RECENT NEWS!

AAC&U Value Rubrics
Available Online
Click here to access rubrics
HLC Academy Group
Welcomes Dr. Kathleen McKinney!
The
Higher Learning Commission Academy for the Assessment of
Student Learning group at PNC was pleased to bring Dr.
Kathleen McKinney, of Illinois State University to
campus for a presentation on the Scholarship of Teaching
and Learning (SoTL) during the fall faculty workshop.
SoTL has been defined as a "systematic reflection on
teaching and learning made public." In collaboration
with the Faculty Affairs Committee, and with support
from the VCAA’s office, Dr. McKinney was able to make a
one hour presentation and facilitate several small group
discussions.
Dr.
McKinney’s presentation was well received by the
faculty. Survey results following the lecture found
that 90% Strongly Agreed or Agreed that Dr. McKinney was
an “effective and dynamic speaker”, and 75% Strongly
Agreed or Agreed that the presentation “helped me
understand the importance of SoTL in my profession”.
Also, 85% of the faculty responded that they were
interested in learning more about the topic. One
faculty member commented that the presentation was “very
timely and important for PNC!”

Dr.
Kathleen McKinney is Cross Chair in the Scholarship of
Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and Professor of Sociology
at Illinois State University. Her most recent book is
Enhancing Student Learning Through the Scholarship of
Teaching and Learning. McKinney is involved in the
SoTL movement working with the Carnegie Academy for the
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) Campus
Program and the International Society for the
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSoTL) of which
she is a founding member. McKinney is a 2003-2004
Carnegie Scholar. She has also received numerous
teaching awards including Illinois State University’s
Outstanding University Teacher, and the American
Sociological Association’s Hans O. Mauksch Award for
Contributions to Undergraduate Education and
Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award.
Following the faculty workshop, a new faculty group was
established called, “Scholars Investigating Successful
Student Learning” (SISSL). During this orientation
meeting, Dr. McKinney shared ideas on how to promote a
successful support group. Twenty four faculty members
participated and many expressed interest in continuing
with the group and pursuing scholarship related to
teaching and learning. The SISSL group has planned
their first meeting for Wednesday, September 9th,
from 12:00-1:00 in the university faculty dining room
area. All faculty who are interested in SoTL are
invited.
BALOTS First Entry a
Success
One hundred percent of
PNC bachelor degree programs entered in the first stage
of information required of BALOTS, a new online
reporting tool for program assessment. This first
stage of reporting included each program to report a
contextual description of their program as well as
provide the Student Learning Outcomes. Dr. Shirley
Keeton has been working to analyze the outcomes to
determine similarities and differences across programs,
and to compare program outcomes with our current general
education outcomes.
The next reporting date
for BALOTS is October 31, where programs will be adding
more specific information about their Student Learning
Outcomes and ways in which they are measuring it.
Assessment Fest '09
a Success!
More than sixty faculty
participated in the Assessment Festival on Thursday,
January 8th put on by the Assessment Steering Committee
and Vice Chancellor's Office. A chili and
cornbread lunch was served and assessment materials from
each program were made available to participants.
All documents shared at the festival can be found by
clicking here.
Click here to see a cool slide show of the event.

Assessment Steering
Committee (from left to right) includes:
Dave Pratt (chair),
Debra Pratt, Linda Duttlinger, Cindy Roberts, Janusz
Duzinkiewicz, and Carin Chuang
New
Online Tool Adopted for PNC Programs!
In order
to standardize the way that programs report assessment
data, Purdue North Central is adopting an online tool
called BALOTS in order to collect and report data
on program outcomes more systematically. Designed by
Christian Reiner & Jason Fish from Purdue University,
BALOTS is already being used successfully by many
programs on the West Lafayette campus. Soon, BALOTS
will be configured to be used at PNC.
An orientation to this online system is
scheduled for January 23rd
from 2:00-3:00 p.m. in LSF 02 and open
to all.
Click here for a view of what BALOT’s home page
looks like.
Click
here to view a portion of a PowerPoint created by
Reiner & Fish which describes the features of BALOT’s
compared to the six fundamental questions asked of the
Higher Learning Commission.
Accepted into the Academy!
As part of preparing for the upcoming
accreditation visit, PNC
has applied and been accepted to the
HLC
Academy for Assessment of Student Learning.
This honor is given to institutions in order to improve
the assessment of student learning through "action
projects" that occur on each campus during a four-year
period. These projects and their results are shared
electronically and through interaction with other
institutions of higher learning.
Team of Nine Faculty Attend IUPUI
Assessment Workshop!
Nine
faculty members from various colleges across campus
represented PNC at the Annual
IUPUI Assessment Institute in Indianapolis last
October. While some were new and some were
experienced with assessment, all came away with valuable
information and best practices for assessment.
Many ideas were shared during and after the conference
by the nine attendees. Vice Chancellor, Dr. Schmid,
who suggested the idea of attending this conference, led
the group in discussions following the conference about
what could be done to help improve campus assessment
practices.

The
INDI-9 Faculty include (from left to right) Jerry Holt, Shirley
Keeton, Cyndi Montgomery, Jason Curtis, Dave Pratt,
Silvia Lorente-Murphy, Jonathan Swarts. Jeff Shires, and
Aaron Warren.
Assessment Festival Coming UP this
spring!
The Assessment Steering Committee is inviting all
programs to participate in an exciting event held on
January 8, 2009 as part of the Faculty Workshop
during our first week back to school in the spring.
Our idea is to have an Assessment Festival which
will provide an opportunity to share the various
assessment activities being done across the
campus. We would like to have individuals and/or
departments submit components of assessment that
have been planned for or completed. There are
several ideas of categories on the
flyer to consider. For more information about
this exciting event please contact Dr. Pratt at:
dpratt@pnc.edu.