1. Engaging and Empowering Faculty in Assessment
Amy Driscoll
WASC Assessment Leadership Academy
August 2011

2. Anticipating Faculty Resistance
Fears
Concerns
Complaints
Misperceptions

3. Anticipating Faculty Expectations
Questions to be answered
Security of practices
Student learning to be enhanced
Hopes for courses, programs

4. Providing opportunities for faculty resistance and enthusiasm to emerge breaks down barriers to faculty engagement, empowerment, and collaboration in assessment. There’s comfort and confidence that emerges from hearing common themes from colleagues.

5. Acknowledging Faculty Assets for Assessment
Ask faculty to list/describe experiences as a student or as a teacher that will serve as assets or strengths for engaging in assessment
Ask faculty to identify current practices that will serve as foundations for their assessment endeavors

6. Faculty Voice in Assessment Purpose(s)
Begin with purposes from assessment literature
Ask faculty to eliminate those purposes that offend or that they dislike
Ask faculty to identify those purposes with which they are comfortable
Ask faculty to edit/revise and/or develop unique purpose(s) for their program or institution

7. Nurturing Faculty Ownership of Assessment
Review learning outcomes and assessment examples from other institutions – critique and revise
Search disciplinary sources for assessment examples and practices – study and implement
Encourage review of learning outcomes by national peers, employers, graduates, and students

8. Connecting Assessment to Curriculum and Pedagogy
Engage faculty in scenario/role play as newly hired faculty with a last minute course assignment to meet the following learning outcome; Analyze the outcome and brainstorm all the ways you would support student learning, in curriculum and pedagogy, to achieve the outcome.
Students develop and make persuasive arguments for inclusion in educational settings.

9. Connecting Assessment to Student Support, Environments
Role play the student who arrives to take the course and reads the learning outcome in the syllabus –what thoughts go through your head, what questions do you have? What worries arise?
Students develop and make persuasive arguments for inclusion in educational settings.

10. Faculty Development Support:
Addresses development of common
understandings of learning outcomes
Addresses intentional alignment of
curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment
with learning outcomes.

11. Faculty Collaboration:Essential to Assessment Success
Entice faculty through “cooperatives,” faculty learning communities, interest groups, action research teams, or…..
Encourage faculty collaboration in program review, strategic planning, preparation for accreditation, or……..
in ways that add value to their work.
Nurture faculty pride in new programs, innovative approaches, course experiments, signature assignment groups, or……..

12. Rationale for Faculty Collaboration in Assessment
The need for diverse perspectives in the development and review of assessment approaches, directions, and student work
Assessment has the potential to bring faculty together to discuss important issues (what, why and how they teach)
Collaboration encourages the formation of coherent, integrated courses, programs
Collaboration helps faculty/staff make better decisions and use limited assessment resources wisely

13. Initiating Faculty Collaboration in Assessment
Faculty collaboration can begin by identifying “common ground” such as their passion for teaching, or their concern for students or their questions about effectiveness or…
Faculty collaboration can focus on cultivating a culture of learning rather than a culture of assessment or a culture of…

14. Other beginning points
Start with successes—program strengths, individual efforts, stories,
Draw on local experts
Engage unofficial leaders to participate
Elevate the status of collaboration in assessment
Anticipate how faculty status influences participation

15. Key Ingredients for Creating Faculty Assessment Communities
Structures and support of both time and space for sustained conversations
Commitment to focus on student learning
A broad perspective on teaching, learning, and assessment

16. Cornerstones for Faculty Assessment Communities
A clear and agreed upon understanding of why assessment is being done
An understanding of who will be informed by the assessment findings
A supportive climate for assessment
Adequate resources to support assessment efforts
(Additional Expectations Related to Faculty Expertise and Interest-Usually Extensions of ULR’s and MLO’s