Participants in DIIA’s groundbreaking Assessment Institute judged the day-long forum in June to be a considerable success. In their institute evaluations, the invited group of experienced higher education assessment practitioners and decision-makers from throughout Texas singled out the relevance of the message and the quality of the messengers.
“The material presented was widely relevant.”
“Models provided by the Institute staff … will be beneficial to me.”
“Excellent professional planning and delivery. Hurrah!”
“I enjoyed the content presentation and the focus on planning, culture, and learning alongside assessment. Very helpful, professional, and thorough.”
“This is my 3rd conference and by far the most cohesive and useful.”
The goal of the institute was to provide a forum for developing campus assessment action plans to cultivate a culture of assessment and improvement in support of teaching and learning. DIIA’s Instructional Assessment and Evaluation (IAE) team members guided participants in developing strategies to strengthen existing practice while planning new strategic processes. The IAE team modeled practical, holistic approaches to exploring three critical relationships on any campus: between program and institutional assessments, between nationally-normed and locally-developed tests, and between stewardship of best practices and leadership to anticipate emerging practices.
DIIA’s four IAE team members brought considerable experience, expertise, and credentials to planning, preparation, and delivery of the institute.
Dawn Zimmaro, director of the Instructional Assessment and Evaluation group at DIIA, leads university-wide assessment initiatives, consulting with faculty and administrators concerning evaluation of student learning outcomes. Her professional interests include validity issues in testing, construction of tests and surveys, program evaluation, classroom assessment techniques, and statistical analysis. Zimmaro came to UT Austin after service as an educational testing associate for University Testing Services and as the university assessment coordinator for the Schreyer Institute for Innovation in Learning, both at Penn State University, where she completed her graduate work.
Linda Dickens, outcomes assessment coordinator, consults with departments and units in the assessment of student learning, and she designs and implements general education assessments, most recently developing and facilitating workshops and evaluation programs in support of UT Austin’s accreditation activities. Dickens is particularly interested in helping programs embed assessment practices that can support data-based decision-making regarding curriculum and system processes.
Joel Heikes, instructional program evaluation coordinator, consults with faculty and staff in evaluation planning, instructional assessment, survey construction, focus group facilitation, and qualitative data collection and analysis. His professional interests include program evaluation, instructional technology evaluation, evaluation design, grant evaluation, and qualitative methods and analysis. Heikes has been a major contributor in the conception and development of DIIA’s pioneering Web-based tool Instructional Assessment Resources (IAR), a primary source for faculty and administrators worldwide who wish to undertake assessment projects.
Meghan McGlohen, educational research coordinator, consults with faculty and staff in survey development, study design, and essay scoring. She offers workshops in writing effective examinations and in developing rubrics to assess student performance. McGlohen’s professional interests include standardized assessment, quantitative data analysis, and instructional evaluation.
Since the institute, IAE has added two more assessment experts to the team.
Doris Adams, core curriculum assessment specialist, collaborates with faculty, staff, and administrators in support of assessment of student learning related to general education outcomes. She has extensive teaching experience in organizational leadership and change, training and development, and interpersonal communications. Adams has consulted with public, private, and non-profit organizations in organizational development, training, and program evaluation.
Joseph Rodriguez, outcomes assessment and program evaluation specialist, works in the review and preparation of assessment plans and program evaluations associated with student learning and achievement. He has held a variety of positions in K-16 programs, ranging from classroom instructional support and research to assessment and accreditation services. He is serving on the English language arts-reading content coordinating team for the 2012 series GED examinations.
The theme of the inaugural Assessment Institute was to measure better, measure smarter, and measure up. With plans underway for the 2010 institute, DIIA’s IAE team won’t be taking a measured approach to promoting ongoing formative assessment in support of teaching, learning, and research.