ABET 2015 Calendar - Program Assessment - Workshops and Symposiums

ABET is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization that accredits college and university programs in the disciplines of applied science, computing, engineering, and engineering technology. ABET accredits over 3,400 programs at nearly 700 colleges and universities in 28 countries. ABET provides specialized, programmatic accreditation that evaluates an individual program of study, rather than evaluating an institution as a whole.

ABET accreditation, which is voluntary and achieved through a peer review process, provides assurance that a college or university program meets the quality standards established by the profession for which the program prepares its students.

ABET is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).

ABET 2015 Calendar - Program Assessment - Workshops and Symposiums

Fundamentals of Program Assessment Workshop - Palm Springs, CA

Palm Springs, CA This one-day workshop is for those who are new to program assessment. Location: Palm Springs, CA

Wednesday, April 22 or Saturday, April 25

Advanced Program Assessment Workshop - Atlanta, GA

Atlanta, GA During the Advanced Program Assessment workshop, participants work in small groups to develop an assessment and evaluation framework using sample scenarios and simulations.

Wednesday, April 22 or Saturday, April 25

Fundamentals of Program Assessment Workshop - Atlanta, GA

Atlanta, GA This one-day workshop is for those who are new to program assessment. Location: Atlanta, GA.

April 23 - 24, 2015

2015 ABET Symposium - Atlanta, GA

Atlanta, GA The ABET Symposium is the premier event in quality assurance and innovations in technical education worldwide. It brings together hundreds of leaders in academe, industry, and government, while promoting peer-to-peer and expert interaction around continuous quality improvement and ABET accreditation.


The 2015 ABET Symposium will be held Thursday, April 23, and Friday, April 24, in Atlanta, Georgia. The program will consist of presentations from invited speakers and those selected through an open call for abstracts.

AEFIS: 2015 Academic Evaluation Feedback Intervention System

AEFIS: 2015 Academic Evaluation Feedback Intervention System from ☛ AEFIS ☛ Higher Ed. ☛ Assessment ☛ Continuous Improvement ☛ Web Based ☛ System

2014 - Recognized Accrediting Associations from ☛ AEFIS ☛ Higher Ed. ☛ Assessment ☛ Continuous Improvement ☛ Web Based ☛ System

This chart lists regional, national faith-related, national career-related and programmatic accreditors that are or have been recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) or the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) or both. Organizations identified by ( • ) are recognized; (–) indicates those not currently recognized. An asterisk (*) identifies accrediting organizations that were formerly recognized

Can Higher Education Accreditation Keep Up With Change?

2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report from ☛ AEFIS ☛ Higher Ed. ☛ Assessment ☛ Continuous Improvement ☛ Web Based ☛ System

What Is AEFIS - New! 2014 - At-A-Glance - Higher Quality Assessment - Web Based System

What Is AEFIS - New! 2014 - At-A-Glance - Higher Quality Assessment - Web Based System from Mustafa Sualp

EDUCAUSE *** 2014 Annual Conference Update - NEW! Photos of the Event

EDUCAUSE 2014 Annual Higher Education - IT Conference
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Explores Today's Toughest IT Issues Facing Higher Education
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AEFIS - Mustafa Sualp - President / CEO
Caitlin Meehan - AEFIS Operations Mgr.

• 300 Sessions
• 500 Speakers
• 60+ webcasts
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• 18 Exclusive Online Sessions Provided Online - Virtually
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• Convenes Some of the Brightest Minds in the Community
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  EDUCAUSE Annual Conference

  Virtual Conference

  The EDUCAUSE Annual Conference provides access to its robust program face-to-face and virtually. Gather a team in one room and learn together, or log in individually.
  (Additional logins are available at a reduced rate.)
  
  
  
  Virtual Conference Center Participant Guide and Tutorial: Get tips on how to best use all Virtual Conference Center spaces. This document contains information not on the website.
  To take a quick 4-minute tour, view this video.
  

  Conference Components

  Webcasts

  Webcasts of select general, featured, and concurrent sessions available live and on-demand. | Sample Webcast from EDUCAUSE 2013
  

  Exclusive Online Sessions

  Interactive sessions with current topic experts, available live and on-demand exclusively for the online audience. | Sample Session from EDUCAUSE 2013
  

  Recordings

  
  Virtual conference sessions will be available live, and recordings will be posted less than 3 hours after each session ends.
  

  Private Recordings Page

  Registrants will receive a link to all virtual conference session recordings that they can share with their nonregistered team members.
  

  Preconference Seminars

  Exclusive online, half-day preconference seminars on Monday, September 29 offer in-depth, highly interactive discussions. (A separate registration and fee are required.)
  

  Digital Poster Gallery

  Visit the Digital Poster Gallery to view onsite poster presentations.
  
  

  Public Webcasts

  
  The selected sessions below give you a taste of the best thinking in higher education IT that's taking place at this year's EDUCAUSE Annual Conference. You can view these sessions live, or in recorded format. Click on the embedded player under the abstract. Click on CC within the player to see closed captions. [NOTE: Closed Captions will be available about 72 hours after every session ends.]
  Webcasting sponsored by Sonic Foundry, Platinum Partner. 
  All times are listed in Eastern Time. Convert to your time zone.
  

  Tuesday, September 30
  11:40 a.m.–12:30 p.m.	Badging to Support Professional Development and Career Building Speakers: Veronica Diaz, Tracy Petrillo and Sondra R. Smith	Concurrent Session
  3:40–4:30 p.m.	Flipping Out over the Flipped Classroom? Speakers: Veronica Diaz, Tracy Petrillo and Sondra R. Smith	Concurrent Session
  Wednesday, October 1
  8:00–8:50 a.m.	Gathering No Moss: A Tribute to Followership Speaker: Gordon Wishon Sponsored by WOWZA Media Systems	Featured Session
  9:10–10:00 a.m.	It Takes a Community: Responding to Developing Leaders Community Leadership Award Recipients Speakers: Joanne M. Kossuth and Theresa Rowe	Concurrent Session
  1:30–2:20 p.m.	Leaning, Rising, Meandering, Holding: Your IT Career at Different Life Stages Rising Star Award Recipient Speakers: Katie L. Vale AEFIS   877-674-3122   www.aefis.com	Concurrent Session

"Assessment Disconnect"

Inside Higher Ed
By: Doug Lederman
LINK TO ARTICLE

AEFIS Response:

The article from early last year, “Assessment Disconnect,” received a great deal of negative feedback in a matter of one day. The negativity honed in on the ineffectiveness of assessment in higher education and the lack of evidence that there is to support actively pursuing assessment data in institutions. Academic freedom and diversity were brought to question in many of the article’s comments – regarding the idea that assessment and accreditation are synonymous with standardization.

Most accrediting agencies provide broad learning goals with minimal direction on instruction or means for assessment. Such vagueness invites institutions, programs, and even individual instructors to develop curriculum freely and to find creative means for students to attain high level goals. Additionally, collecting data against these goals provides perspective on the effectiveness of student learning and sheds light on areas that need to be reinforced for success in related career fields. Students attend institutions to work toward career goals and most seek employment related to their fields after earning their degrees. This statement is applicable to engineering, medical, philosophy, design, performance arts…all students! Thus, assessment must be applicable to all students and any discipline. This conclusion opens a new question, instead of whether or not to assess – how to assess.

Finding methods for assessment is similar to developing strong instructional methods. Practices should reinforce the mission and values of the institution. There are great opportunities for the development of best practices through collaboration. And, there are many assessment conferences annually that invite institutions to share ideas and brainstorm means for growth and improvement. Check out www.goAEFIS.com/events to learn more about many of these conferences and how to get involved.

Becky Joyce, AEFIS Team

Assessing our Assessing

At our recent ABET Symposium workshop, we asked participants to self-assess their programs' assessment practices. Similarly to any classroom setting, there were a few partakers who were quick to share their institutional efforts and several who shied away from the questions. The group managed to come up with some interesting topics of discussion and open ended questions for their faculty and administrators.

Much of the room admitted that their curriculum mappings and student assessments are planned and warehoused on paper. For most of them, this results in boxes and boxes of hard copies and hundreds to thousands of man-hours for the preparation of an ABET accreditation visit. Although the room had representatives from many different schools, several individuals described analysis packages developed for assessment data. There was no conversation of shared tools or practices. The conference, itself, is meant to be a forum for cross-pollination of ideas and best practices, however, the schools remain trapped in the silo effect. And so we introduced AEFIS to get the conversation forward thinking.

Shifting the conversation from: how data is collected and stored – the logistics of assessment – to the real meat and potatoes of it: what data should we be collecting and how should we use it to improve student learning, got the audience more engaged!

The outcomes that ABET expects from students at the completion of degree programs can be difficult to assess and report on, especially if there is little or unsustainable infrastructure in place. Development of assessments can be trial and error based and begs for collaboration. So we dove right into some assessment activity questions:

How does your institution assess ethical components to report on outcomes/objectives?

• Assessment Measures:
  
  • Scenario based test questions
    
  • Developed case studies
    
  • Field exercise interviews
    

• …How is student performance rated / documented?
  
  • Against a rubric
    

• …How often is such a rubric reviewed / adapted?
  
  • Rarely
    

How does your institution report on Program Educational Objectives?

• Assessment Measures:
  
  • Student certifications post-graduation
    

• …Does this demonstrate success or student learning?
  
  • Open for discussion
    

• …How can we increase our response rates for alumni surveys?
  
  • Open for discussion
    

These and more questions are being posed by institutions as they plan their assessment efforts. And these questions only started the process of assessing our assessing.

We encourage you to review the questions that workshop participants considered. Download a copy of the workshop materials at our website. Please feel free to share your ideas and comments or let us know what questions we should be asking!