Assessment Coordinators Meetings - College of Social Sciences and College of Natural Sciences

As one can expect, during the first weeks of each semester there are numerous departmental meetings in which professors discuss relevant topics of their programs, such as the work plan of the semester. At the College level, a series of meetings are schedule throughout the semester with different stakeholders to oversee its progress and take appropriate action to assure the achievement of previously established goals. One such gathering is an Assessment Coordinator meeting in each College or School.

On September 12th, 2012 the Assessment Coordinators of the College of Social Sciences gathered to share their plans for the 2012-2013 academic year and discussed the continuous implementation of their assessment of student learning' processes in their academic programs. Dr. Mirla Mendez, with the assistance of Miss Angélica Colón, led the meeting with the following presentation.

On a related note, the OEAE personnel was invited by the Associate Dean of the College of Natural Sciences, Dr. Noemí Cintrón, to participate in their Assessment Coordinators Meeting on Wednesday 19th, 2012. Mr. William Estépar offered a short presentation titled "De donde vininmos, dónde estamos y hacia dónde vamos [Where we came from, where are we now, and where are we going to?]" to share the assessment of student learning precedents in our campus, the current Institution and College-wide status, and recommendations for the continuous implementation of these processes for upcoming assessment cycles.

With constant collaboration between departments, meetings such as this one promotes a shared commitment, at a College level, to improve student learning by means of sharing information of their own processes as well as providing assistance (if needed) for a successful implementation of their plans. For example, the Assessment Coordinators of the College of Natural Sciences will develop a webpage to upload assessment related materials, such as modules, sample of educational activities used, rubrics, plans, and reports to share not only with each other, but with their constituents.

We would like to congratulate Dr. Mendez, Miss Colon, and Dr. Noemí Cintrón for coordinating and leading these meeting. It is only by working together that we can find ways to achieve and maintain satisfactory levels of student learning in our campus.

Updated 21-09-2012

Available peer tutoring sessions for UPR-RP students

Peer tutoring has been shown to improve student achievement in college level courses (Alzate-Medina, Peña-Borrero, 2010; Cardoza-Oritz, 2011; Comfort, 2011), as well as work and study habits of university students (Fernandez & Arco, 2011).

Various UPR-RP departments provide peer tutoring sessions during the academic year to help students better understand topics, develop their work and study habits, and provide additional assistance to strengthen their knowledge and skills in selected disciplines. For available mathematical peer tutoring sessions for quantitative methods, statistics and general mathematical courses, as well as individual assistance designed to develop writing skills for UPR-RP's students, click here. 

Peer tutoring is only as effective as the time that each student invests in studying before and after each session, as well as their individual motivation to continually improve their work and study habits during the semester. 

Sources cited: 

Alzate-Medina, G., & Peña-Borrero, L. (2010). Peer tutoring: Developing writing in college education. Universitas Psychologia, 9(1), 123-138. 

Cardozo-Ortiz, C. E. (2011). Peer tutoring as an educational strategy in college. Educación y Educadores, 14(2), 309-325. 

Comfort, P. (2011). The effects of per tutoring on academic achievement during practical assessments in applied sports science students. Innovations in Education & Teaching International, 28(2), 207-211. 

Fernández, F., & Arco, J. (2011). Effects of a peer tutoring programme among university students. Infancia y Aprendizaje, 34 (11), 109-122. 

Written Communication Test for Freshmen Students

Depending on where the information is gathered and for what purpose it will be used, assessment of student learning processes at the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Campus can be classified in one of three levels: at the College of General Education level, at the academic program (undergraduate or graduate) level, or at the institutional level. The latter aims at assessing students across the institution at a previously determined time focusing, usually, in one aspect of interest. However, its purpose depends mostly on its participants. If sophomore, junior or senior students are assessed it can be argue that its objective will be to determine how well are they achieving (or have achieved) in certain institutional learning outcomes. But, if they are freshmen students, more than often, its intention will be to establish a baseline of their knowledge, skills or disposition with which future comparisons can be made, specially if they are assessed before starting their academic year.

There are two additional benefit of assessing students just before their higher education experience starts. First, findings can help professor pinpoint criteria at the start of the semester in which students need more help in order to take immediate action in their courses. Second, if the information can be provided to students in a timely manner, they can be encouraged to actively participate in educational experiences such as courses or workshops that are offered constantly that foster the development of skills, abilities and knowledge that can have a positive impact on their college experience as well as in their future professional careers.

After four months of organization, on August 16th 2012, days before starting the new academic year, the OEAE personnel and a group of volunteers made up of assessment coordinators, professors and students, worked together to administered a written communication test to freshmen students, in which the students were required to write a short essay based on a specific topic. Their essays will be evaluated using a four point rubric by a group of professors from the College of General Studies and the College of Humanities that have worked previously assessing the same kind of essays on the Spanish Advance Placement Test of the College Board. Its purpose was to determine a reasonably accurate profile of their written communication skills in Spanish, in terms of their strengths and areas of need.

We are please to report that almost 1,700 freshmen students (approximately 80% of the cohort) took the exam. We plan to send the students their assessment results by the end of September with a list of available workshops and courses that they can take to strengthen their skills. By polishing their writing communication skills at an early stage in their higher education, students are more likely to acquire a set of skills that will provide for a better college experience and for a more complete preparation for their professional careers. We will also provide the results to the Spanish Department of the College of General Studies in order to for them to take the corresponding actions at the curricular level. Finally, the information gathered as a result of this initiative will be used for continuous institutional research to improve student services.

This institutional effort was grounded on a common set of educational values that provided for an cost-effective initiative using in-kind resources. Findings will be useful for a handful of stakeholders (e.g., students, professors, department chairs, administrators, etc.) and will be employed to improve curricular activities as well as student services throughout the institution. Faculty led data driven decisions will be made continually to provide for an organized, systematized, and sustained assessment of student learning process at the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Campus.

We will update this post as milestones are achieve in this project.

Phase I: Evaluation, analysis and results - Completed on 19-12-2012.

Update (09-19-2012): Essays were submitted for evaluation. Five college professors will participate in this process. Each essay will be assessed blindly by two professors (they will not know each others' assessment). An inter-rater reliability measure will be calculated to assess how consistent were the evaluations.

Update (10-10-2012): First round of evaluations is complete. The second round of evaluation will be completed by October 29th.

Update (11-20-2012): Second round of evaluations is complete. Data entry and analysis will begin next week.

Update (12-03-2012): Data entry and analysis is complete. Reliability analysis (using an inter-rater correlation coefficient, with an absolute agreement parameter) shows a high consistency (.70+) between evaluators, and thus their ratings. Results will be sent to different academic units and students.

Update (12-19-2012): Results were sent to students via their institutional emails. The communication included: 1) individual results, 2) an holistic interpretation of five performance levels and recommendations, 3) general results for comparison purposes, and 4) a list of recommended courses available in our institution geared to strengthen written communication in Spanish as well as English.

Phase II: Reports and second measure - to be completed in the second semester

On December 17th, 2012 a  meeting was held between the OEAE personnel, Dr. Marta Charrón, Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs, and the Spanish Department Chair of the College of General to go over the results of the project and plan future actions. Additional meetings will be held during the second semester with key personnel to implement the second phase of the project.

New Faculty Orientation

The University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Campus starts a new academic year today. As 2,094 freshmen students embark on their path to higher education full of hopes and dreams, so does more than 30 new faculty that return as professors to the Academy.

During the August 13-17 week the Center for Academic Excellence offered an orientation for upcoming professors. Click here to access OEAE's presentation.

Activity: Successful Assessment of Student Learning Experiences in the UPR-RP

Dear Assessment Coordinators,

We hope you are all doing well.

We would like to invite you to the Ejemplos de experiencias exitosas de avalúo del aprendizaje estudiantil en la UPR-RP (Examples of successful assessment of student learning experiences in the UPR-RP).  This activity will take place on friday April 27 in room CN 356 of the  College of Natural Sciences (Fase I).

This activity has been coordinated by the OEAE and the Center for Academic Excellence (CEA).  It will consist of a forum where three undergraduate academic programs of the Campus will present their experiences and findings of the assessment process in their respective programs.

It will be a dynamic discussion where the presenters will show examples of experiences, challenges and recommendations through an active discussion with the public on the process of assessment of student learning.

The following panelists will be presenting in this activity (click on their names to view the presentations):

1) Dra. María del Pilar Angulo, Interdisciplinary Program in Natural Sciences, College of Natural Science (Programa Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Naturales, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales).

2) Dr. Ángel I. Rivera, Political Sciences, College of Social Sciences (Ciencia Política, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales).

3) Prof. María E. Mercado, Performing Arts, College of Humanities (Drama, Facultad de Humanidades).

We hope that this activity, through the experiences and challenges that the panelists encountered, will enrich assessment experiences in other programs.

Those interested in attending can confirm their participation (1) electronically at the following link, (2) by telephone, calling the extensions 2964 or 2963, or (3) sending an email to cea.upr@upr.edu or centexa@gmail.com with the following information:

• Name of the workshop
• Date of the workshop
• Name and Last name
• College (Faculty)/Department/Office/Deanship/Campus
• Telephone and extensions
• Email
• Classification (undergraduate, graduate, faculty, or non-faculty employee)

Attached is a flyer for this activity


We hope to see you at the activity.
Sincerely,


Prof. Nadia Cordero
OEAE Coordinator


Mr. William Estépar
OEAE Assessment Technitian

Platero y Yo: Assessment in a Theater Play

Assessment of student learning nurtures itself from both direct and indirect information. Usually, when we think of direct evidence we envision student's work in the form of essays, monographs, tests, and presentations, among others.

The Performing Arts Department has a unique approach to assessment. It uses, along with course embedded assessment, its theater plays to assess various student learning outcomes with the help of rubrics, surveys (given to actors and spectators), and checklists. One fundamental element has been the use of video cameras to record its plays for assessment and research purposes. Students then conduct self and peer-assessments to improve their performances, while the professors assess them through each stage of the play.

Their new theater play, called Platero y Yo, is an example of how the Performing Arts Department is using their ongoing projects to assess student leaning with the help of an uncommon resource: video cameras.

Platero y Yo, a play based on a series of short stories by Juan Ramón Jimenez, and directed by Prof. Maria E. Mercado and Prof. Julia Thompson, will be presented to the general public in the Theater of the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus on April 17th, 2012. A handful of participants will receive a spectators' survey to evaluate the play as well as the acting abilities of the students, thus participating in the assessment process.

On March 29th, an advance preview of the play will be performed in the lobby of UPR-RP's Theater. The funds collected during this presentation will aid the group's participation in the FRINGE Festival -the biggest performing arts festival in the world- to be celebrated in August 2012 in Edinburgh, UK.







Platero y Yo Promo (You tube video)

Platero y Yo's Facebook Page

Platero y Yo - Flyer 1

Platero y Yo - Flyer 2

Update (8/8/2012) : http://www.uprrp.edu/ultimahora/?p=9293

UPR-RP's School of Communication recommended for accreditation

During the second week of February, the UPR-RP's School of Communication received an accreditation visit of the evaluation team of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (ACEJMC).

The ACEJMCs is the agency responsible for the evaluation of professional journalism and mass communication programs in colleges and universities.

The evaluation team was composed of Rick Rodríguez (Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication - Arizona State University), Dr. Jan Quarles (Middle Tennessee State University), Pam Luecke, professor of Business Journalism (Washington and Lee University - Lexington, Virginia), and John Cochran (distinguished journalist and former White House correspondent in Washington for the U.S. television network ABC). The team met with professors, students, administrators and local media representatives from newspapers, radio and television. At their exit interview, the evaluation team of the ACEJMC said that they will unanimously recommend that the UPR-RP's School of Communication be given full accreditation by the Accrediting Committee of the ACEJMC.  

The ACEJMC Accrediting Committee will convene in Chicago on the 27 and 28 of April to hear the recommendation of the evaluation team and decide on the accreditation status. If the UPR-RP's School of Communication is given accreditation status, it will be the second Spanish speaking school -after the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile- to be accredited by the ACEJMC.

We congratulate the UPR-RP’s School of Communication on this achievement.

For more information about our School of Communication’s accreditation status, please visit the following links:

UPR-RP’s website

UPR-RP's School of Communication website

Local Newspaper (El Nuevo Dia)

ACEJMC’s website


UPDATE:


The UPR-RP's School of Communication was awarded an accreditation status by the ACEJMC.