Fall 2024 Assessment Brunch, Thursday, Oct 17

The Fall Assessment Workshop & Brunch will be held:

5th week Thursday,

October 17, 2024, 

11:30-12:30

in the Hicks’ Student Center Banquet Hall.

Please RSVP at this link

This fall, your friends on the Assessment Committee have been working on a syllabus study of current First Year Seminars. Our goal is to understand,  celebrate and share the student learning that happens collectively in the FYS program at K.  At this event we’ll present our findings and ask for input on questions we have identified as key to growing our shared understanding of the FYS program.

Please consider attending if you:

• Teach a First Year Seminar
• Are involved with First Year Experience
• Present a First Year Forum
• Work with first-year advisees
• Plan activities for first-year students
• Are involved in any aspect of the Shared Passages Seminar Program
• Are involved with assessment in your department or unit

Fall 2025 Assessment Brunch – Outcomes

1. Each participant will identify common features across FYS sections as well as promising practices for wider adoption and adaptation.
2. Participants will work together, drawing from their own expertise and experience, toward aligning our current and future practices with clear student learning outcomes for generating knowledge through reading, writing, listening and speaking.

The Winter Assessment Workshop & Brunch is on Wednesday, February 14, 2024, during common time (10:55 – 11:55 am) in the Hicks’ Student Center Banquet Hall. 

Are you planning to attend? If so, please RSVP at this link today. 

The Institutional Assessment Committee is focusing on assessing student learning in the Shared Passages Program.  We imagine this will be a multi-year process that, once instituted, produces an ongoing campus-wide program to clarify our goals for that program and improve student learning in Shared Passages Seminars.   

We begin this year with assessment work on the First Year Seminar.   Our starting point is the current practice for new First Year Seminars.   

At this session the Assessment Committee will briefly outline our assessment plans for First Year Seminars.  We have learned that effective assessment begins with careful statement of student learning outcomes, and we plan for this event to be a hands-on opportunity for the attendees to formulate learning outcomes from their widely varied experiences and expertise.   We will provide materials from the current FYS guidelines grouped by the three required FYS components 

1. Writing Competencies 

2. Library Research Training (we will build on the work of the Teach Lunch last week!)   

3. First Year Forum  (Dana Jansma will be here to share the work she’s done in drafting learning outcomes) 

This event is for you if you:   

• Are involved with First Year Experience  
• Present a First Year Forum 
• Work with first year advisees 
• Plan activities for first year students 
• Teach a First Year Seminar 
• Teach a First Year Friendly course 
• Are involved with assessment in your department or unit 
• Work with any students and are curious about what we skills we intend first year students to have improved  
• Want to increase our shared understanding of the First Year Experience as a way to strengthen our community and inform your work with students 

Winter 2024 Assessment Brunch – Learning Outcomes

1. Each participant will identify the three central components of the First Year Seminar
2. Each participant will locate their own work at the college relative to the three central FYS components
3. Participants will work together, drawing from their own expertise and experience, to develop clear student learning outcomes based on existing FYS documents.

This Assessment FUNnel Worksheet is a visual aid for assessment project planning. It was created with the goal to simplify the initial process of thinking through/planning an assessment project. It can serve as a tool to use with a specific project in mind, or as brainstorming tool to give structure to some of the great ideas that come up for you in conversations or meetings.

At the Fall 2023 Assessment Brunch we workshopped with the Assessment FUNnel Worksheet. You can get a copy at this link.

The Fall Assessment Workshop & Brunch is on Wednesday, October 4, 2023, during common time (10:55 – 11:55 am) in the Hicks’ Student Center Banquet Hall. 

Are you planning to attend? If so, please RSVP at this link today. 

As always, feel free to bring an example of something you’re already working on or just come for brunch and assessment talk! You’re welcome to attend as much or as little of the hour as your schedule allows.

Assessment Brunch – Learning Outcomes

Finally, assessment begins with stating goals and desired outcomes:

1. Each participant will show progress in assessment

Dear Faculty & Staff Colleagues, 

Please join us at the Spring Assessment Workshop on Wednesday, April 19, 2023.  

The workshop will be held during common time (10:55 – 11:55 a.m.) in the Hicks Student Center Banquet Hall.  

Jessica Fowle will describe an ongoing assessment project in the Grants, Scholarships and Fellowships Office. We will then utilize workshop time to practice making an assessment rubric for the learning outcomes she describes using student work samples. If you have an assessment project of your own that you’d like to work on with colleagues, feel free to bring that too! We also plan a brief presentation to highlight the assessment activities at K over the past year.   

We think this workshop will be an especially helpful and time-efficient way for department chairs, directors and others responsible for unit-level assessment to leverage the power of the campus-wide assessment community. 

A few more important details: 

1. Brunch Buffet featuring cinnamon rolls will be provided at the workshop, and participants are invited to attend as much or as little of the hour as their schedule allows. 
2. To help with planning, please RSVP for the Workshop by 4:00 p.m. Monday, April 17. 
3. Visit the Institutional Assessment webpage to read more about the work of the Assessment Academy and preview the ILO rubrics. 

Assessment Brunch – Learning Outcomes

Finally, assessment begins with stating goals and desired outcomes:

1. Participants will understand the assessment framework of Outcomes — Observations — Conclusions
2. Participants will practice creating a rubric for a stated learning outcome using specific student work products
3. Participants will know about assessment work and achievements at K during the past year