|
Overview:
Increased pressure to measure results and stringent accreditation standards are making it necessary for career services officers to move beyond counting office visits, job postings, and placements. A more sophisticated assessment methodology can help you align programming with your goals and justify departmental expenditures.
Join us to learn the theoretical perspective behind outcomes-based assessment and apply it as you develop a plan to take back to your institution. We will discuss key elements of an outcomes-based assessment plan, including:
- Developing outcomes
- Choosing a method for collecting data
- Analyzing data
- Making decisions about programmatic changes
- Connecting theory to professional and accreditation standards
- Closing the assessment loop by connecting the changes to long-term objectives
Build Your Assessment Knowledge with Hands-On Exercises
Your team will collaborate with peers to solve common problems and benefit from expert critiques and guidance to create the framework for an assessment plan applicable to your institution.
What Others Are Saying:
"For the livelihood & future of your CDC office, staff members REALLY need to go through a program like this. The way we do business is changing and this conference will keep you ahead of the curve in that transition." –Troy Nunamaker, Director, Internships, Clemson University
"Very powerful information delivered in an understandable way. Even if you're already building and assessing learning outcomes, you will learn techniques to improve your career services operation. For us, it's a tremendous starting point." –Richard Davino, Director, Career Services & Employer Relations, Framingham State College
"This was the best investment I ever made. The content and practical information was invaluable. I left feeling well-informed and capable of embarking on the tasks required ro fulfill the needs and wants of my administration." –Linda Garlinger, Director, Career Development, Missouri Western State University
Optional Post-Conference Webcast: Navigating the Obstacles to Successful Implementation
Monday, January 13, 2010 :: 1:00-3:00 PM EST
Assessment is a long process. While the conference will lay the foundation for beginning assessment in your career services office, this post-conference follow-up will answer questions that have arisen in the six months since the conference and allow you to hear from some of your conference colleagues on their progress. On January 13, 2010, the conference faculty will host a web conference to check in on the developments you've made since attending the in-person event and to provide suggestions for further implementation of the assessment process.
Save $400 in Registration Fees
If you attend the Career Services Assessment conference and send a colleague from your institution to the First Year Programs Assessment conference on July 23-24, your institution will receive a $400 registration discount. Learn more about the First Year Programs Assessment conference.
Program Agenda:
Monday, July 20, 2009
| 12:15 – 12:45 p.m. |
| Registration |
| 12:45 – 1:00 p.m. |
| Opening Comments and Introductions |
| 1:00 – 1:45 p.m. |
| Starter Session: The Assessment Model |
This opening session will address the purpose of a shift to a model focused on student learning and assessment of learning. A broad conceptual model of assessment will be introduced. Topics include:
- The purpose of assessment and its current importance
- Basic definitions for assessment, evaluation, goals, learning objectives, and learning outcomes
- The proposed assessment model
- Phases of implementation
|
|
Phase 1: Objectives
| 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. |
| Know & Do Exercise |
Join us for this interactive exercise and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to student learning outcomes. You will then participate in a facilitated brainstorming session that will help you develop learning objectives for your department. |
| 3:30 – 4:15 p.m. |
| Indicators and the Matrix |
|
This session will demonstrate how to begin implementing learning outcomes conducting basic assessments of student learning objectives.
You will learn to:
- Identify indicators of student learning
- Map programmatic efforts to learning objectives
- Connect the assessment model to Phase 1 implementation
- Analyze indicator data to conduct basic assessment
- Generate professional development strategies that address knowledge and skills, motivation, and organizational barriers
|
| 4:15 – 5:15 p.m. |
| Tying up Phase 1: Objectives |
|
To close the day, this session will review and summarize Phase 1 of the proposed assessment model and connect it to the next steps for administrators. You will also look at an example of how to write a year-end report from your objectives.
|
| 5:15 – 6:15 p.m. |
| Networking Reception (included in registration) |
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
| 8:30 – 9:00 a.m. |
| Continental Breakfast (included in registration) & Roundtable |
Phase 2: Outcomes
| 9:00 – 10:45 a.m. |
| Working session: Writing Learning Outcomes |
|
You will write your own student learning outcomes using the vocabulary of assessment professionals. The group will then work together to evaluate the learning outcomes to see whether they are concrete, challenging, and current.
|
| 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. |
| Practical Assessment Strategies |
|
Using the conference workbook and several hands-on activities, you will explore a variety of ways to collect information for your learning outcomes. |
| 12:00 – 1:30 p.m |
| Lunch (included in registration) |
| 1:30 – 3:00 p.m. |
| Working session: Scales and Rubrics |
|
This session will show you how to develop scales and rubrics to improve the quality and effectiveness of practical assessment strategies.
|
| 3:15 – 4:00 p.m. |
| Tying up Phase 2: Outcomes |
|
This session will review Phase 2 and show you how to report your results to the rest of the campus. You will continue to break down tangible steps in the process to take back to your campus.
|
| 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. |
| Implementing Phase 1 & 2 |
|
Integrating assessment into your everyday tasks may seem daunting and unfeasible. This session will show you how to create a manageable timeframe for your office's assessment plan.
|
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
| 8:30 – 9:00 a.m. |
| Continental Breakfast (included in registration) |
Phase 3: Next Steps
| 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. |
| Where Next? |
|
Now that you have worked through each part of the assessment model, you will connect it back to your ongoing program evaluation. This session will:
- Distinguish between targeted and comprehensive program evaluation approaches
- Answer evaluation questions using comprehensive learning objective data (indicator assessments) and learning outcome data (practical assessments)
|
| 10:15 – 11:00 a.m. |
| The Planning Context |
|
This session will help you connect assessment to your strategic planning process, using a program evaluation audit on your current initiatives. You will answer the following questions:
- What are the formal and informal ways you are currently monitoring your progress?
- Who are your stakeholders and how would they define your success?
- What are your current goals?
- What direction do CAS and/or NACE professional standards provide you?
- How do you benchmark your success?
|
| 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. |
| Action Plan/Plan Critique |
|
This session will allow you to work in small groups to formulate an action plan to take back to campus for the beginning steps of your career services assessment. In addition, participants will share their first steps and learning outcomes with colleagues for feedback from a variety of sources.
|
| 12:00 – 12:15 p.m. |
| Final Q & A |
|
This final session will allow you to ask any remaining questions of the faculty panel.
|
Instructors:
John Hoffman, Instructor, California State University, Fullerton
John coordinates the Student Development in Higher Education program at California State University and also teaches in their Ph.D. program in Education. He has presented on learning and assessment in the co-curriculum at several local and national conferences. Before transitioning to the classroom, he spent over 10 years working in administrative roles in student affairs, academic administration, and fundraising. He spent 6 years as a dean of students in private Christian universities, where he first developed his approach to assessment, and has refined the process through his work as an instructor and through collaborative efforts with colleagues at other colleges and universities.
Jim Smart, Director, Toppel Career Center, University of Miami
Jim has worked in higher education for nearly 30 years and has been the director of the Toppel Career Center since 2001. Prior to coming to Toppel, he served the university for 12 years in a variety of roles including associate director and assistant director of residence halls. He has also worked directly for the vice president of student affairs coordinating the student affairs crisis response team and the division's assessment program. As a generalist, Jim has worked in a variety of areas including career counseling, orientation, student activities, Greek life, student conduct, and leadership. He has also done private practice counseling and consulting.
Location Information:
| Date and Location: |
July 20-22, 2009 :: Boston, MA |
| Hotel: |
Room Rate: |
Room Block Dates: |
Rate Available Until: |
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, Overlooking Boston, 575 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02139
To reserve your room, please call (617) 492-1234. Please indicate that you are with the Academic Impressions group to receive the group rate. |
The rate is $179 single or double occupancy, plus applicable tax.
|
A room block has been reserved for the nights of July 20-23, 2009.
|
Make your reservations prior to June 29, 2009. There are a limited number of rooms available at the conference rate. Please make your reservations early.
|
| Additional Information: |
|
Minutes from Boston, the Hyatt Regency Cambridge hotel is located along the scenic Charles River overlooking the Boston skyline and is in the midst of two uncommonly exciting cities, Boston and Cambridge. Each exhibits a unique blend of old world charm coupled with youthful, contemporary sophistication. The hotel is located between the MIT and Harvard campuses, and is just 6 miles from Boston Logan International Airport.
|
Registration Information:
|
Questions
Call us at 720.488.6800 to help determine if this event is right for you.
Registration
For instant registration, register online or call 720.488.6800. Register Three, Send the Fourth Free!
Your registration fee includes: full access to all conference sessions and materials, access to the networking reception on Monday, breakfast and lunch on Tuesday, and breakfast on Wednesday, as well as refreshments and snacks throughout the conference.
|
Register Online:
Save $400 in Registration Fees
If you attend the Career Services Assessment conference and send a colleague from your institution to the First Year Programs Assessment conference on July 23-24, your institution will receive a $400 registration discount. Learn more about the First Year Programs Assessment conference.
|
Download A PDF Brochure