Assessment of Learning in Student Involvement

1. Assessment of Learning in Student Involvement Diana Sims-Harris Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

2. Participant Learning Outcomes Following this session, participants will know or be able to: • Describe the importance of providing direct evidence of learning in student affairs • Demonstrate an example of a departmental mapping of programs and services to learning outcomes, especially where apparently disparate functions are involved • Understand dynamics between academic affairs and student affairs at a large urban university • Gain insight to the assessment practices of a large department and results of the data • Apply information shared to other institutional contexts

3. Session Overview • Division of Student Affairs Context • Faculty and Student Affairs Context • OSI Assessment Strategies and Expectations • OSI Learning Outcomes • Assessment Measures and Approaches • Results and Use for Improvements • Closing Recommendations

4. Division of Student Affairs context

5. Principles of Co-Curricular Learning • Core Communication Skills • Critical Thinking • Integration and Application of Knowledge • Intellectual Depth, Breadth and Adaptiveness • Understanding Society and Culture • Values and Ethics • Intrapersonal Development • Interpersonal Development http://go.iu.edu/8Io (case-sensitive)

6. Faculty and Student Affairs context

7. Different history • Different priorities • Different culture • Disparate perceptions • So what do we have • in common? Chad Ahren, Ph.D. Diana Sims-Harris

9. From silos to ladders: Phase 1 • Critical elements: values, external pressure, and learning • Creating buy-in for the benefits and necessity of collaboration Kezar, A.J. & Lester, J. (2009). Organizing higher education for collaboration: A guide for campus leaders. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Chad Ahren, Ph.D. Diana Sims-Harris

10. From silos to ladders: Phase 2 • Critical elements: mission, social networks and reward systems/structures • Taking the newfound belief in collaboration and putting • it into action Chad Ahren, Ph.D. Diana Sims-Harris

11. From silos to ladders: Phase 3 • Critical elements: integrating structures, reward systems/ structures, and social networks • Keeping collaboration current and valuable requires the redesign of campus structures Chad Ahren, Ph.D. Diana Sims-Harris

12. Student Learning in student life and OLS • Course objectives • Programming goals • Student Learning Outcomes • are the common language Chad Ahren, Ph.D. Diana Sims-Harris

14. Office of Student Involvement Assessment of Learning: Strategies andExpectations OSI Strategic Priorities

15. Equal participation • Inclusivity • Dynamics of power and oppression • Social Change • Collaboration • Common Purpose • Self-knowledge • Positive change • Educationally meaningful service • Community improvement OSI Strategic Priorities

16. Leadership Learning Outcomes 1. Gain personal competencies • Obtain and strengthen leadership skills such as conflict management, communication and dialogue, teamwork, time management, proactive event planning, goal setting, and risk taking • Manage their organizational functions through the use of programming, technology, and physical space • Value co-curricular learning as transferable skills that will complement to the classroom experience 2. Develop a sense of personal leadership identity • Define their sense of purpose through the personal exploration of strengths, passions, goals, and abilities • Explore personal cultural identity as it relates to leadership 3. Understand how their personal leadership identity relates to working with others • Provide intentional experiences for students to interact with others who are different from themselves • Apply individual experience to develop an even fuller understanding of themselves through their interactions with others 4. Build community with the IUPUI and Indianapolis community • Create partnerships with students, faculty, staff and organizations • Develop relationships through social and professional networking opportunities • Participate in idea-sharing as it relates to their organizations, programming, and leadership experiences 5. Connect to the IUPUI campus • Have an increased awareness of resources that are provided for students and organizations through The Office of Student Involvement and IUPUI • Use their voice effectively to create and engage in a positive collegiate experience for themselves and other students • Be able to navigate the IUPUI community and university system

17. Social Justice Education Learning Outcomes • Interact productively with others who are different from themselves • Apply individual experience to develop an even fuller understanding of themselves through their interactions with others • Explore social justice advocacy as it relates to leadership • Achieve awareness of their social identities • Gain knowledge of groups whose identities they do not share • Navigate difference by learning, listening, asking and watching • Outline individual responsibility for action to facilitate change Multicultural Change Process • Awareness • Knowledge • Skills • Action

18. Civic Engagement Learning Outcomes Civic-Minded Graduate • Ability to understand interest, responsibility and personal commitment to service and social issues • Understanding how social issues are addressed in society • Active participant in society to address social issues • Collaboration with others across difference (includes diversity, interconnectedness, mutuality, and respect) • Benefit of education to address social issues

19. À la Carte approach to assessment using Strategic Priorities: OSI Assessment Structure

20. Example: OSI Assessment Structure

21. At least two rigorous assessment projects per functional area OSI Assessment Expectations

22. Learning in addition to or instead of evaluation and satisfaction OSI Assessment Expectations

23. Choose projects that are manageable and represent likely opportunities for critical learning and improvement OSI Assessment Expectations

24. Keep your assessment practice manageable – integrate into current processes OSI Assessment Expectations

25. I promise to make reporting requirements manageable, timely and transparent OSI Assessment Expectations

26. Functional areas: • Review strategic priorities and outcomes • How will you apply these? OSI Assessment Discussion

27. Functional areas: • Review strategic priorities and outcomes • How will you apply these? OSI Assessment Discussion

28. Results and Use for Improvement

29. Practical Information on Reporting • Instruments and design were discussed 1-1 meetings with staff throughout the year • Programs which covered multiple strategic priorities were encouraged • Growing pains in reporting (expectations not always clear to staff, too much data, timing of analysis) • Not all information shared in division report each year • Much of the data is baseline Reporting: • First round of analysis completed by Assistant Directors (depending on level of experience) • Second round completed by Associate Director and Director of OSI • Third round completed by Director of Assessment and Planning

30. Alternative Breaks

31. Alternative Breaks Participant comments that support Values and Ethics: • I gained insight on what a small committed group of motivated people can do for a reason. • The strengths that I gained from this trip are determination and responsibility to make more of a difference with the social issues going on right in my community. The knowledge of knowing that I have the power to make a change to help others in my community to have some hope for the future. • I learned to be more open minded about the social topics involved. • I feel as though I have realized more of how compassionate I strive to be. I realize that I want to continue my services in the community, and I truly want to work in a non-profit educational facility now also. This trip made me realize a lot about what populations I want to be working with in the future.

32. Freedom Rides

33. Freedom Rides Participant comments that support the Personal Leadership Identity in Relation to Others outcome: Has the trip helped you learn about social justice? If so, how? • Yes, it has helped me to know a change must happen all people deserve to be treated fairly. • Yes, I learned that everyone deserves social justice no matter what their background may be • It taught me that it affects one and that we all have the power so don't be afraid to speak • Yes! I already knew a fair amount about social justice from some courses, but I learned even more! • By walking through the journey taken by the leaders

34. AFLV – Program Evaluation

35. AFLV – Focus Group Selected participant comments that support Integration and Application of Knowledge • Everybody's chapter is different and you can come back and take some of their ideas, like their bigger successes and take those back, and get the best aspects of all different kinds of Greek life in all different kinds of communities and bring it back and apply it here • I wish we could all break down the distance between IFC fraternities and everyone else... Just like at AFLV, they accommodated everybody. That is a good step forward in doing that. Just being IUPUI students and being in Greek organizations, we should take the reins from that and see how they expanded on it, and do it ourselves, essentially • We are only now starting to have to deal with connecting with alumni, so we just started doing like a letter that we are putting together, like a newsletter type thing that talks about the accomplishments of the chapter for the year and once we realized that you know it does not have tojustgo to alumni so we are going to send it to parents for like PR and stuff like that and show what they are doing...

36. Academic Organizations Survey

37. Academic Organizations Survey

38. 1. Set goals, ask questions 4. Use for improvement 2. Gather evidence 3. Interpret findings Assessment Loop Leskes, A. & Wright, B. (2005). The Art and Science of Assessing General Education Outcomes: A Practical Guide. Washington, DC: AAC&U Publications.

39. Use for Improvement – OSI wide • Results indicate need for more opportunities for deep reflection so students can connect experiences with outcomes. • There is a need for more collaborations across functional areas. Shared language from the strategic priorities can help facilitate this. • Some direct measures of assessment should be used; these measures would be a nice comparison to the current self-reported data.

40. Use for Improvement – Lead IUPUI • Results indicate consistency in reported learning with different groups of students overtime. • As an action item from previous assessment reports, more long-term experiences have been developed and show positive results. A residential based learning community is being explored. • The Leadership Foundation program saw positive learning outcomes but spotty attendance and at times, an inconsistent message. The series was restructured as a cohort program with more direct staff facilitation.

41. Use for Improvement– Lead IUPUI • The additional qualitative measures allowed for a deeper understanding of student learning. More guided reflection should be explored. • Many students participate in several Lead IUPUI programs, but assessment does not capture the possible cumulative effect of participation in multiple programs. • Quantitative feedback for SOLD shows a slight decline, but the qualitative results showed some of the strongest connection to learning yet. Strategies are being used to look for data trends and examine possible explanations for differences.

42. Closing Recommendations •  Know your institution culture and context; what is your collective mission? • Find allies with common interests and priorities • Tell your story, use shared language in learning outcomes • Start small and grow; integrate into current processes • Make obvious, easy improvements • Help students make connections and document them

43. Discussion/Questions/Contact Robert W. Aaron, Ph.D. Director, Assessment and Planning Division of Student Affairs Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (317) 274-8990 rwaaron@iupui.edu http://life.iupui.edu Diana Sims-Harris, M.S.Ed. Associate Director & Chad Ahren, Ph.D. Director Office of Student Involvement Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (317) 274-3931 dsimshar@iupui.edu cahren@iupui.edu http://life.iupui.edu/osi