Assessment of Student Learning Committee
Minutes January, 2006

In Attendance: Don Baldus, Mike Bequette, Teresa Brown, Patrick Costello, Len Goldfine, Jean Hoth, Susan Jansen, Jay Lee, Tammy Lee, Jaime Malcore, Jessie Martinez, Barb Mollberg, Julie Rodakowski

Absent: Carol Bailey

Future Meetings:

Friday, February 17th at 10:00am in AT 102
Friday, March 24th at 10:00am in CF 103
Friday, April 21st (at Retreat)

Updates:

Progress Report on Summer 2005 FIDG/ASL Grant Awards
o The English department has completed a large number of assessment projects. Some were shared assessments while others were completed by individual instructors. The shared assessments will have data entered into eLumen for aggregation. The individual projects will be summarized in a report to be submitted by Mike Mutschelknaus.
o BTEC has created a series of shared rubrics to assess computer software skills in a variety of courses. The rubrics are entered into eLumen and data entry has begun.
o Four members of the Science department will be traveling to San Francisco to attend the National Association for Research in Science Teaching. Upon their return they will share information with their department and the ASL committee concerning assessment in the sciences.
o The Business department has piloted and revised its rubric for ethical decision making. The revised rubric is ready for implementation.

Second-Round FIDG/ASL Awards
o The awards were approved as recommended by the committee members that met to review the requests.
o Three Nursing instructors will be attending a Meti-Man training conference.
o The Chemistry rubric for essay question evaluation has been written, explained to students, and is now being utilized. It was recommended that the rubric be posted to the ASL website for others to view.
o The Biology essay questions for cellular respiration have been established and will be assessed using the rubric developed by chemistry.

Discussions/Decisions:

Power of 1 Retreat
1 Outcome
1 Assessment
1 Semester
1 Recommendation
1 Report

It was proposed that the committee facilitate and host a Power of 1 Retreat. The purpose of the retreat would be for the participants to leave with a fully-prepared assessment project that will assess one outcome during one semester. The results of the project would be summarized in one report that makes one recommendation for enhancing student learning.

The committee approved the suggestion and committed to help plan the event (logistics, Pre-retreat “assignments”, Post-retreat “report”) and to attend and facilitate the work sessions.

Proposed Date: April 21
Proposed Time: 11:00am – 4:00pm
Proposed Location: Gainey Conference Center in Owatonna

There was discussion involving the number of participants and how invitations will be extended to the faculty. The budget will impact the number of participants. Teresa will propose a budget for the event at the next meeting so that decisions concerning the number of faculty that may attend (at no cost) can be made. It was suggested that subs for participants be paid to encourage attendance. The opportunity would be announced at the Division/Program Leaders meeting.

Teresa will compile information to assist in the creation of the pre-retreat assignments.

A new, proposed ASL logo was shared with committee. The new image is to illustrate that the assessment efforts on campus have moved forward such that we are now trying to discern meaning from our assessment results. The committee is to evaluate the image and provide feedback. Initial feedback includes shaping the pieces so that they can fit into the puzzle and somehow including the RCTC logo. Committee members are to think about the words that they feel should be represented on the puzzle pieces.