New Faculty Orientation

In May 25th, 2001 the Academic Senate of the UPR-RP Campus established Certification 101 in order to approve a proposal of the former Dean of Academic Affairs, Dr. Carlos G. Ramos Bellido, for a teaching-learning curriculum for new full-time professors, teaching assistants and teachers with probationary appointments. Since then, the Center for Academic Excellence holds a three day activity called New Faculty Orientation (OPN, for its Spanish acronym) every August as a way to welcome new professors to our Campus.

Participants receive a series of institutional orientations that include presentations from different campus offices whose services are useful for their upcoming teaching experience. Also, as part of this activity, varies workshops are offered on relevant topics to their college work: Teaching and Learning Strategies, Assessment and Evaluation of Student Learning, Academic Technology, Academic Research, Professional Support for Faculty, and University and the Community. The OPN provides an excellent opportunity for new professors to meet and become familiar with the staff of our campus.

For this year OPN, the OEAE prepared an online presentation of our office and services. With the support of Dr. Héctor Melendez, Resident Professor in Technology of the Center for Academic Excellence, in the following video Prof. Nadia Cordero offers an orientation to our new UPR-RP professors.

For further assistance for your upcoming experience as a Professor regarding the development of educational instruments such as rubric, tests, checklists, and such for student assessment and evaluation processes, feel free to email us at email:oeaeupr@gmail.com or give us a call to (787) 764-0000, ext. 85011, 85012, 85013 or 85014 or visit us in the Annex of the Office of Academic Planning, University Square, North Tower, Third Floor and we will be glad to help you.

We wish you all the best for your upcoming experience as a new professor in the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus.

Acceptance for presentation (Faculty of Business Administration Accreditation Committee) - The 2011 Assessment Institute

Since 1999, an annual assessment conference titled Assessment Institute has been held at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). This renowned educational meeting is geared towards promoting the knowledge and practice of assessment in higher education. The activity brings together more than a thousand presenters and participants from institutions across the United States, as well as other countries. It is sponsored by some of the world’s assessment experts such as Trudy W. Banta and Thomas Angelo. The conference will take place from October 31 to November 1, 2011 in Indiana.

This year, the committee at Purdue University has accepted a proposal titled From Assessment to Curriculum Review Through Multidisciplinary Communities of Practice developed by members— Dr. Beatriz Rivera, Dr. Wanda Velázquez, Dr. Marta Charrón and Dr. Zoraida Fajardo—of the Faculty of Business Administration Assessment Committee (CAAE), University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. Their thirty-minute presentation will show how the School of Business Administration at the University of Puerto Rico has been able to create communities of practice as a tool for closing the loop in assessment. A more detailed description of their presentation can be found in the following abstract.

The Office of Assessment of Student Learning—OEAE for its Spanish acronym— would like to acknowledge the exceptional teamwork carried out by members of the Faculty of Business Administration Accreditation Committee to comply with the requirements of Assurance of Learning Accreditation Standards of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) as well as the Assessment of Student Learning accreditation standard of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. We would like to stress that this activity will shed light upon the assessment processes carried out by the faculty of the School of Business Administration of the University of Puerto Rico Rio, Piedras Campus. We are very pleased by the committee’s achievement and hope that their success will encourage other members in the Campus to follow their steps and integrate their work and ideas not only into the assessment processes of the University of Puerto Rico but also in forums and activities of international scope.

Assessing Quantitative Reasoning Skills on Campus

As part of the efforts taken to evaluate quantitative reasoning or logical-mathematical reasoning competencies throughout campus during the 2010-2011 academic year, an inter- faculty committee along with the Office of Evaluation of Student Learning developed an instrument to assess skills in this area. From December 6 through December 19, a pilot test was administered in all sections of required courses with math or quantitative reasoning as one of their components.

On April 12, 2011, the Dean of Academic Affairs chair, Astrid Cubano Iguina, sent an official circular letter to all members of the faculty and community acknowledging the importance of the measures taken by the the committe of professors along with the Office of Evaluation of Student Learning in implementing a formal instrument that would evaluate quantitative reasoning competencies throughout campus. The official letter further informed that as a result of institutional efforts, and in order to comply with the institutionalization of the assessment of these skills, from May 16 through May 20, 2011, a second test will be officially administered to all sections of quantitave reasoning or math courses that meet the requirements of general eduacation. The letter may be downloaded through this link. It also highlights the need to inform teachers of the importance of this process. Course sections that meet on Mondays or Wednesdays will be administering the test either on May 16 or May 18, 2011. Course sections that meet Tuesdays and Wednesdays will be administering the test either on May 17 or May 19, 2011.

The courses in which the test will be administered are shown below along with the corresponding course sessions and total of students.

Mate 3041; Three sessions; 70 students

MATE 3042; Two sessions; 38 students

MATE 3105; Nine sessions; 247 students

MECU 3031*; Ten sessions; 302 students

ESGE 3008; Five sessions; 143 students

ESGE 3009; Two sessions; 59 students

MATE3036; One session; 30 students

*A test will be given to students enrolled in MECU 3031 (Pre-Calculus) of the College of Business Administration to assess students' quantitative reasoning or logical-mathematical reasoning competencies.

** The College of Natural Science will assess students quantitative reasoning or logical-mathematical reasoning competencies in the MATE 3151 (Calculus) course using selected items in departmental tests. The School of Architecture will use a similar method in their Calculus course.

We appreciate the cooperation of Department Directors, Professors, Academic Advisors, Counselors, Librarians, and Students regarding this process. For details or additional information, please call Prof. Nadia Cordero or Mr. William Estépar of the Office of Evaluation of Student Learning at the following extensions: 85014, 85013, 85012, or 85011.

Assessment of Student Learning in the Context of Curricular Review

Date: April 8th, 2011
Meeting place: Conference Hall, School of Communication
Speakers: Prof. Julio Rodríguez, College of Education;
Prof. Nadia Cordero, OEAE


To confirm your attendance to the workshops, please send an email to the Center for Academic Excellence (centexa@gmail.com, cea.upr@upr.edu) or call the following extension numbers 2963 ó 2964, and provide the staff with the following information:

Name
Faculty, Department or office that you are part of
Telephone number or extensión number
Email
Position (professor, librarian, student, assessment coordinator, information literacy, or other)

You can also confirm your attendance by enrolling online using the following link.

You can download a copy of the presentation in the following link.

We hope to greet you personally in this occasion.

Information Literacy Workshops

As part of the efforts made to make progress in the process of integration and assessment of information skills to the curriculum (Circular Letter 05 of the Dean of Academic Affairs, 2008-2009), the Office of Assessment of Student Learning (OEAE) wishes to invite you to the following workshops organized jointly with the Library Systems and the Center for Academic Excellence:

1. Friday, February 18: How to integrate information literacy to the curriculum?

9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. “What are information literacy skills and how to teach them?”
Speaker: Dr. Ketty Rodríguez (Library Systems)

1:45 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. “Information Literacy: strategies for its efficient integration into the syllabus”
Speakers: Dr. Snejanka Penkova, Prof. Aurea Maisonet (Library Systems)

3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. “ Practical examples of the integration of information literacy to the curriculum”
Speakers: Dr. Carmen Campos, Dr. Wilma Colón (Faculty of General Studies)

2.Friday, February 25th: Assessment of information literacy skills

9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. “Evaluating the development and the learning process of information literacy skills in the students: From theory to practice”
Speakers: Prof. Marisol Gutiérrez (Library Systems), Dr. Sandra Macksoud (College of Education)

1:45 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. “Assessment of the programs of Information Literacy”
Speaker: Dra. Snejanka Penkova (Library Systems)

3:30 – 4:30 p.m. Dr. Sandra Macksoud (College of Education)

Additional information about the workshops:

The professors that attend the workshops must take with them at least a syllabus that pertains to one of the assignments they give, so that they can work with it in the workshops.

A snack will be served during the event. Lunch will be the responsibility of the participants.

There will be a break from 10:15 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and from 3:15 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Lunch break will be from 12:00 p.m. to 1:45 p.m

Both workshops will take place in the 'multipurpose room' of the Business Administration Library.

To confirm your attendance to these workshops, please send an email to the Center for Academic Excellence (centexa@gmail.com, cea.upr@upr.edu) or call the following extension numbers 2963 ó 2964, and provide the staff with the following information:

Name

Faculty, Department or office that you are part of

Telephone number or extensión number

Email

Position (professor, librarian, student, assessment coordinator, information literacy, or other)

We hope to greet you personally in these workshops.

Principles of Good Practice

Two major associations, The National Association of State University and Land Grant Colleges'(NASULGC), and the American Association of Higher Education, have developed a set of guidelines regarding student learning outcomes.

The Statement of Principles on Student Outcomes Assessment that the NASULGC dveloped express that programs for student outcomes assessment should:

focus primarily on the effectiveness of academic programs and the improvement of student learning and performance;

be developed in collaboration with the faculty;

be appropriate to the particular mission and goals of the institution;

use multiple methods of assessment;

be fiscally conservative and not impose costly programs on institutions;

be linked to strategic planning and program review processes within the institution.

AAHE's Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Student Learning are as follows:

The assessment of student learning begins with educational values

Assessment is most effective when it reflects an understanding of learning as multidimensional, integrated, and revealed in performance over time.

Assessment works best when the programs it seeks to improve have clear, explicitly stated purposes.

Assessment requires attention to outcomes but also and equally to the experiences that lead to those outcomes.

Assessment works best when it is ongoing, not episodic.

Assessment fosters wider improvement when representatives from across the educational community are involved.

Assessment makes a difference when it begins with issues of use and illuminates questions people really care about.

Assessment is most likely to lead to improvement shen it is part of a larger set of conditions that promote change.

Through assessment, educators meet responsibilities to students and to the public.

All outcomes assessment procedures developed within the university must be consistent with these guidelines.

We believe that all outcomes assessment procedures, as expressed on our Programs' assessment plans, must be consistent with these guidelines and those delineated on our Institutional Plan for Assessment of Student Learning.

Workshop - Effective Test Taking Strategies for the GRE

You are about to finish your current academic endeavor, but you already know that you want to pursue a degree in higher education in the United States. Maybe you are an Natural Sciences undergraduate student who wants to achieve a graduate degree in Chemistry, or perhaps you are a current graduate student majoring in Educational Research and Evaluation who wants to pursue a Ph.D. in Measurement, Research, and Evaluation.

Among the things you need to do in order to complete the process of admission is to take ETS's Graduate Record Examination General Test. The GRE General Test measures verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, critical thinking, and analytical writing skills that have been acquired over a long period of time and that are not related to any specific field of study. Most institutions that offer graduate degrees require the GRE General Test as part of their admission requirements (to be sure, check before enrolling).

We at the Office of Evaluation of Student Learning are committed to strengthen our students' abilities and skills, as it is expressed in our Institution's mission, such as critical thinking, effective communication, social responsibility, research and creation, information literacy, logical-mathematical reasoning, among others. Thus, the Effective Test Taking Strategies for the GRE Workshop is our way of proving an opportunity to prepare our students better for their next path on their academic journey to higher education.

To access a copy of the presentation, please click here.

To download a copy of the materials presented on our workshop, please click one of the following links.

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If you have any comments about our workshop, please let us know through our blog or email us (oeaeupr@gmail.com).

We hope that this presentation, along with the materials we have compiled for you, can help you to achieve a high score on your GRE General Test.