All Posts

When I design an onboarding course, I don’t assume all new advisors are starting from the same place. Some arrive with years of advising experience, others are new to higher education, and many are navigating MSU systems for the first time. This learner inventory is my way of understanding who the advisor is, what they already know, and what they need most right now. Responses to the below inventory helps me shape the course in intentional ways, prioritizing relevant topics,

As I am transitioning to a new position as the educational developer for academic advising, I am committed to supporting academic advisors personal and professional growth through engaging learning experiences. My manifesto is a reflection of my beliefs and values as it relates to learning and will provide a guiding framework for future work. Provide opportunities for regular feedback from learners. In my work in creating professional and educational development content for a

Over the course of this semester in CEP 813, I’ve learned a considerable amount about assessments, particularly how to create an effective and inclusive assessment for a wide range of needs. Today’s blog will be a reflective one as I look back on where I started and how I’ve ended, and all of the changes I experienced along the way. Let’s start with the beginning. One of my first assignments asked me to evaluate three core beliefs I have about assessments. Throughout this pro

As part of an on-going evaluation and critique of my Formative Assessment Design (FAD), I have made a few changes to my previous design and will discuss these changes in today's blog post. To provide some background, I am developing an assessment that reviews the effectiveness of a New Advisor Training Series. This training series is made up of 9 courses, each focused on specific topics new advisors should know to do their job effectively, and is meant to help new advisors sm

In today's blog, I am analyzing an assessment I have used in the past when teaching a freshman seminar course. The freshman seminar was focused on preparing students for professional health programs, such as medical or dental school. In addition to understanding the application process for health programs, I incorporated student success activities to help new freshmen adjust to college life. During the very first day of class each semester, I have my students complete a stren

In this most recent CEP 813 module, focused on racism and bias in assessments, I was excited to incorporate another assessment question and evidence to address bias. Implicit bias is an unfortunate and ongoing concern within education. I've participated in implicit bias and accessibility training, but rarely has the conversation focused on bias within assessments. With assessments being such an integral part of any learning environment, addressing bias should be a regular con

Reflect on ethical and critical issues of digital assessment. Working in higher education, I've spent quite a bit of time using data to build assessments to create interventions for improving student academic performance. Gathering high school GPA information about students, for example, has been used to predict how students will perform in their college classes. Though I believe there can be benefit from collecting this kind of data, particularly in assessing if a student ne

In today's post, I am exploring a feature in Wix that I have not used before, which is the Wix Forum. Wix Forum is an easy to integrate, free application that allows users to engage with one another, share responses on a particular topic, and build community on your website. Wix has become one of my favorite Course Management Systems (CMS) because of its high level of customization, but has many more features and tools that I was not previously aware of. I chose to integrate

In this final stage of developing my assessment design checklist, I am incorporating more digital contexts. My final question considers having multiple methods for students to show understanding. I found this to be important because students will arrive to the learning environment with a wide range of skills and abilities, and an assessment should take this into account. Digital tools can be used to accommodate for these variations, which is why I felt it important to include

Since creating my first two checklist items for the Assessment Design Checklist, I have added two more questions with associated evidence. I had an opportunity to review The Power of Feedback by John Hattie and Helen Timperley, which helped further develop my thinking around effective feedback and assessment. The additional questions and evidence relate to self-regulated learning and having clearly defined goals for an assessment. I felt that these questions were important t

Assessment Genre: The assessment genre that I have chosen to critically review is the Graduate Records Exam (GRE), which is an entrance exam commonly required for admission to master's and doctoral programs. I chose the GRE because I myself have taken the GRE twice, once for entry into a master's program and a second time when applying to a PhD program, and I discuss the GRE frequently with my advisees. As an academic advisor that works primarily with students who are seeking

In developing an effective assessment, it is imperative that the creator reflect on what the specific goals of the assessment are, continuously asking why this assessment is important and what is its purpose. As you begin the development-phase of an assessment, it's important to ask yourself certain questions about your assessment. A great way to start this is by creating an Assessment Design Checklist . In the Assessment Design Checklist linked above, I have written out 2 qu

SMART Goals Worksheet I teach a freshman seminar course for pre-health students every fall semester. This group of 25 students have honed in on a career in the medical field (think medical school, dental school, PA, etc). As we begin every new semester, I have my students complete the SMART Goals Worksheet during the first day of class to begin effectively planning for their future. The SMART Goals Worksheet is a written assessment that identifies a goal of their choosing, fl

In my work in higher education, from competitive admissions to academic advising and course instruction, I have had many opportunities to use assessments. Assessments have assisted me in evaluating student events, obtaining course feedback, and hearing directly from students. Assessment helps to propel learning through self-reflection and regular check-ins, for both the student and the teacher, and is an essential tool for any educator. Through personal and professional exper

Introduction Learning is a multifaceted, continuous process that stems from our personal experiences with familial, cultural, and societal structures while stimulating a myriad of cognitive processes. Learning ultimately determines the knowledge and skills we attain throughout our lifetime; a continuous process that occurs in structured institutional environments, such as students participating in a classroom activity, and in everyday experiences, like trying out a new recipe