Contact Information:
Dr. Karl Schonberg
Associate Dean of Academic Affairs
St. Lawrence University
Canton, NY 13617
315-229-5998
kschonberg@stlawu.edu

 

TO: Department Chairs and Program Coordinators

FROM: Valerie Lehr

RE: Assessment Update

DATE: January 28, 2009

As described in the message that you received at the end of the fall semester, this spring departments and programs are expected to be developing detailed plans for the next stage of their assessment work.  Please plan on submitting an abstract of your program's assessment plans to me by Friday, April 3, and a final version by Monday, June 1, to be implemented beginning in the fall of 2009.

To help with this process, the assessment committee is sponsoring three workshops at the CTL this semester, focusing on key steps in the development of assessment plans.  These workshops will focus on practical questions of assessment, and all faculty engaged in this work are encouraged to come with any questions or concerns they may have about the process.  These sessions will be an opportunity to learn about effective assessment projects conducted at St. Lawrence and the resources available to help with your program's work.  Each event will include presenters from different departments who will talk about their assessment work last year:

1.  Developing Your Departmental Learning Goals – Monday, February 2, 4:30 pm:  Along with members of the assessment committee, this session will be facilitated by Evelyn Powell Jennings, Patti Lock, and Kathleen Self, who will discuss the development and use of their programs' learning goals.  If you felt that your pilot project lacked well articulated, assessable learning goals, someone from your department should attend this workshop.

2.  Mapping Your Departmental Learning Goals onto Your Departmental Curriculum  - Tuesday, February 17, 11:50 am:  Kirk Fuoss and Michael Temkin will introduce curricular maps and inventories as a way to identify where departmental learning goals are taught in the departmental curriculum.  Both presenters used mapping in their pilot projects and will share their experiences with this approach.

3.  Assessing Departmental Learning Goals Through Direct Assessment Techniques – Tuesday, February 24, 4:30 pm: Cathy Crosby-Currie, Neil Law and Laura Rediehs will provide some hands-on information on their experiences with different methods of direct assessment.  Discussion will focus on planning your direct assessment project:  how to choose suitable sites for direct assessment, collect evidence, and summarize data, including the development and use of rubrics.

Please consider whether it would helpful to your program's assessment work for you or a member of your department to attend some or all of these sessions.