Subject: RE: Assessment in math courses
From: kschmid@uwc.edu
Date: Tue Feb 29 2000 - 17:23:09 EST
Deborah,
I liked your explanation of the meaning of assessment.
We started a departmental assessment project over three years ago in
the UW Colleges (the thirteen two-year campuses of the University of
Wisconsin System). Because the assessment activity can grow to be costly
in terms of time and resources, we have tried to keep the scope somewhat
narrow and aimed at definite proficiencies that we want students to have for
the courses we selected for our first assessment attempts. That is, we have
targeted just a couple of courses so far. Our department has an Assessment
Coordinator backed up by a small Assessment Committee and they involve as
many faculty who are currently teaching sections of the targeted courses as
possible. The assessment coordinator receives a summer stipend to
compensate for the extra work and is able to do some of the summary report
work during that time. Faculty are not required to take part in the
assessment project, however participation in the assessment is considered
positively when it comes around to evaluation time for merit increases in
salary. Some faculty may fear that assessment of the course is also an
assessment of the instructor. But we have committed ourselves to not
letting that happen and individual faculty are not identified in the
analysis. Much of the faculty participation amounts to the use of some
embedded items in the final exam for the course and reporting the results
for their course section. One of the major problems in reporting the
results has revolved around a common format. For example, the response to
the test item "Exceeds expectations", "Meets expectations"---you get the
idea.
I don't know how many details you wish. I was a member of the
institution committee that designed the overall assessment program which
includes the departmental assessment although I have not been directly
involved in the nitty-gritty of the program except as the department chair.
I can send you some documents if you wish or you can contact our assessment
coordinator, Dr. Paul Martin, who is located at the UW-Marathon County
campus in Wausau. His email address is pmartin@uwc.edu and I am sure that
he would be happy to provide more detailed information about what it is we
are doing and our results thus far.
Karl Schmid
Chair, Department of Mathematics
UW Colleges
kschmid@uwc.edu
-----Original Message-----
From: Cohen, Deborah [mailto:dcohen@jt.cc.va.us]
Sent: Tuesday, February 29, 2000 11:39 AM
To: mathedcc@archives.math.utk.edu
Subject: Assessment in math courses
Are any of you currently involved in assessment activities in your classes
or departments? If so, what sorts of assessment techniques are you using,
and what sorts of results have you found? If you're not interested in
assessment in your classes, why not? Any opinions out there about why math
faculty are (or at least SEEM) so resistant to doing assessment?
Thanks, DC
(a 10-year veteran math faculty member who just became an administrator!)
Deborah L. Cohen
Coordinator of Assessment, Research, and Planning
John Tyler Community College
13101 Jefferson Davis Highway
Chester, VA 23831
email: dcohen@jt.cc.va.us
Phone: 804.796.4174
FAX: 804.796.4163
Web: www.jt.cc.va.us
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