August Assessment Academy

Faculty and staff gathered in August to participate in the annual August Assessment Academy. This year, the topic was bridging the sometimes-surprising gap between what we intend to teach and what students seem to learn from us. The workshop was led by Assessment expert Elise Martin under a Degree Qualifications Profile Tuning Coach initiative sponsored by the Lumina Foundation.

Elise Martin (pictured at far left) is the Dean of Assessment and Professional Development at Middlesex Community College, a role which allows her to create strong linkages between the college’s ongoing assessment and improvement of student learning outcomes and related curricular and pedagogical initiatives.

The Degree Qualifications Profile is a learning-centered framework for what college graduates should know and be able to do to earn the associate, bachelor’s or master’s degree

Attendees discussed strategies to connect individual course content and learning experiences to discipline and program goals. They also tackled broader issues related to general education, especially strategies to scaffold skills on each other, and to involve all stakeholders in student success.

Members of QORE (Quinsigamond Outcomes Research for Excellence) team shared materials they created with a team of discipline faculty and professional staff, including a new Toolkit for Designing and Assessing Writing at QCC. The Academy is offered every year as a professional development opportunity under the auspices of the Department of Distance Learning and Professional Development