November 15, 2006

8:00 a.m.
Livingston Lord Library 120D

Present: Jean Sando, chair; Tim Decker, Ellen Brisch, Ellen Hill, Rajiv Kalra, Mike McCord, Margaret Sankey, Stacy Voeller

Absent: Brian Smith

Minutes: Hill moved. Kalra seconded to approve the minutes of November 1, 2006. The motion was approved unanimously.

Announcements: Sando reported:

• An update on Dragon Core assessment was provided at the November 2, 2006, IFO Meet & Confer session.
• The Faculty Association Executive Council wants to meet with the Dragon Core Assessment Committee. Cindy Phillips, FA President, will sett up the meeting.
• The March 2007 Higher Learning Commission (HLC) conference, held in Chicago, will focus on assessment. DCAC members that did not attend the summer AAC&U or who are not attending the conference in New Orleans should try to attend. Sando will forward information on the conference and members are to let her know if you wish to attend.

Critical and Multicultural Thinking Update: Student workers from Academic Affairs are photocopying artifacts and the originals are returned within 24 hours. A concern was expressed by a faculty member that the nature of papers is very personal and did not want identifying information on the papers. Information Technology has suggested using a scrambled code to help insure anonymity. With all identifying information removed the data can not be aggregated by gender, urban vs. rural, etc. which is problematic The California Critical Skills Test information has been disseminated and closes the end of finals week.

CMST 100: Two challenges have arisen with video taping. The first is availability of camera equipment and the second is hiring students to do the taping. Sando requested assistance in locating additional equipment and student help. There are over 700 students enrolled in CMST 100 this semester, but only approximately 400 are New Entering Freshmen (NEF).

English Assessment: McCord reported the English department has decided to wait and will not be submitting artifacts this semester. Sando noted that one semester of artifacts will need to be collected for review this summer since an IPESL grant was requested.  McCord stated that the English department is looking at a way to determine placement in developmental and advance sections of ENGL 101. Currently there is a significant block of students in ENGL 101 that should be in one of the other course options. Sando volunteered to work with the department on the problem. She added that artifacts need to be reviewed so data is available for the first Dragon Days in April to assist in placement.

Math Assessment: The plan is to use a common set of questions on the final and to collect projects from those faculty that are using them. Sando agreed to contact Kristine Montis to remind her to have faculty submit artifacts. Hill expressed concern that many faculty begin grading immediately after the final is given and questioned how grading comments on the exam will be redacted. It was suggested that a marker be used that will not photocopy. Sando agreed to investigate use of colored markers.

IRB Update: Sando announced that she is working with Lou DeMaio, IRB chairperson, on IRB requirements. Typically IRB approval is not required for internal assessment, but since we want to publish the findings expedited approval was requested for the IPESL proposal projects. It will be necessary to extract PSEO data as anyone under 18 can not be included, therefore it should be announced during testing so these students can option out. It was suggested if an individual faculty members wishes to publish any of the data they contact DeMaio. It was further noted that as long as the data is used for institutional purposes it does not violate FERPA regulations.

IPESL Update: Voeller announced that Jean Hollaar, University Budget Officer, is costing out the EDDs on the 51 IPESL proposals. Once the total cost of each proposal is determined a final recommendation will be sent to Vice President Midgarden. An announcement of funded proposals should be made in the next few weeks.

DCAC Plan: Funding for workgroups to review artifacts from DC 3-7 will be paid from the DCAC budget if not covered under IPESL Grants. Funding will also be needed to pay for photographing art projects as artifacts. Using tests as artifacts is straight forward, but it does not work for all the competency areas or departments so EDDS for faculty to determine how to pull artifacts from departments will be necessary.  Need feedback from the faculty in those areas to give input on what to assess and how they are assessing the student learning outcomes. This will be discussed further at the meeting with the Faculty Association Executive Council.

Graduation with Distinction: The draft proposal was reviewed and noted that if approved it was expected some departments/colleges would pilot the program before being phased in across campus.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, November 29, 2006, at 8:00 a.m. in LI 120D.

The meeting adjourned at 8:55 a.m.
 

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