Strategies for
Sustainable
Co-curricular
Assessment
Workshop Goals - Presenter
• Identify and consider context
• Dispel unfounded claims
• Clarify HLC requirement(s)
• Offer framework for implementation
• Suggest sustainable strategies
Workshop Goals - Attendee
• Identify framework best suited to campus culture
• Identify three useful, sustainable strategies to adopt
• Identify myths that might have been slowing progress
Context
• Urgency
• Administrative Demand
• Software
• Personnel
• Initiatives
Says Who?
Demands, Definitions, Dogma
Best practices or Orthodoxy?
Claim
Consideration
• The institution assesses
achievement of the learning
outcomes that it claims for its
curricular and co-curricular
programs.
•
Co-curricular what?
•
Only sLos?
•
SLO soup – mapping
•
Cycle begins with goals
•
War on grades
•
Reliance/War on CAS
• Different Labels for Units
•
Definition of Co-curricular
•
Final report is a report on process
• Reporting on findings not
process
• Backlogs aid Backfill
Framework for Implementation
Excited
Compliant
Resistant
Urgent
They Choose Unit
Goals,
Choose Linkage
Template
Workshop
Office Reviews
Provide Unit
Goals and
Linkage
Template
Workshop
Office Reviews
Provide Unit
Goals, Linkage,
known data;
one-on-one;
request use of
results
Office Reviews
Not Urgent
Form
One-on-One
Form Committee
Committee
Provide Goals
One-on-One
One-on-One
Provide
Star Unit leads
You lead
linkages; ask
They choose goals
They provide
about exsiting
and link
goals
data
Template
Provide Linkages
Teach them
Committee
Template
how to enter it
Reviews
Committee
how to discuss,
Reviews
how to use
results
Strategies for Sustainability
•
Even if you follow a decentralized model, centralize the branding, including the
language of the model (the process) and dissemination of data (the product)
•
Consider documenting similar reports from support units. If no one has time to do
anything with it, then why are you requiring it? KPIs, unit productivity reports may
suffice
•
Consider scaling back to Classroom HIPs and/or Student Affairs
•
Consider reassigning staff duties between academic, co-curricular, and gen ed
•
Consider providing framework of common initiative, problem, or mission
•
Consider engaging students looking for classroom projects or research
•
Consider offering data analysis and reports from your office to units
•
Post, promulgate, and defend the process you adopt
•
Expand acceptable submissions to include whatever matters to unit; expect use of
results for quality improvement instead of demanding that results focus on student
learning
Josie Welsh, PhD
[email protected]
Director of Institutional Effectiveness
Missouri Southern State University