On November 26, 2019, representatives from the Registrar’s Office and IT presented the task force with currently available technological solutions for collecting and publishing program educational goals and annual educational goal assessment reports.

A new article in Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning describes UD’s Center for Teaching & Assessment of Learning as an example of how “assessment is moving beyond a compliance-oriented approach to one that is closer to the classroom and curriculum, and thus to the regular ongoing work of faculty.” Currently celebrating its 45th anniversary as a center for faculty development, CTAL today is the result of a 2013 merger between the Office of Educational Assessment and the Office of Teaching Effectiveness. This merger has allowed CTAL to distinguish itself nationally among higher education scholars who study assessment and institutional culture. The authors of this article  praise CTAL’s approach to assessment as one where: “the purpose of assessment is not to generate reports but to inform ongoing efforts to improve what happens for students in their courses and programs.”

The full article, “Better Together: How Faculty Development and Assessment Can Join Forces to Improve Student Learning” by Jillian Kinzie, Kathleen Landy, Mary Deane Sorcinelli, and Pat Hutchings can be found at http://www.udel.edu/006502

LGA Task Force co-chair, Matthew Trevett-Smith, met with a team from IT’s web development to discuss the creation of assessment report collection and digital transparency processes possible to facilitate inter-department communication going forward.

LGA Task Force co-chair, Beth Morling, met with department chairs & directors to discuss current program educational goals and gather ideas for best practices going forward to evolve our practices and culture of assessment for student learning.

LGA Task Force co-chairs, Beth Morling and Matthew Trevett-Smith, met with representatives of UD’s Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness to discuss their role in the current Academic Program Review process, and how learning goal assessment might interplay with current (and future) systems and practices.