AAC&U Annual Meeting
January 25-28, 2012
Washington, DC / Grand Hyatt Hotel

SHARED FUTURES / DIFFICULT CHOICES
Reclaiming a Democratic Vision for College Learning,
Global Engagement, and Success

NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT

Established in 2008, the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) assists institutions and others in discovering and adopting promising practices in the assessment of college student learning outcomes.

Student Learning Outcomes Assessment:
What Do We Know and What Needs to Happen Next?
For the past three years, NILOA has been documenting what colleges and universities are doing with regard to student learning outcomes assessment.  This session will summarize the key findings from this work, drawing on national surveys, interviews with thought leaders, policy makers, faculty and staff, web scans, and an array of commissioned papers by experts to describe the state of the art and discern what must happen next to advance the assessment agenda in meaningful, actionable manner.
Eduardo Ochoa, Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education; Stanley O. Ikenberry, President Emeritus, University of Illinois, and Former President, American Council on Education; George D. Kuh, Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus of Higher Education, Indiana University, and Project Director, NILOA

Show Me the Learning:
Best Practices in Institutional Transparency
NILOA has been monitoring for several years how colleges and universities are communicating their assessment activities and results.  Based on this work, NILOA created a Transparency Framework to assist institutions in providing information to both internal and external audiences, now being used at scores of campuses.  Presenters will illustrate how their institutions are responding to the transparency mandate and will describe successful strategies for cultivating faculty and staff buy-in.  They will also discuss challenging questions, such as how much information should be made public and when.
Staci Provezis, Project Manager and Assistant Research Scientist, NILOA; Gary Pike, Executive Director, Information Management and Institutional Research, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis; Thomas Kepple, President, Juniata College; and Jo Beld, Director of Evaluation and Assessment and Professor of Political Science, St. Olaf College

Student Learning Outcomes Assessment at Community Colleges
Demands for learning outcomes assessment have intensified.  This session features results from two recent NILOA studies that portray the state of the art of assessment at community colleges, with a particular focus on successful approaches for involving faculty and best practices for program-level assessment. Partners from two Achieving the Dream campuses— distinguished for using data effectively to evaluate and improve programs and student achievement—will respond to and elaborate on the findings, highlighting the challenges of implementing effective assessment efforts and discussing the connections between assessment and accreditation.
Jillian Kinzie, Associate Director, NSSE Institute & BEAMS, NILOA; Trudy Bers, Executive Director, Research, Curriculum and Planning, Oakton Community College; Charlene Nunley, Professor and Program Director, Doctor of Management in Community College Policy and Administration, University of Maryland University College