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. 

UPR-RP's January 2012 activities

As a friendly reminder to start off 2012 as a great year, we would like to present the following calendar with UPR-RP's January activities.

We would also like to point out that on Tuesday, January 31 the 2011-2012 First Semester Report is due. The submission of this report applies only to those programs that gather student assessment data of the first semester.

As always, the 2011-2012 annual report is due in June 2012.

Best wishes for a great holiday recess from the employees of the OEAE: Nadia, William, Bianca, Ediwin, and Aveluz. 

Best wishes for the holiday season

As a token of our appreciation for everyone that works with Student Learning Assessment in our Campus, we prepare this holiday card. We recognize the hard work everyone has place on this process and we are thankful that we have each one of you as part of the team that diligently works to improve student learning in our Campus.

To all, best wishes for this holiday season.

The OEAE: Nadia, William, Bianca, Edwin & Aveluz. 

Workshop: How to Develop Rubrics to Assess Critical Thinking

The UPR-RP defines Critical Thinking as a "thinking skill that enables the student to analyze and interpret the object of study, by judging, criticizing and analyzing the diverse perspectives in a thorough and constructive way, aiming towards the development of their own criteria".

As a way to strengthen general education and implementation of a documented assessment process for critical analysis and reasoning (November 18th, 2010 - MSCHE's Public Disclusure Statement, UPR-RP), the OEAE has recommended that undergraduate programs keep assessing students' critical thinking skills in order to develop a series of measures across our Campus to improve it. One way to enhance the assessment of these skills is to develop effective instruments to assess them. 

To advance the assessment of students' critical thinking skills by developing effective instruments to assess them, the Center for Academic Excelence (CEA) in coordination with the Office of Evaluation of Student Learning programmed the following workshop:

Title: How to Develop Rubrics to Assess Critical Thinking

Speakers: Prof. Nadia Cordero (OEAE's Coordinator) Prof. Julio Rodríguez (College of Education and OEAE's former coordinator)

Date: Friday October 21th, 2011

Time: 8:30am - 12:00m

Place: Hall CN 339, College of Natural Science - Fase I (first structure, closest to the parking space)


Click here to access the presentation.

The Educator: the Journal of Education - Exclusive interview with the Foundation for Critical Thinking (Spanish Journal - Lima, Peru) 


AACU Critical Thinking Analytic Rubric


Facione & Facione Critical Thinking Holistic Rubric


Critical Thinking Rubrics compile by the OEAE - Part I


Critical Thinking Rubrics compile by the OEAE - Part II

We hope to greet you personally on this occasion.

-The OEAE


P.S. (10-24-2011): We would like to share with the UPR-RP community the definition of critical thinking that a group of graduate students develop as part of the workshop: "the ability that person has to deepen on a specific topic, using original ideas and questioning a corpus of preexisting notions with the purpose of organizing a coherent argument"

Workshop: Assessing Student's Research Papers

Often professors across our Campus come to our Office seeking assistance to assess students' research papers. They are most interested in pinpointing students's strengths and areas for improvement in order to improve their teaching strategies and therefore students learning. Since the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Campus is considered by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as an Institution of Higher Education with high research activity, we should continue to provide a variety of experiences for students to improve their research skills.

To advance the assessment of students research/scientific reasoning skills, the Center for Academic Excelence (CEA) in coordination with the Office of Evaluation of Student Learning programmed the following workshop:

Title: Assessing Student's Research Papers

Speakers:

Prof. Nadia Cordero (OEAE's Coordinator)

Prof. Julio Rodríguez (College of Education and OEAE's former coordinator)

Date: Friday October 14th, 2011

Time: 8:30am - 12:00m

Place: Hall CN 338, College of Natural Science - Fase I (first structure, closest to the parking space)

Click here to access the presentation.

We hope to greet you personally on this occasion.

-The OEAE

Avoiding Plagiarism: A Professors' Guide

The Center for Academic Excellence offered a workshop titled Strategies and Recomendations for Avoiding Plagiarism: A Professors' Guide on October 7, 2011 from 9:00 to 12:00 a.m. at the Amphitheater 3 of the School of Education. The aim of this workshop was to guide professors in various issues related to plagiarism such as: what it is, how to detect it, how to prevent it, and how to deal with it in the academic environment.

The following link allows you to look at the Professors' Guide. This guide clarifies concepts and offers recommendations and various solutions to deal with plagiarim effectively.

Plagio en La Academia: Guía Para Los Profesores