DIIA Energizes Assessment
Event promotes embedding assessment into higher education.
On June 19, 2009, DIIA hosted the inaugural Assessment
Institute on The University of Texas at Austin campus. Academic leaders
from across Texas attended the event to discuss and explore the latest
assessment techniques and trends. DIIA’s assessment experts were especially
eager to share inzformation and partner with colleagues from other institutions
in an effort to energize the culture of assessment in higher education.
The Assessment Institute boasted a lecture series from DIIA’s full line-up
of assessment experts: Dawn Zimmaro, Linda Neavel Dickens, Joel Heikes, and Meghan
McGlohen. Marilla
Svinicki, area chair for Learning,
Cognition, and Instruction in the Department
of Educational Psychology, delivered the keynote address. Her address, Embedded
Assessment: Finding Data on Learning in Unexpected Places, presented the
central message of the day: a culture of embedded assessment is the foundation
of effective programming and teaching. During her address, Svinicki led participants
in an activity to devise new methods for embedding assessments that would complement
in-class activity, engage students, encourage active learning, and produce measurable
outcomes.
Embedded assessment refers to making assessment a part of a campus’ academic
culture by routinely employing assessment methods in existing assignments and
everyday coursework. One of the advantages of embedded assessment is that students
are not aware that their efforts are being used for assessment and, therefore,
do not feel additional pressure to perform. The work they produce is more indicative
of true learning outcomes rather than something knowingly produced for assessment
purposes. Embedded assessment also decreases the likelihood of assessment merely
being an infrequent “add-on” or after-thought.
Over the course of the day, participants also received individualized coaching
from DIIA experts to diagnose their campuses’ current assessment efforts,
craft a progressive vision for future assessment, and create an action plan to
foster enhanced measurement. Attendees left the Assessment Institute energized
with new goals and strategies for fostering a culture of ongoing, integrated
assessment at their institutions.