“Building a Culture of Evidence in Student Affairs from the Ground Up”

OVERVIEW

• Narrative map of our process over a 16 month period

• Session learning outcomes and goals:– Name a few resources (frameworks) available for consideration

when establishing a culture of evidence in student affairs. – Describe two potential challenges to establishing a culture of

evidence. – Plan one move toward building and/or nurturing a culture of

evidence in your program area.

What comes to mind when you think about “assessment”?

Frameworks

• CAS STANDARDS• KUH THEORY OF ENGAGEMENT• Personal theories• College Student Development Theory

Co and Extra Curricular Assessment

• Newer phenomenon• Variety in definitions

OUR APPROACHOakton Community College Co and Extracurricular

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Phase 2• Identify current state of co and extracurricular

assessment• Conducted 1-1 interviews of division/department/area heads• Shared our data with committee, looked for themes

• Sample Questions: – How do you define student learning and student success in

the context of your specific program?– How do you know when student’s learn through

participation in your program activities?– Do you collect specific evidence (artifacts) to represent

student learning? (e.g., Use, Satisfaction, Impact data)– What changes do you expect to see in student behavior

after participation?

Phase 2 Findings

• Process was education for all involved. • Significant diversity in practice and awareness

among areas• Example: grant-funded programs with

stringent assessment mandates connected to funding ----- individual student case files with no centralized data collection

Phase 2 Conclusions

• Our College needs a Student ID• Gaps in practice • More research needed to find the gaps

Phase 3 Concurrent Work

• Concurrent work of developing a standard learning outcome for Oakton’s Student Affairs Division

• Learning outcome: Students will demonstrate an increased ability to navigate the complex system that is their college experience. (( need the specifics))

Phase 3 Conclusion

• With confirmation of our hypothesis, we needed to do a couple of things: – 1) Help others to display what they are doing to

the college as a whole; but also in turn – 2) Begin the process of helping areas to identify

gaps in their assessment practice

Phase IV

How can we help make student affairs assessment visible at Oakton?• Non-threatening, public • Adding value to our College’s academic life• Evidence all the ways student learn outside the classroom • Serve program participants as an opportunity to reflect on their work

2015 Spring Student Affairs Assessment Showcase • In conjunction with Oakton’s annual Staff Day• Voluntary conference-style poster session• Sample framing questions:

– What do you want students to develop and/or experience from

participation in your program?– What kinds (if any) of evaluations and/or assessment to you use to

provide evidence that learning is happening?– What are the results?– How have you used the results to change your practices and program?

Next Steps

• “Building