University of Rhode Island

Student Learning Outcomes Oversight Committee

(LOOC)

Meeting Minutes

October1, 2015

2:00pm – 3:00pm

Pharmacy Building

In attendance:

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Pete Adamy

Marilyn Barbour (chair)

Laura Beauvais

Gary Boden

Joanna Burkhardt

Elaine Finan

Diane Goldsmith

Michael Greenfield

David Hayes

Brian Heikes

Leslie Kealhofer-Kemp

Sandi Lewanika

Mary Macdonald

Paula McGlasson

Patricia Morokoff

Anne Veeger

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  1. Introduction
  1. Approval of May 2015 Meeting Minutes
  • Motion to Approve – Approved
  1. Announcements
  • Marilyn handed out a packet of 2010-2015 Reports to Faculty Senate
  1. Setting the Agenda for 2015/2016
  • Conversations about the success of programs in providing reports on student learning outcomes
  • Compliance and performance issues? Not the majority
  • What should LOOC do as a committee?
  • John Stevenson proposed to create a letter to the Provost at the last meeting of spring 2015
  • General Education - LOOC responsibilities
  • Assist University in assessment needs
  • Provide SLOAA with assistance/advice
  • Role of LOOC is to be involved with General Education; want to make sure level of assessment is appropriate for the new program
  • Need to have conversation on how we want to be involved
  • Will probably happen later
  • NEASC – accrediting body for the University
  • Site visit is in October 2017
  • We’re at the time when we start thinking about meeting these standards
  • Want to be prepared to report to NEASC / self-study committee
  • There is a change in the wording of the standards (to be decided by January 2016), but the current version has an appendix requiring student learning outcomes assessment
  • Standards went from 11 to 9; Assessment is its own standard, not built into other standards like before
  • NEASC finds assessment very important
  • The assessment process that we’ve been using on campus is the expectation
  • E1A on NEASC report “Inventory of Educational Effectiveness Indicators” – each program fills out this form during accreditation year
  • General Education program might be too new to assess by 2017
  • Institution-level learning goals regarding co-curricular activities (student learning outside of the classroom, not course-specific)
  • Should LOOC have a role in non-academic student learning outcomes?
  • Contact Tom Dougan to identify outcomes/standards for student affairs
  1. SLOAA Update
  • Spring 2015, presented information about compliance and performance for Cohort I (May 2014 provision of reports)
  • Recognition for exemplar programs at the Faculty Senate meeting
  • Section I of the assessment report is reporting on new outcomes (what NEASC asks for); Section II is a section about follow-up on recommendations for change
  • Continuous quality improvement = student learning
  • Elaine and Kristin (grad)
  • Considering a mini-grant program for programs to focus on the Section II component
  • Compliance for Cohort II (May 2015 provision of reports)
  • Great compliance
  • Feedback going back to programs this month
  • Performance data coming soon!
  • Institutionally, looking at outcomes
  • Goal- moving from compliance to value
  • A&S has an Assessment Committee – Patricia Morokoff is College-level coordinator requested department information from Cohort I programs in order to support their assessment work and increase awareness of the timeline and reporting expectations.
  • Information requested from Cohort I: name of Outcomes Assessment Coordinator (new title given to person in this service role); name of participants in the department Learning Outcomes Committee
  • Timeline and plan for developing their report

Closing – Meeting Wizard for subsequent meetings will come before each meeting

Meeting Adjourned 2:56PM

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