Workshop: How to evaluate learning on an educational virtual environment

Speaker: Prof. Julio Rodríguez
Date: November 6th, 2009
Place: Classroom 217, CRA, College of Social Sciences
Hour: From 8:30 a.m. until 12:00 m.

Click here to access the presentation.

Thanks once again for being part of our workshops this year.

Cordially,

-OEAE

Assessment of Student Learning on the General Education Component

When: Wednesday November 4th, 2009

Where: Classroom A-229, College of Natural Sciences (Phase II)

At what time: From 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m.

Click here to access Dr. Evelyn Rodríguez Plaza's presentation

Click here to access Dr. Nadjah Ríos Villarini's presentation

We hope to greet you personally on this occasion.

-OEAE

Assessment Workshops - College of Business Administration

As requested by the College of Business Administration (CBA), the Office of Evaluation Student Learning will offer a series of workshops intended to provide CBA's faculty with the necessary knowledge and tools to assess student learning in their concentrations.

The schedule of the workshops is the following:

1) How to write instructional objectives centered on student learning
Monday, October 5th 2009
10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Classroom 6037, Graduate School of Business Administration
North Tower, University Square

Click here to access the presentation.

2) Rubric design to assess student learning: An emphasis on Case Studies
Monday, October 19th 2009
10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Classroom 110 (Multipurpose classroom)
Business Administration's Library

Click here to access the presentation.

3) Assessment of Student Learning Cycle
Monday, October 26th 2009
10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Classroom 110 (Multipurpose classroom)
Business Administration's Library

Click here to access the presentation.

The presentations of each workshop will be available on our blog the Friday prior of the date on which they will be offered.

Cordially,

-OEAE

Workshop - How to assess Information Literacy

As part of the efforts to assess student learning, the OEAE requested the Library System to develop a workshop for assessment coordinators and professors in order to provide evidence of information literacy of our students.

The workshop, offered in collaboration with the Center for Academic Excellence (CEA), will be held at Meeting Room on the Second Floor of the Library José M. Lázaro on Wednesday October 7, 2009 from 9:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m.

The speakers of the workshop will be:
1) Dr. Snejanka Penkova, Director of the Library System

• Click here to access her presentation.
  

2) Prof. Marisol Gutiérrez, College of Education

• Click here to access her presentation.
  

3) Dr. Ketty Rodríguez, College of Business Administration

• Click here to access her presentation.
  

Interested persons have until Monday, October 5th 2009 to enroll. To confirm your participation, provide your contact information to the CEA personal via email (centexa@gmail.com; centexa@uprrp.edu) or by phone {(787)764-0000, ext. 2963, 2964}.

We hope to greet you personally on this occasion.

-OEAE

Important links

Proyecto de Integración de Destrezas de Información al Currículo Graduado de la Facultad de Educación del Recinto de Río Piedras

PICIC- Educación Subgraduado

PICIC - Estudios Generales

Comunidad de Práctica de Competencias de Información - UPRRP

Association of College and Research Libraries

Student Learning Assessment on the Río Piedras' Campus: Processes and Findings

Click here to access Dr. Beatriz Rivera's presentation.

Click here to access Dr. Ivelisse Rubio's presentation.

Click here to access Dr. Iris Hernández's presentation.

Click here to access Prof. Maria T. Ghigliotty's presentation.

Workshop for students: Effective Test Taking Strategies for the GRE

Click here to access the presentation offered by Prof. Julio Rodríguez and William Estépar.

If you have any comments about the workshop or if you are interested in receiving a copy of the GRE materials (CD or the Practice Test) we compile for the students who attended the workshop please let us know here on our blog or directly at our email (oeaeupr@gmail.com).

Sincerely,

-The OEAE

Student Learning as a component of Institutional Efectiveness

Click here to see Dr. González's presentation.

Other materials discuss during the presentation were (click on each one to access them):

1) Assessing Student Learning and Institutional Effectiveness: Understanding Middle States Expectations

2)Characteristics of Excellence in Higher Education: Eligibility Requirements and Standards for Accreditation

3) Assessment of University Learning in Colombia

4) Council of Lisboas’ conclusions (2005)

Food for thought - Interesting links on Assessment found on www.insidehighered.com

Sociology Turns Up Assessment

(July 2, 2009; Stephanie Lee - stephanie.lee@insidehighered.com)

"It's more and more generally considered a norm of higher education that you need to assess the outcomes of the students who go through colleges or universities," said Roberta Spalter-Roth, a co-author of the study and director of the American Sociological Association's research and development department. "On other hand, there appears to certainly be a group -- I'm not positive how substantial -- who think that assessment is an invasion into their professional autonomy, who feel that increasingly teachers have less control over what's happening in the university, who think it's a parody of social science research."

To continue reading, click here.

Assessing Accountability

(July 1, 2009; Jack Stripling - jstripling@insidehighered.com

"Education Sector measured states in 21 categories of accountability, analyzing any systems that might be in place to assess areas like affordability, degree production, research and scholarship. States that promote or require the use of assessment tools, and take steps to publicize the information, were given the highest marks. Those that had few tools for assessment and did little to spread information were graded lower.

Education Sector graded 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia on a three-grade scale. The highest grade, “best practice,” was given to 10 states with well developed reporting mechanisms. The second ranking, “in progress,” was given to 27 states that have less complete efforts underway. The lowest category, “needs improvement,” went to 13 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico, where little is being done in the way of accountability, according to Education Sector."

To continue reading, click here.

Workshop - Rubrics to Evaluate Social Responsibility

What is social responsibility and what instruments we can use to evaluate it? These questions where the main topics discussed during the workshop presented by Dr. Isaura Alvarado of the Graduate School of the Education College on Wednesday April 29th called "Rubrics to Evaluate Social Responsibility" offered by Office of Evaluation of Student Learning and the Center for Academic Excellence.

Click here to access the presentation.

Once again, thanks for your assistance and continued commitment to improve student learning in our campus.

GRE Workshop

Our commitment to improve not only student learning but also the opportunity that our graduates have to pursue post baccalaureate studies led us to prepare a workshop for the Graduate School entrance exam, the Graduate Record Examination (also known as GRE).

Click here to download the PDF presentation. If you have any comments, please let us know.

Workshop - Writing: Evaluation of text and some of its indicators

Click here to find presentation offered today by Dr. Jorge L. Cruz, PH.D.: "Writing: Evaluation of text and some of its indicators".

Below is his contact information:

Jorge L. Cruz Velázquez, Ph.D.
Graduate Studies Dept.
College of Education
UPR - Río Piedras
j.cruzvelazquez@gmail.com

Forum: The Implementation of the Student Learning Assessment Plans

The first of a series of activities planned for the second semester of the 2008-2009 academic year by the OEAE.

Date: February, 11th 2009

Place: Amphitheater 3, Education College

Hour: 1:00pm - 4:30pm

The purpose of the forum is to present how four different departments and their respective assessment coordinators are implementing the Student Learning Assessment Plan of their academic programs.

Central questions for this discussion:

1) What each assessment coordinator is doing to implement her plan to assess student learning?
2) How each assessment coordinator is implementing her plan to assess student learning?
3) What has been their learning experiences assessing student learning so far?
4) What are their results and their proposed transforming actions?
5) What are some of their projections?
6) Recommendations as to how other departments can implement their Plan: How other programs could use the ideas presented by these coordinators?

Here are the presentations for the forum:

Moderator: Prof. Nadia Cordero, Office of Evaluation of Student Learning

Introducction: Prof. Julio Rodríguez, Office of Evaluation of Student Learning,

Chemistry, Dra. Rosa Flores

Social Work, Dra. Gisela Negrón

Economic Dra. Indira Luciano

Teacher Preparation Program, Dra. Sandra Macksoud

Results of the effective communication skills in Spanish and ELASH II tests

As part of the commitment of the University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras Campus to improve the communication skills of its graduates, two test were administrated on August 7th 2008 to freshmen students: an effective communications skills in Spanish and the English Language System Assessment for Hispanics (ELASH II) tests.

The results of the tests were the following:

University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus*

Schools and their programs:
1. Architecture
2. Communications

Colleges and their programs:
1. Business Administration
2. General Studies
3. Humanities
4. Natural Sciences
5. Social Sciences

*Excludes students from the Education College.

Each assessment coordinator has both the results of their programs as well as the individual results of their students that took the tests.

OEAE's Assessment Cycle

We believe that assessment of student learning is a neverending process to strive to improve teaching practices as well as student learning.

Since communication is pivotal to our Office, we created a cycle to oversee how does each and every College or School and their respective programs develop and implement their Assessment Plans in order to achieve their goals.

Every so often we need an update from the assessment coordinators throughout our Campus in order to:
1) keep up to date their information in our databases.
2) offer help as to how construct rubrics to measure learning objectives.
3) analyze their data if they need assistance.
4) publish their findings.

Thus, in order to maintain our cycle, we need your feedback. Remember, we are here to give to each assessment coordinator a helping hand in this ongoing process.

Assessment Cycle - Adapted form Maki, P. (2001)

The neverending assessment cycle is a way to visualize how does each and every part contributes to achieve a particular goal.

Once we implement a change, we must gather and analyze data to corroborate if indeed the evidence points towards a higher achievement before we continue to work with another goal. If it does not, we must search for other ways to improve it.

Assessment is...

"... an ongoing process aimed at understanding and improving student learning. It involves making our expectations explicit and public; setting appropriate criteria and standards for learning quality; systematically gathering, analyzing, and interpreting evidence to determine how well performance matches those expectations and standards; and using the resulting information to document, explain, and improve performance. When it is embedded effectively within larger institutional systems, assessment can help us focus our collective attention, examine our assumptions, and create a shared academic culture dedicated to assuring and improving the quality of higher education."

- Angelo (1995)

"... the systemic collection, review, and use of information about educational programs undertaken for the purpose of improving student learning and development."

- Palomba & Banta (1999)

"... rich conversation about student learning informed by data."

- Ted Marchese (n.d)

Student Learning Assessment Coordinators - University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus

Click here to find a list of the student learning assessment coordinators of the different undergraduate academic programs by College or School of the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus.