ESU hosts forum to develop assessment methods
Emporia State University
Originally published 02:38 p.m., January 24, 2008
Updated 02:38 p.m., January 24, 2008
An effective system for measuring student learning in higher education—without putting excessive burdens on teachers—is the goal for upcoming workshops at Emporia State University.
ESU’s Assessment and Teaching Enhancement Center is sponsoring the 2008 Assessment Forum on Monday and Tuesday.
“Emporia State is in the beginning stages of revising its assessment systems,” said Anthony Ambrosio, ATEC director. “Increasingly, higher education is looking toward assessment as a means to measure not only the success of academic programs, but also to guide future decision-making in terms of academic and student success for lifelong learning. In doing so, however, we must develop techniques and strategies that are effective, non-burdensome, and provide information that faculty deem important to them and for their students,” Ambrosio said.
ATEC and the Teaching, Learning and Assessment Committee at ESU are conducting the workshops to explore those issues and develop a unique assessment process. Assisting the workshop attendees will be Barbara E. Walvoord, a fellow emerita of the Institute for Educational Initiatives and professor emerita of English at the University of Notre Dame.
Walvoord has consulted or led workshops at more than 300 institutions of higher education throughout the U.S. on the topics of assessment, teaching and learning, and writing across the curriculum.
Workshops, planning sessions and meetings associated with the Assessment Forum will take place in the Memorial Union’s Kanza, PDK and Flint Hills rooms. Posters showcasing faculty, staff and students and their ideas on assessment and evaluation will be on display in the Memorial Union’s Colonial Ballroom on Tuesday.
“The poster session is a way to increase communication across the university about the tools and techniques being used to gauge student progress,” noted Ambrosio.
For more information on the 2008 Assessment Forum, call ATEC at 341-5103.