chair, Assessment Institute in Indianapolis and Executive Editor, Assessment Update
"The diversity of institutions and the varied perspectives on assessment practices in the second volume of Exemplars of Assessment in Higher Education make this book a must read for institutional leaders and educators asking how to center DEI within assessment strategies. The honest and candid reflections of the authors are inspiring and approachable for professionals at any stage in their careers."
Tia Brown McNair, Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and Executive Director for TRHT Campus Centers, American Association of Colleges & Universities (AAC&U)
"Loss of public trust has rendered higher education vulnerable and dubious as academicians lobby and plead for its worth and value to society. As student achievement metrics like graduation and retention fall prey to grade inflation, Souza and Rose offer practical solutions like learner records and student ownership of articulated competencies to address public demand for practical, real-world education while maintaining the Academy’s commitment to liberal arts education, habits of mind, and civic engagement."
Josephine Welsh, PhD, Associate Provost of Academic Affairs, Delta State University
"Our assessment professional community has a wealth of experiences and insights to share that can offer support in the process of assessment for learning. When facing new challenges in higher education assessment, I've learned some of my most valuable lessons from colleagues who had gone through something similar. The second volume of Exemplars of Assessment in Higher Education offers the reader a worthwhile opportunity like this, to access and learn from our colleagues’ experiences of working through assessment challenges at a variety of institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s sure to be a helpful resource to assessment professionals- we can learn so much from each other!"
Gina B. Polychronopoulos, Ph.D, Associate Director of Curricular Assessment, George Mason University; Associate Editor, Research & Practice in Assessment
