2. Celebrating 10 years of VALUE

3. Use Q&A for: Panel discussion Use Chat for: Technology support
#aacuVALUE
Slides and recording will be posted online:

4. Speakers
Moderator
Kate Drezek McConnell Assistant Vice President for Research and Assessment AAC&U
Dexter B. Gordon Professor, Communication Studies and African American Studies Director of African American Studies Program University of Puget Sound
Bonnie Orcutt
Professor of Economics Worcester State University
Debora Ortloff Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Assessment Finger Lakes Community College

5. Kate McConnell Assistant Vice President for Research and Assessment Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)

6. Available VALUE Rubrics
Civic Engagement Creative Thinking Critical Thinking Ethical Reasoning Foundations and Skills for Lifelong Learning Global Learning Information Literacy Inquiry and Analysis
Integrative Learning Intercultural Knowledge & Competence Oral Communication Problem Solving Quantitative Literacy Reading Teamwork Written Communication

7. Why focus on assignment design?

8. The VALUE Approach to Assessment

9. For VALUE, A Careful Balancing Act

10. “Many rubric problems are not (just) methodological, but pedagogical…

11. “For classroom assessment to generate meaningful information, all aspects of the classroom experience must align pedagogically: course outcomes, course content, the learners themselves, the instructional and performance contexts, and the pedagogical strategies used.
In other words, assessment must be related to the what, who, and how of teaching and learning.”
(McConnell & Doolittle, 2017)

12. Students learn by processing cognitively, behaviorally, affectively, and/or socially, but are they indeed learning what we intend for them to learn?

13. Alignment is key, but this does not magically happen
Alignment is key, but this does not magically happen. It happens by design.

14. Bonnie Orcutt Professor of Economics Worcester State University bonnie
Bonnie Orcutt Professor of Economics Worcester State University

15. Quantitative Literacy: Moving Beyond the Math
Building Assignments to Advance Proficiency in QL
Identify
Identify a course in the general education curriculum and/or the major where the student may be called upon to demonstrate QL skills
Identify a course topic where the student may be called upon to demonstrate QL skills
Identify an existing assignment where the student may be called upon to demonstrate QL skills

16. Quantitative Literacy: Moving Beyond the Math
Building Assignments to Advance Proficiency in QL
Align
Identify the course learning outcomes to be addressed in the assignment – align the learning outcomes with the assignment instructions
Explore the extent to which these course learning outcomes align with the dimensions of the QL VALUE rubric
Interpretation; Representation; Calculation; Application and Analysis; Assumptions; Communication
Align the QL VALUE rubric with the Assignment Grading Rubric

17. Quantitative Literacy: Moving Beyond the Math
Building Assignments to Advance Proficiency in QL
Annotate
Annotate your assignment instructions to ensure that there are specific assignment prompts that direct students to demonstrate the various dimensions of the QL VALUE rubric and the course learning outcomes the assignment is intended to capture
In class, annotate the assignment instructions with students to assist them in identifying the outcomes the assignment is designed to addressed – this will enhance transparency and student performance and learning

18. Questions You Might Ask About Your Assignment
Do the assignment instructions clearly address the central task students are being asked to perform? Is your assignment well-thought out and intentional?
Do the assignment instructions clearly articulate how extensive and evidential the answer should be?
Do the assignment instructions clearly articulate how the answers should be communicated?
Do the assignment instructions have built in an appropriate degree of scaffolding?
Is the assignment linked to or related to other assignments?
Does the assignment clearly articulated the criteria for success ?
Are your assignment instructions transparent?

19. Assignment Design: Final Considerations
Complete the assignment yourself and share with your students
Ask students to annotate your answer and grade your answer using the grading matrix.
Consider assignment instruction revisions based upon student performance and feedback

20. Dexter B. Gordon University of Puget Sound, Tacoma WA dgordon@pugetsound.edu
Distinguished Professor
Director Race and Pedagogy Institute
Director of African American Studies

21. Civic Engagement in African American Studies Context & Culture
Why civic engagement is important to Puget Sound and African American Studies?
Legitimacy
Rigorous scholarship
Legacy
Responsible social engagement
Why is civic engagement connected as a student learning outcome within African American Studies?
Historical debt
Responsiveness within community partnerships

22. African American Studies – Learning Outcomes
Acquire sophisticated knowledge of African American and other African diasporic experiences; 
Become conversant with the role of race, power, and difference;
Cultivate rigorous transdisciplinary skills in analytic, reflexive, and community-based research methodologies;​
Develop critical, intellectual, and ethical perspectives that can guide and advance personal, educational, civic, political, and professional actions; and
Engage and interact with differential sites of community development and leadership…to deepen and apply their understanding…

23. Guiding Principles
Responsiveness: the imperative to act dialogically in concert with our partner communities in the face of dynamic changes and emergent crises at the nexus of race.
Reciprocity: the practice of mutually respectful and reflexive give and take.
Coherence: a focused commitment to reflect an integrity of purpose in all the multiple facets of our work.
Synergy: garnering the cumulative benefits from our strongest connected selves.
Sustainability: generative practices and relationships that heal, support, and reenergize.
Flexibility: the agility to carry and engage the full arch of our learning in ways that enable us to adjust productively to the changing needs of campus and community.

24. Civic Assignments–Specific Guiding Principles
Engagement with community
Student input
Infusion model
Re-imagining and complicating ideas of what counts as pedagogical sites

25. Intro to African American Studies (101) --Assignment, Group Research Project
Exploring a local or regional African American organization
Engage the people and documents of the organization
Present an expository, mixed media report
Must answer fundamental questions about subject  

28. Journal Reach

29. Debora Ortloff Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Assessment Finger Lakes Community College

30. Global as a “tricky” concept
College’s mission and history set tone
Disciplinary differences
Global feels less familiar
Other parts of the curriculum
Pre-conceived notions of “what counts”
Be wary of pursuing the perfect

31. Expanding Horizons Narrative Building Broad Exploration Peer-to Peer:
Assignment
Improvement
Peer-to Peer:
Research for relevancy
Support in process
Tailored feedback
Builds Trust

32. Broad Exploration

33. Broad Exploration Take Two

34. Beyond the box: documenting narrative

35. Assignment level support
Provide template for work
Provide Customized Research and Examples from field
Workshop Assignment with specific feedback
Methodology & Pedagogy

36. Lessons Learned & Takeaways
Annotate to align! Do not assume tacit expectations for learning are instantiated in assignment directions
The “tricky” outcomes may require reconceptualizing what “counts” as an assignment
Student agency in assignment (re)design is a powerful pedagogical tool
Give space to faculty for meaning making within and across disciplines
Move beyond “boxes” using faculty voice to craft the learning narrative
Treat assignment design as an iterative process
Transparency is key!
Leverage existing resources like NILOA, TILT

37. Use Q&A for: Panel discussion Use Chat for: Technology support
#aacuVALUE
Slides and recording will be posted online:

38. Speakers
Moderator
Kate Drezek McConnell Assistant Vice President for Research and Assessment AAC&U
Dexter B. Gordon Professor, Communication Studies and African American Studies Director of African American Studies Program University of Puget Sound
Bonnie Orcutt
Professor of Economics Worcester State University
Debora Ortloff Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Assessment Finger Lakes Community College

39. Annual Meeting Pre-Conference Symposium
Is There a Rubric for That? A Decade of VALUE and the Future of Higher Education
VALUE Rubric revisions
Evidence- based
Community-driven
VALUE Institute
Registration now open!

41. AAC&U’s General Education and Assessment Conference
AAC&U Network for Academic Renewal Conference
Creating a 21-Century General Education: Responding to Seismic Shifts
February 14-16, 2019
San Francisco, California
Learn more online at:
#aacuVALUE

42. Forthcoming AAC&U Webinars
Monday, November 5, 2018, 12:00-1:00 p.m. EST – Advancing Diversity and Inclusivity through Multilevel Strategic Leadership
Tuesday, November 13, 2018, 2:00-3:00 p.m. EST – Free Speech at Colleges and Universities: Perspectives and Recommendations
Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 1:00-2:00 p.m. EST – The Landscape of Learning: What We Know from the Inaugural Year
of the VALUE Institute