Minutes of the Meeting of the Assessment Committee
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Academic Affairs Conference Room (2147), Founder’s Hall 3:30 p.m.
Present: George Lawson, Jesse Hansen, Sarah von Schrader, Ron Crocker, Mary Kommers,
Absent: Gloria Vavricka, Jeanne Butler, Greg Anderson, Paul Bishop, Karin Covalt, Kim Elliott, Tami Moore, and Scott Unruh
The meeting was called to order by Coordinator of Assessment, Sarah von Schrader, at the above time and place.
Old Business:
- None
New Business:
- Assessment coordinator, von Schrader, handed out the schedule for the NCA focused visit April 28th and 29th. The assessment committee will be meeting with Dr. Susan Rickey Hatfield (Assessment Coordinator, Winona State University), in Founders Hall 2113 from 1:40 to 2:10. The schedule for the visit was reviewed. A draft document titled Student Learning, Assessment, and Accreditation was handed out to the committee. This document is provided to NCA-HLC peer reviewers and includes “Fundamental Questions for conversations on Student Learning”, some thought provoking questions that might help the committee prepare for the focused visit meeting.
- Director Butler has been attending departmental meetings, presenting on the upcoming NCA-HLC focused visit, the implementation of WEAVEonline, and the opportunity for funding for focused assessment. There is only one meeting left, scheduled for next week.
- A copy of the UNK College Portrait was distributed. According to the Voluntary System of Accountability website: “The College Portrait provides consistent, comparable and transparent information on the characteristics of institutions and students, cost of attendance, student engagement with the learning process, and core educational outcomes. The information is intended for students, families, policy-makers, campus faculty and staff, the general public, and other higher education stakeholders”. The VSA website provides links to College Portraits for all participants allowing stakeholders to learn about various institutions and make comparisons using a common format, i.e. comparing apples to apples. If you visit UNK’s Homepage, the College Portrait icon is in the lower middle section of the screen, leading to the UNK College Portrait.
- A copy of UNK Critical Thinking content scores was distributed. The UNK scores were compared to a normative group of students at four-year colleges who completed the CAAP. There were “negligible” or “moderate” differences favoring
UNK students as compared to the normative group (meaning UNK students found the items easier) on Evaluation of Arguments and Extension of Arguments. However, on the Analysis of Arguments, UNK students scored “substantially” lower than students in the normative group. Discussion of the meaning of these score ensued.
There being no further business to come before the Committee, meeting adjourned at 4:05 p.m.