Learning Improvement Essentials for the 21st Century

Keston Fulcher

The professor who has been instrumental in changing to way many in the assessment community view the field through the now infamous occasional paper “Weigh Pig, Feed Pig, Weigh Pig” offers fresh insights into just what improvement in higher education needs to look like. The 2024 TxAHEA keynote speaker will offer several intimate details that have the potential to break open the way assessment professionals and their institutions seek to improve their students’ learning in the future.

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Building Strategic Planning Skills for Assessment/Effectiveness Professionals

Pamelyn Klepal Shefman

This session will focus on the strategies and skills assessment/effectiveness professionals can use from creating an inclusive strategic plan through the implementation and tracking of progress of that plan. Recommended for those both new to strategic planning and those looking for ideas on how to breathe new life into their institutions’ current strategic plan.

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Help, We Need to Assess Gen Ed! Designing a Reasonable Assessment Plan for General Education

Tisha Paredes

Assessment of a general education program or curriculum can be challenging for many institutions. Usually courses are taught by numerous faculty members in various departments; consequently, leading to disconnected courses, separate outcomes for each course, and an over reliance on course grades as an assessment of student learning. How do we assess a complex program while involving faculty? This workshop will explore approaches on how to utilize faculty expertise in the assessment of general education to demonstrate student learning. This presentation is a staple offered at past SACSCOC conferences and contributes invaluable insights for assessment professionals to build upon.

 

Encouraging Intervention: Leaning into feedback-driven Improvement using Qualtrics Survey Technology and Tableau Data-Driven Dashboards

Jarvis Hampton and Dan Stroud

This presentation is built upon the premise that improvement of student learning is a methodical process that requires intervention to succeed. This moves beyond simple assessment, which is less the subject, and more the process for achievement. Using processes created through Qualtrics and Tableau functionality, the Office of Institutional Effectiveness at West Texas A & M (WTIE) will take you through their process, step-by-step, explaining both the process and sharing the effect its dashboards have had on WT faculty and expectations for improvement that are being realized.

 

SACSCOC ACCREDITATION 101: Strategies, Tips, and Tricks to Ensure Compliance

Beth Wuest, David Allen, Christiane Herber-Valdez, and Marlon Mote

A panel of experienced accreditation liaisons, representing large and small, public and private, and associate- through doctoral-degree institutions, candidly address basic accreditation responsibilities. This includes compliance reporting, substantive change, quality enhancement plans, and other ongoing planning and assessment expectations. The panel provides updates, ideas, and perspectives while describing challenges in maintaining compliance with accreditation requirements, offering suggestions for successfully navigating the reaffirmation process, and responding to participant questions and concerns. Whether participants are relatively new or aspiring accreditation liaisons, or work on specific aspects of accreditation, they will learn to 1) facilitate strategies for successfully navigating the accreditation processes, 2) integrate accreditation with ongoing assessments and university practices, and 3) develop a network of support for accreditation responsibilities.

 

Skills and Strategies for Beginners: An Introduction to Leading Assessment and Accreditation

Iza Martinez and Sasha Tarant

This session equips new assessment officers with techniques and tools to enhance assessment practices and confidence in their role, covering planning, policies, outcomes assessment, program reviews, and accreditation. Participants will learn to interpret their responsibilities, utilize resources, develop effective strategies, and display confidence as assessment leaders, while also fostering collaboration with Institutional Effectiveness and Institutional Research professionals.