Feeling Good About Assessment

I am a big fan of big-band jazz and I love the song “Feeling Good” – the lyrics include the phrase “It’s a new dawn, it’s new day, it’s a new life for me.  And I’m feeling good!”    Well it’s a new year, 2015, a new semester, a new conference, and I’m feeling good about the line-up that we have set-up for the 5th Regional Assessment Conference hosted this year by Johnson County Community College on April 20, 2015. Let’s start with this year’s keynote.  Dr. Tom Angelo’s keynote for the conference is “Seven Levers for Higher and Deeper Learning: Research-Based Guidelines and Strategies for Improving Teaching, Assessment and Learning.”   Just the opportunity to hear more from Dr. Angelo breathes new life into my teaching and assessment strategies.  I had the opportunity this past summer to attend one of his workshops and was impressed to find a great blend of theoretical and practical advice that I immediately put to use. Continue reading Feeling Good About Assessment

Professional Development – A Plethora of Opportunities

  Definition of Professional Development – “the process of obtaining the skills, qualifications, and experience that allow you to make progress in your career.” (Macmillan Dictionary, 2014) Looking ahead over the next several months at JCCC, I find the opportunities for faculty development in the assessment of student learning remarkable in both breadth and depth. Leading off the new academic semester in January, the Office of Outcomes Assessment (OOA) will host a workshop that was piloted last summer. Assessment by Design – Comprehensive Overview, is a day-long, hands-on workshop which provides participants with an interactive and theoretical framework for addressing the assessment needs of their courses or programs. Come to this workshop as an individual faculty member working on assessing student learning in your courses, or bring your colleagues to address assessment initiatives for your program. During Professional Development Days, find your development opportunity in sessions such as: “Hits and Misses” in Launching Assessment Strategies, a faculty panel discussion Taming Continue reading Professional Development – A Plethora of Opportunities

OOA Over the Summer…

Over the summer – We were still busy in the Office of Outcomes Assessment… The OOA hosted a faculty workshop with Dr. Tom Angelo, on “CATs and COLTs: Classroom Learning Techniques and Collaborative Learning Techniques.” Dr. Angelo has consulted on teaching, assessment and learning improvement in 17 countries and throughout the United States for more than 60 higher education associations/systems and more than 250 postsecondary institutions. Internationally, Tom has been awarded fellowships from the Fulbright Program (Italy), the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Portugal), the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (Australia) and the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia. He has authored or co-authored five books and more than thirty-five articles and chapters. His best-known publication is Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers, 2nd Edition, with more than 100,000 copies in print. The truly great news is he is coming back to JCCC in the Spring as the keynote speaker for the 5th Annual Continue reading OOA Over the Summer…