I love a good idea. They often lead to great adventures, interesting people, or wonderful discoveries. Sometimes a good idea just causes me to reexamine my own perceptions – which can also lead to an interesting discovery. Institutions could sometimes benefit similarly from a good idea.
Two sessions offered at the Regional Assessment Conference focus on ideas – or, in both of these cases, IDEA – Individual Development and Educational Assessment, which is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve learning in higher education through research, assessment and professional development. One service of IDEA is a Student Ratings of Instruction System that is designed to provide useful formative feedback.
Both Park University’s Dean of the Business School, Dr. Brad Kleindl, and Independence Community College’s Director of Institutional Research, Debbie Phelps, will share how their institutions have integrated IDEA into their culture of assessment.
The session by Park University features the use of programmatic competencies within a Total Quality Management model for programmatic improvement and how the IDEA system complements those efforts. The session offered by Independence Community College discusses the impact of this recently adopted assessment tool on accreditation processes and the use of the results as a tool for making positive changes to the student learning environment.
Come join your colleagues and see if these are good ideas for your institution!
Sheri H. Barrett, Ed.D.