Higher Ed Assessment

Blog Break to Labor Day

2010-08-01T08:00:00.002-05:00

It's time to take a late-summer break while campuses wind down... and then wind back up. Blog will be back after Labor Day. ~ Mary Bold

© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (http://www.marybold.com/, http://www.boldproductions.com/, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.

Tech note: Apps for tiny devices

2010-07-29T00:01:00.005-05:00

The actual apps are so varied that it's hard to take in the whole and plan use in higher ed. But there's no doubt that Apple's app library is being accessed by faculty (K-12, too) for either assignments or tools. The key word is library--Apple's apps are broadly organized and we'll soon see a convergence: everything we learned in building learning object repositories and everything we are now learning about cross-platform applications. Emphasis is on apps that fit on tiny devices.

For a broad view, visit Apple's web page on education apps. Top of page has links by subject; below that are links by function.

© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (http://www.marybold.com/, http://www.boldproductions.com/, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.

Mapping and other Presentation Methods

2010-07-28T00:01:00.005-05:00

What's on the radar of Mapping Tools in Overview: Visual Literacy provides that in a radar screen with hyperlinks to products (mix of commercial and open source). The tools are described briefly in mouse-over tags. The radar presentation is clever, which is to be expected from Visual-Literacy.org, the folks who also remind us of the range of possibilities in presenting information. That is best represented by the Periodic Table of Visualization Methods. Don't expect to leave that webpage in a hurry.

From the UK: Delivering Student Workshops

2010-07-27T00:01:00.010-05:00

Besides having won awards, LearnHigher's Resources for Tutors Delivering Student Workshops is just plain fun. It's a set of video resources for anyone planning to teach nearly anyone. Geared for tutors and teachers in higher ed, there's much that can be translated for community and K-12 education.

Topics include Report Writing, Note Taking, Time Management, Academic Writing. A resource on Assessment is a little different from the larger set. Coming soon: Doing Research and more.

Each resource presents guides, tips, activities, FAQs, and a couple of experts on video. A slide for online resources suggests that materials can be updated in the future, with or without renewing the video segments. The producers are from LearnHigher Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), which partners 16 UK universities.

Tech Note: CDW-G's Latest Survey

2010-07-22T00:01:00.007-05:00

CDW-G has published its third annual report on campus technology, highlighting comparisons between faculty, student, and IT opinions as to what's needed to support higher ed learning. The long title is 21st-Century Campus Report: Campus 2.0 but the key findings are neatly presented. The one combination of results that caught my eye: e-readers are coming to campus.

2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (http://www.marybold.com/, http://www.boldproductions.com/, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.

External Evaluators - Link to Germuth blog

2010-07-21T00:01:00.006-05:00

Amy Germuth's blog very recently served up a think piece on the benefits of using an external evaluator (see Germuth's entry of July 16, 2010). It would be fun to ask Dr. Germuth about the downsides of hiring someone external even though she is an evaluation consultant and thus very likely in that role much of the time. Her blog is insightful—I especially like the mention of identifying unintended outcomes.

Germuth's blog, Evalthoughts, goes back several years. The archives make for good leisure reading for an evaluator.

Indicator for Colleges: Healthy Employment in the State

2010-07-20T00:01:00.009-05:00

Placing higher ed economics in the context of (general population) employment projections relies on confidence in the statistics. In light of the economic downturn, projections are challenging but its reasonable to connect a college's future to its state's employment figures. The Chronicle's recent story on Financial Relief for colleges based its context on numbers from Moody's Economy.com. The story's power comes from an interactive map that permits you to look at individual years to 2014. The most startling of the projections is how many states will enjoy healthy employment rates before 2012: just three (Texas, North Dakota, Alaska).

Tech Note: Blackboard's new Collaborate tool

2010-07-15T00:01:00.007-05:00

Spending no time comparing the product names Adobe Connect and Blackboard Collaborate, this blog entry is about the recent announcement of Blackboard's purchase of Elluminate and Wimba, arguably the most affordable of the webconferencing platforms used in education. Note: I don't receive any compensation from the companies mentioned here.

Blackboard has purchased other companies before and will surely buy more, in future. To buy two of the same type, at the same time, draws special attention, especially from the companies' current clients. Forum discussion at LearnCentral is example. LearnCentral is the virtual community of Elluminute users. Some of those users are at institutions that subscribe to Elluminate; others come to the space as individual customers of vRooms, the free 3-person meeting spaces; still others are paying customers of vOffice, which offers meeting spaces for 10+ people at a couple of hundred bucks per year.

It's the holders of free accounts speaking up first. They wonder how long it will take Bb to shut down their access to the Elluminate tools as Collaborate takes shape, this worry emerging amid corporate assurances of "no immediate changes." Suspicion about future access increases as LearnCentral reps in the forum respond to questions with the ominous words, "hopefully" and "I am hopeful." The promise of plenty of advance notice of future changes doesn't add to anyone's sense of security.

Blackboard's expansion of products has been steady over the past decade. Adding web-conference capability was an expected next step. And the success of Elluminate and Wimba in creating synchronous online classrooms makes Bb's interest in them understandable.

Expected and understandable pretty much sums up the situation. What comes next? I'd guess that dimdim and similar platforms will inherit some of the "free" users of Elluminate. And Adobe Connect Now's free 3-user space may be adopted by a lot more people.

ASCD Lexicon of Learning

2010-07-14T00:01:00.004-05:00

The ASCD web site offers a Lexicon of Learning, subtitled Online Dictionary and described with "What Educators Mean When They Say..." Organized into "chapters" of starting letters, the Lexicon includes common K-12 terminology but also assessment lingo.

ASCD is the membership organization of educators that provides professional development though its 60 affiliates (worldwide) and its online courses. Membership is 170,000.

Rubric Grading: 2010 Awards

2010-07-13T00:01:00.007-05:00

A top award for 2010 from the Sloan-C organization has high value for assessment, especially when compared to the 2010 CHEA award. Sloan-C recognized Metropolitan State University (MN) for Automatic gradesheets: A Holy Grail for simultaneously improving faculty and student satisfaction. Using familiar tools of Word and Excel, the institution has set about systematically converting grading to "automatic" rubrics to speed grading and reduce students' wait for feedback. Besides utilizing a rubric structure, the gradesheets provide for efficient entry of a professor's most common remarks. The gradesheets are customizable, besides.

With standardization of rubrics and scoring styles, this type of support by an institution is win-win-win for student learning, professor grading, and institutional effectiveness. When the rubric is part of an LMS, ease of use can include point-and-click (using a mouse click to select a cell in a rubric) and conversion of rubric scoring to the LMS gradebook. Embedded rubrics reduce the number of clicks (and file transfers) needed to review student papers. I like BrainHoney's LMS structure for grading. Very similar: eportfolio software such as TaskStream that provides automated rubrics as well as "on the fly" mark-up and/or track-changes to student works without having to download the file.

As previously described in this blog, CHEA's 2010 award went to Capella University for its demonstration of outcomes assessment. The Capella grading system utilizes embedded and automated rubrics that not only speed up grading but also populate the gradebook automatically and report on outcomes across multiple sections of a course and even across courses for program outcomes.

Tech Note for MAC

2010-07-08T00:01:00.004-05:00

If you use a MAC, you already know Preview, Apple's default app for viewing PDF files. For handling PDFs in more sophisticated fashion, you can turn to Yep. That's right. Only MAC users would have software called Yep.

Actually, the newer version of the document manager is Yep 2. The company also produces Fresh and Deep and Leap. The software permits you to add tags, organize, and retrieve works easily. Yep handles only PDFs so full description of each app should be reviewed. These are not free apps and also not open source, but the tone and sense of community on the Ironic Software web site make you feel like you joined a club.

Dan Roam: Visual Thinking

2010-07-07T00:01:00.005-05:00

Visual thinking is a Tufte-like (see yesterday's post for Tufte items) approach to communicating ideas. Dan Roam of Digital Roam presents his method for and on "the back of the napkin" both in a blog and a seminar. This particular link to the blog is from March 2010, which embeds a short video clip of Roam speaking on the 32,000-year history of humans and their visual thinking.

Revisiting Tufte

2010-07-06T00:01:00.006-05:00

Edward Tufte's web site deserves a re-visit every now and then. I have highlighted two pages here but the entire site is always a rewarding tour. All Tufte books are worth putting on your bookshelf; the best way to collect them is at Tufte's one-day course in Presenting Data and Information. The books are bundled into the cost of the seminar. (I've been twice. Years afterward, I still carry sharp memories of certain parts of Tufte's presentation.)

Tufte gets a gallery. It's in Manhattan. See photos on this web page for ET Modern.

Tufte doesn't get a royalty for a special element in the new Excel—but the web page on sparklines makes for interesting reading.

If you have not yet used sparklines in representing data in a report, make it your 2010 new technique. (You don't have to have the new Excel to create sparklines. Lots of free generators on the web, including several links from Tufte's web site.)

Tech Note: Free LMS

2010-07-01T00:01:00.005-05:00

Large scale deployment? I don't know. But EDU 2.0 is a fine, free LMS for educators. My favorite use: a practice LMS for graduate students learning to teach online.

Technically, EDU 2.0 is a freemium service, meaning that the base part is free and more advanced features (premium) can be added for a fee.

Short, Basic, but Usable: On Logic Models

2010-06-30T00:01:00.010-05:00

It's basic but basic is good. The evaluation firm Usable Knowledge, which serves the nonprofit world, maintains its 2006 narrated slideshow called Logic Model Tutorial on its web site.

At just under 15 minutes, the tutorial makes the lesson easy to make the time for. The main web site is actually a blog, with entries as recent as Spring 2010.

AEA Blog: Daily in 2010

2010-06-28T01:01:00.009-05:00

To my knowledge, no calendar publisher has created a desk pad for An Eval Tip a Day for 2010. But AEA did. Online.

AEA365A Tip-a-Day by and for Evaluators is a daily blog that's made it through the halfway point for 2010. As you might guess from the title, the blog is written by a large number of people. Contributions come from literally around the world although you'll pick up on some regular posts by AEA staff, as well.

Go to the Archive to scan the titles. That's how I found Canadian social researcher Linda Lee's essay on use of visual methods in evaluation. (See the June 17 entry on the blog site.) Of course, you can also simply keep up with AEA365. Every day.

The blog is published by the American Evaluation Association (AEA).

Tech Note: Support for College Readiness and Completion

2010-06-24T00:01:00.005-05:00

Proposals forms are not available yet, but EDUCAUSE, the Gates Foundation, and a couple of other partners promise to support "islands of innovation" in the goal to utilize technology for college success—in terms of college readiness and college completion. That's the goal of the Next Gen Learning Challenges. Projects that demonstrate promise will then be "scaled," and presumably help to address the core challenge: producing more college graduates to meet the next decade's workforce needs.

As anyone connected to higher ed today will testify, the current budget cuts on campuses both public and private would suggest that larger student bodies are not likely. The planners behind Next Gen see technology as the answer, with four challenges for focus: open core courseware, web 2.0 engagement, blended learning, and learning analytics.

What caught my eye in the background materials: The League for Innovation in the Community Colleges is a partner. That bodes well for the project. Belle Wheelan, president of SACS, serves on the Advisory Panel. And a representative from Creative Commons, Joi Ito, also serves. There are plenty more participants, of course. But I liked seeing these especially.

Higher Ed Learning at Wallenberg Hall

2010-06-23T00:01:00.006-05:00

Stanford University's research into higher ed teaching and learning is best known as Wallenberg Hall. At least, that's the physical house for Advanced Resource Classrooms. Having visited a few of those rooms, I will cheerfully admit that I purchased 6 chairs (an award-winning Steelcase design) for grad students in copying a Stanford classroom set-up.

The driving force behind the physical structure is the H-STAR Institute for interdisciplinary research and, more specifically, SCIL. That stands for Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning. For a quick overview of the projects, use the Research Programs link at the Wallenberg site.

AFT Higher Education: What Should Count?

2010-06-22T00:01:00.006-05:00

Light on comments (by readers), but wide in scope, the website What Should Count? covers many topics on higher ed accountability. Short reports and essays include "news" from HE institutions and, of special interest, conferences. The publisher is "AFT Higher Education," of the American Federation of Teachers.

The portion of the site I found most valuable: Accountability Clearinghouse (link is on the horizontal green menu bar beneath the masthead). There, you'll find helpful analyses of issues and some comparisons of the 6 regional accrediting agencies. For example, how do the big 6 differ on expectations for contingent faculty? The trail is worth the read.

But the trail deserves a warning. The website uses roll-over-and-pop-up menus, the kind that are sometimes hard to control. I recommend keeping fingers at the ready to right-click and Open in New Window. Then, you can stay on a topic for full exploration without having to re-enter the menu sequence.

Tech Note: Entering and Exiting Clouds

2010-06-17T00:01:00.005-05:00

Cloud computing isn't news anymore. And that's the cue to institutionalize it (meaning, in this case, embed it in the HE institution).

EDUCAUSE suggests that Shaping the Higher Education Cloud means dealing with what can be left to "consumer choice," what can be outsourced, and what can reside on the campus. That leads to a couple of new terms: premises-based and cloud-based, to refer to the services that range from applications (Word, Excel, and more exotic scientific programs) to repositories (libaries, databases, textbooks, research collaboration spaces).

The EDUCAUSE white paper reports on the thinking by 50 IT leaders in early 2010. Standardization, cost, flexibility—all are addressed. A section on Actions (beginning page 17) points out that some schools have already moved student email to commercial clouds. But that maybe some functions (enrollment or registration) deserve more caution.

There's likely something to be learned from the last decade's increasing reliance on LMS services. Although an LMS isn't what most people first think of when dreaming about the potential of clouds, it is actually already a good case for comparison. Institutions made premise versus outsourced decisions about LMSs and then realized how dependent they were on the source, wherever it was. The EDUCAUSE paper doesn't make the comparison to LMSs but does raise the need for exit plans. At least now, clouds offer elasticity (expand and contract as needed). That doesn't mean that in the future a commercial cloud will tolerate the risk of less business. So, reliance on any system becomes the issue.

The IT thinking behind the EDUCAUSE paper concludes with 13 recommendations (beginning page 24) that are not so technical that they exclude the lay reader. In fact, administrators and faculty should want to help with the shaping, starting now.

On the more anecdotal level, here's a brief report on how an iPad acts around Live Office's SkyDrive. Excel and OneNote files created in the Microsoft cloud (from a laptop) were stored in the "SkyDrive," which is the user's personal 25-gigabyte file cabinet. Accessing the office.live.com site from the iPad is easy, using the same username and password as on the computer. The account shows the files. The Excel file opens as a read-only display. About the only functionality is the iPad's copy/paste option. A set of cells in Excel copies nicely to a Notes page. Alas, the OneNote files do not open at all on the iPad. That's going to take some sleuthing.

AALHE: new organization, new web site

2010-06-16T00:01:00.005-05:00

The new web site of the new assessment organization, AALHE, is beginning to populate. AALHE stands for Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education. With the focus clearly stated, the organization promises to lean heavily on its "largely virtual design" to reach its audience. That said, much of the web site content will be open to "members and non-members alike."

Membership (not yet executable online) is $120 per individual, or $105 per user if at least 3 from an institution enroll. Membership will provide a discount (amount not yet announced) at the AALHE first annual conference in June 2011.

Google Calendar: Keeping up with Ed Tech

2010-06-15T00:01:00.004-05:00

Ed Tech Events, a google calendar, is organized by Clark Shah-Nelson to serve as a guide to the many conferences on educational technology. Shah-Nelson is the Coordinator of Online Education at SUNY-Delhi.

The calendar entries link to pop-up notes with factoids and (typically) URLs for more information. For some, you will need to click twice, through a More Info link and then to a web site.

The google calendar opens nicely on the iPhone and iPad, with full hyperlinking function from the conference entries.

Thanks to the short URL [http://ow.ly/YB90], the calendar can be quickly accessed by plain old typing.

Tech Note: Web Apps for Office

2010-06-10T01:08:00.007-05:00

You just may need to add one more user name to your roster. It's to take a drive through Microsoft's sky. Productivity just inched up a notch.

If you have enjoyed the development over the years of Google Docs and Spreadsheets, you are likely to cheer loudly at the Microsoft offering that brings on Excel, OneNote, Word, and Powerpoint. The major cheer: you won't have to watch them develop. They're already running smoothly.

I'll spend the next few weeks reviewing the sub-parts (on Thursdays) as I explore them. My immediate purpose is to create items on a laptop and access them on iPad and iPhone.

Here are the beginning points, not all of them wonderful:

1 - Microsoft has placed lite versions of its Office applications on the web. They are literally "web apps," meaning that users do not have to have Office on their hard drives. Users can access the web apps via a browser. (I usually call this type of program RIA, rich Internet application.) Not wonderful: file-opening and saving must be through the SkyDrive and not directly with the hard drive.

2 - Users can create (from scratch) a Word doc, an Excel spreadsheet, a PowerPoint presentation, and a OneNote entry. At present, they can also share works in Excel and OneNote--meaning, share them with other users for co-writing. Not wonderful: sharing is not yet available in Word and PowerPoint.

3 - These web apps are free. Not wonderful: you must learn more names. Microsoft Live is located at office.live, and requires a Windows Live ID. I'm sorry, but I'm getting old.

To underscore the major finding: the web apps work very smoothly. Development will center on addition of features, not on improvement of usability. And that will make me open a new browser window, rather than just follow my old path from gmail to Documents.

Disclosure statement: I have not received any compensation for mentioning this service. (This blog's only monetary reward comes through google.adsense links, which are selected by Google, not by me.)

ePortfolio via Wiki and Blog

2010-06-09T00:01:00.005-05:00

EPAC* is a free site devoted to the study of ePortfolios. Located at pbwiki, EPAC includes discussions and announcements by and about leading practitioners of portfolio technology. The organization also posts to a blog, EPAC Community of Practice.

EPAC also maintains a listserv, twitter feed, LinkedIn group, chats, webcasts.

*EPAC = Electronic Portfolio Action and Communication, a community of practice since 2002.

ePortfolio Conference: AAEEBL in July

2010-06-08T00:01:00.007-05:00

Formed in 2009, AAEEBL* has acted quickly to establish itself as the leading source of eportfolio knowledge and support. The global orgnization has 90 member institutions (the great majority in the U.S.) and an annual conference. Not bad for a history of one year.

The upcoming conference in Boston (July 19-22, 2010) is actually a joint conference with the well established Campus Technology annual event (nee Syllabus) now in its 17th year. Having both in close quarters, and sharing an exhibit hall, is one of the better examples of in-person event planning in this decade.

Cost of this conference, similar to most technology gatherings, is painful. Early bird discounting offers a bit of relief, ending June 18.

*AAEEBL = The Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning: The professional association for the world ePortfolio community

Semester Break

2010-05-18T00:01:00.002-05:00

The blog is on break. Will return with summer school.

Tech Note: Overwork in Overdrive

2010-05-13T00:10:00.004-05:00

Air cards made travel easier; portable and personal hotspots now make travel with office peers/equipment easier. The purpose of both is to access the Internet via personal wireless accounts. Typically purchased from a cell phone provider, an air card is either card or USB stick for use in a laptop computer. Some computers and other devices (like the iPad) come with an air card built in ready to turn on for a month or a two-year contract.

A portable hotspot works the same way but it's a small network for you and nearby friends. The nearby element is important; Sprint's version, the Overdrive, has a reach of 150 feet for up to 5 devices at a time.

I have used both types of access and prefer the Sprint Overdrive. My cost went from $40 to $60/month but convenience and speed soared. The Overdrive connects to the web at 3G and 4G speeds. Any web device can join the network with the password you provide; I have confirmed connection with several laptops, iPhones, and a wireless printer. These pieces, along with a converter for the car, support the mobile office better than ever before.

Service coverage should be checked for any product. With Sprint service, I have found 3G speed along Interstate highways, and 4G speed at a local dog park. Portability of work can lead to overwork, of course.

Not Free Summer Conferences: On Ground Offerings

2010-05-12T00:01:00.006-05:00

It is increasingly difficult to find an up-to-date list of assessment conferences. This list for Summer is current (just in time for early bird registrations, in some cases) but surely not complete. I'm starting earlier on a fall list!

Association for Institutional Research (AIR)
Charting our Future in Higher Education
Chicago, IL, May 29 - June 2, 2010
http://forum.airweb.org/

Retention 2010
International Conference on Student Success
Educational Policy Institute
Chicago, Illinois, June 9-11, 2010
http://educationalpolicy.org/events/R10/default.htm

New England Educational Assessment Network (NEEAN)
Summer Institute on Assessment
Keene State College, NH, June 10 - 11, 2010
http://www.neean.org/

Taking the Next Step: Shared Ownership of Assessment & Retention in Higher Education
International Assessment & Retention Conference
New Orleans, Louisiana, June 10 - 13, 2009
http://www.assessconf.net/

UT Austin Assessment Institute 2010
Measure better. Measure smarter. Measure up.
Austin, TX, June 17 - 18, 2010
http://www.utexas.edu/academic/diia/ai/

The 23nd International Conference on The First-Year Experience
Maui, Hawaii, June 7-10, 2010
http://sc.edu/fye/ifye/

SACS 2010 Institute on Quality Enhancement and Accreditation
Tampa, FL, July 25-28, 2010
http://www.sacscoc.org/institute.asp

The International Association for Educational Assessment (IAEA)
36th Annual IAEA Conference: Assessment for the Future Generations
Bangkok, Thailand, August 22-27, 2010
http://www.iaea2010.com/index.php

Free Summer Conferences: The Virtual Kind

2010-05-11T00:01:00.006-05:00

Free conferences for higher ed typically are sponsored by commercial interests. That doesn't make them bad. What works for both the commercial interest and the attendee is that most are virtual today. Low investment on both sides but, again, that doesn't make them bad.

Campus Technology coordinates Webcasts and Webinars with larger vendors and the month of May still has some opportunities. The plus for these sponsored events is that they almost always feature academics and managers from universities and colleges (along with the vendors). Sign up is free. Attendance is free. And if you don't already receive Campus Technology magazine (choice of print or electronic), take the time to sign up for that, too.

One of the Campus Technology offerings is for moodlerooms. That company's webinar sign-up page is also worth visiting. Several summer dates are announced and the focus in 2010 is the new moodle platform, joule. The moodleroom community page lists them.

Tech Note: Bucknell's Outstanding Tour & Map

2010-05-06T00:30:00.007-05:00

Every campus map should aspire to the high level of engagement produced by Bucknell University's Virtual Tour. An interactive map highlights campus locations according to your selected term: inquisitive, creative, conscientious, sleepy. (And more than 50 other descriptors.)

You have to be willing to click a bit to understand how the site works. Don't hesitate to click your mouse on the plus sign (+), the markers on the map, the "Back To The Map" link, and virtually every image that crosses the screen.

Support for beginning: on the main page, click "Begin Your Tour." On the next screen, click on the plus sign in the middle of the page. And just keep clicking.

Besides modeling outstanding web site design, Bucknell manages to communicate a simple message: we like our school and here's why.

© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (http://www.marybold.com/, http://www.boldproductions.com/, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.

Budget Cuts Reported in a Blog

2010-05-05T00:05:00.002-05:00

The Chronicle's blog Campus Cuts presents short news blurbs about budget-related changes in higher ed institutions. Most are in the U.S.

All of these budget reports are in newspapers and web sites, along with other news of the economic downturn. The real story is that cuts have become so routine that a blog is dedicated to them.

To access Campus Cuts from the Chronicle's home page, scroll down to the list of blogs on the left side of the screen. Campus Cuts is in the list.

UNR: Big Picture Chart of Assessment Plans & Reports

2010-05-04T00:01:00.007-05:00

U of Nevada-Reno displays an impressive "big picture" chart of assessment plans and reports. Each program's reports are identified as submitted (S) or published (P) for the years 2004 - 2009.

Look for the underscored Ps for hyperlinks to the summary reports of measures of SLOs. For a fuller picture, also click on the name of the program. You'll find the assessment plan with SLOs.

Programs from all colleges are listed. At the bottom of the chart, Student Affairs Programs appear (with assessment activity equal to the colleges). A very new section lists 11 courses in the Core Curriculum of the institution. Among those, 2 reports have been published in 2009.

The web page is the work of the UNR's Office of University Assessment.

Tech Note: InstantConference

2010-04-29T00:30:00.002-05:00

My recent good find for free phone conferencing: InstantConference. The free version supports call-in by up to 150 participants who are responsible for their own cost of long-distance service or cell minutes. Moderator privileges can be extended to more than one person. Session recording is free. A "permanent" phone number is assigned upon enrollment.

Paid versions of the system include toll-free calling, so that joining the conference doesn't cost the caller anything.

The free version produced (for me) clear voices for conferences of 3 and 5 people. I especially liked the optional Moderator panel that I logged onto online (while using my phone to participate in the call). Even for free, the system provides good muting controls, which are important for large groups.

To enhance a meeting, I also use a virtual space online (vOffice, which I pay for) so that files or desktop can be displayed for the group. While I like the VoIP that comes with vOffice (and other web conference platforms), group use continues to pose problems such as feedback and static. A lot of VoIP problems can be solved by every user plugging in a headset; but compliance is difficult. Pairing a web display with phone conferencing is a good alternative.

Disclosure statement: I have no relationship with any product or company mentioned here and I have not received any compensation or free product for mentioning them. (This blog's only monetary reward comes through google.adsense links, which are selected by Google, not by me.)

ePortfolio: Batson's Update

2010-04-28T00:30:00.006-05:00

It's always interesting to read Batson on portfolio. The most recent treatment is ePortfolios, Finally! and it appears in Trent Batson's regular spot in Campus Technology magazine. In this article, the background and uses of eportfolios are updated. Among the stats: there's eportfolio activity at almost half of the U.S. higher ed institutions. Among the critique: learning outcomes and LMSs (learning management systems).

Two extra features accompany the Batson article. First, as usual, commenters add details from their own campuses and we always learn from that. Second, Batson offers a new support that he promises to maintain and keep current: a web site called EPORTFOLIO SOURCE.

Inside Higher Ed: Blogs

2010-04-27T00:01:00.003-05:00

Inside Higher Ed publishes multiple blogs from perspectives of dean, librarian, provost, and a lot more. A search engine is embedded with the option to filter results by blog title. Look for the Keyword Search box and pull-down menus near the top of the page.

A bonus of the search tool is that results include "Matching Jobs," which are listed to the right of the main results.

http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs

Tech Note: New Home for ProfHacker

2010-04-22T00:01:00.005-05:00

ProfHacker has joined The Chronicle of Higher Education in the form of a blog. Previously, ProfHacker was a web site (much like the older and more established lifehacker) that produced news and tips for education-bound technology.

In the web site's short history (less than a year, I think), dedicated writers and readers set some records for this specialized area of blogging. The principals promise the content and tone will remain the same under the new sponsorship of the Chronicle. All that changes is the setting. Even the URL stays the same... but it instantly redirects to the Chronicle's blog page.

ACCJC News beyond WASC boundaries

2010-04-21T00:30:00.003-05:00

The ACCJC News is a quarterly publication of WASC's Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. Obviously, the focus is on institutions in the western states but the Spring 2010 issue has national appeal, as well. The lead article is on higher ed's national agenda with interpretation of the goals for community colleges by 2020.

A shorter article addresses "World Wide Changes," global influences on U.S. accreditation.

The web site (the above link) links to the newsletter archive of PDF files.

Catching Scriven This Week

2010-04-20T00:15:00.004-05:00

Rogers and Davidson's Genuine Evaluation blog "about real, genuine, authentic, practical evaluation" is featuring Michael Scriven this week. He will contribute to the web site and the resident bloggers will respond to and extend his message.

Tech Note: Alt-Tabbing Alternatives

2010-04-15T02:00:00.001-05:00

"Alt-tab" is the keyboard shortcut that permits shifting from one window to another. Accessing multiple windows permits use of multiple programs at the same time, trimming time that would otherwise be spent opening and closing applications and files. Adding screen real estate (in the form of a 2nd or 3rd computer monitor) is the expensive alternative to Alt-tabbing but doesn't necessarily make you more productive, according to a blog review of the research. But the conventional wisdom is that an extra monitor is the single most effective way to improve computer work conditions (not claiming a percentage gain in productivity). A common example of that improvement is the dedication of one screen to your email inbox.

Email is the famous interrupter and so ignoring it (closing the program entirely) is one answer for controlling its impact on work time. But as email is increasingly used as an alert system, both officially and unofficially, the dedication of a monitor is the more pragmatic choice. With a 2nd monitor in place, you can keep an eye on incoming messages but also position the monitor off to the side.

On campuses today, the appropriate video card is typically in place today for an extra monitor. An alternative configuration is one monitor and one projector.

Grades as Assessment Data

2010-04-14T00:45:00.007-05:00

Grades remain a debatable item as higher ed assessments of institutional effectiveness. The trend is toward not using grades due to concerns of inconsistency, grade inflation, and lack of alignment with learning outcomes. When an institution or faculty group decides to include grades in assessment data, the usual form is an "embedded assessment" referring to an assignment or single student product that is clearly representative of a learning outcome.

At the University of Virginia a graphic guides in "Using a Rubric to Produce Both Grades and Assessment Data." Authorship is attributed to Jonathan Schnyer, Lois Meyers, and Anne-Marie Durocher of the Office of Institutional Assessment and Studies. A blow-up of the original rubric demonstrates how an instructor's scoring generates areas of strength and weakness for the student group.

While faculty members often resist the term weakness in data reports, the display of relative performance is crucial to a full analysis. At some levels, such as upper division courses within a major, rubric results that pinpoint weaknesses are far more valuable than project grades, which may be high across an entire class of students.

Chronicle's Forum Offerings

2010-04-13T00:30:00.004-05:00

LISTSERVs are educational but can fill the Inbox quickly. If you like the academic exchange without the emailing, a good resource is the set of Forums at The Chronicle of Higher Education web site.

Academic life is covered in sections like Cafe and Careers, and a quick scan of the number of posts orients you to the major topics. Among the minor areas is a Cafe forum called Tech Talk for Befuddled Academics. I recommend it.

For a sense of the who in the forums, scroll to the bottom of the index page for some current and past statistics. (You can read forum discussions as a guest. If you log in, you'll become one of the statistics.)

Tech Note: SKYPE

2010-04-08T02:01:00.005-05:00

SKYPE for desktop videoconferencing is the most common free supplier for web-based communication. The free offerings are audio calls (computer to computer, including conference calls for multiple users), video calls, and IM (instant messaging).

Those offerings are not new but the reliability and quality of the free services deserve mention as improved in 2009. Having downloaded the SKYPE software every year for the past 3 years (on replacement laptops), I've concluded that the current version is the most user-friendly and also the most reliable regardless of computer OS and equipment.

Add-ons (for a fee) are calls to landlines/cells, voicemail, SMS/text, and call forwarding. I have successfully used the pay-as-you-go account for calling landlines from the computer. Keeping $10 on account protects against not having a phone handy and call recipients cannot tell the source of the call.

For use on campus, ability to download SKYPE may be a barrier although some schools now see SKYPE as the affordable "long distance" service and therefore make it easier to obtain. Audio quality is almost always improved by addition of a headset. SKYPE sells one for under $25; many users have good experience with even cheaper ones.

Disclosure statement: I have no relationship with SXC and I have not received any compensation or free product for mentioning this service. (This blog's only monetary reward comes through google.adsense links, which are selected by Google, not by me.)

SACS offer of Templates

2010-04-07T00:01:00.003-05:00

A recent exchange on the SACS listserv reminds of the set of templates that SACS offers to its member institutions. The Templates for the Compliance Certification number 14, focusing on selected Core Requirements and Comprehensive Standards. The templates range from the very simple to the challenging. Most readers seek examples, of course, and the SACS site provides one of those: an Excel spreadsheet on Reporting Unrestricted Net Assets.

Curriculum Mapping Tool at UNF

2010-04-06T00:01:00.007-05:00

Curriculum Outcomes Map is a template offered to Departments at U of North Florida. It carries with it an advisory to faculty: be selective and leave some blanks. That means there is not expectation that all courses should address all outcomes. The UNF template does look for distinctions for which courses introduce a learning outcome, which reinforce it, and which demonstrate mastery.

The mapping tool is part of UNF's web site on Assessment, which features a newsletter style approach to support, called Assessment Matters. A recent entry is on rubrics. The newsletter entry explains the basics and also links readers to the VALUE rubrics of AAC&U (previously described in this blog) and the interactive type at Rubistar (designed for K-12 but frequently included in higher ed hyperlinks to rubric resources).

Breaking for Spring Break

2010-03-16T02:00:00.001-05:00

I'm taking off some time in honor of spring breaks everywhere. Back in April.

Tech Note: Royalty-free Photographs

2010-03-11T00:01:00.010-06:00

Each category of photographs on SCX (stock.xchng or Stock Exchange) begins with for-sale items but then is followed by dozens, sometimes hundreds, of royalty-free photographs. The entries are shared by photographers, most offering the "Standard restrictions" clause, which permits wide use of the images.

Typical allowances are use in digital form (web, multimedia, film, video, cell phone), use in print (promotional material, magazines, newspapers, books, brochures, flyers, cover art for CD and DVD sleeves, business cards, letterhead), and even use in decorations (including public places).

The site provides a search box and a user-friendly interface for previewing and downloading images. Among the royalty-free image sources on the web, this may be the most professional and helpful. Recently purchased by Getty Images, SXC is reporting that it will continue to operate as it has in the past: as a community of photographers and users with emphasis on royalty-free images. The current stats: 350,000 images by 30,000 photographers.

Disclosure statement: I have no relationship with SXC and I have not received any compensation or free product for mentioning this service. (This blog's only monetary reward comes through google.adsense links, which are selected by Google, not by me.)

Batson on hedgehogs: A good read on ePortfolio

2010-03-10T00:01:00.007-06:00

In an article that mixes philosophy and pragmatics, Trent Batson likens higher ed to a hedgehog. He explores the "enlightened use of portfolio" with a nice bit of history about how ePortfolio mnarkets developed.

Dr. Batson's focus on portfolio isn't new to readers of Campus Technology. But this article offers some new views. One of them is the opinion that portfolio systems (specifically, the marketing of them) shifted away from student learning to serve institutional purposes (assessment and accountability). I don't quarrel with Dr. Batson's observation but I'm one of those who continue to see ePortfolio as one of the only strategies that really can serve students and their evaluators at the same time.

Gen X Faculty: Harvard's COACHE Report

2010-03-09T00:01:00.003-06:00

After enjoying the humor of comments posted to the Chronicle's short story on Gen X faculty, one might question whether the original report could hold one's interest quite so well. It does!

In keeping with scholarly traditions, we have very long phrases to get to the heart of the matter. Links permit direct routes to the source material.

Report in PDF file:
New Challenges, New Priorities: The Experience of Generation X Faculty

Study sponsor:
The Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) at Harvard University

Tech Note: SnagIt

2010-03-04T00:40:00.001-06:00

If you have ever fought with this key, Print Screen, you will be willing to spend $49 on SnagIt. The software from techsmith is user-friendly, supports nearly automatic download of images to PowerPoint and Word, and features plenty of editing tools.

You can find shareware that approaches the issue of screen capture and some free programs actually accomplish screen capture. But everyone I've spoken to who uses SnagIt, raves about the program. I use it for handling images and I sometimes use the editing features for adding text to a graphic.

Stout's resources on authentic assessment

2010-03-03T00:30:00.008-06:00

A web page on Authentic Assessment resides on the web site of the School of Education at University of Wisconsin Stout. Materials (on the site for download as well as links to other sources) include journal articles on assessment as well as samples of tools. For example, information about and sample rubrics are listed under the sub-section, Why Rubrics?

At the bottom of the web page, find a list of web-based survey vendors and assessment-creation tools. Some of the materials are designed for K-12.

Benchmark for DL Quality

2010-03-02T00:01:00.005-06:00

Benchmarks for quality in distance learning include an instrument born of Community of Inquiry (COI). That's a general phrase to describe a style of inquiry but also a specific phrase on a website for communitiesofinquiry.com . The distance learning tool is the CoI Survey now being put to use at some of the larger online universities.

The survey is a 5-point Likert scale for use at the end of an online course. It seeks responses on three "essential" elements: Cognitive Presence, Social Presence, and Teaching Presence. Reliability and validity are reported in articles published on the web site. The instrument can be downloaded from the Survey web page.

Tech Note: Acrobat.com's free cloud tools

2010-02-25T00:01:00.007-06:00

Free stuff from the cloud: Adobe's good looking "online office applications" and web conferencing in the form of a mini-Connect.

The office applications are the standard trio: word processor, presentation software, and spreadsheets. You can't help but compare with a famous trio from Microsoft but these offerings have their own look (but with a lot of compatibility). The word processor is called "Documents" but some people will remember it as buzzword. That was a FLASH-based word processor that Adobe bought a couple of years ago. Adobe promised to keep buzzword alive—and free.

buzzword is a fun program with good looks and high functionality. I have used it as a collaborative work space. (And now you can't help but compare with online tools from Google.)

For desktop conferencing, acrobat.com now offers a free 3-seat "room" in Adobe ConnectNow. Upgrades are available, too. For $15/month, the suite of tools includes 5 seats in ConnectNow. For $39/month, the number of seats jumpts to 20.

Disclosure statement: I have no relationship with the products named here and I have not received any compensation or free product for mentioning them. (This blog's only monetary reward comes through google.adsense links, which are selected by Google, not by me.)

Conference Hand-outs: List is Still Building

2010-02-24T00:01:00.002-06:00

The list of conference PPTs and hand-outs is still building, but a nice set is already available on the web from the 2010 Assessment Conference at Texas A&M. The gathering broke at mid-day today with an unusual snowfall. Big fluffy flakes as we exited the meeting.

SACS' Wheelan at A&M Assessment Conference

2010-02-23T00:01:00.004-06:00

One more SACS remark...

Today's main event at the Texas A&M Assessment Conference was the person fast becoming everyone's favorite speaker, Belle Wheelan. In fact, most casual conversations for the first several hours of the day began the same way: isn't she a great speaker. (And then they related where they've heard her speak in the past year.)

Wheelan is doing more for the assessment world than any amount of P.R. could accomplish. Her plain-speaking about the Department of Education is instructive and with humor she communicates what higher ed needs to understand about "the issues," chief among them distance education requirements.

She ended the morning at a luncheon devoted to the SACS 5th Year Interim Report requirement. The bottom line advice: "read the instructions" and "take it seriously."

SACS on Distance Learning

2010-02-18T01:00:00.005-06:00

New guidance from SACS addresses distance learning. Just added to the web in January 2010, the document relates standards to likely documentation with these headings: Expectations, Questions / Considerations (in question form), and Best Practices (with helpful level of specificity). Direct links to the pertinent PDF files:

Guidelines added in 2010:
Distance Education and the Principles of Accreditation: Documenting Compliance
http://www.sacscoc.org/pdf/081705/Distance%20Education%20and%20the%20Principles%20of%20Accreditation.pdf

Policy Statement from 1997, updated 2006, endorsed 2009:
Distance and Correspondence Education
http://www.sacscoc.org/pdf/081705/distance%20education.pdf

The full set of SACS' Instituitional Resources is on the SACS-COC web site:
http://www.sacscoc.org/inst_forms_and_info1.asp

Recession Realities: Blog in 2010

2010-02-17T00:01:00.004-06:00

Ray Schroeder continues to blog on the Recession Realities in Higher Education in the U.S. His 2010 entries display the range of institutions facing budget cuts, many of which will play out in lay-offs, whole majors eliminated, and truncated summer schedules.

The short list of institutions detailed in the blog: City College of San Francisco, Dartmouth, U of Illinois, U of Nevada, Brown. The list goes on and on.

As the blog makes clear, cuts today are not isolated events with recovery in sight. As students, staff, and faculty adjust to new conditions, they will realize the long-term effects. For staff and faculty, that's likely to be reduced income (for some, loss of job altogether). For students, the effect is likely to be increased time to degree. And increased costs, too.

UT's Assessment Institute, June 2010

2010-02-16T01:11:00.005-06:00

UT Austin has opened registration for its Assessment Institute for 60 participants able to travel to Austin for June 17-18, 2010.

Early bird registration before May 1: $575
Regular registration before June 11: $650

The Institute's emphasis is on academic program assessment. Interactive sessions are planned and that's the reason attendance is limited. The Assessment Institute web page provides more detail as well as hyperlinks to resources produced by UT's Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment.

Checking up on EDU Checkup

2010-02-11T00:15:00.005-06:00

Checking up on Nick DeNardis's reviews of university web sites takes a lot of time... because the number of his reviews has doubled since I last visited. The time is worth it. The site is EDU Checkup.

My favorite part of the web site is the Tips Archive. I can scan the list of recent analyses, reading concise tips based on what Nick found on a site. The tips are sound even if they are based on some errors the universities made. (You can click the name of the college for the video clip in which Nick offers his critique of the academic home page.)

FYI: No advertising here. I receive nothing from EDU Checkup other than a good education in academic web design.

Transparency: Course Views

2010-02-10T00:35:00.002-06:00

With economics as its focus, Justin Johansen's 2009 dissertation research on open courseware at Brigham Young U concluded that sharing the details of academic courses, along with actual curriculum content, does not reduce enrollment for the course by paying students. That's an important factoid for the institutions that currently or hope to display open courseware on the Internet.

Open courseware probably promotes enrollment but that's a conclusion that deserves testing more broadly. The premise is logical, though: a "deep" view of the course (even if scope is not of the entire course) permits students to preview assignments and even content knowledge. Level of difficulty is evident and perhaps even the professor's personality is, too.

The additional bonus is that learning outcomes are visible in open courseware. Whether for the student shopping for a good fit or the public seeking to understand what the institution offers to students, the display of outcomes provides context for the assignments and content. An ideal display would include assessment results tied to the outcomes from prior semesters of the course. Transparency at its best.

(In keeping with the subject of the research, Johansen's dissertation is available on the web. Use link at top of this entry.)

New blog: Genuine Evaluation

2010-02-09T00:01:00.005-06:00

Australia and New Zealand provide the world with wonderful scholarship and practice—and that includes a new blog on evaluation. (Twitter, too.)

Patricia J. Rogers and E. Jane Davidson have been stateside for parts of their career but currently reside in their homelands. With the power of Internet technologies, we can enjoy their takes on evaluation instantaneously, of course.

The name of the blog is Genuine Evaluation, launched in January 2010. Start reading now to follow the development of a site by two talented writers. They incorporate philosophy with practical aspects of evaluation and critical review of based on their own use of methodologies. They also promise an occasional joke.

CHEA Award - Student Learning Outcomes

2010-02-02T01:30:00.004-06:00

The 2010 CHEA Award for Outstanding Institutional Practice in Student Learning Outcomes has been awarded to Capella U, Portland State U, St. Olaf College, and the U of Arkansas - Fort Smith.

Capella U's work in SLOs is tied to the online university's extensive use of electronic rubrics in its courses. Instructors' scoring with rubrics produces a tremendous amount of data that permits reporting on learning outcomes across courses and whole programs. The institution publishes reports on a Learning Outcomes web page: select a degree from "Program Outcome Reports" in the left column. After a pause of several seconds, graphics will load.

Disclosure statement: I serve as a member of Capella University's research faculty. I have not received any compensation or acknowledgment from the institution concerning my writing about Capella. In fact, I do not discuss my blog or other work with anyone at the institution. (This blog's only monetary reward comes through google.adsense links, which are selected by Google, not by me.)

Tech Tip: Another Meeting Notification System

2010-01-28T00:01:00.005-06:00

http://www.meetwithagenda.com/

There are a lot of meeting notice sites out there. This one really is the easiest I've used. It does not require an account to get started. You can let the site send the email notices to your meeting attendees or you can elect to do that yourself.

For follow up, a simple link to "Attendance Details" allows you to see who has accepted or made a comment. Each acceptance generates an email to the organizer, besides.

Disclosure statement: I have no relationship with MeetingWithAgenda and I have not received any compensation or free product for mentioning this service. (This blog's only monetary reward comes through google.adsense links, which are selected by Google, not by me.)

Recommended Gift for an Evaluator

2010-01-27T01:30:00.004-06:00

Eva the Evaluator is not a story book. What it is… a low-cost, slim paperback with 4-color illustrations that resembles a children's book. Of course, it is intended as a children's book. I consider it a better choice for the adult professional evaluator it seeks to describe.

The story of Eva is not so simple. In fact, it demonstrates that evaluators' work is hard to explain. But this little book brought a smile of delight to the administrator I placed it before, making it the best holiday gift I gave this year.

Eva the Evaluator by Roger Miranda
ISBN-10: 0984158804
ISBN-13: 978-0984158805
Reading level: age 9-12

Disclosure statement: I paid for my copy of the book and I have not received any compensation or free product from the publisher for mentioning this book. (This blog's only monetary reward comes through google.adsense links, which are selected by Google, not by me.)

Assessment Folks Will Appreciate Yale's High School Musical

2010-01-26T00:01:00.004-06:00

My guess is that assessment folks will not be confused, irritated, or dismissive of the new Yale recruitment video, "That's Why I Chose Yale." The almost 17-minute production has drawn criticism from lots of viewers but also some good-humored appreciation.

This is why assessment folks will approve of the video:

1 - Every institution has a responsibility to communicate to prospects what students experience on the campus. It doesn't matter that Yale doesn't need to promote any more applications from prospects. The Yale video incorporates important factoids about the school: there are 17 dance troupes and 36 student publications, there's someone called a freshman counselor, "profs" join students for their study breaks, and on and on.

2 - Few prospective students read a viewbook cover to cover, or even a trifold brochure. The Yale video is engaging—teenagers will watch it to its end. (You may, too.) It doesn't matter that the songs are cheesy and the message is not subtle. The video addresses adolescents' need for self-focus just as cheesy-and-not-subtle video entertainment has for decades. Witness Beach Blanket Bingo, Saved by the Bell, Seventh Heaven, and High School Musical. All have spoken directly to adolescents' desire for wholesome happiness in spite of protestations to the contrary.

3 - The Yale video reflects real Yale students. Authenticity extends to the writing, the production, the performances. As the credits disclose, the talent ranges from Yale Class of '06 to Class of '13. The Dean of Admissions receives an acknowledgement (Class of '75) so the credits roughly reflect the ratio of old adults to young adults appearing in the video. The production does an excellent job of casting average-looking middle-aged people who cannot compete with the really talented and good-looking young people. It never hurts to differentiate between old adults and young adults when your audience is just entering the young adult category.

Perhaps Yale doesn't fret over how to document its recruiting methods but if there's an outstanding link to be included in an accreditation report, this is the one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGn3-RW8Ajk

Tech Note: Getting More Tech

2010-01-21T00:01:00.003-06:00

The single best easy-to-digest technology magazine geared to higher ed is Campus Technology. And it's free.

Subscribe online with the option to receive the magazine electronically or in print. The green choice is the electronic, of course. But the hard copy makes very good airplane reading; it's a habit I haven't dropped yet.

Publisher: 1105 Media Inc. Nee Syllabus. And sponsor of the annual Campus Technology conference. Nee Syllabus. The cost of the summer conference is not cheap but the cost of the publication helps to make up for that. If you qualify for the free magazine (every subscriber I know has qualified) you also have option to receive free email newsletters on focused topics.

Disclosure: Nope, no disclosure regarding this plug for 1105 products. I have no financial relationship with the company other than the dollars I have sent to them over the years for conference fees.

VALUE Rubrics for a General Beginning

2010-01-20T00:20:00.004-06:00

In recent conversations with two graduate program administrators (on different campuses) a common choice was made about ePortfolio assessment: creating a custom rubric based on specialized accreditation standards. But the decision came after studying more general approaches.

The VALUE rubrics at AAC&U provide the general in what the web site describes as reflecting "faculty expectations for essential learning." And that means from across the U.S., across type of institution. AAC&U's rubric project (VALUE = Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education) was part of a larger initiative, LEAP (Liberal Education and America's Promise).

The 15 rubrics include a basic definition of the focus (e.g., "Creative Thinking"), framing language, and glossary of terms. The rubric structure is traditional, with descriptive text in every cell. The rating levels are 4-Capstone, 3- and 2-Milestones, 1-Benchmark.

For fastest access, go straight to the VALUE Rubrics web page. From there you can explore "backward" to LEAP, the Essential Learning Outcomes, and more.

NCAT for Transforming Courses

2010-01-19T01:25:00.003-06:00

I was recently reminded of the wealth of resources at NCAT, the National Center for Academic Transformation. Those are the folks who began with PEW grants and subsequently FIPSE monies in guiding institutions through the redesign of courses. Mainly large courses.

Using technology and systematic planning, institutions are able to improve their course offerings, serve more students, and reduce costs at the same time. The conference is worth checking out although travel-sensitive offices may not be able to tolerate the fee for non-members ($650+). More affordable is the free newsletter, The Learning MarketSpace. Subscribe or just read the archives—equally easy from the web site.

Carol Twigg leads the effort. Many of us have learned from Carol's articles. They are not always easy lessons. But always wise.

TechNote: Free Use of BrainHoney

2010-01-14T00:15:00.004-06:00

2009 marked the transition from GoCourse to BrainHoney, products that Agilix describes as learning management environments (not necessarily learning management systems, or LMSs). BrainHoney reflects these principles: user-friendly course authoring, facilitated alignment with objectives and state standards, student-performance progress tracking, and easy course management.

I became a fan of Agilix products through work with a higher ed client; now, I get to play with BrainHoney outside of any institution. (I have no financial relationship with Agilix.)

Agilix offers free hosting to anyone who wants to set up a web-based course. Think moodle in terms of access, and then enjoy the Agilix version of support while you experiment with the software.

To register (minimal contact information required) and set up a space (as an individual, without committing your institution), go to http://www.brainhoney.com. BrainHoney will make you a better LMS consumer just by seeing what Agilix programmers have achieved.

One More SACS-related Link

2010-01-13T02:10:00.006-06:00

Dave Eubanks shared his notes from the SACS Annual Meeting (December 2009 in Atlanta) at this link. As he put it, he tried to soak up everything he could on 5th Year Reports (SACS' requirement for reporting between 10-year reaffirmations). I'll repeat Dave's advisory: his notes are his own and do not reflect SACSese. (Nice word invention.)

New Listserv for the New Year

2010-01-12T01:00:00.004-06:00

Celebrate the new year with a new assessment-focused listserv:

To subscribe, send email: SUBSCRIBE SACS-L
to this address: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UHD.EDU

You have all the information embedded in the subscription instruction, right? The focus is on SACS. And the host is University of Houston - Downtown.

New discussion forums are almost always informative and stimulating; the SACS-L lives up to that. The focus on one regional accrediting body holds promise, too.

Blog on Winter Break!

2009-12-15T00:01:00.002-06:00

Blog will return 12 January 2010.

© 2009 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (www.marybold.com, www.boldproductions.com, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.

Tech Tip: Using Technology to Support Retention

2009-12-10T00:01:00.003-06:00

A special issue (December) of Campus Technology includes an example-filled article on use of technology for enrollment management and retention. Pulling from diverse campuses as well as technology strategies, the article drives home a point made by one of the interviewees: no one can afford the human mentors it would take to retain students at the level that technology tools can do it.

Campus Technology is a free subscription magazine with choice of print or digital delivery. The Subscription link is easy to spot on virtually every web page and it's easy to fill out, too.

North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State U: Web site for SACS reaffirmation

2009-12-09T00:01:00.002-06:00

As use of web sites for accreditation documentation has become more popular, institutions' efforts have become more sophisticated. North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NCAT) currently is displaying its compliance reports and myriad samples in preparation for its 2010 reaffirmation by SACS. The NCAT SACS Reaffirmation 2010 web site is extensive; it includes full explanation of the campus work (teams, timeline, etc.) leading up to the effort.

Like most SACS institutions that create web sites to document the process, this one includes a Document Library. Using PDF to full advantage, documents are accessible and can be printed easily, as well. Throughout the web site, "filters' are available in the fashion of search boxes. Many of the web pages also offer three option buttons of PDF, Print, and Email. Hyperlinks appear in most text to offer linking to pertinent documents or data.

Discussions at SACS 2009

2009-12-08T00:01:00.002-06:00

The nice thing about assessment folks is that they are open-minded. Perhaps that's because the work of assessment on higher ed campuses is tough. So, the people who do it are always looking for new assists, new thinking. In our pre-conference workshop last weekend at the SACS Annual Meeting, two discussions proved this again.

First, we talked about the strong and candid statements of Laurie Fendrich. She has written short pieces for the Chronicle (in 2007 and 2009, if you care to google her) about outcomes assessment. No doubt, when she calls the process baloney, she reflects what many are thinking. The SACS room was interested in the comments, chuckled appropriately, and took seriously the fact that many faculty members may hold the same sentiment.

Second, we talked about embedded assessment. A participant commented that this technique appears to bring out the worst in faculty, not the best. In short, the "embeddedness" in courses makes at least some faculty members resistant to assessment in general. With attention at the course level, instructors feel scrutinized and criticized.

I still like outcomes assessment. And I still like embedded assessment as a technique. But I am glad to be in the room when these things are questioned. Moving to a culture of assessment means picking up every piece of it, turning it over and upside down, and continuing to question the best way to conduct assessment.

Tech Tip: Laptops, texting, and SNSs are very in

2009-12-03T00:01:00.004-06:00

ECAR* Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology 2009

EDUCAUSE surveys mainly traditional students on their technology and preferences and then publishes the results once a year. The most recent release was October 2009:

Laptops are way up and desktop computers are down.
IM is out; social networking sites (SNSs) are in.
Cell phones are ubiquitous and texting is nearly so.
Students appreciate F2F classes but they also like technology in their classes.

Fastest read: open the PDF of the Roadmap (4 pages)
Next fastest: open the PDF of the Key Findings (7 pages)

*ECAR is the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research. Many of their projects and publications reside behind a password but the UG Students & IT report is open to all. (Your institution may have an EDUCAUSE membership so you may have institutional access to many more resources.)

Mobile Learning: An Education Faculty's Accounting

2009-12-02T00:01:00.003-06:00

A circulating URL leads to a collection of papers from Education researchers at the University of Wollongong, Australia. It's worth following to the ultimate book.

New technologies, new pedagogies: Mobile learning in higher education. The 2009 text is online in PDF format. From the University's Research Online web site, click the Download button (transfer of 16.2 mb).

Most of the projects described in the text use smartphones or iPods. "Authentic learning" is a theme for the projects directed to teachers and their students as well as to the University's pre-service teachers. Admittedly, the book itself might be a challenge on a smartphone but the projects detailed in it are well suited to the mobile technologies that we're all adopting.

The Cost of Assessment: Creating a Simple Model

2009-12-01T02:00:00.001-06:00

In preparing for a workshop at SACS, a colleague and I made a first-time addition for a conference presentation: we're going to talk dollars. The topic arose in a different venue as we discussed portfolio costs with a vendor. Afterward, we turned to our work of that day, which was to finalize the agenda for a 3-hour pre-conference workshop.

The discussion with the vendor brought us to that new idea of sharing the costs of supporting faculty in the work of outcomes assessment. Sharing workshops and materials is common in the assessment world. While vendors may not give away too much, even they invite trial uses of SaaS and products. Conference presenters from universities commonly offer their templates for widespread use and thus many institutions' instruments carry provisos such as "modified from...."

This year, we plan to add the crucial information of just how much it costs to produce those materials. We are not performing the cost analysis of salary, benefits, etc. We are using hourly and project wages that are independent of regular paychecks. So, we are outlining what it would cost an institution to hire a part-time worker to perform certain tasks. That's not necessarily what the work is worth. And it's not necessarily the reward that would satisfy faculty members who have been doing assessment "out of their hide." But it is a pragmatic measure that brings perspective to the work of assessment.

Example to support an ePortfolio in a Master's program:

A model for ePortfolio Coaches (assume two of them) to support students in a tracking ePortfolio: hourly wage of $20 for a Master's-prepared Coach with experience in using the portfolio software. Assume a ratio of 1:375, quarter-time employment, that works because the program is in its first year. The next step is to reduce the ratio to 1:250, which means bringing on a 3rd Coach. You may have already made the calculation: it's about $30,000/year (just for the support staff).

Example to facilitate a faculty group's creation of a plan:
Using a consultant model, assume $75/hr fees for assisting a faculty group in designing an assessment plan. The rest of the equation is how many hours does it take, of course. In the case of designing a plan? We have found 10 hours to be about right: 5 in facilitating meetings and 5 in creating materials. So, a program's plan may cost $750 to create.

What the examples offer:
Having a model to work from does not answer an institution's decision-making around whether to fund such a project! But it does bring into focus the real-world aspects of planning for assessment work. Would the numbers differ from one institution to the next? Sure.

A few days off for the holiday

2009-11-24T00:01:00.002-06:00

Off... for Thanksgiving week. Blog will return in December. ~ M. Bold

December Conferences: Moodle LMP Among Them

2009-11-19T00:01:00.003-06:00

Campus Technology's free webinar series (upcoming schedule online) runs during the front half of December with topics on Wellesley's content management system (Dec 3), cloud computing (Dec 9), and moodlerooms as LMP or learning management platform (Dec 10). The webcasts have a commercial flavor, to be sure, but they also communicate a lot of knowledge about new software and services (and, yes, sometimes Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS). Reservations are taken but if you miss out on a seat, you can return to the schedule page and access a past webcast "on demand." This is the method I use about half the time.

Newest abbreviation on the block: LMP for learning management platform. Distance learning (DL) in higher ed has moved through CMS (course management system but now used almost exclusively for content management system) to LMS (learning management system). LMP has some nice connotations, among them the concept of one platform among many to be employed in DL. That's opposed to a "system" which implies a complete environment, even though systems can be open. There's one more connotation from a personal perspective: I've been studying pause tables, the platforms that dogs employ on an agility course. I like that analogy best of all for DL: a platform for use, probably on a temporary basis, and existing in between other events.

Free Conferences Online: Claremont Colleges Digital Library

2009-11-18T00:55:00.004-06:00

Conferences and symposia at Claremont Graduate University are among the most affordable but there's one more resource that's free: Claremont Colleges Digital Library. Access requires only the QuickTime player (also free from Apple). Production values are sometimes low but the video playback is superb, thanks to QuickTime.

The menu for the Online Video Library provides titles and speakers, identification by conference, and length of video. Using your browser search function [Control F] you can quickly scan the page for "Scriven" and find hours of learning to be accomplished on your own time.

A more leisurely stroll through the menu leads to other excellent resources on evaluation and higher ed issues, in general. Elsewhere on the page are links to text and video about some of the Claremont series. Some links involve a charge but you'll also find some free items, such as the first 45 minutes from the 2009 Stauffer Symposium, which happened to be Claremont's first webcast effort in addition to the F2F conference. Click on "Positive Psychology Conference - Video Footage" on the left side of the menu web page and scroll down to the black square that offers the free show. (I took the time to play the free excerpt—it's a good representation of the day but I'll admit that I'm glad I saw it in person. You can also view the whole day for $25.)

Travel and Technology (Fall Conferences)

2009-11-17T01:16:00.000-06:00

Fall conference travel... for SAIR, IUPUI, NCFR, and next up, SACS... has prompted a new technology list for the season. These are my new and returning tools that make working possible during travel weeks:

VOIP EAR BUDS:
VOIP headsets are as old as VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), but its the ear bud version (with mike in the cord) that caught my eye this year. This version of connecting to the laptop is comfortable and easy to pack. Don't get confused by regular ear buds and mike (for your cell phone). Nor the plain ear buds (for your MP3 player). In short, look for the two crucial components: the mike in the cord and the ending points in 2 input jacks. Find all those elements (happily, for under $20) and you're ready for enhanced VOIP. (The graphic above also shows one more feature: retractable cords via the round element in center.)

WAVE ON CHROME:
My waves can still be counted on one hand but I'm working on learning Wave, Google's new email offering. It's really a conversation piece, in more ways than one, and it requires one of just a handful of qualified web browsers. So, that's why chrome is new for me, now, too. After the novelty wears off, we'll know if Wave really adds to my productivity. Right now, it's a major learning curve. Chrome is much easier to adopt and I especially like its + sign at the top to create a new tab.

APPLE AIRPORT:
I travel with my PCs, not my Apple laptop, but I carry along the Apple Airport in order to turn cable Internet access into wireless access in my hotel room. This durable item is a standard now. I spend a lot of time worrying that I will fail to unplug it upon departure.

AIR CARD:
For the hotel rooms with too-expensive or too-slow Internet, I plug in my USB "card" which is really a neat little stick for accessing the 3G network. I also use it in airports. (Think of it as a cell phone for the laptop because it actually does have a "phone number" assignment from the cell service company.)

GOGO NETWORK:
And then there's this new inducement to work while traveling: Internet access from 30,000 feet. Just a couple of days ago, on an aging S80, I found the plane to be WIFI-enabled. It was a red-eye flight and I didn't want to disturb neighbors with my laptop so I accessed the network with my iPhone. And surfed. Hardly got my money's worth ($7.95) but enjoyed the luxury of having WIFI everywhere.

MISSING:
What's missing? Life could be pretty darn perfect if we had an assessment cruise... with affordable WIFI on ship. Travel and technology go well together.

Tech Note: Advising In World

2009-11-12T00:01:00.003-06:00

Virtual advising has officially entered Penn State's stock of student services. The institution's Second Life island is the locale for meetings between avatars "in world"; advisers' availability is posted on the Penn State Online web site. See the staff photo (of avatars) on that web site.

An inventive feature of the Penn State initiative: walk-in hours.

The image at right is not from Penn State. That's my avatar on the island of Texas Woman's University. I have keynoted in SL, met with students, and helped to create a student research symposium. All good things to do virtually. Recommended starting point for anyone new to the immersive environment: NMC, New Media Consortium.

FYI: I don't worry over the debate of whether we in higher ed should be teaching in Second Life. Or even whether higher ed should invest in virtual worlds. But I do think we should all practice in every SL venue open to us. We need to practice. SL is probably not going to be the virtual world we teach in 10 years from now. But it's a great place to practice now.

CollegeInSight: Mashup Guide to Higher Ed

2009-11-11T00:01:00.005-06:00

The explosion of data sources on U.S. higher education no doubt matches the growth of the Internet. It's a 2000s story, with updates daily. Today's entry isn't about a brand-new web publisher (because The Institute for College Access & Success has been around for a few years, researching access as well as student experience with loans) but an established one's beta web site for displaying college data to the public.

The number of "public" guides to colleges continues to grow with emphasis on easy to pull statistics. This one, CollegeInSight, handles data well and permits even custom tables (through the "explore all data" tab). Data reflect more than 150 variables from multiple sources. The primary sources are recognizable to folks in IR but not to much of the public: IPEDS reported to NCES, Pell Grant files, FISAP reported to DOE, and CDS or Common Data Set maintained by Peterson's.

The resulting mashup, with its clear identification of sources, sets a new standard for data sites concerning higher ed.

Comparability of College Assessments

2009-11-10T00:01:00.006-06:00

In the search for proof of what college can do for the nation, we have a fair number of accountability initiatives. Some prescribed by government, some by accreditors. And then there are the self-assigned initiatives although they may be prompted by those other prescriptions.

We move quickly from "accountability" to "assessment," because we need measurement. So, assessment-the-process and assessment-the-instrument develop and we must then move to "validity," because we really need to know if we are measuring what our charge for accountability demands that we measure.

Some associations emerge to help with the process, one being VSA, Voluntary System of Accountability. That's a gathering of 4-year public universities just since 2006 to bring transparency and accountability to higher ed. VSA's most visible achievement (on the web, at least) is College Portraits, a collection of institutional profiles providing "comparable information" on colleges for easy review by students and families.

Recently, VSA published a report on validity of what most educators consider the "top" standardized assessments (instruments) of gen ed skills, specifically tests from the CAAP, CLA, and MAPP. The results announce that the assessments are comparable in what they do. The report does a nice job of explaining the results when the institution is the unit of analysis and when the student is the unit of analysis. (The results differ.)

Depending on what assumption you (personally) have about standardized assessments of gen ed skills and applicability to student learning, you now have an answer.

Assumption #1: Such assessments measure student learning. Your answer: The top assessments are comparable and you can proceed with your choice based on other criteria (cost, logistics, etc.)

Assumption #2: Such assessments may measure something but probably not student learning. Your answer: The top assessments are comparable; in short, they're all the same.

Authenticating Identification... No, Just Identifying

2009-11-05T00:01:00.003-06:00

Negotiated rule-making on the question of student identity in distance learning suggested a common sense approach and that is now made official in the final regulations from Department of Education. The fast find: search for "identity" on the web page.

The October 27 publication (in the Federal Registry) was among a cluster of final rulings on the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, abbreviated as HEOA. Announcements about similar regulations are made on the Higher Education page of Ed.gov. Although designed as a web page, the site reads a lot like a blog, with stacked entries over time and sidebar hyperlinks to other sources.

Reporting Assessment Results (Well): Pairing UNLV and OERL

2009-11-04T00:35:00.002-06:00

Following the work of University of Nevada - Las Vegas Office of Academic Assessment and their online Assessment Toolbox, a good outline for reporting to stakeholders includes a link to OERL with recommendation to explore the tabs for Plans, Instruments, and Reports.

One of the richer guides on the OERL (Online Evaluation Resource Library) site is the Alignment Table for Report Components. Between the two web sites, you find the short and long of assessment report-writing.

Old Dominion's GNATs

2009-11-03T00:07:00.002-06:00

"The number of colleges and universities carrying out assessment activities since the early 1980s has grown from a handful to virtually all institutions of higher education today."

~ from the History web page of Old Dominion University web site on assessment

The history of assessment at Old Dominion does a good job of highlighting the events since the '80s that drive measures today. The lesson is subtly made: attention to outcomes assessment is relatively recent. Old Dominion is frank about its own recent attention to building infrastructure for assessment. One of the institution's strategies was formation of GNATS—Great New Assessment Teams.

Old Dominion indicates that its assessment web site is "new and improved." Not knowing its previous condition, I can at least call the current version neat, clean, and easy to read. From left, check out the Assessment Cycle. From right, go ahead and click "Top 10 Facts About Assessment of Student Learning." The Top 10 list draws you in....

APA 6: Corrections Now Available

2009-10-29T01:30:00.003-05:00

As software is released in versions, we've become accustomed to products improving after their release. The APA Publication Manual joins that tradition. Actually, it already was in the tradition: after the 5th edition was published, APA offered a list of corrections and then inserted the corrections in subsequent printings of the book. This year, the same is being promised for the 6th edition.

The list of corrections is available on the APA Style web site. The second printing (with corrections) of the book will be available to requesters after November 2 (for a limited time). Check out the APA web site for more information.

For a much more instructive (and entertaining) introduction to APA 6, read the APA Style Blog. If you scroll to October 8, you can learn more about the corrections to the text. But the real treasure is in the informal explanations of APA rules.

Lunch at IUPUI: Unofficial Report on California Higher Ed

2009-10-28T00:01:00.002-05:00

At the speakers' luncheon today at IUPUI Assessment Institute, I sat with colleagues from UCLA, USC, and Southern Illinois U. The conversation was lively and also instructive. The UCLA person confirmed for us much of what we have assumed from news reports about public higher ed in California. Her brief report: students are paying 30% more for 10% less... and this is not a single year of belt-tightening in terms of furloughs. She, and her cohort at UCLA, expect rough years ahead. And they are prepared to see students give up on waiting to get into the system.

Expectations for Assessment: Still Growing

2009-10-27T00:01:00.003-05:00

To gain a quick sense of the surveys utilized in higher ed today, check out the Tool Kit: Surveys web page of the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment web site.

NILOA is a new (since 2008) site devoted to highlighting assesment of student learning outcomes in higher ed. It is supported by Lumina Foundation for Education, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and The Teagle Foundation. The project is housed at U of Illinois and Indiana U.

The project's purpose statement "Making Learning Outcomes Usable & Transparent" and its sheer existence make a statement about expectations for assessment in higher ed: still growing.

Civic Engagement: College Ranking

2009-10-22T01:10:00.003-05:00

Civic engagement is the leading criterion for a ranking of colleges published by Westfield State College (Massachusetts). In a report called Saviors of Our Cities, the 2009 Survey of College & University Civic Partnerhips presents 25 institutions, as it has done since the survey's inception in 2006. Added in 2009, is the Honor Roll of an additional 116 institutions.

The more informal descriptor of the survey is 2009 Top 25 'Best Neighbor' Colleges & Universities. The survey grew out of scholarly research by Evan S. Dobelle, who now serves as President at Westfield State.

List of Assessment Conferences

2009-10-21T00:11:00.002-05:00

PACAT (the folks behind the ACATs) publishes a handy list of Assessment Conferences, with links to the conference home pages. What I like: SAIR's 2010 data appear the same week that SAIR 2009 wrapped up in Dallas (Tuesday!)

Of course, the credit for that goes to SAIR because conference organizers make entries at the web page for their upcoming meetings to be included.

I have no association with PACAT. I'm just a fan of their web page. And impressed that they bought a URL for the purpose!

Del Mar's Dashboard

2009-10-20T00:18:00.001-05:00

For a display of a smooth-running dashboard, check out Del Mar College's interactive charts on their Institutional Research and Effectiveness web site. The site also offers Statistical Profiles (mostly in PDF files) with convenient "new" icons for returning visitors. The site provides a nice history of assessment efforts at the College with many files and links.

Among the Statistical Profiles are course survey results. Small n courses (fewer than 5 students) are excluded and identities (such as faculty names) are omitted. Otherwise the results are complete and a sound example of transparency.

Del Mar is an Associate degree-granting institution located in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Clemson's Links to Colleges' Honor Policies

2009-10-15T00:01:00.003-05:00

Not just plagiarism falls under the umbrella of academic dishonesty although that continues to be the hot topic for most investigations into campus culture of integrity. The proliferation of plagiarism checkers (mostly driving search engines of Google and just a few more) in the past couple of years has made electronic tools not only attractive but also near requirements, either embedded in learning management systems or available in web browsers.

Today, campus policy-makers are likely to be experts on plagiarism detection (and perhaps customers of several mainstream vendors, besides). To step out of that sub-topic and into the broader topic of academic integrity, a scan of university web sites brings perspective. Clemson University's Center for Academic Integrity is a rich resource for all the topics and a handy means to branch out to more than 50 of the Center's member institutions to see how campuses are addressing academic honesty. The comparison of honor codes and policies permits a close-up view of West Point's verbiage intended for cadets as well as policies of very large institutions and very small ones, publics and privates.

Web Resources from Intel

2009-10-14T00:51:00.002-05:00

Intel's set of web sites for Education Programs and Resources includes a curriculum-rich set for Higher Education. But the fun stuff is at Free Teaching Tools and Resources. Your approach can be classroom or training room. Either way, you'll be rewarded.

Starting December 1, bloggers are required to disclose any relationship (or "material connections") with companies whose products the bloggers review. And bloggers must also substantiate or advise about claims about the products (such as, "results may vary"). The FTC is aiming to increase transparency on the web as well as other media. Such requirements demand compliance. But also invite humorous musings. Mine would be: (a) my only material connection with Intel is the money I've spent over the years on Intel Inside computers, (b) I would hate to have to substantiate "fun" in today's post although anyone who knows me would recognize the likelihood of me having had fun with the free teaching tools, and (c) will the FTC rule affect product placements in movies? (I like the new FTC rule, by the way.)

Center for Language Education and Research

2009-10-13T00:01:00.002-05:00

Resources for foreign language educators include evaluation and assessment projects from the web site CLEAR, Center for Language Education and Research. The "store" is a good starting point because it moves you quickly to the mostly free resources such as rich Internet applications (RIAs). For people in a hurry, go straight to the page with All Products.

CLEAR is a U.S. Department of Education Title VI Language Resource Center. Obviously, the emphasis on content is languages. The RIAs and other technology resources are for everyone, with user-friendly interfaces to support use of Flash word processors, game creators, mashup creators, etc. The talent behind the works: Michigan State University.

There are 15 Department of Ed language resource centers, accessible from another web page at Michigan.

Plagiarism Policies in Higher Ed

2009-10-08T00:01:00.003-05:00

For an international perspective on plagiarism by students, see the JISC research report on how the matter is handled at higher ed institutions in the UK. An investigation into plagiarism policies uncovered 25 different penalties across 153 institutions. Common ground: 99% include the possibility of expulsion.

Similar range of penalties and policies exist in U.S. schools. Among the more informally written is this phrase from the Rutgers explanation of consequences: "University policy will kick in, regardless of the feelings of either the students or the instructor."

Student Authentication: Resource within WCET

2009-10-07T00:01:00.002-05:00

Higher ed has its horror stories on who can get an online degree. They range from the dog (whose owner mailed in the check) to the family who appeared at graduation to collect their, um, collective diploma because they had all worked together to accomplish the course work. Somewhere in between are the known and guessed-at scenarios of "farming out" a course or an assignment, maybe for pay or maybe just enlisting a friend or relative who's better at.... well, a Stats course might be a common choice.

Online instructors are not so suspicious. Most claim that they develop a sense of who their students are, especially if they teach in a program that permits repeated contact over several semesters. It's harder to accept the familiarity claim by instructors who meet students in a single class. (As an online adjunct, I am in this category. But when I was on regular faculty working in an online program, I also served as an advisor and taught several courses. In that setting, I felt very confident that I knew my students as well as their work.)

Being certain of an online student's identity is a hot topic for at least another year as institutions decide how to meet that expectation. A good guide to the topic is through WCET's web page on Academic Integrity and Student Authentication.

Supports from UConn: Assessment Primer

2009-10-06T00:01:00.003-05:00

UConn publishes an extensive support for internal and external communities on its Assessment web site. The Assessment Primer provides a logical progression though the major concepts and graphics are interspersed in what is usually a text-heavy approach to learning about assessment. The illustrations are simple but drive home points such as how assessments flow from an institutional mission statement while presenting hierarchical relationships among Goals, Objectives, and Outcomes in an Outcomes Pyramid.

Tech Note: Online Edu Readiness

2009-10-01T00:01:00.003-05:00

The Student Online Readiness Tool (SORT) is a self-assessment for student use before making the choice of taking online classes. The free access web site is sponsored by the University System of Georgia. Students are invited to take the self-quizzes in any order (and not necessarily in one sitting) to receive immediate feedback on their suitability for distance learning. While the content is standard, and the immediate scoring produces "profile" information with suggestions, the real power of all such screening tools is to place the issues before the prospective student. Just by being exposed to the concepts, students begin to make the self-assessment of how they will adapt to the online environment. Probably not a design decision, but one that occurred to me when exploring the site, is the requirement that the student actually click through a lot of radio buttons (much like they will find in a course's online quizzes and tests). If that's a time-consuming task, or a confusing one in terms of keeping track of the mouse focus on the buttons, students will tire of it and... self-select out of distance learning.