Education Commons^™

Yakimowski Named Assistant Dean For Assessment In Its College Of Education, Mary E. Yakimowski

Mary E. Yakimowski

Mary E. Yakimowski has been named assistant dean for assessment at Sacred Heart University’s Isabelle Farrington College of Education (FCE). In this new role, Yakimowski will provide leadership in the development, implementation and administration of a comprehensive assessment system for FCE students and programs.

Best Practices For Student Learning Assessment In Smaller-Sized Undergraduate Mass Communication Programs, Douglas J. Swanson Ed.D Apr

Douglas J. Swanson, Ed.D APR

Assessment of student learning in higher education is no longer optional, because the public increasingly expects universities to spend less and produce more. Generating detailed, meaningful assessment is challenging, particularly for smaller-sized mass communication programs with limited resources. Mass communication-focused assessment literature is scarce. This best practices essay reviews other research to illustrate proven examples of ways to assess simply and effectively in undergraduate mass communication programs to achieve maximum faculty support and curriculum improvement.

Student Learning In High-Impact Practice Mass Communication Courses, Douglas J. Swanson Ed.D Apr

Douglas J. Swanson, Ed.D APR

College and university high-impact practice (HIP) courses involve students in intensive values-focused learning inside and/ or outside of the traditional classroom environment. Much research has documented that participation in HIPs increases student retention and graduation rates. At the same time, the nontraditional learning structure of an HIP course can complicate a thorough assessment of student learning. Anecdotal evidence reflects strong involvement in HIPs by mass communication programs, although communication efforts in this regard are not as well documented in the literature as efforts in other fields. This essay briefly defines HIPs and presents an appropriate theory that would guide HIPs …

Web-Based Student Peer Review: A Research Summary, Edward F. Gehringer

Edward F Gehringer

Interest in Web-based peer-review systems dates back nearly 20 years. Systems were built to let students give feedback to other students, mainly to help them improve their writing. But students are not necessarily effective peer reviewers. Left to their own devices, they will submit cursory reviews, which are not very helpful to their peers. Techniques have been developed to improve the quality of reviews. Calibration is one such technique. Students are asked to assess samples of writing that have previously been assessed by experts. Students must submit an evaluation “close enough” to the experts’ before they are allowed to review …

Where Are You Aiming? Using Learning Outcomes To Guide And Assess Practice, Larry D. Long

Larry D. Long

We have all heard about learning outcomes, but how do we write them and effectively evaluate them? This interactive session provides an overview of learning outcomes, tips, and advice about writing learning outcomes using Learning Reconsidered as a framework. The session also demonstrates how to assess student learning based on learning outcomes.

Class Participation As A Learning And Assessment Strategy In Law: Facilitating Students’ Engagement, Skills Development And Deep Learning, Alex Steel, Anna Huggins, Julian Laurens

Alex Steel

Well designed assessment can be a vehicle for encouraging students to learn and engage more broadly than with the minimums required to complete the assessment activity. In that sense assessment need not merely ‘drive’ earning, but can instead act as a catalyst for further learning beyond what a student had anticipated. In this article we reconsider the potential roles and benefits in legal education of a form of interactive classroom learning we term assessable class participation (ACP), both as part of a pedagogy grounded in assessment and learning theory, and as a platform for developing broader autonomous approaches to learning …

Clarifying Assessment: Developing Official Typologies And Instructions For Forms Of Assessment In Law, Alex Steel

Alex Steel

Law students are expected to complete a range of assessment throughout their degree, and do so with varying levels of success. Increasingly, research has examined the ways in which student performance can be enhanced. While much focus has been on how to best to provide students with feedback that can be acted on, this paper examines the extent to which standardisation of the way in which assessment tasks are described could assist students. The use of the same name to describe different variations of an assessment task can create confusion for students and for new members of staff. Research demonstrates …

‘Works Well With Others’: Examining The Different Types Of Small Group Learning Approaches And Their Implications For Law Student Learning Outcomes, Julian Laurens, Alex Steel, Anna Huggins

Alex Steel

In the current regulatory climate, there is increasing expectation that law schools will be able to demonstrate students’ acquisition of learning outcomes regarding collaboration skills. We argue that this is best achieved through a stepped and structured whole-of-curriculum approach to small group learning. ‘Group work’ provides deep learning and opportunities to develop professional skills, but these benefits are not always realised for law students. An issue is that what is meant by ‘group work’ is not always clear, resulting in a learning regime that may not support the attainment of desired outcomes. This paper describes different types of ‘group work’, …

Case Study: Engaging Student Residence Life Staff In Using Ebi Results For Continuous Innovative Improvement, Kate Burdick, Larry D. Long

Larry D. Long

Are you interested in engaging student residence life staff in using EBI results for continuous innovative improvements? If so, join us for some lively activities and discussion about ways that one residence life complex at Michigan State University used student staff brainpower to help address residents’ concerns identified in the EBI data. We will include specific exercises that were utilized in this process, as well as examples of initiatives that were implemented.

“I’Ve Got The Data, Now What?:” Making Sense Of Assessment Data, Larry D. Long

Larry D. Long

How to analyze and interpret qualitative and quantitative assessment data

Automating The Reporting Of Survey Data, Larry D. Long

Larry D. Long

The presentation explains how to automate the reporting of assessment data using the mailmerge feature in MS Word.

Library Stats As An Assessment Tool, Maira Bundza

Maira Bundza

Western Michigan University has been working on creating a culture of assessment for ten years. The libraries have been using LibQUAL, a user satisfaction survey, since 2004, but have been gathering other statistics and assessment data over these same years. It is time to put it all together into an assessment plan.

Library Stats is an open source tool for maintaining reference statistics. It provides the opportunity to keep rich statistics on each reference transaction, including the actual question and answer. WMU implemented the use of Library Stats across all reference areas in 2009 and has already used the data …

Florida Association Of School Psychologists 38th Annual Conference, Lee A. Wilkinson

Lee A Wilkinson, PhD

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in Schools: Evidence-Based Screening and Assessment

Epidemiological studies indicate a progressively rising prevalence trend for ASD over the past decade. Yet, compared to population estimates, identification rates have not kept pace in our schools. Many children with ASD are overlooked, misdiagnosed with another psychiatric condition, or present with coexisting psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety. School psychologists must be prepared to recognize the presence of risk factors and/or early warning signs of ASD, engage in case finding, and be familiar with screening and assessment tools in order to ensure that students are being identified and …

Afa/Ebi Fraternity/Sorority Assessment: Summary Report 2010, Larry D. Long

Larry D. Long

Summary report of the 2009/2010 AFA/EBI Fraternity/Sorority Assessment.

Afa/Ebi Fraternity/Sorority Assessment: Summary Report 2009, Larry D. Long

Larry D. Long

Summary report of the 2008/2009 AFA/EBI Fraternity/Sorority Assessment.

Getting To The Good Stuff: A Look At Compelling Outcomes From The Afa/Ebi Assessment, Tanner Marcantel, Diana Fulkerson, Larry D. Long

Larry D. Long

A presentation on the outcomes of the fraternity/sorority experience.

School-Age Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: Screening And Identification, Lee A. Wilkinson

Lee A Wilkinson, PhD

Epidemiological studies indicate a worldwide increase in the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) over the past decade. ASDs are no longer considered rare conditions. Although the reason(s) for this rise are uncertain, research indicates that specialised intervention at an early age is vital for optimising the outcomes of children with ASD. However, not all children with milder forms of autism will be identified prior to school entrance. Hence, it is essential for educators and school-based support professionals to ensure that children who have risk factors and/or warning signs of ASD are identified and provided with special educational services as …

Facilitating The Identification Of Autism Spectrum Disorders In School- Age Children, Lee A. Wilkinson

Lee A Wilkinson, PhD

Recent special education trends suggest that students with autism spectrum disorders are underrepresented in our schools’ special education programs. The increased awareness and prevalence of autism, together with the clear benefits of early intervention and special education, have created an urgent need for school-based professionals to identify children who may have an autism spectrum disorder. Screening is an important first step for securing the appropriate educational services. The aim of this article is to provide school professionals with a review of five screening instruments that hold promise for identifying school-age children in need of a more in-depth diagnostic assessment.

Using The Read (Reference Effort Assessment Data) Scale© To Assess Reference Work, Maira Bundza

Maira Bundza

Surveys have shown that librarians are not completely satisfied with the statistics used for reference services, so Bella Karr Gerlich at Dominican University developed the READ (Reference Effort Assessment Data) Scale, which has now been tested by 14 academic libraries. In October 2008 the Central Reference Department at Western Michigan University Libraries started using the READ Scale to record reference transactions. Instead of just writing down tick marks for each question answered, each question was rated on a six-point scale, based on the difficulty of the question and the time it took to answer. This low-tech tool was easy to …

Research Regarding The Development Of Dance Performance Measurement Instruments: A Review., Aspasia Dania, Koutsouba Maria, Hatziharistos Dimitrios, Tyrovola Vasiliki

Aspasia Dania

Despite the fact that dance programs in the public schools are housed within the physical education curricu-lum, the documents that include dance teaching instructions do not provide information regarding of processes of valid and reliable recording of student performance. Undeniably, the establishment of dance performance as-sessment instruments would give dance teachers and researchers the opportunity to share, compare and study the results of student learning and teaching methods. The purpose of the present research is the presentation of inquiring efforts with regard to the development of valid and reliable assessment instruments of movement gen-erally and specially dancing movement, as a …