Hello Program/Department Chairs and Assessment Heros!
“Assessment is today’s means of modifying tomorrow’s instruction.”
—Dr. Carol Ann Tomlinson, University of Virginia, William Clay Parrish, Jr. Professor and Chair of Educational Leadership, Foundations, and Policy and co-director of the Institutes on Academic Diversity at the Curry School of Education.
We hope you will find that these assessment-related events, opportunities, and resources listed below support the effort you put into program assessment to improve your students’ learning! Please feel free to forward this email to your colleagues who are involved in program assessment, or let us know who to include on future emails (email us at assess@uri.edu). Be sure to read this email to the end to get all the news!
SPONSORED EVENTS
- Weekly Drop-In Hours – Open to All Programs: Drop-in hours are offered every Wednesday from 3-4pm. Check out the ATL Calendar for Zoom room info. This is an informal space to support faculty in their program assessment efforts. Faculty Assessment Mentors will also be on hand to answer questions and offer their own perspectives and experiences conducting program assessment activities and reviewing program assessment reports.
- Assessment “Hot” Topic Session: Funding Opportunity – How to Apply! Interested in learning about funding opportunities that can be supported by the Assessment Office? Join us on Wednesday, February 3, 2021, at 3pm – all programs welcome! To register for this event, click here.
- New! Drop-In Hours for Graduate Programs: Our Graduate Assessment Coordinator, Christy Ashely, will be hosting drop-in hours specifically for graduate programs every Friday from 2-3pm starting February 19, 2021. Check out the ATL Calendar for Zoom room info.
If you have any questions or concerns, or if you can’t make these sessions and need to schedule an alternative time to meet, please send us an email at: assess@uri.edu.
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
- Assessment Innovation (AI) Funds: Competitive funding will be available to support programs’ efforts to advance assessment. The AI Funds application will be released later this week, and discussed during the February 3rd Assessment Hot Topic session (see above).
- Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Funds: Competitive funding will be available to facilitate URI faculty engagement in the development and execution of research focused on either undergraduate or graduate program-level student learning using outcomes assessment strategies. The 2021 SoTL application will be released later this week, and discussed during the February 3rd Assessment Hot Topic session (see above). Past projects include:
- an examination of instructors’ perspectives on student speaking in college courses (Emily D. Clapham & Michelle Flippin, Kinesiology and Communicative Disorders), and
- assessing the use of R (software) in developing quantitative reasoning in intro biology labs (Janelle Couret, Linda Forrester, Bryan Dewsbury, & Rachel Schwartz, Biological Sciences).
FEATURED RESOURCES: BLOOMING WITH BLOOM’S
- Revisiting or revising your program or course student learning outcomes? We love this verb wheel based on the revised Bloom’s taxonomy and connects the level of learning with observable and measurable action verbs AND types of student work (products).
- We are also really excited to share this Bloom’s Planning Worksheet, which takes the verb wheel a couple of steps further by also providing space for you to document your outcomes and planned student work AND best of all, it provides assignment prompts to help you think about different ways students can demonstrate their learning.
ASSESSMENT TERM OF THE MONTH: “CLOSING THE LOOP”
In program assessment terms, “closing the loop” refers to the iterative process in which faculty work together to: 1) think of a question about student learning related to a program learning outcome to assess, 2) identify relevant courses, student experiences, and student work, 3) collect and score student work, 4) analyze and interpret the data, 5) share results and make recommendations, and – perhaps most importantly – 6) implement the recommended changes with plans to reassess the effectiveness (back to #1).
IMPORTANT DATES
- 2021 URI Teaching and Learning Showcase: Join Provost DeHayes and ATL in celebrating our teaching and learning community on Friday, April 9th, 12pm – 2pm. The Registration link to this virtual event will be coming soon!
- Program Assessment Reporting Deadline: All program assessment reports (full and partial), interim reports, and reflections are due on or before graduation, May 23, 2021. Need information about your program? Send us an email at assess@uri.edu.
If you have any questions or concerns, or just want to pick our brains about assessment, we would love to hear from you! Email us at assess@uri.edu.
URI Assessment Team