Blue RidgeCommunity College Blue Ridge Community College The Blue Ridge General Education Degree Qualifications Profile Assessment and Alignment Project —Submitted by Lynne Ryan

“An idea we’re trying out as a way to get faculty involved with assessment (particularly General Education assessment) on a more individual, personal level.” “The [traditional] assessments cycle through the competencies.... The tests [have been] standardized multiple choice exams that are (somewhat) aligned with the system wide VCCS designated outcomes under each Gen Ed heading.”

“The multiple choice tests are so far removed from what we do in our classrooms that the data we get from them do little to inform our classroom instruction.” “Under our current system, faculty participation in the Gen Ed assessment process is virtually zero.”

“Suddenly hitting them with a large, sweeping project where everybody has to sit down and apply rubrics to large samples of student work isn’t going to get buy-in; it’s going to get resentment as yet one more time consuming administrative task of possibly questionable value to faculty.”

Blue Ridge Propositions “Engage faculty in assessment in ways that: 1.fit naturally and easily into what is already taking place in their classrooms 2.are not unduly burdensome 3.provide immediate feedback leading to a specific action for improvement on a small scale, and 4.can still be aggregated to provide a bigger picture of the General Education competencies as a whole.”

The Approach By the end of the three hour workshop, nine faculty had each completed a rubric designed to help them assess the General Education components of one of their course assignments. The rubrics were constructed by drawing from the AAC&U VALUE Rubrics. Rubric objectives were mapped to both BRCC General Education statements, and DQP statements.

There’s a few more things Faculty were asked to do: Do a follow-up assessment on the same or a similar assignment after implementing the action, and complete a follow-up Rubric Report Out. Coax one other faculty member teaching in a similar area with a similar assignment to apply his rubric, and have them complete a “Rubric Report Out initial” for their assigned lab report.

Lynne Reflects... “Now, on a small-scale, individual faculty might be thinking: ‘Well, this is an interesting take on things. I’m not sure what the relevance is to my one assignment, since it seems to be more at a program level, but I can certainly see what parts of it fit.’” ‘Well, this is an interesting take on things. I’m not sure what the relevance is to my one assignment, since it seems to be more at a program level, but I can certainly see what parts of it fit.’”

“What [faculty] are doing (again, in a small, not unduly burdensome way) is also making a contribution to an aggregate – but [they don’t necessarily have to involve themselves] in the larger project.”

“One report on one science lab in one course doesn’t assess Gen Ed, but what if we have a collection of 40 rubric reports, on all types of assignments, from faculty teaching in all areas across the college?”

So, we gather up a pile of reports, coming from all different disciplines...

“On the face of it, they all appear to be very different things…but when we look at the mappings, will any trends emerge?”