Minutes
Meeting of the Assessment Committee
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Academic Affairs Conference Room (2147), Founder’s Hall 3:30 p.m.
Present: Albrecht, Anderson, Bishop, Blauwkamp, Elliott, Hodge, Lawson, Samuel, Unruh, Vavricka, von Schrader
Absent: Butler, Crocker, Kommers, Moore
The meeting was called to order by Sarah von Schrader, Coordinator of Assessment.
- von Schrader reported that as of this meeting, a little more than 70% of the 2005-2006 assessment reports have been submitted. Butler has sent an email to notify the department and program chairs of the review process and to let them know that von Schrader will be contacting them to provide feedback.
- Samuel presented on the status of assessment in Student Services. He has been reviewing annual reports from the programs and has offered feedback to each office. He is encouraging program directors to consider why assessment is important and to revise their procedures and reports to include a review of goals as well as measures taken to meet those goals. He spoke briefly about the annual report from the Office of Multicultural Affairs.
- von Schrader distributed a packet with information about the On-line Assessment Tracking System (OATS), a free program distributed by the Georgia Institute of Technology. This tracking system is a database that would produce assessment reports in a standardized format after departments enter their objectives, methods, results, and actions. Butler has been researching this and other models, with the possibility of implementing an online submission process at UNK.
After von Schrader described the system, the committee discussed the benefits and drawbacks of the system. Benefits include the ability to track results by objective over a period of years, easy access through the internet, no cost, a feature that allows feedback via email through a chain of command. Drawbacks include requiring departments to fit data into a standardized format and the large investment of ITS resources that would be required.
Several committee members raised questions, including who the audience is for these reports and whether that audience would require a standardized format, as well as how best to balance the needs of the department and the requirements of NCA.
- Meeting adjourned at 4:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Kim Elliott, Scribe