Response to the Fall 2016 Report

After reading your project report I find myself thinking of that old advertisement slogan, Maharishi International University assessment team, “you’ve come a long way baby!”  The team has learned much about student learning assessment and it shows in this report.  Through all your reading, attending professional development activities like the Alverno workshops, following other team’s projects, etc. you are becoming faculty experts and guides. You accomplished many of the goals you set and learned why others were not possible. Actions you took that were essential for this past year; 1. Delineating the  foundation for an assessment system of  three levels of assessment (course learning objectives, program learning outcomes, essential learning outcomes) and 2. focusing the campus community (particularly the faculty and academic administrators) on student learning assessment.

Reviewed by Jan Smith (HLC Scholar):

I concur with Peggy’s observations and also note that your willingness to adjust your timeline is a significant strength. I commend you for taking the necessary time to lay a very solid foundation as this will serve you well as you move to the next steps of your project.

A couple of important issues are unclear for me.

1. Has the team begun to discuss how the decisions of the assessment project move from “ad hoc” to official?  How will the “Maharishi methods of assessment”, the Essential Learning Outcomes, a description of the roles of faculty and department chairs in assessment, etc. become approved to be official academic policy? Faculty senate? Deans? President? This also relates to one of the challenges you list in the report of getting departments to accept responsibility for measurable learning outcomes (and now in year two, assessment plans!).  Essentially the expected roles of department chairs and faculty must be clear in official policy or they will indeed choose do only the pressing day to day problems of teaching classes. Ultimately this question of policy leads to the broader goal of assessment becoming part of how the institution does business. At universities this is usually by approved policies and handbooks. I have attached a link to a sample assessment policy.

2. You list developing a three year assessment plan as one of your goals but I do not recall if the team actually fleshed out all the steps for an ongoing, complete assessment process (or cycle) at Maharishi? Starting an assessment system from scratch is sort of a juggling act, keeping your eyes on your day to day target such as getting those student learning outcomes for the institution and program in writing and in measurable terms while at the same time considering each target step in the context of the cycle: measuring student learning (obtaining assessment data about the student), reporting on student learning (analyzing data that can be used to determine if student learning is as expected) and making changes to improve learning, and then starting over again! If you do not have the complete cycle planned with a clear elaboration of the complete assessment cycle with dates when each step will be started a published cycle should be part of your next six months.

Reviewed by Jan Smith (HLC Scholar):

First of all, thank you for a detailed update. Very helpful. In addition to Peggy’s questions, I am curious about how you will select your initial two outcomes for review. What is your basis for considering Development of Consciousness and Communication? Will these build on existing initiatives? Low hanging fruit? Areas where people are most passionate and therefore increase likelihood of engagement? Start with whatever will set you up for success. I also didn’t get a good sense of how you are including students in your assessment planning and activities.

I’m wondering about several process issues given your institutional culture and the previous difficulties with assessment. Communication processes:  Have you developed methods for regular communication to the academic community about the progress of the assessment project and/or sharing what each department is doing and will be doing? Just telling faculty and staff once will not be enough!! Think about various avenues of written communication (more than e-mails!) as well updates at faculty meetings.  Where can faculty and staff find assessment documents or get their questions answered? In times of change the organization has to increase communication. Assessment is definitely a change in practice so you need to keep reinforcing via communication strategies.

Coordination of Efforts: I like your plan to include faculty from each department in the work of developing assessment plans and assessment tools/assignments for the ELO’s development of consciousness and communication. This should build commitment of more faculty. But, separate groups working could become confusing. How is the assessment team coordinating the faculty teams you build so that they don’t pull in different directions or plan something that everyone knows is impractical? Who will lead each work group and be accountable for progress? Will they report regularly to the assessment team? I worry about splintering, drifting and loss of focus in year two. As you noted you will need to “start strong and stay focused”!!

Reviewed by Jan Smith (HLC Scholar):

Again, Peggy makes some good points. I especially encourage you to consider Peggy’s comments about how you will ensure coordination and alignment of assessment activities. In addition, don’t be afraid to further refine your timeline if needed. Once more, you have ambitious goals for the next six months. It seems like you have developed strategies to keep your goals manageable. However, as you consider ways to coordinate activities, think about how you can include monitoring of timeline as a component of your coordination.

Finally, as you think about processes Peggy has noted, keep in mind how these processes may eventually be broadened to include co-curricular areas. As noted in the previous update, you are wise to keep your project focused, but as you build any processes make sure they will continue to work when you eventually bring in co-curricular aspects.

I am not familiar with the AAC&U Campus Action Network you mention in the report.  The AAC&U annual spring meeting on General Education and Assessment (Feb 23-25 in 2017) is good for learning about different strategies, etc.

Reviewed by Jan Smith (HLC Scholar):

It sounds like you already have plenty of resources at this point in your project. Time is likely to be one of the biggest resources you will need!