The Group's Charge
Support the Division’s efforts to establish a progressively effective process of assessment. Develop annual Division-wide projects that result in the assessment of student learning, and align with the annual goals and objectives of the Division and the College’s strategic plan. A standing committee within Student Development, this group’s membership will include representatives from a majority of the departments in the Division. The Vice President for Student Development, in consultation with Directors, will appoint members, team leadership, and determine terms of appointment. As a standard, this group meets bi-weekly (6-8 times per semester), with additional team and sub-committee meetings scheduled as necessary to complete initiatives. Members are asked to review documents and/or prepare information for meetings.
The group will be responsible for the following:
- Identification of an annual student learning assessment project in collaboration with the Directors and Vice President of Student Development.
- Development of a timeline and oversight of all aspects of these projects, including administration, coordination, analysis of data, and the reporting of results.
- Communicating regularly with the Division and with the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment, with the purpose of giving updates on projects, and to solicit feedback when needed.
- Reviewing departmental self-assessment reports through the use of CAS standards and providing objective feedback to the Vice President for Student Development as part of the assessment process.
- Coordinating the implementation of professional development sessions for all Divisional staff members around assessment topics, in consultation with the Division’s Professional Development Committee.
- Serving as consultants to departments within the Division as they engage in self-assessment.
Accomplishments
2007-2008
- Scant assessment of co-curricular activity at Nazareth College led to the assemblage of the five member Student Development Assessment Committee, charged to explore student learning and engagement from an interdepartmental perspective.
- Established the following as the "flow" of projects: obtain goals and objectives, identify area to assess, tie outcome statements to programs currently in place, think about how change or learning can be observed in departmental programs/services, ask if change can be measured, and establish a plan for assessment.
- Annual Divisional assessment project Phase I: Created and carried out survey with student workers to establish baseline data on problem solving skills and effective use of interpersonal communication within the student learning domain of Student Involvement.
- Executed professional development workshop on assessment for directors and interested staff in Division.
2008-2009
- Annual Divisional assessment project Phase II: Developed and implemented focus groups to provide an in-depth look at Student Involvement from resident and commuter perspectives.
- Analysis of previous survey in combination with focus group data and national survey data answered these questions:
- How do students describe and experience involvement at Nazareth?
- How are students impacted by involvement?
- What are the barriers to or catalysts for involvement at Nazareth?
2009-2010
- Presented previous year's project to Directors.
- Developed a display on the project for the Nazareth Scholar's Day to inform the campus community.
- Disseminated results to inform current initiatives such as new Core and Information Technology (IT) Strategic Plan.
- Implemented the use of CAS for promoting standards in student affairs.
- In collaboration with IT, developed, implemented, and analyzed a survey regarding student use of technology in the co-curricular realm.
- Began sending committee members annually to national assessment conferences and regional workshops to build capacity and experience.
2010-2011
- Professional Development workshops around CAS standards, developing student learning outcomes (SLOs), and data collection were offered to entire Division.
- Adopted the name "Divisional Assessment Team."
- Obtained graduate assistant.
- Developed Division-wide SLOs from previously written Hallmarks.
- Conducted the first two CAS reviews of department self-assessments.
- Reviewed and updated the team charge with direction and approval from the Vice President.
2011-2012
- DAT assessed the following Divisional SLO: "Students demonstrate an awareness of how their actions affect both themselves and the larger Nazareth community."
- Provided training for two departments embarking on CAS self-assessment projects.
- Developed framework and revised the committee charge
- With the addition of new members, DAT grew to span nine departments.
- Collaborated with Professional Development Committee to sponsor workshop on Social Change Model and a case study of assessment practices within Community Service's Partners for Learning program for members of the entire Division.
- DAT members Megan and Mimi attended the Assessment Institute Conference at IUPUI
- DAT members Mimi, Megan, Cate, Martie and Kevin attended the Student Affairs Assessment and Research Consortium at RIT
- Based on Director feedback the DAT created a final copy of Divisional SLOs
- DAT completed a CAS review of Residential Life and Health Services Departments with a report on findings
2012-2013
- DAT assessed the following Divisional SLO: "Students participate in educational or social events that promote an understanding of cultural and human difference"
- Sponsored an assessment workshop with presenter Dr. Wall
- DAT members Megan and Emily attended the Assessment Institute Conference at IUPUI
- The Development of the Divisional Assessment Planning Worksheet was distributed to Directors and collected with their plans for assessment a Departmental SLO this year. This worksheet was developed based on the Institutional Research and Advancement assessment planning worksheet used across campus.
- DAT provided a Spring professional development workshop intended to show the division ways to create a worthwhile assessment based on divisional SLO's and how to create an action plan based on the resultant data.
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