Assessment Committee:

            MUW’s newly formed Assessment Committee has been busy this fall. The purpose of the committee is to support assessment activities across campus by reviewing SMART Assessment Plans, meeting with departments to strengthen those plans, and hosting workshops on a variety of assessment topics. In addition, committee members serve as liaisons to their colleges and departments. Members of the committee are Marty Hatton (Arts and Sciences), Jeanne Holland (Education and Human Sciences), Mary Jo Kirkpatrick (Nursing and Speech-Language Pathology), Scott McKenzie (Culinary Arts), Scott Tollison (Business and Legal Studies), Amy Swingle (Student Services), and Eric Daffron (Chair, Academic Affairs).

SMART Assessment Plans:

Go to the Assessment website to see the SMART Assessment Plans for 2008-09:  http://www.muw.edu/vpaa/Smart%20Plans%2008-09.html. (Updates will be made frequently until all plans are posted.) You can see how other departments organized their plans, formulated student-learning outcomes, and identified assessment measures. 

Assessment Trends at MUW:

Departments across campus are assessing communication, both written and verbal. Scan the plans on the Assessment website to discover how other departments have decided to formulate student-learning outcomes for communication and to assess that skill.

Assessment Workshop:

Many departments are using rubrics and checklists to measure student learning, some for the first time. Faculty may want to attend an upcoming workshop on creating and using rubrics and checklists. The workshop will be held in Cochran 303 at 3:30 PM, Monday, October 20. Presenters will include Bonnie Oppenheimer, Monica Riley, Twila Alpe, and Kathy McShane.

Assessment Website Highlight:

Go to the Assessment website to find resources to support departmental work in assessment. In particular, take a look at this page, which gives tips on assessment, including a link to an extensive rubrics site: http://www.muw.edu/vpaa/Assessment%20A.pdf. In addition, MUW now has its own rubric site: http://www.muw.edu/vpaa/Assessment%20Rubrics.html. Departments that would like to share their rubrics should send them to Eric Daffron.