Minutes of the Meeting of the Assessment Committee
Thursday, January 17, 2008 – 3:30 p.m.
Warner Conference Room, (1000) Founder’s Hall
Present: Jeanne Butler, Greg Anderson, Paul Bishop, Karin Covalt, Ron Crocker, Kim Elliott, Jessy Hansen, Mary Kommers, George Lawson, Sarah von Schrader and Gloria Vavricka
Absent: Tami Moore, and Scott Unruh
The meeting was called to order by Director of Assessment, Jeanne Butler, at the above time and place.
Old Business:
- WEAVEonline Update
An update on using WEAVEonline was given by Butler and von Schrader. Sarah has entered all the organizational information to provide links and identify levels of access. Their finding is that WEAVEonline is very user friendly. The foundation for departments has been laid, and a meeting with WEAVEonline for additional training is set for Tuesday, January 22. Production is the next step, where we will start entering assessment reports. Hopefully this will be done before the focused visit. Training sessions for departmental assessment people on inputting data to WEAVE will start in September 2008. Departments have been doing General Studies reports, WI assessment reports and departmental assessment reports. Once data is populated in WEAVEonline, separate reports for each of these will not be required.
New Business:
- CAAP Update
Assessment Coordinator von Schrader distributed a handout to the Committee and gave update of the CAAP test results in which 400 UNK freshmen and 400 seniors participated last fall. Limitations on the data included the use of the same undergraduate normative group for both freshmen and seniors. Because the same students were not tested as freshmen and seniors, we cannot make value-added statements from data acquired. von Schrader mentioned other data may be acquired from the test scores, but UNK would be required to pay additionally for that data. Students at UNK scored near the 50% level or below with seniors scoring higher than freshman on the writing and critical thinking tests. One interesting result was the percentage of UNK freshman and seniors that ranked in the lowest quartile nationally. Discussion ensued on possible changes to our random sampling of students and how to administer the tests in the future.
- Status of self study
All nine sections are completed. They are going through an editorial process now, and the first draft will be ready by Feb. 1st. Senior VC Murray suggested drafts go to him, deans, Faculty Senate Executive Committee and the Assessment Committee for review and editing suggestions. Other groups may be added, if additional input is required.
- NCA Focused visit on Monday and Tuesday, April 28 and 29
Of the three members of the NCA team, two will probably review assessment, while the third member will concentrate more on eCampus course accreditation. We must send documents to NCA by February 29 for them to have by March 3rd. We plan to have all documents online at that time. Then Butler or von Schrader plan to go to departmental meetings to talk with faculty before the focused visit, to answer questions, and to explain the details of WEAVEonline and how it will expedite the assessment reporting process.
Butler provided members with a list of committees that probably will be asked to meet with the NCA Committee. She asked for suggestions for additions, but the ultimate decision rests with NCA.
Vavricka explained that during the 2004 accreditation visit, NCA accredited the online programs in place at that time. However, they decided to review the new programs to determine whether they will give blanket approval at this focused visit. The major concerns in 2004 included staffing, funding, and support services, all of which have been addressed. She has completed the Distance Education/E-campus self study and Butler has edited it.
The NCA team will determine whether a resource room is needed for hard copy of all documents. All documentation and back-up information will be available online, so a resource room may not be needed.
- Assignment for Committee
Once we have the hard copy finished and on-line, we will ask all assessment committee members to take a chapter and check all links to be sure they work and that our site is user friendly. Also they will review the content of their chapters and provide feedback if needed.
There being no further business to come before the Committee, meeting adjourned at 4:27 p.m. The next meeting of the Committee will be Thursday, February 14.
Assessment/MIN Jan1808/kc