Empowering Student Services Staff to Become Learning Centered

1. Empowering Student Services Staff to Become Learning Centered Bette M. Simmons, Ed. D. County College of Morris July 13, 2007

2. Welcome, Introduction, and Presentation Overview • The Need for Learning Centered Assessment • History of Assessment at County College of Morris • Bringing the Division of Student Development & Enrollment Management On Board • Identifying Student Learning Outcomes and Establishing a Divisional Outcomes Assessment Plan • Implementation of Outcomes Assessment Plan • Empowering Others on Campus to Demonstrate Student Learning • Wrap-up and Questions

3. The Need for Learning Centered Assessment • Demonstrates that students have knowledge, skills, and competencies consistent with institutional goals and that students at graduation have achieved appropriate higher education goals. • Essential to help students improve and to monitor and maintain academic quality. • Fit between what we expect our students to understand and be able to do and what they actually demonstrate at points along their educational careers.

4. The Need for Learning Centered Assessment (Cont’d) • Assists in reviewing and revising academic programs and support services. • Assists in planning, conducting, and supporting professional development activities. • Assists in planning and budgeting for the provision of academic programs and services

5. History of Assessment at County College of Morris – Prior to the Last 6 Years • Academic Affairs Only • Departmental Self-Study Process every 5 – 6 Years • Quest for Division of Student Development • Pilot Project of Office of Career Services & Cooperative Education

6. History of Assessment at CCM (Cont’d) • Middle States Commission on Higher Education Standards • Standard 7 – Institutional Assessment • Evaluates institution’s overall effectiveness in achieving stated mission and goals and assures that institutional processes and resources support appropriate learning and other outcomes for students and graduates. • Standard 14 – Assessment of Student Learning • Demonstrates that students have knowledge, skills, and competencies consistent with institutional goals and that students at graduation have achieved appropriate higher education goals.

7. Bringing the Division of Student Development & Enrollment Management On Board • Linking student learning outcomes with Middle States Standards of Excellence • Cognitive abilities • Content literacy • Competence in information management • Value awareness

8. Linkage with New Jersey Community College Academic Officers Association General Education Objectives • Diversity and global perspective: Students will analyze the implications of commonalities and differences among culturally diverse peoples. • Ethical dimension: Students will recognize, analyze, and assess ethical issues and situations. • Oral and written communication: Students will communicate effectively in both speech and writing. • Technological competency: Students will use computer systems or other appropriate forms of technology to achieve educational and personal goals. • Society and human behavior: Students will use social science theories and concepts to analyze human behavior and social and political institutions.

9. Statewide initiative for establishing student learning objectives • Students will demonstrate self-directed or independent learning by using available resources to define and resolve problems. • Students will demonstrate understanding of ethical, civic, and social responsibility. • Students will understand and articulate the impact of diversity in our society. • Students will use technology to access information, perform routine transactions, and communicate effectively. • Students will demonstrate effective communication, critical thinking, and decision-making skills in analyzing information, presenting ideas, and executing programs and activities.

10. Bringing the Division of Student Development & Enrollment Management On Board (Cont’d) • Career Services & Cooperative Education professionals become divisional assessment experts • Assessment In-service Training • 2002 Division-wide training • 2004 Directors and Coordinators training • 2004 Division-wide retraining • 2005 Expanded division-wide training • 2006 Institutional departments training • Individual departmental consultations

11. Infusing student learning and outcomes assessment philosophy in all we do • Conduct an analysis of programs and services provided by the Division • Led staff to identify strengths of Division • Exercise revealed that some work of Division was already oriented toward student learning, especially leadership training and development of self-understanding and self-confidence • Also identified number of areas where staff felt it was deficient and that needed improvement • Vice President charged staff with responsibility to create series of key documents at divisional level that articulated division’s intent to place student learning at center of its work • Mission statements • Departmental objectives • Intended learning outcomes

12. Infusing student learning and outcomes assessment philosophy in all we do(Cont’d) • After these documents drafted, critiqued, revised, and agreed upon by staff, each department asked to develop or revise mission and objectives statements keeping in mind that each department’s mission statements and objectives had to flow from division’s mission statement and broad goals developed previously • After training, staff was assigned to investigate kinds of instruments available to assess fulfillment of mission, objectives, and learning outcomes of their departments • Finally, staff requested to develop assessment plan to measure effectiveness in fulfilling mission, objectives, and intended learning outcomes

13. Infusing student learning and outcomes assessment philosophy in all we do(Cont’d) • Because a focus on student learning requires that staff be able to assess its impact on student learning, staff directed to complete an inventory of ongoing assessment activities in each department • Revealed that while a number of assessment initiatives were taking place, many needed to be more intentionally focused on student learning

14. Developing framework of student learning outcomes assessment plan • Mission • In just a few sentences a mission statement communicates the essence of the unit to stakeholders and to the general public. • “The Division of Student Development & Enrollment Management is committed to providing comprehensive programs, services, and activities that complement the learning process, encourage community identity, and maximize students’ abilities to realize their educational, career, and life goals.” • Objectives • Broad, general statements of what the unit wants students to be able to do and to know, or what the program will do to ensure what students will be able to do and to know. • Provide students with opportunities to develop their leadership skills. • Educate in the areas of wellness and health promotion. • Provide resources to help students assess and relate their interests, skill, education, and experience to possible careers. • Programs and Services • Actual accounting of what the unit does that evaluates its objectives.

15. Developing framework of student learning outcomes assessment plan (Cont’d) • Intended Outcomes • Outcomes are more detailed and specific statements derived from the objectives that explain why a specific program or service is offered. • Outcomes are specifically about what the end result of a unit’s efforts are to be. They describe how a student demonstrates what he/she knows or can do. • Assessment • Feedback and Change

16. Implementation of Outcomes Assessment Plan • Developing Outcomes Assessment Plans for each department • Developing Implementation Plans for each department’s Assessment Plan • Sample of Outcomes Assessment Plan

17. Empowering Others on Campus to Demonstrate Student Learning • Developing Outcomes Assessment Template • Outcomes Assessment Notebooks • Campus-wide training • Institutional Student Learning and Outcomes Assessment Internal Website • Continuous improvement

18. Wrap-up and Questions 

19. References • Angelo, T. (1995). Reassessing (and Defining) Assessment. The AAHE Bulletin, 48 (2), pp. 7-9. • Bresciani, M.J. (September 2002). The relationship between outcomes, measurement, and directions for continuous improvement. National Association for Student Personnel Administrators, Inc. NetResults E-Zine. • Bresciani, M.J., Zelna, C.L., and Anderson, J.A. (2004). Techniques for Assessing Student Learning and Development in Academic Student Support Services. Washington D.C.: NASPA. • Ewell, P.T. (2003). Specific Roles of Assessment within this Larger Vision. Presentation given at the Assessment Institute at IUPUI. Indiana University – Purdue University, Indianapolis. • Keeling, R.P., ed. (2006). Learning Reconsidered 2: Practical Guide to Implementing a Campus-wide Focus on the Student Experience. Washington, D.C.: NASPA, Inc. • Maki, P. (2001). Program review assessment. Presentation to the Committee on Undergraduate Academic Review at NC State University. • Paloma, C. A. and Banta, T.W. (1999). Assessment essentials: planning, implementing, and improving assessment in higher education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.