Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis is very proud of its Electronic Institutional Portfolio: a wide-open, public Web site that contains all of the institution's planning documents, a wealth of data produced by Institutional Research offices, and their outcomes assessment information (including their NSSE data and its analysis). Every program change, every major committee decision, and sampled student portfolio information, are fed into the system directly (there is some filtering done). At one of the workshops I attended in October, I asked Julie Hatcher, Associate Director of the Center for Service and Learning at IUPUI, if she ever worried about prospective students looking at the dirty laundry.  Her response: open access demonstrates sincerity.

Sage has been quietly building its own portfolio, although it is not open to student viewing. Go to CampusCruiser/My Cruiser/Dashboard/My Committees/TSC Faculty Staff and Administrators/Shared Files/Institutional Research and Planning. You'll see the Middle States Periodic Review Report and its appendices, the NSSE data dating back to 2002, the Institutional Trend Report, and a report on usage of Substitutions and Waivers.

Assessment (of student learning outcomes) can be anything we as faculty members do to inform ourselves about the effectiveness of our work with students, at the classroom and program level, for the purpose of making decisions on constructive changes. To keep it simple, start by assuming that you already assess student learning and see if you can document how. This exercise will accomplish three things: you will learn more about assessment than you already know, you will be able to see the good things you do on paper and help yourself to persist with those practices year after year, and you will make administrators happier. As coordinator of the Forensic Science program at Russell Sage, I have been working at this for a couple of years now, and I believe everybody in the program will benefit from the effort.

In her address to the community at the meeting opening the 2005-2006 Academic Year, President Neff offered words of praise for our progress in the area of outcomes assessment:

"Five years ago we could not have said that at Sage, learning outcomes are well defined for all courses and programs. The work of Sally Lawrence, Deirdre Zarrillo, Deb Lawrence and Frank Vozzo, together with department chairs and other faculty, has led to a comprehensive institutional plan for the assessment of learning outcomes and the use of those results regularly to renew and refresh the curriculum. As part of our periodic review report to the Middle States Commission, this document received high praise from the reviewers for its thoroughness and innovative aspects."

She went on to cite our accomplishments in the improvement of the first-year experience for students, and in our use of "tagged" courses in the upper division where skills are further developed. Then the theme for the year was set:

"Almost all academic programs at RSC and SCA require some form of capstone experience for majors, and at SCA this is built into the LIFE curriculum. We are good at asking students to demonstrate their intellectual achievements; we have not yet in all cases asked them as well to provide evidence of these other outcomes (provide evidence of social responsibility, show the results of integrative learning)- an interesting question for discussion in academic departments this year."

My job description includes assisting the "five programs (not subject to external accreditation reviews that) were identified in the Middle States report as lacking in progress, as measured by completion of the 'Middle States Recent Outcomes and Associated Changes Grid' facilitated by Kevin Stoner" (see Middle States Periodic Review Report, page 49). If your program is one of those identified, you'll be hearing from me soon but don't feel bad! Some of the "good" ones may mistakenly believe that the work is done once you jump through the hoop. We all have more work to do, and the kicker is that nobody else can tell you exactly what that work is (each program has to figure it out for itself). And yes, the work cuts into our precious time-- but remember that Sage is committed to smoothing the road. Please use the available people resources including myself and Deirdre Zarrillo.

In next week's OARs: changing expectations, for institutions and faculty members.