Using ePortfolio Assessment Data to Initiate Curricular

Change—Or, Out of the Frying Pan and

Into the Fire?www.bu.edu/cgs/

Lynn O’Brien Hallstein, Associate Professor, Boston UniversityNatalie McKnight, Associate Dean, Boston UniversityGillian Pierce, Assistant Professor, Boston UniversityGunita Singh, Student, Boston University

http://www.aacu.org/value/rubrics/index.cfm

The AACU VALUE rubrics for critical thinking, integrative learning, written and oral communication, information literacy, and inquiry and analysis all apply directly to the skills students gain in our program.

1. Developing a rubric and an assessment committee:

Developing an Interdisciplinary Rubric Using Faculty Input

Students develop disciplinary knowledge pertaining to course problems or themes and an understanding of modes of thinking (“ways of knowing”) in discrete disciplines.

Students also display interdisciplinary thinking and are able to make connections between and among their courses and purposefully employ “ways of knowing” and specific disciplinary knowledge across disciplinary boundaries

Steps for Evaluating Existing Program Goals and Outcomes

•Survey faculty in all four Divisions of the College

•Collect a sampling of assignments from across Divisions

•Ask Faculty at the Divisional level to identify key course outcomes

•Look for consensus across Divisional lines

Forming an Assessment Committee

•incorporate “lead faculty” from each division•establish inter-rater reliability through practice

assessing portfolios that were not part of the key sample group

•use summer months to assess a randomly-selected significant sample of 100 student portfolios

•collect quantitative and qualitative assessment data that would help us “close the loop” and consider curricular change

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1hI2Q_KtfM

2. Student Reflections

Assessment averages for sophomores in each competency area over 4 semesters . . .

2. Assessment Results:

Increasing faculty and student buy-in (i.e. more postings!)

Concerns about plagiarism Addressing quantitative reasoning in more

courses? How to deal with resistance to change . . .

3. Using Assessment Data to Initiate Curricular Change

Cell-Phone Policy Assignment:

Please click on the links below and read at least four of the articles about cell-phone use and classrooms. Each of you is required to read the "New York Times" and NPR essays (feel free also to listen to the NPR segment that is provided), plus two more of your choice. Based on these readings and your careful reflection about the issues raised in the articles about both the positive and negative implications of cell phones, write a one-paragraph course policy for our class. You must bring a copy of the paragraph to the designated course meeting (see the course syllabus for the due date), post your paragraph on your own E-Portfolio site under your Rhetoric tag in a page titled Cell Phone Paragraph, and YOU MUST MAKE SURE TO SUBMIT YOUR ASSIGNMENT FORMALLY VIA DIGICATION TO GET CREDIT FOR THE ASSIGNMENT. See the following link to review how to submit assignments:

https://support.digication.com/entries/21216787-submitting-assignments-from-your-e-portfolio

https://bu.digication.com/Obrienhallstein/Cell-Phone_Policy_Assignment

Rubric Workshop

Some of the questions you should consider before writing your paragraph/policy are: What are the generational differences in cell phone use? Which generations are you describing? What is the "cultural clash" between your generation and most of your professors? Why are people concerned about students multi-tasking during class? Is your generation able to multi-task and learn at the same time? Is your generation developing brain pathways that most of your professors have not because of your ability to multi-task? What is texting doing in terms of students' writing and thinking abilities? What is gained and lost if you are engaging in social networking during class time?

Please model your paragraph on the course policies provided in the course syllabus. Also, you must have a one-sentence "consequences" statement that states the consequence for violating your course policy.

Cell-Phone Assignment

http://www.newswise.com/articles/texting-while-in-class-should-it-be-prohibitedcollegian.csufresno.edu...http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/03/new-study-shows-9-out-of-_n_791144.htmlwww.guardian.co.ukwww.usatoday.com...

www.nytimes.comThe Clash Of Ages: How Technology Divides Workers : NPR

www.npr.org...

Links to Articles

The links:

Cell Phone Paragraph – Allan Chen

Not all students are affected by texting distractions equally, and not all students are necessarily distracted by texting at all. Since no individual can have his or her own individual allowances, a common policy must be applied in order to maximize concentration within a classroom. Texting in the classroom must be prohibited. This activity negatively influences the student's concentration as multi-tasking during a lecture can affect concentration span. Having a phone distracting you from what the professor is saying can leave you misunderstanding instructions and can also prevent you from hearing all the information. Phones do not need to be switched off, but the use of phones for texting is not allowed. There also needs to be a demand for respect, not only for the speaker and professor but also for fellow students - hearing the more-than-occasional phone vibration can become very irritating to other students and so disturb the students' concentration. Most professors come from a generation where texting and social networking were only just developing as ideas and so it is understandable why most of them will disapprove of classroom texting. Considering the fact that the current generation of college students have grown up in an age where such things as texting and using the internet are standard, the use of technology would seem a necessity in modern day teaching. In reality it can often impair not only the student's concentration level in a classroom, but also the student's writing and thinking abilities. Therefore, one must always be aware that, in the classroom and also in many other situations, appropriate writing should be used so that information can be relayed clearly. In identifying these rules, it must also be pointed out that teachers can also prevent classroom texting without setting strict policies. Promoting classroom discussions and interaction can keep the student focused on the task at hand. Another way is to use original and unique ways of implementing social networking into the classroom activities. Texting will be inevitable, however it should never distract or interrupt anything that goes on in the classroom. You should have one warning if caught texting during class and if it happens again your phone will be confiscated for the appropriate amount of time depending on how distracting your actions are.

https://bu.digication.com/team_d_allan_chen/Welcome/published

Student Example