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Educators are searching for tools that can help them assess and evaluate their students' achievement of defined learning outcomes in fields as diverse as engineering, business, health professions, math, science and technology (to name a few). These assessments and evaluations are part of a national trend toward transparency and accountability regarding the value added in education. The RosEvaluation Conference 2012 will bring together those who are developing assessment and evaluation tools to share information and their expertise. The conference will emphasize concrete, effective, and efficient solutions to assessment and evaluation challenges!

This Institute gives instructional faculty an intensive experience in teaching and learning to support deep learning in post-secondary students. The institute is developed around core teaching strategies from planning for deep learning experiences, connecting learning objectives to rich assessment and evaluation methods, building in active learning activities into the class, obtaining feedback and formative assessment from students to planning a lesson and incorporating reflective practice into being a professional educator.

"Learning analytics (LA) is the collection and analysis of data associated with student learning. The analysis of this data, coming from a variety of sources like the LMS, the library, and the student information system, helps us observe and understand learning behaviors in order to enable appropriate interventions. The reports that an LA application generates can be helpful for instructors (regarding student activities and progress), for students (regarding their progress), and for administrators (regarding course and degree completion data). LA applications help instructors monitor student progress, students evaluate their own performance, and administrators track course and degree completion. Although still emergent, learning analytics is a rapidly expanding area of research and a practice worthy of exploration."

Faculty, staff, and administrators throughout higher education are employing contemplative practices for many reasons. These include sharpening attention; creating environments that enhance the well-being of all; addressing inclusion and access for all in support of the vibrant diversity of our institutions; deepening engagement and learning of subject matter; reflecting on and supporting meaning-making; considering the wider impacts of our actions; and ultimately supporting the development of a more just and compassionate society. Given the breadth and depth of these many intentions, the types of practices used are extremely diverse, and their assessment needs to be approached with great sensitivity. Assessment of practices designed to develop attention, for example, will be different from assessment of those practices designed to increase conceptual understanding or develop compassion and creativity.

"Emergent Dialogues in Assessment"   In the last decade, the higher education sector has been confronted with increasing skepticism about its effectiveness and quality from government agencies and employers, as well as from prospective students and their families. In the face of such criticism, higher education's response has been very weak, as illustrated by the inclusion of assertions that these skeptics should trust us; the production of weak and misleading reports on institutional quality; and accreditation-based assertions of quality based on criteria that miss the point of the skeptics' criticism. While we assert quality in many ways, we rarely do it in a way that answers the central, critical question these skeptics want answered: will graduates be able to function and succeed in the world after graduation?  Colleges and universities can no longer avoid answering that question, nor can they try to answer it with surrogate measures.   The demand answers that are both rigorous and practical is being exacerbated by fundamental changes in student demographics and the way higher education institutions "do business."  Growing adult/returning student populations, more diverse student bodies with more diverse needs, and an increasingly challenging economic environment  will force higher education to be more flexible and accountable, but with fewer resources. In this environment assessment practitioners can play a major role in evaluating and developing response strategies like translating learning into credit (e.g. prior learning assessment), "direct assessment programs" ( e.g. competency-based education), and emergent learning environments (e.g. adaptive learning).  

If you are a graduate student, instructor, or university staff member interested in SoTL research, this program is designed for you to: Evaluate SoTL research articles Complete a facilitated SoTL research project Engage in reflective practice Present research findings at a teaching and learning conference The program begins May 10, 2016 and includes in-class and online course delivery. All applications are due April 1, 2016. Apply today!