AALHE 2018 Annual Conference

Promoting the value of assessment as internally-driven, rather than externally-mandated or administratively-initiated, is challenging. Our institution is committed to creating a culture in which academic assessment's fundamental purpose is enhancing student learning, by focusing on development of the curriculum and instructional strategies and activities to foster desired learning. In this skill-building session, we will discuss learning organizational literature and how it influences processes used on our campus to transition views on assessment from an external reporting requirement to an internally-valued process. We will explain strategies developed to transform our institution into one in which the assessment process is valued and academic programs, as well as individual faculty members, engage in assessment to enhance student learning. Specifically, we will discuss various strategies we have introduced to foster greater value, such as adding a Teaching Strategies Section to Academic Program Assessment Plans and Reports, introducing course level Teaching Reflections to document teaching excellence, offering professional development opportunities for faculty in collaboration with the Teaching Center on campus, and designing Summer Institutes, facilitated by faculty assessment practitioners, focusing on the teaching-learning connection. During this session, we will guide participants through the process of developing plans for cultivating similar results at their own institutions.