Skip to main content

Home/ CTLT and Friends/ Group items tagged assessment

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Nils Peterson

Foreign Policy: The Next Big Thing: Personalized Education - 0 views

www.foreignpolicy.com/...cms.php

shared by Nils Peterson on 20 Apr 09 - Cached
  • According to the analysis of business expert Clayton Christensen, personalized education is likely to begin outside formal school through a combination of entrepreneurial vendors on the one hand and ambitious students and parents on the other. Once far more efficient and effective education has been modeled in homes and clubs, those schools, communities, and/or societies that have the ambition, the means, and the willingness to take risks will follow suit.
  • Many more individuals will be well-educated because they will have learned in ways that suit them best. Even more importantly, these individuals will want to keep learning as they grow older because they have tasted success and are motivated to continue.
  • According to the analysis of business expert Clayton Christensen, personalized education is likely to begin outside formal school through a combination of entrepreneurial vendors on the one hand and ambitious students and parents on the other.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 21 Apr 09
       
      That does seem right -- the system is unable to adapt and innovate and Christensen's Innovator's Dilemma seems to apply. But the previous paragraph, 'well programmed computers' seems to miss the collaborative, interpersonal, Web 2.0 potential for 1-1 tutoring.
  • S Spaeth on 20 Apr 09
     
    most of history, only the wealthy have been able to afford an education geared to the individual learner. For the rest of us, education has remained a mass affair, with standard curricula, pedagogy, and assessments. The financial crisis will likely change this state of affairs. With the global quest for long-term competitiveness assuming new urgency, education is on everyone's front burner. Societies are looking for ways to make quantum leaps in the speed and efficiency of learning. So long as we insist on teaching all students the same subjects in the same way, progress will be incremental. But now for the first time it is possible to individualize education-to teach each person what he or she needs and wants to know in ways that are most comfortable and most efficient, producing a qualitative spurt in educational effectiveness. In fact, we already have the technology to do so. Well-programmed computers-whether in the form of personal computers or hand-held devices-are becoming the vehicles of choice. They will offer many ways to master materials. Students (or their teachers, parents, or coaches) will choose the optimal ways of presenting the materials. Appropriate tools for assessment will be implemented.
Corinna Lo

The End in Mind » An Open (Institutional) Learning Network - 0 views

www.jonmott.com/blog

wsuctlt ALT

shared by Corinna Lo on 15 Apr 09 - Cached
  • Corinna Lo on 15 Apr 09
     
    Jon said "I wrote a post last year exploring the spider-starfish tension between Personal Learning Environments and institutionally run CMSs. This is a fundamental challenge that institutions of higher learning need to resolve. On the one hand, we should promote open, flexible, learner-centric activities and tools that support them. On the other hand, legal, ethical and business constraints prevent us from opening up student information systems, online assessment tools, and online gradebooks. These tools have to be secure and, at least from a data management and integration perspective, proprietary. So what would an open learning network look like if facilitated and orchestrated by an institution? Is it possible to create a hybrid spider-starfish learning environment for faculty and students?"
Nils Peterson

Views: The Limitations of Portfolios - Inside Higher Ed - 1 views

www.insidehighered.com/...shavelson

shared by Nils Peterson on 20 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Gathering valid data about student performance levels and performance improvement requires making comparisons relative to fixed benchmarks and that can only be done when the assessments are standardized. Consequently, we urge the higher education community to embrace authentic, standardized performance-assessment approaches so as to gather valid data that can be used to improve teaching and learning as well as meet its obligations to external audiences to account for its actions and outcomes regarding student learning.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 20 Oct 09
       
      Diigoed because this is the counter-argument to our work.
Nils Peterson

An Expert Surveys the Assessment Landscape - Student Affairs - The Chronicle of Higher ... - 2 views

chronicle.com/...48945

AI-TopNews AI-Accreditation

shared by Nils Peterson on 28 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Colleges and universities have plenty of tools, but they must learn to use them more effectively. That is how George D. Kuh describes the state of assessing what college students learn.
Joshua Yeidel

The City Where Diploma Dreams Go to Die - Commentary - The Chronicle of Higher Education - 0 views

chronicle.com/...48972

higher_education

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 02 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 02 Nov 09
     
    Another single-measure assessment with political implications. The comments unpack some of the complexities behind "graduation rates".
Gary Brown

News: Assessing the Assessments - Inside Higher Ed - 0 views

www.insidehighered.com/...vsa

shared by Gary Brown on 05 Nov 09 - Cached
  • In other words, a college that ranked in the 95th percentile for critical thinking using one of the tests would rank in roughly the same place using the critical thinking component of one of the other two tests, and vice versa.
    • Gary Brown
      Gary Brown on 05 Nov 09
       
      A stellar example of critical thinking, this sentence.
  • diversity in measurement" to satisfy faculty
Nils Peterson

Office of the President: Perspectives Home - 1 views

president.wsu.edu/perspectives

shared by Nils Peterson on 22 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Clearly, a world-class research university cannot long stand on such a shaky IT foundation. In fact, in the  generally glowing accreditation report filed by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities about our university this summer, one recommendation read: “The Committee recommends that Washington State University provide contemporary information management systems that will address the needs of the future for its student, academic and management support requirements.”
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 22 Nov 09
       
      Perhaps the President recalls the Spring preliminary accreditation report more clearly than the final report sent to him in the summer and linked at accreditation.wsu.edu which does not have the "glowing" comments but does say "...the Commission finds that Recommendations 1,2, and 3 of the Spring 2009 Comprehensive Evaluation Report are areas where Washington State University is substantially in compliance with Commission criteria for accreditation, but in need of improvement. The two additional Recommendations follow below. Recommendation 2 states that the implementation of the educational assessment plan remains inconsistent across the University despite promising starts and a number of exemplary successes in selected programs. The Commission therefore recommends that the Universìty continue to enhance and strengthen its assessment process. This process needs to be extended to all of the University's educational programs, including graduate programs, and programs offered at the branch campuses (Standard 2.8).
Kimberly Green

http://sites.google.com/site/podnetwork/ - 0 views

sites.google.com/podnetwork

faculty development assessment learning

shared by Kimberly Green on 11 Jun 10 - Cached
  • Kimberly Green on 11 Jun 10
     
    POD's wiki for sharing and discussion
Gary Brown

A New Digital Repository for Sociology Instructors - Wired Campus - The Chronicle of Hi... - 1 views

chronicle.com/...24313

SoTL

shared by Gary Brown on 27 May 10 - Cached
  • the leaders of the American Sociological Association—believe that it also helps if instructors bring to their lecture halls a well-designed syllabus and a decent idea of how to engage students with the material.
  • Materials will be assessed by peer-review committees for their fidelity to a set of principles of high-quality teaching that have been identified by the association.
  • Our goal for the peer-review process is not only to sort out which materials belong in the repository, but also to promote a conversation within the discipline about effective teaching and learning
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • include them in their tenure-and promotion portfolios.
  • As Ernest Boyer said, faculty reward systems will need to be revised in order for faculty members to truly be rewarded on the basis of their scholarship of teaching."
  • Gary Brown on 27 May 10
     
    Here's a repository in the making, and argument we have been making.
Gary Brown

For Accreditation, a Narrow Window of Opportunity - Commentary - The Chronicle of Highe... - 4 views

chronicle.com/...65980

accreditation

shared by Gary Brown on 24 Jun 10 - Cached
  • After two years as president of the American Council on Education, I feel compelled to send a wake-up call to campus executives: If federal policy makers are now willing to bail out the nation's leading banks and buy equity stakes in auto makers because those companies are "too big to fail," they will probably have few reservations about regulating an education system that they now understand is "too important to fail."
  • Regardless of party, policy makers are clearly aware of the importance of education and are demanding improved performance and more information, from preschool to graduate school. In this environment, we should expect college accreditation to come under significant scrutiny.
  • It has also clearly signaled its interest in using data to measure institutional performance and student outcomes, and it has invested in state efforts to create student-data systems from pre-kindergarten through graduate school.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • Higher education has so far navigated its way through the environment of increased regulatory interest without substantial changes to our system of quality assurance or federally mandated outcomes assessment. But that has only bought us time. As we look ahead, we must keep three facts in mind: Interest in accountability is bipartisan, and the pendulum has swung toward more regulation in virtually all sectors. The economic crisis is likely to spur increased calls from policy makers to control college prices and demonstrate that students are getting value for the dollar. The size of the federal budget deficit will force everyone who receives federal support to produce more and better evidence that an investment of federal funds will pay dividends for individuals and society.
  • If we do not seize the opportunity to strengthen voluntary peer accreditation as a rigorous test of institutional quality, grounded in appropriate measures of student learning, we place at risk a precious bulwark against excessive government intervention, a bulwark that has allowed American higher education to flourish. When it comes to safeguarding the quality, diversity, and independence of American higher education, accreditors hold the keys to the kingdom.
  • all accreditors now require colleges and universities to put more emphasis on measuring student-learning outcomes. They should be equally vigilant about ensuring that those data are used to achieve improvements in outcomes
  • share plain-language results of accreditation reviews with the public.
  • It takes very little close reading to see through the self-serving statements here: namely that higher education institutions must do a better PR job pretending they are interested in meaningful reform so as to head off any real reform that migh come from the federal authorities.
  • THEREFORE, let me voice a wakeup call for those who are really interested in reform--not that there are many.1.There will never be any meaningful reform unless we have a centralized and nationalized higher educational system. Leaving higher education in the hands of individual institutions is no longer effective and is in fact what has led to the present state we find ourselves in. Year after countless year we have been promised changes in higher education and year after year nothing changes. IF CHANGE IS TO COME IT MUST BE FORCED ONTO HIGHER EDUCATION FROM THE OUTSIDE.
  • Higher education in America can no longer afford to be organized around the useless market capitalism that forces too many financially marginalized institutions to compete for less and less.
  • Keeping Quiet by Pablo NerudaIf we were not so singled-mindedabout keeping our lives moving,and for once could do nothing,perhaps a huge silencemight interrupt this sadnessof never understanding ourselvesand of threatening ourselves with death.
  • Gary Brown on 24 Jun 10
     
    It is heating up again
Nils Peterson

Education Department Proposes To End Federal Funding To For-Profit Colleges Whose Stude... - 2 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...nding-jobs-loans_n_657821.html

assessment stakeholder financial aid higher_education accountability

shared by Nils Peterson on 24 Jul 10 - Cached
  • The Education Department proposed much-anticipated regulations Friday that would cut off federal aid to for-profit college programs if too many of their students default on loans or don't earn enough after graduation to repay them.
  • To qualify for federal student aid programs, career college programs must prepare students for "gainful employment."
  • But shares were mixed among companies such as ITT Educational Services Inc., Corinthian Colleges Inc., Education Management Corp. and Career Education Corp. Those companies operate career colleges focusing more on two-year programs or lower-income students and may need to make big changes
Nils Peterson

Does having a computer at home improve results at school? | A World Bank Blog on ICT us... - 0 views

blogs.worldbank.org/...home-access

shared by Nils Peterson on 21 Jul 10 - Cached
  • Does differential access to computer technology at home compound the educational disparities between and rich and poor? and Would a program of government provision of computers to early secondary school students reduce these disparities? In this case, Vigdor and Ladd found that the introduction of home computer technology is associated with modest but statistically significant and persistent negative impacts on student math and reading test scores. Further evidence suggests that providing universal access to home computers and high-speed internet access would broaden, rather than narrow, math and reading achievement gaps.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 21 Jul 10
       
      so there is some contextualization of computers in the home that is also needed... as I find when my daughter wants to spend computer time dressing up Barbie.
  • A 2010 report from the OECD (Are New Millennium Learners Making the Grade? [pdf]) considers a number of studies, combined with new analysis it has done based on internationally comparable student achievement data (PISA), and finds that indeed that gains in educational performance are correlated with the frequency of computer use at home.
  • One way to try to make sense of all of these studies together is to consider that ICTs may function as a sort of 'amplifier' of existing learning environments in homes.  Where such environments are conducive to student learning (as a result, for example, of strong parental direction and support), ICT use can help; where home learning environments are not already strong (especially, for example, where children are left unsupervised to their own devices -- pun intended), we should not be surprised if the introduction of ICTs has a negative effect on learning.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • On a broader note, and in response to his reading of the Vigdor/Ladd paper, Warschauer states on his insightful blog that the "aim of our educational efforts should not be mere access, but rather development of a social environment where access to technology is coupled with the most effective curriculum, pedagogy, instruction, and assessment."
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 21 Jul 10
       
      specific things need to be done to 'mobilize' the learning latent in the computing environment.
Joshua Yeidel

Outcomes and Distributions in Program Evaluation - 2 views

www.usablellc.net/ibutions-in-prorgam-evaluation

assessment outcomes

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 19 Aug 10 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 19 Aug 10
     
    "The key here is to understand that looking only at the total outcome of a program limits your ability to use evaluation data for program improvement."
  • Joshua Yeidel on 19 Aug 10
     
    Eric Graig discusses the need to slice and dice the data.
Joshua Yeidel

E. Jane Davidson on Evaluative Rubrics | AEA365 - 1 views

aea365.org/blog

higher_education assessment rubric

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 26 Aug 10 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 26 Aug 10
     
    Some context for rubrics like ours
Gary Brown

The Profession: More Pressure on Faculty Members, From Every Direction - Almanac of Hig... - 2 views

chronicle.com/...123918

change

shared by Gary Brown on 25 Aug 10 - Cached
  • Changes in the American professoriate’s employment patterns and types, demographics, and work life are the greatest we have seen in over half a century.
  • But averages obscure the widening salary ranges on campuses, particularly between presidents and faculty members
  • The drive toward institutional prestige that most professors consider a high priority at their four-year institutions has intensified the focus on research there.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Some faculty members, permanent and contingent, are expected to cover their full salaries with grants. With the tenure bottleneck narrowing, junior faculty members are often advised to focus on research, do a reasonable job of teaching, and avoid service.
  • Faculty members report spending more than half of their time on teaching and classroom-related activities. Professors are increasingly expected to use new technologies in both distance education and on-campus courses, and to be more systematic about assessing student learning at both course and program levels.
  • The scholarship of teaching and learning, in which faculty members examine the effects of their teaching strategies, is spreading; the advent of conferences and publications marks its increasing acceptance as serious scholarship.
  • The “corporatization” of institutional administrations in the face of fiscal distress and severe budget cuts imperils faculty governance, which falls increasingly to the shrinking number of permanent tenured faculty members.
  • Gary Brown on 25 Aug 10
     
    New realities rendered starkly.
  • Joshua Yeidel on 26 Aug 10
     
    Note: A "premium content" article -- you must be a paid subscriber to see it, not just a registered site user.
Gary Brown

Colleges May Be Missing a Chance for Change - International - The Chronicle of Higher E... - 1 views

chronicle.com/...124417

employers accountability future of education

shared by Gary Brown on 14 Sep 10 - No Cached
    • Gary Brown
      Gary Brown on 14 Sep 10
       
      And what are people for, after all?
  • Peter P. Smith, senior vice president for academic strategies and development at Kaplan Higher Education, said that if traditional universities did not adjust, new institutions would evolve to meet student needs. Those new institutions, said Mr. Smith, whose company is a for-profit education provider, would be more student-centric, would deliver instruction with greater flexibility, and would offer educational services at a lower cost.
  • both education and research must become more relevant and responsive to society.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • The gathering drew about 500 government officials, institutional leaders, and researchers
  • Speakers at an international conference here delivered a scathing assessment of higher education: Universities, they said, are slow to change, uncomfortable in dealing with real-world problems, and culturally resistant to substantive internationalization.
  • many faculty members may be "uncomfortable" with having deeper links to industry because they don't understand that world. Students, however, are highly practical, Mr. Fadel said, and are specifically seeking education that will get them a job or give them an advantage in the workplace.
  • "I'm sorry, as a student, you do not go to university to learn. You go to get a credential," he said.
    • Gary Brown
      Gary Brown on 14 Sep 10
       
      And if you graduate more appreciative of the credential than what and how you have learned, then the education.
  • That does not mean colleges simply ought to turn out more graduates for in-demand professions like science and engineering, Mr. Fadel added. Colleges need to infuse other disciplines with science and engineering skills.
Nils Peterson

Redesigning Scientific Reputation - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences - 0 views

www.the-scientist.com/...1

shared by Nils Peterson on 17 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Thus, one’s reputation is not measured by credentials, but by one’s contribution both to expanding knowledge and to the community.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 17 Sep 10
       
      The systems the cite suggest that they understand open assessment, though they don't specifically say that in this piece. One of these authors (Adler) will be at the PaloAlto meeting Monday.
Joshua Yeidel

Susan Kistler on Tips for First Time Conference Attendees | AEA365 - 2 views

aea365.org/blog

assessment

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 27 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 27 Sep 10
     
    "These are great ideas shared by AEA Conference veterans for making the most of the AEA conference:"
  • Joshua Yeidel on 27 Sep 10
     
    ... or any conference.
Joshua Yeidel

Internal Evaluation Week: Debbie Cohen on Working with External Evaluators | AEA365 - 3 views

aea365.org/blog

assessment

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 18 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 18 Sep 10
     
    "Here are tips related to internal and external evaluators working together."
  • Joshua Yeidel on 18 Sep 10
     
    Reading "point" for "internal evaluator" and "OAI contact" for "external evaluator"? Four "Hot Tips" that may seem obvious, but shouldn't be glossed over.
Gary Brown

A Critic Sees Deep Problems in the Doctoral Rankings - Faculty - The Chronicle of Highe... - 1 views

chronicle.com/...124725

ranking colleges

shared by Gary Brown on 01 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • This week he posted a public critique of the NRC study on his university's Web site.
  • "Little credence should be given" to the NRC's ranges of rankings.
  • There's not very much real information about quality in the simple measures they've got."
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • The NRC project's directors say that those small samples are not a problem, because the reputational scores were not converted directly into program assessments. Instead, the scores were used to develop a profile of the kinds of traits that faculty members value in doctoral programs in their field.
  • For one thing, Mr. Stigler says, the relationships between programs' reputations and the various program traits are probably not simple and linear.
  • if these correlations between reputation and citations were plotted on a graph, the most accurate representation would be a curved line, not a straight line. (The curve would occur at the tipping point where high citation levels make reputations go sky-high.)
  • Mr. Stigler says that it was a mistake for the NRC to so thoroughly abandon the reputational measures it used in its previous doctoral studies, in 1982 and 1995. Reputational surveys are widely criticized, he says, but they do provide a check on certain kinds of qualitative measures.
  • Gary Brown on 01 Oct 10
     
    What is not challenged is the validity and utility of the construct itself--reputation rankings.
« First ‹ Previous 121 - 140 of 223 Next › Last »
Showing 20▼ items per page