Assessment Committee Meeting of April 8, 2011

Members Present: Verine White, Lakota Studies Department; Dana Jones, Business Department & Committee Chair; ex-officio member Lenora Hudson, Director of Assessment and Institutional Research; Crystal Paulson, Applied Sciences Department; Susanne Auer, Humanities Department; Dr. Bill Young, Education and Foundational Studies Department; and Dr. Andrew Thompson, Graduate Studies Department & Committee Secretary.

Wocekiya was said by Verine White.

Meeting was called to order at 10:30 am, 4/8/2011 by the Chair. The agenda was presented and approved by consensus.

The committee then reviewed the March 11, 2011, committee meeting minutes. Andy moved to accept the minutes with changes included, the motion was seconded by Susanne, and the Chair called for the vote which was unanimous in favor of the motion.

New business

Lenora gave an update of the student course evaluations which were recently completed. She will be processing them and preparing to send them to ETS for scoring by the end of the month. If any classes had less than five (5) responses, they would not be processed, but would be given directly to the chairs. Faculty need to get their surveys from their department chairs for last semester and in the fall for the current semester. The chair asked if there were sufficient time and resources to get the evaluations ready to send to ETS, and Lenora stated that she had until mid-June to complete work.

Lenora then discussed the program review of Lakota Studies. She has received the requested information from Karen Lone Hill, and she will begin the analysis and write-up this spring.

Old business

The Chair then asked for the presentation by Susanne Auer about the NCA/HLC assessment training. Susanne related that the training entitled Making a Difference in Student Learning: Assessment as a Core Strategy, Higher Learning Commission February 16^th —18^th 2011 in Lisle, Illinois, focused on the improvement of student learning. Major points were the use of a culture of inquiry rather than evidentiary assessment, and trends to broaden the issue and its boundaries, i.e., human diversity outcomes in the institution and classroom. Deep assessment was also more valued than surface testing, especially using nationally-normed testing programs. Live versus static assessment, and spiraling conceptualizations of assessment rather than simple one-stop views. The committee then discussed each other’s individual in-class formative assessment and reviews of summative student progress in the semester. Susanne also presented the HLC’s Academy for Assessment of Student Learning program as an alternative for training, although it was quite expensive for a school like OLC.

The Chair then asked Bill and Lenora to address the work teams review that Ursula had worked on. Bill stated that past surveys produced amazing data that could improve practice, but that the surveys, such as community surveys of grads, employer surveys, and student surveys needed to be done regularly. Lenora said that Ursula was completing an alumni survey at this time.

All business being conducted, the meeting was moved to adjourn by the secretary. The meeting was adjourned at 11:30 pm

Approved _____________

Approved with changes ____________

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Chairperson Dana Jones date

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Secretary Andrew Thompson date