On November 16, 2011 The Chronicle of Higher Education hosted a webinar titled, "Big Data. Big Conversation: Drexel University's Journey to Meaningful Assessment."

Over 550 educators, from 25 countries, came together to learn about Drexel's experiences and achievements, and to seek answers to some of the challenges to developing meaningful assessment practices.

Sponsored by Waypoint Outcomes and moderated by Waypoint CEO Andrew McCann, the session was recorded and is available, for free, via The Chronicle's website. You can find the link to the recorded webinar, plus other resources, below:

• Waypoint Overview: the two minute video experience
  
• Waypoint / Drexel "Big Data. Big Conversation" PowerPoint file
  
• Watch and listen to the recorded webinar
  You will need audio/speakers connected to your computer. Registration is required to access The Chronicle of Higher Education's archive.
  
• Access the rubric designed by Drexel for assessment of communication skills in the AACSB-accredited LeBow College of Business
  • Preview the rubric in Waypoint Outcomes
  • Download the rubric as a Word document

Details of the webinar:

Learning outcomes assessment is an opportunity and a challenge for educators. There is great potential for further engaging faculty and students, documenting authentic data on student learning, and deepening our understanding of curricular and organizational change on student outcomes. The challenges are myriad: resources, culture, shifting requirements, complexity.

Please join a panel of experts for a discussion of Drexel University’s varied and deep approaches to learning outcomes assessment of 21st century skills. The session will present the results of multi-year assessment projects, including high-level summaries of thousands of data points, and a candid review of nuts-and-bolts tactical challenges. These assessment projects include work specifically with the business school (AACSB: ethics, communication skills, analytic thinking), and general education and first-year writing (critical thinking, information literacy, writing skills).

Panel:

• Dr. Rebecca Ingalls, Director of the Freshman Writing Program
• Dr. Karen Nulton, Director of Drexel University Writing Assessment
• Dr. Scott Warnock, Director of the Drexel Writing Center and Writing Across the Curriculum

Projects:

• Decentralized, faculty-led assessment: general education
• Sampling of student work: situational assessment for AACSB Assurance of Learning
• Large-scale, formal, normed assessment: first-year writing

The panel has led collaboration across numerous disciplines at Drexel, providing faculty and administrators with multiple pathways to successful assessment of student learning.

Follow the live event on Twitter #DrexelLOA

This webinar is sponsored by Waypoint Outcomes and hosted by The Chronicle of Higher Education. All content presented during the event is provided by the speakers.

Speaker Bios

Rebecca Ingalls, Director of the Freshman Writing Program

Dr. Ingalls specializes in composition and rhetoric, with sub-interests in first-year writing, extracurricular literacy practices, queer rhetoric, religious rhetoric and plagiarism. Her work is found in inventio, Academe, The Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies and The Journal of Popular Culture.

Karen Nulton, Director of Drexel University Writing Assessment

Dr. Nulton concentrates on writing assessment, pedagogy and writing across the curriculum. She believes writing is a tool for students and faculty alike to explore and link ideas. She values collaboration and strives to bring this philosophy to her work in the Drexel Writing Center.

Scott Warnock, Director of the Drexel Writing Center and Writing Across the Curriculum

Dr. Warnock’s specialty is technology to enhance writing instruction across the curriculum. His research interests include the influence of digital tools on the writing process, new tools for writing assessment, and science and medical rhetoric. In addition to freshman writing, he also teaches a variety of courses including business and technical writing, and writing for the web.

Webinar Host

Andrew McCann, CEO and Founder, Waypoint Outcomes

In 2003, Andrew McCann founded Waypoint Outcomes to commercialize software he developed to dramatically improve feedback to learners while developing data on their achievement. An expert in rubric and assessment design, he counsels K-12 and higher education clients on accreditation, e-learning and assessment activities to achieve excellence.

Before becoming an educator, McCann served in a variety of management roles with General Electric Co., including responsibility for ISO-9000 certification and Six Sigma projects. He is a frequent guest speaker and has written numerous white papers and industry expert blogs on software applications in education.

McCann holds a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Drexel University and a Master's degree in English Literature and Creative Writing from Temple University.

What do smart students really think of college?

"The first time I got a paper back from a professor here at Penn, I was a little confused. I thought (incorrectly, I suppose) that I would receive extensive feedback on each assignment. I soon learned that unmarked papers and vague comments were the norm." (From "Fighting for Feedback," The Daily Pennsylvanian)

Thousands of educators are defying this stereotype, but their defiance is a rebellion against a NCLB "teach for the test" mentality, or an "all that matters is research" culture.

But Waypoint means that these educators now have the toolset they need to fulfill their personal mission to engage students while creating the data their institutions so desperately need.

We are awash in data.

But do we know what students are learning? Where they are really challenged? Can we make decisions about curriculum, about investments and resources, with confidence that we understand the complex systems we control?

Meaningful data is a scarce commodity.

Institutions using Waypoint to assess student learning can start small and build.

The key is starting.

Because Waypoint connects seamlessly to leading platforms like Blackboard Learn, because it makes grading beautiful, and because students love receiving rich feedback on their work, Waypoint helps institutions grow.

It is the rare educator who would argue that learners need less feedback. So why are students starving for feedback?

Creating useful feedback is extremely time consuming. Administrators will sometimes joke that they moved into management to "escape grading papers." We believe detailed, personalized feedback on authentic tasks is the key to learning - in whatever environment. Waypoint makes creating feedback more enjoyable, and faster.

Faster to deal with students documents. Faster to access feedback for student conferences. Faster to define standards for students, elminating or minimizing grade disputes.

Faster to return exceptional feedback to students. Everything else is gravy.

21st Century skills are not content skills. Success does not depend on memorizing a textbook, or cranking through math problems that have answers in the back of the book.

Every pursuit available to free and educated people is a global pursuit. We change careers 18 times. The engineer becomes an entrepreneur. The teacher writes software. The chef becomes a stylist. The designer becomes a retailer. The accountant becomes a doctor.

Jumble them together and you have the new normal. Schools have to change or become irrelevant. The world is interdisciplinary, and our assessments and curriculum must adjust. Call it Project Based Learning, or Authentic Assessment - we don't need fancy titles. We just need meaningful work assessed by coaches and mentors who care about our myriad trajectories.

"ACCOUNTABILITY!" It's a rallying cry. It's been echoing for years. But we are no closer to understanding quality on a systematic level.

Malcolm Gladwell writes of the US News & World Report college rankings, "At a time when American higher education is facing a crisis of accessibility and affordability, we have adopted a de-facto standard of college quality that is uninterested in [attracting a diverse group of students and educating them capably.]"

Innovative educators are building data warehouses and focusing on what we call authentic analytics. The potential is huge. It starts with real data on student data. Not surveys on satisfaction. Not multiple-choice exam data. Authentic data. Successful institutions are  reinventing themselves around the need for meaningful information.