10 (T EN Y EARS L ATER ) E P ORTFOLIO AND A SSESSMENT : L EARNING, C HANGING, AND C LOSING THE F EEDBACK L OOP Marisa A. Klages and J. Elizabeth Clark LaGuardia Community College--CUNY

S ESSION S CHEDULE Who is LaGuardia? The Outcomes Assessment Plan Timeline of Assessment Lessons Learned Moving Toward Change Our Next Steps Discussion Questions and Answers 10 Years Later

L A G UARDIA C OMMUNITY C OLLEGE, CUNY

L A G UARDIA ’ S C ONTEXT 16,000 + matriculated students; 14,000+ non- matriculated 59% female; 41% male 60% are foreign born 49% are 23+ in age Number of native languages: % attend full-time 161 countries of origin from Madagascar (1) and Qatar (1) to China (698) and Ecuador (694) 10 Years Later

L A G UARDIA ’ S C ONTEXT, CONT ’ D 57% of students enter with a high school degree; 9% with a GED; 37% as transfer students 56% of entering students need developmental math; 34% of entering students need developmental writing, 32% of entering students need developmental reading 10 Years Later

T HE O UTCOMES A SSESSMENT P LAN LaGuardia’s Outcomes Assessment Plan 10 years old Collect baseline, midpoint, and capstone data Use ePortfolio to collect artifacts at benchmark points Assess through Periodic Program Review 10 Years Later

A SSESSMENT AT L A G UARDIA Seven Core Competencies: What We Value as Educators Critical Literacy (Reading, Writing, Critical Thinking) Quantitative Reasoning Oral Communication Information and Research Literacy Technological Literacy 10 Years Later

O UTCOMES A SSESSMENT AT L A G UARDIA IS DESIGNED TO : Assess institutional effectiveness Assess student growth over time and use resulting data to improve our pedagogies and programs Provide additional data to the college beyond standardized test scores and IR data Assess student achievement of programmatic competencies Assess student achievement of general education core competencies 10 Years Later

10 R ETHINKING A SSESSMENT AT L A G UARDIA

Core Competencies Proposed & Approved ePortfolio Begins (Research Team, Pilot) Development of PPR Process Middle States Accreditation Visit Assessment Timeline

present 2005 Development of ePortfolio Assessment 1.0 Rubrics Developed, Faculty Trained to Use Rubrics Center for Teaching & Learning Seminars weave ePortfolio & Core Competency Training College-Wide Assessment Leadership Team Developed Assessment Timeline

present 2008 Research for New ePortfolio System Begins Wide-spread Depositing begins, ePortfolio Mini Grants Support PPR Process with Revisions Based on PPR Change in Assessment Leadership 5 Year PPR Calendar Established, Core Competency Grids Aligned with Major Developed Capstone Seminar Developed, Capstone Specific ePortfolio Templates Developed Assessment Timeline

Work with Program Directors Begins, Development of Assignments Specific to Core Competencies, Development of Assessment Website Development of ePortfolio Assessment 2.0, Programmatic Competencies Developed Benchmarking Readings, Middle States Self Study Assessment Timeline

T HE A SSESSMENT A RC Charge from Middle States to Work on Assessment Identify Core Competencies Develop Outcomes Assessment Plan Middle States 5 Year Review Develop Assignments Aligned with Core Competencies Collect artifacts from across all programs Be ready for Middle States re- accreditation 10 Years Later

T HE A SSESSMENT P ROCESS As part of the 5-year Periodic Program Review, a sampling of student ePortfolios are reviewed Student work from the ePortfolios is assessed utilizing the faculty-developed rubrics for each core competency 10 Years Later

U SING THE E P ORTFOLIO Site for collecting student work Makes work accessible to faculty for classroom assessment purposes Makes work accessible anonymously to programs for Program Assessment Connects the assessment process and the classroom Provides flexible data: by course, by program, by competency—can be aggregated in a variety of configurations Involves students in the process of reflection self-assessment 10 Years Later

10 L ESSONS L EARNED

M ISSING FROM THE P ROCESS : No institutionalized method for looking at artifacts ePortfolio, excellent for showcasing, not great for assessment- clunky PPR review process onerous and confusing No faculty buy-in 10 Years Later

N EW C HANGES (2008- PRESENT ) Harnessed the power of Program Directors Designed Programmatic Matrices Worked to develop Programmatic (Major) Competencies Developed strategy for reading artifacts: Benchmark Assessment Instituted 5 year calendar for PPR Changed ePortfolio system Created Assessment Website with rubrics, grids, calendar 10 Years Later

P ROGRAM D IRECTORS Powerful group of campus leaders Charged with relating assessment information to their colleagues Worked because Assessment was to happen in the major Have developed grids, implementation plans, general competency assignments, and data collection plans 10 Years Later

S AMPLE P ROGRAM T IMELINE 10 Years Later

PPR Calendar

A CCOMPLISHMENTS Grids from almost all programs Identified courses for assessment data collection Developed and/or revised assignments connected to Core Competencies for assessment

P ARTNERING WITH THE C ENTER FOR T EACHING AND L EARNING Mini-grant program allows programs to follow up on recommendations in the PPR Core competencies and development of assignments have been threads in CTL seminars The new capstone seminar helps faculty to build Capstone ePortfolio assignments appropriate for the discipline that also showcase integrative learning, learning over time, and key learning in core competency areas Faculty discuss and create ePortfolio specific assignments 10 Years Later

10 E P ORTFOLIO A ND A SSESSMENT AT L A G UARDIA

E P ORTFOLIO AND O UTCOMES A SSESSMENT Over 15,000 artifacts in the Assessment Area Expecting 30,000 deposits this academic year 7 Core Competencies: Critical Literacy (Critical Reading, Writing and Thinking) Quantitative Reasoning Oral Communication Research and Information Literacy Technological Literacy 10 Years Later

Students had to save their work to a collection area first.

Students had to choose what kind of competency they were submitting correlated to the course type.

Students labeled their artifact and added any notes or reflections.

Students now log in and the core and program competencies are pre-loaded by course. For students, after log in, it’s an easy set of clicks to submit assignments for the core and programmatic competencies.

Faculty can easily track student submissions at a glance, ensuring that students submit the required work for program and core competencies.

P ROGRAM D IRECTOR R EPORT

P ROGRAM S PECIFIC E P ORTFOLIO T EMPLATES E MERGED FROM PPR P ROCESS AND E XTERNAL I NPUT (E DUCATION, N URSING, B USINESS, F INE ARTS, PT ) 10 Years Later

Nursing HR Directors were interested in students’ philosopy statements, community service, and a reorganization of coursework that showed student skills in specific areas. Nursing HR Directors were interested in students’ philosopy statements, community service, and a reorganization of coursework that showed student skills in specific areas.

S EQUENCING A SSIGNMENTS AND THE C URRICULUM Physical Therapy sequenced assignments for skills (specifically around research & writing) across their courses culminating in the capstone course PT was also the first program to use ePortfolios as part of their external accreditation 10 Years Later

Quantitative Reasoning

Oral Communication

General Education and Programmatic Competencies

Organization of Academic Work by Student Priority

Technological & Digital Literacy

10 M OVING TOWARD C HANGE

F EEDBACK L OOP 10 Years Later

N EW E P ORTFOLIO A RCHITECTURE 10 Years Later

A B ASIC E P ORTFOLIO B ECOMES C APSTONE 10 Years Later

E P ORTFOLIO C HALLENGES Orienting and training faculty and students on the newePortfolio system and the new ePortfolio architectureOn-going faculty development for ePortfolio and theassessment processHighly transient student and faculty cohorts makingcultural shift difficult; Distinguishing between theassessment and curricular uses of ePortfolio 10 Years Later

A SSESSMENT CHALLENGES Continuing to emphasize a culture of assessmentafter Middle StatesOvercoming a fear of assessmentEvaluating and redesigning core competencies inlight of: AAC&U’s work with high impactpractices, essential learning outcomes, and liberaleducation; integrative learning we see inePortfolios; pressures contemporary events put onthe curriculum such as diversity, globalcitizenship and ethics 10 Years Later

Questions? 10 Years Later

C ONTACT J. Elizabeth Clark, Ph.D., Professor of English Marisa A. Klages, Ph.D., Associate Professor ofEnglish and Director of Outcomes Assessment 10 Years Later