2011+Winter+ATL+Retreat

SEMINAR SESSION I:
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[[file:Robinson on assessment.docx]]

 * Sir Ken Robinson -Changing Education Paradigms (RSA Animate):**

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__"Hot off the press" (yes, I know, anachronistic in this digital age :-) items of possible interest for the retreat__:
===1) Renton and Wenatchee Valley are participating in a pilot project sponsored by AACC called the [|Voluntary Framework of Accountability]; the [|1/19/11 edition of Inside Higher Edition]has a news item summarizing the effort. This topic could be one of our small-group discussions next week if enough folks are interested...=== ===2) Undergraduates don't make much progress during college in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills: not all that big a surprise to many of us but a new book, //[|Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses]//, is making headlines nonetheless...=== [|Quality Matters]

Katie Hern, Chabot College, [|Accelerated English and Math models] Also, you may want to see Katie's work with the [|Faculty Inquiry Network.]
 * Notes from the Friday morning discussion around the role of faculty in supporting the system work around transforming precollege education:**

David Perkins, author of [|Making Learning Whole], explains the concept of "teaching the whole game."

[|Faculty panel for House Higher Education committee, 1/19/11]

Centralia College: Clover Park Technical College: Olympic College: >  · Challenge: Maintaining openness to opportunities instead of fear as we face likely massive changes. . Bellevue College: Spokane Falls: Seattle District: Cascadia Community College:
 * Our challenge, like everyone, is to both continue and improve services within the ongoing budget constraints.
 * Initiative: We are reorganizing the Assessment Committee, and our deans and the VPI now are members. The VPI is the chair. Additional changes may be made when our accreditation report is final.
 * An interesting activity for our college this year has been the Faculty Learning Community. It has brought together faculty from many disciplines whose only connection has been that they are working with some form of online learning. The trust-building and knowledge of others on campus has impacted the campus atmosphere positively.
 * Initiative: Clover Park has reactivated the Committee on Learning Assessment, to encourage the assessment or student learning outcomes and college core abilities. This is part of the larger goal of institutional assessment..
 * Challenge: Participation of faculty and staff. Recognition of what is already being done well, and increasing enthusiasm for expanding current practices.
 *  · Initiative: The Center for Teaching and Learning has moved into its new permanent space in the 0-level of the Library. It offers dedicated conference, classroom, and meeting space for faculty and staff learning activities that are sponsored by the Center and other agencies (HR, IT, Distance Learning, Classified Staff Develoopment Committee, etc.).
 * Highlight: Our outcomes assessment committee has switched to a representational model. We now have representatives from each department on campus (almost). This allows us to function as a conduit, channeling information between the accreditation steering committee and the departments to collect data from assessments already completed and identify areas in need of assessment
 * Initiative: We are working to identify related instruction learning outcomes and articulate them with course and program outcomes. This work may be unnecessary, as we learn that other colleges are approaching this task by relying on the existing learning outcomes of the courses offered by programs as those that address related instruction.
 * Challenge: We are not yet communicating effectively enough to defuse some faculty members' concerns that assessment initiatives are looking to find something wrong. We need to emphasize that we are trying to document effectiveness so that we can build upon it.
 * Highlight: Cross district collaboration and grant projects; new presidents at each college, acting VPs at 2 of 3 campuses.
 * Challenges: new presidents at each college, acting VPs at 2 of 3 campuses; grant projects at all campuses that lean heavily on PT faculty who are not necessarily connected to community of faculty and this affects broad knowledge and understanding of some grant projects and activities.
 * Highlight: We continue our work on Program Review. We have finished revising our program level outcomes, and will be collecting student work and assessing the "Interact in Complex and Diverse Environments" across all programs this year. We're integrating our strategic planning and accreditation processes, and have selected 2 Themes for our strategic plan: 1) Learning Centered; 2) Partnerships.
 * Challenges: Lots of things in flux. Budget issues are a concern. Lots of administrative changes.

Green River Community College: