Academic Assessment Culture FAQ - Project: Assessment Culture Version 2.0 - Project

Completed

Original Start Date: June 30, 2015
Original End Date: June 30, 2016
Revised/Actual End Date: May 5, 2017

With encouragement from the most recent Systems Appraisal (2014) the University identified a significant opportunity for expanding a culture of assessment among our faculty and designed the action project. However, at the April 2015 Strategy Forum, we were encouraged to move all of our Action Projects to the new staggered cycle (winter, summer, fall). This Action Project, therefore, revises the original action project which was created in 2014. The University had a Comprehensive Quality Review and Reaffirmation of Accreditation in 2015-16 and the project was continued to further accomplish the visiting team’s recommendation of a centralization of assessment initiatives.

The project concluded in May 2017 with the end of spring semester and the culminating Spotlight on Learning event for the campus. The Teaching, Learning and Assessment Committee is planning for future university-wide teaching and learning events. University Curriculum Council (UCC) has fully implemented the new program review process and guidelines, and will be performing a review of the new guidelines during the 2017-18 academic year. The Assessment Clearinghouse is built and continuing to evolve with program student learning outcomes and department and program assessment plans loaded and evidence of student learning and use of student learning evidence to be included by the end of fall semester 2017. While the action project has now reached completion, the Teaching, Learning and Assessment Committee continues to further identify ways to mature the culture of assessment to assist the University in fulfilling its vision of being the “the nation’s best transformative learning community.”

Stated Goals:

Even though Ohio University has a long history with academic assessment, this action project was initiated to restructure and mature its academic assessment efforts. Three distinct areas were included in the original action project to accomplish the efforts:

1. Academic program review self-study guidelines have been revised to focus more on student outcomes than on inputs.
2. All academic programs are updating their learning objectives and developing new, ongoing assessment plans.
3. eLearning Ohio is incorporating a quality assurance process in its distance learning programs.

After the April 2015 Strategy Forum, a revised action project was submitted with the following goals:

1. Identify and profile existing work that new faculty are bringing to the University related to Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL), academic assessment, and student success, and to identify and profile existing work that current faculty are doing related to assessment.
2. Provide incentives and encouragement for new and innovative efforts to improve teaching and
   learning. The objectives were to design, develop, and then publicize profiles of faculty work, and to
   redirect internal funding for proposals to encourage SOTL. 

Despite the revision of these goals, Ohio University continued to work on the original goals, and therefore, we are including updates on our progress with those as well.

1. Academic program review self-study guidelines have been revised to focus more on student outcomes than on inputs.

University Curriculum Council (UCC) has fully implemented the revised program review self-study requirements and program review process. The first round of reviews under the new self-study requirements and review process were completed during the 2016-17 academic year with 16 programs receiving approval under the new self-study requirementsand review process. UCC’s Program Review Committee will be performing a review of the revised program review process during the 2017-18 academic year.

2. All academic programs are updating their learning objectives and developing new, ongoing assessment plans.

Because student learning outcomes assessment has largely been a decentralized process across colleges and campuses, it was recommended during our last CQR visit that Ohio University standardize the development and reporting of assessment of student learning outcomes across all programs and track assessment progress across the University. This tracking will enable us to provide necessary evidence of our commitment to maintaining this progress.

To ensure that the University has a standardized, central repository of these assessments, the
Office of Institutional Research is developing the Assessment Clearinghouse, a central Web
site, which will include for each department/program the following components:

1. Student Learning Outcomes
2. Assessment Plans
3. Evidence of Student Learning
4. Use of Student Learning Evidence

Over the past year, Assessment Liaisons have be designated for each academic college and the regional campuses. The Assessment Liaisons have worked collaboratively with the Teaching, Learning and Assessment Committee and the Director for Program Assessment Support Services to create the Assessment Clearinghouse. The Assessment Clearinghouse is built and continuing to evolve with program student learning outcomes and department and program assessment plans loaded and evidence of student learning and use of student learning evidence to be included by the end of fall semester 2017.

3. eLearning Ohio is incorporating a quality assurance process. 

Due to academic restructuring of all online programs to their respective on-campus colleges this goal was not continued. Online programs follow the same assessment processes that their respective on-campus programs follow.

4. Identify and profile existing work that new faculty are bringing to the University related to Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL), academic assessment, and student success, and to identify and profile existing work that current faculty are doing related to assessment.

The Teaching, Learning, and Assessment (TLA) Committee and the Office of Instructional Innovation (OII) have made significant strides in recognizing teaching excellence and learning support across Ohio University. They organized the 2017 Spotlight on Learning Conference, an event focused on teaching and learning strategies to advance student academic success.

Through the Innovation Showcase, OII is building a growing library of digital stories that serve as in-depth, media-rich examples of teaching excellence, faculty innovation, and exemplary practice. The five articles released to date demonstrate how to improve student comprehension using Team-Based Learning, create engaging experiences in Active Learning Classrooms, reach millennial learners, use storytelling in the classroom, and teach the arts online. An additional seven stories are planned to launch through June 2018.

5. Provide incentives and encouragement for new and innovative efforts to improve teaching and learning. The objectives were to design, develop, and then publicize profiles of faculty work, and to redirect internal funding for proposals to encourage SOTL.

The 1804 Fund was established by the Ohio University Foundation to support the University's core mission of maintaining, strengthening, and enhancing a learning-centered community. The 1804 Undergraduate Fund (internal OU grant) advertised and granted priority consideration for the continuous improvement of student learning. In 2016-17, there were 10 Undergraduate Fund proposals, with two of them including continuous improvement of student learning:

• Boosting Nursing Students Confidence and Marketability with Pediatric Simulation – This proposal to
  fund pediatric simulation equipment for the nursing skills lab at the Southern Campus will provide
  undergraduate critical thinking and practice skills that are otherwise difficult or unattainable in the
  clinical setting. The proposed simulation equipment provides an opportunity for a new model to
  improve student learning and enhance achievement of behavioral learning outcomes for nursing
  students.
• Intelligent Lighting Equipment Package – It is important for theater students to be knowledgeable of
  the rapidly transitioning lighting equipment to LED sources and remotely-controlled devices in order
  for them to qualify for jobs in their field upon graduation. This proposal will ensure that theater
  students will leave Ohio University achieving learning outcomes and skills in the use of modern
  equipment and approaches to theatrical lighting.

OII also maintains an inventory of internal grants and awards that support teaching excellence. OHIO is known for its outstanding teaching, and this list highlights the opportunities that exist to recognize faculty for their inspiring instructional efforts. Faculty who use the inventory are connected to additional information about recent recipients, which provides them with examples of peers to emulate. They can leverage the opportunities available to improve student learning.

Link 1: 2017 Spotlight on Learning Conference
https://www.ohio.edu/instructional-innovation/ctl/events/sol-17.html 
Link 2: Innovation Showcase
https://www.ohio.edu/instructional-innovation/stories/showcase/index.html 
Link 3: inventory
https://www.ohio.edu/instructional-innovation/stories/innovation-support.html 
Link 4: program review self_study requirements
https://www.ohio.edu/facultysenate/committees/ucc/upload/Self-Study-Requirements-Approved-2.docx 
Link 5: program review process
https://www.ohio.edu/facultysenate/ucc/upload/UCC-Program-Review-Process-Approved-2015.docx 

During the past year this project has involved many members from the learning community. The UCC’s Program Review Committee, a Faculty Fellow for Program Review, and the Associate Provost for Faculty and Academic Planning have all worked over the period of this action project to implement the revised self-study requirements and academic program review process. The TLA Committee and the Director for Program Assessment Support Services worked directly with Assessment Liaisons representing every
academic college and regional campuses to develop the Assessment Clearinghouse. Assessment Liaisons by turn worked with each academic department in their college to provide learning outcomes and assessment plans for the Assessment Clearinghouse. The TLA Committee and OII collaborated to organize the 2017 Spotlight on Learning event. Over 165 OHIO faculty and staff attended the conference, which included 23 breakout sessions presented by 40 faculty and staff from various campuses. Participants represented 10 academic colleges, 35 academic departments and 3 regional campuses as well as 8 different administrative support offices such as Institutional Research, Center for
International Studies, Career and Leadership Development Center, Office of Information Technology, Office of Instructional Innovation, Athletics and University Libraries.

OII and University Communication and Marketing (UCM) offices worked together to
maintain and continue producing Innovation Showcase information from new faculty on
activities related to SOTL and profile them through UCM outlets.

The main impact of this project was a revitalization and growth in our assessment processes. This was accomplished through several avenues. First, the revision of the academic program review process to include a review of a program’s student learning outcomes assessment processes. Second, the centralization of student learning outcomes assessment via the Assessment Clearinghouse also matured our assessment processes. Third, was the Teaching, Learning and Assessment Committee and the Office of Instructional Innovation collaboratively making significant progress in recognizing teaching
excellence and learning support across the University. For example, the 2017 Spotlight on Learning Conference was an event showcasing teaching, learning and assessment strategies that advance student academic success. Over 165 OHIO faculty and staff attended the conference, which included 23 breakout sessions presented by 40 faculty and staff from various campuses. Over 90% of participants that completed the conference evaluation agreed that the conference was relevant to their teaching or profession; 88% agreed they would recommend the conference to others. One person who completed the evaluation wrote, “As a new faculty member at a regional campus, today gave me the opportunity to meet other faculty from the various campuses. It was a positive experience that provided me with a number of strategies to improve my practice and the student experience.” Also contributing to the recognition of teaching excellence are the efforts of OII as it continues to grow its Innovation Showcase. Showcase pieces have received more than 1,000 unique views since July 2016. Four of the stories include a video in addition to the written piece; the videos have received nearly 400 views since the series began. In learning about others’ innovative strategies, faculty are inspired to experiment with new teaching methods, reimagine how to use learning environments, or adapt their practices to reach a new generation of learners.

Another impact of this project was the development of Assessment Liaisons within each
Academic College and Regional Campuses. The Assessment Liaisons are a small group of
assessment advocates who provide feedback and communication, regarding student learning
outcomes assessment processes, to the Teaching, Learning and Assessment Committee from
the academic departments within their colleges.

The primary challenge with this action project was developing appropriate metrics for measuring cultural change. Numbers participating in the various action project activities such as Innovation Showcases, the Spotlight on Learning Event and those programs completing their Academic Program Review self-studies, can be tracked, but direct measures of cultural change is challenging

Also challenging is the work to sustain the completeness of the inventories while making both the inventories and showcases even more visible. Continual updating of Web resources requires staff time, which can be limiting when personnel changes occur.

Finally a challenge to institutionalizing learning from this project is competing interests for faculty time. Resources (time and financial) are constrained. Faculty already have many competing interests and duties. For example, selecting a date to hold the Spotlight on Learning event was difficult. Selecting one day when all faculty have the opportunity to attend was not possible. Effective communication across a large, diverse, and decentralized research university is also challenging

• Assessment Clearinghouse will be published with all four reporting areas for each department and
  program by December 2017. 
• Teaching, Learning & Assessment Committee and OII will continue to organize and promote teaching, learning and assessment related conferences and learning opportunities for faculty: April 2018 and ongoing.
• OII will continue to maintain and grow the Innovation Showcase. An additional seven stories are
  planned to launch through June 2018.
• The revised Academic Program Review process is fully implemented, but a review is scheduled for
  academic year 2016-17.
• TLA Committee will identify internal opportunities within each academic college to solicit Spotlight
  on Learning ideas from faculty or facilitate faculty discussion regarding teaching, learning and
  assessment. Various times academic year 2017-2018

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