Amcoa+meeting+minutes+for+september+14+2011

Minutes of the Fourth AMCOA Meeting, September 14, 2011

Prepared by Kerry McNally

Host Campus: Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

I. Attendance

The third AMCOA meeting was hosted by Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts from 10:00 a.m.-12:00 Noon on September 14, 2011. Representatives from 15 institutions attended the meeting (See list in Appendix A), and Peggy Maki, Consultant under the Davis Educational Foundation Grant awarded to the Department of Higher Education, chaired the meeting. Peggy opened the meeting and introduced Donna Kuizenga, Special Assistant to the Provost at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

II. Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts President, Mary Grant: Opening Remarks

President Mary Grant welcomed the AMCOA Team to Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA). She also thanked Kristina Bendikas and David Langston for their wisdom and good leadership on behalf of MCLA for the AMCOA Project. President Grant pointed out that student assessment is not a new concept, although it may feel new. All of the campuses do assessment with a level of involvement that varies across a spectrum. Student assessment is something we should be concerned about as it focuses on the learning that occurs on the campuses and throughout the public higher education system. As a senior ranking President, leading a state institution for over 10 years and having strong connections across the state, President Grant is committed to using her influence to advocate for scoring authentic student work as evidence of student learning and a way to improve student learning to ensure that this process produces quality education. “We’ve never done anything like this in the past. This is a faculty-driven assessment process.” Assessment is important, and Grant is proud of MCLA, which has been involved with LEAP Rubrics for years. This AMCOA Project allows us to learn from one another and trade ideas that enable us to drive the agenda. She thanked AMCOA members for the time they are investing in the Project and thanked Peggy Maki who has a national perspective on assessment. “Unlike that joke about ‘I’m the government and I’m here to help you,’ Peggy is an incredible resource for assessment. We are fortunate to have her in this process and to push the agenda. Thank you all for the trek out here and thank you for all of your help.”


III. Process for Naming of AMCOA Co-Chairs

Three Co-chairs will be elected by the Team, one from the Community Colleges, one from the four-year universities, and one from the UMass universities. Nominees, as stated in the Davis grant, must be faculty or administrators who also hold faculty positions. It is very important that Team Members sign today’s attendee list and hand in their completed ballots. Team Members will vote for candidates in all three sectors. For the Team Members not present at today’s meeting, Peggy will e-mail the ballot to them on Monday. The Team agreed to this process. Peggy will bring the completed ballots to the Commissioner and his Advisory Committee for final selection. Once they have named the three co-chairs, Peggy will call each of them—likely in October. Peggy asked if anyone on the list of nominees wished to decline and emphasized that the candidates for this role should have the time to do it. Lori Dawson of Worcester State University asked that her name be removed from consideration because this should be a faculty-driven endeavor and she is now in an administrative position. In the interest of full disclosure, Christopher Cratsley of Fitchburg State University said that although he is Interim Director of Assessment, he is also on the faculty. He has been a faculty member for ten years and is currently teaching graduate students, but he has taught undergraduate students in the past. He said that if the Team agreed, he would like to remain on the ballot. The Team agreed to keep him as a nominee. (Please see Appendix B, Peggy Maki’s e-mail to the Team on the process for naming AMCOA co-chairs.)

IV. Update on Poll Results about Extending the Length of Monthly AMCOA Meetings

Peggy Maki provided an update on the question of whether the AMCOA Team meeting length should be extended to accommodate discussion items or presentations. With 21 Team Members responding to the online poll, 76% of that total voted to extend the team meetings to three hours. Based on further discussion about this issue, since the total number of people voting was less than half of the total membership of AMCOA, the team recommended that Peggy determine the length of each future meeting based on the agenda -- anywhere from two to three hours. She also stated that she can move discussion items up earlier in an agenda and put information items at the end so that if people do need to leave early, they will have had the chance to engage in discussions.

V. Scheduling Monthly Meetings Beyond November, 2011

AMCOA Team Meetings were scheduled for 2012 through the end of the Davis Grant. The 2012 dates follow:

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Thursday, January 12, 2012

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Monday, March 26, 2012

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Because December is such a busy month wrapping up the academic year, it was decided that there would be no AMCOA Team meeting that month. Also because the fourth conference will be held at the end of April the team decided to skip that month and meet early in May. Please let Peggy or Kerry know if your school is willing to host one of the 2012 AMCOA meetings.

VI. Update on Developing Descriptive Text for a Proposed Assessment Methods Database

Peggy asked Maureen Melvin Sowa if she would be willing to create a draft that describes what should be entered into an assessment method database on Yammer. Maureen will present that draft at the October 18 meeting.

VII. Parameters for Assessment Experiments

Peggy asked if there were any edits or changes members would like to propose to the text for the Parameters for Assessment Experiments. Tom Curley suggested developing a more detailed descriptor under criterion 5, and Peggy agreed to work with him to revise that. She then will send the final draft to AMCOA members for a “last look” before mailing out the final copy on September 26 to AMCOA team members, presidents, vice presidents, and CAOs with a deadline for proposals set for October 31, 2011.

Peggy asked that the following three AMCOA members serve as scorers of the submitted proposals: Bonnie Orcutt, Charlotte Mandell, and Tom Curley. Susan Chang and Lisa Plantefaber will substitute for any scorer whose institution is named in one of the proposals. This group will also develop a scoring rubric to rank proposals that then will be sent to the Commissioner and his Advisory Committee for final decisions. Peggy said that her sense is that many of the Team Members are developing collaborations across the State to draft their assessment experiment proposals.

VIII. Final Plans for September 30 Conference (Kris Bendikas) and Status of Videotaping

Kristina thanked the Team Members for their patience while the kinks were worked out for this first conference. She also wanted to make sure that everyone knew how the roundtables will

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work. After each presentation everyone will return to the Blue Lounge, where there will be signs on the tables for each roundtable connected to a presentation. At these tables people can ask questions of the presenters, make comments, or bring up concerns. People may use the other rooms that are empty, but the formal Roundtable discussions will occur in the Blue Lounge. Peggy also reminded the Team that one of the overarching outcomes of the conferences is to facilitate networking across the State. The roundtables provide that kind of opportunity so that people will be in a position to have dialogue with people from other campuses and possibly invite them to their campuses to share their experiences.

When Kristina asked if there were any questions, the following issues were brought up:

How is the conference being marketed to the broader community? This September 30 conference will be comprised of those individuals that AMCOA members invite—given the short planning time for it.

How can we release information about future conferences to the larger community so that more people can bring the lessons learned from these conferences back to their campuses? Presidents and CAOs have been informed, but we have not moved into alternate communication channels. Under the Davis grant there are limited funds to support each conference; in addition restrictions on space at each campus determine the number of people who can attend. Typically, the uppermost seating that can be accommodated is around 200 people. If members have suggestions for widening publicity, they should let Peggy know. Others responded that we should see these conferences as ways to create a “ripple effect” on campuses, so it is important that Presidents and Vice Presidents invite people who will take the lessons and information from each session back to their campuses and “spread the word.” Peggy said perhaps future funding could support developing larger conferences. She also mentioned that the DHE newsletter will announce the remaining conferences, and DHE will also do some feature stories on the AMCOA Project as it goes forward.

Peggy encouraged the Team and invited attendees to sign up for the Conference on EventBrite, an on-line registration site we are using to register for each conference. Kerry can monitor how many spaces are being taken for the conference and report back to AMCOA team members if there are additional tickets available so that team members can bring more people from their campuses. Peggy thanked Kristina Bendikas and the Conference Planning Group for all their good work and thanked Lori Dawson for the support she has provided for hosting the September 30th Conference at WSU.

Peggy reported that she has had to work through State protocols to assure that we can videotape sessions at the September 30th Conference. As it stands now, presenters will have to produce

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written handouts and/or PowerPoints of their presentations, so that people can access the material in more than one form—an ADA requirement. After the conference is over, Kerry will ask presenters to forward her all written handouts and PowerPoints. Through Worcester State University’s generosity, we will be able to videotape most of the presentations. Given the human power available to videotape, we will be limited to filming three presentations in the morning and three in the afternoon. Peggy called for volunteers who are willing to offer only written materials and not be videotaped. Please notify Peggy or Kerry. Videotapes will be available on our Yammer site. Questions from the group that she still has to address are the following:

If a team member signs onto Yammer, may that person forward a video to other faculty?

May the videotapes be downloaded? Will this allow them to go into the public domain in uncontrolled ways?

Should there be a hot link to the presentation videos? What format will the videos be in?

The DHE has also approved a permission form for presenters to sign, which will allow WSU to videotape them.

Kerry will collect the evaluations at the Conference and then send them to the Planning Committee so that recommended changes are incorporated into the next conferences. Kristina, Peggy, Kerry and the new conference co-chairs will have a post-conference call to debrief and educate the new co-chairs on best practices for future conferences.

IX. Discussion of Future Conferences under The Davis Grant

As the planning groups begin to work together for the mirror conferences, Peggy suggested that a focus on assessment in the disciplines be included because she has heard about that level of interest in her campus visits. For the upcoming conferences in November and February, Peggy made a call for volunteers for those planning groups. The plan for the November and February Mirror Conferences is that they will be regional to reduce the commuting for attendees and cover the same material. However, Peggy said that if new ideas emerge after the November conference, new sessions can be offered in the February conference. A question for these two conferences is whether or not they should be advertised together -- an issue that the planning groups should address.

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X. Some Observations Based on Peggy Maki’s Campus Visits

Although Peggy said she would be happy to provide an overview of her assessment visits once she has completed all of them at the end of October, she wanted to share some of her observations so far. Specifically, she stated that she is amazed at how many campuses are focused on LEAP, have adopted the VALUE rubrics, and are applying them or adaptations of them to student work. Over the longer term she believes that we will need to work together across the State to score student work using the VALUE rubrics if the Commissioner decides to become a LEAP-affiliated state based on responses from all of our public institutions. We likely would invite representatives from AAC&U to scoring sessions to answer questions that are raised about any adaptations to the VALUE rubrics. Often, she has seen that institutions will agree on a core set of criteria and then add other criteria for their institutional needs.

Peggy said that it has been a treat for her to be on all of the State’s campuses and to learn about their progress in assessment. Presidents have been incredibly supportive and aware and knowledgeable about assessment. Every institution is improving and doing it “on a spectrum,” as Mary Grant said. Having been at NEASC in the late ’80s when a commitment to assessment was first launched in accreditation, Peggy said she sees the progress that has taken place in this State.

XI. Upcoming Meeting Agenda Topics

Peggy stated that Pat Crosson is scheduled to present to the AMCOA Team at the October meeting, specifically focusing on AMCOA’s Phase II developments. Concern was expressed that Phase II developments may not recognize the work achieved in Phase I, specifically the proposed composite model for reporting results that is described in Phase II. Peggy suggested that this issue be raised when Pat is present in October, but also reminded the team of the wording in Phase I and in the current Davis grant: “to develop campus-based assessment systems that can be used across the state and inform the eventual statewide system.”

At the October meeting, Ellen Wentland has generously agreed to present on assessment practices at Northern Essex Community College—the first of our internal opportunities to learn from each other.

At our November meeting, Michael Young has agreed to present on assessment practices at Bridgewater State University.

The next AMCOA meeting will take place on October 18th from 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. at Middlesex Community College in Bedford. Peggy Maki will send an agenda and driving

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directions to the site one week before the meeting. Please let Kerry know as soon as possible if you plan to attend the meeting or cannot.

Mark Your Calendars: November 17, 2011: Regional Assessment Conference at Greenfield Community College, 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. (8:30 a.m. Registration)

Next Meeting: October 18, 2011 at Middlesex Community College in Bedford

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Appendix A Institutions Represented at the AMCOA September 14th Meeting:

Berkshire Community College Bunker Hill Community College Framingham State University Greenfield Community College Holyoke Community College Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Middlesex Community College Quinsigamond Community College Roxbury Community College Salem State University Springfield Technical Community College University of Massachusetts Amherst University of Massachusetts Boston Westfield State University Worcester State University

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Appendix B Process for Naming of AMCOA Co-chairs

September 7, 2011

Dear AMCOA Team Members:

Having discussed with the Commissioner’s Advisory Committee last week the process by which an AMCOA chair will be named, I would like to describe the results of that discussion and the process we will follow.

Specifically, the Advisory Committee supported the naming of three faculty co-chairs, representing each of the constituencies of our state system: state universities, UMass, and community colleges. I will work with these co-chairs to develop our monthly meetings and design the future directions of our collaborative work. Annually, one chair will serve as the point of contact for the Commissioner, providing perspectives on assessment issues as our work together develops and periodically chairing meetings or leading discussions at our meetings. Kerry and I will continue to assume responsibility for setting up monthly meetings and maintaining contact with all of you throughout our work so that this kind of administrative work is not burdensome to those of you who will serve as co-chairs. The process of naming co-chairs will consist of: (1) AMCOA team members nominating individuals from each constituency on a ballot; and (2) the Advisory Board naming the three individuals based on the ballot results.

To prepare for our September 14 meeting at MCLA, I have listed below eligible individuals who are faculty. Administrators who also hold a faculty position can also be included in this list of eligible people. If I have not listed any of you who hold dual positions, please let me know and I will include you on the list I will present to team members on the 14th. Further, if you do not wish to be nominated, please also let me know and I will remove your name from the list. On September 14 I will ask that you nominate one faculty for each of the constituencies on a paper ballot. I will then present those ballots to the Advisory Board; the Advisory Board will name the three individuals as soon as possible. If you have any questions about the responsibilities of the co-chairs, please email me.

Please look over the attached list and then email me by September 12 if I have missed any eligible members or if you do not wish to be considered for nomination.

Community College Faculty:

Charles Prescott Berkshire CC

Maureen Sowa Bristol CC

William Berry Cape Cod CC

Kate Finnegan Greenfield CC

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Terri Kinstle Holyoke CC

Nina Keery Massachusetts Bay CC

Susan Keith Massasoit CC

John Savage Middlesex CC

Susan Taylor Mt. Wachusetts CC

Suzanne van Wert Northern Essex CC

Gaelan Benway Quinsigamond CC

Javad Moulai Roxbury CC

Timothy McLaughlin Bunker Hill CC

UMass Faculty:

Neal Bruss

State University Faculty:

Wendy Haynes Bridgewater SU

Benjamin Railton Fitchburg SU

David Langston MCLA

Amanda Woods Mass Maritime Academy

James Gubbins Salem SU

Bonnie Orcutt Worcester SU

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