Assessment Day

In January 2009 NYIT held its first "Assessment Day." Sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs and programmed by members of the Assessment Committee, it was attended by all faculty and used to showcase best practice and engage faculty in focused discussion. Since then, these events have become a method for integrating student learning outcomes assessment into the NYIT culture.

Assessment Day is held twice a year, on the Wednesday before the first day of the fall and spring terms. Generally, half the day has a common focus (often related to the shared undergraduate core curriculum), and the remainder of the day is devoted to assessment activities by faculty within academic programs. The Office of Planning & Assessment coordinates preparation for the day including the development of goals and agendas by chairs and deans for each program.

• January 15, 2009: Presentations of NSSE results to schools, with follow-up planning sessions for improvement.

• September, 2009: Faculty from all programs worked together on aspects of their annual assessment activities and plans.

• January 20, 2010: Neil Howe (Millennials Go to College) presentation: "Who Are Our Students and How Do They Learn?" followed by discussions of the implications of Howe's research as it pertains to teaching effectiveness.

• September 2, 2010: Presentation on learning outcomes of the new core curriculum followed by work within programs to begin integrating the seven core competencies into the majors.

• January 19, 2011: Presentation of the results of a baseline assessment of undergraduate writing by English faculty across all majors and all locations. Discussion and follow-up centered on tools available to help students improve their writing skills.

• August 31, 2011: Faculty from all programs worked together on aspects of their annual assessment activities and plans.

• January 18, 2012: Leadership Session for committee members and academic deans, associate deans, chairs and assessment coordinators to build relationships across school lines and develop administrative and assessment skills in the group by sharing examples of best practice.

• August 29, 2012: Results from the Collegiate Learning Assessment were presented and a panel of faculty members—from all of NYIT's schools, who teach at all levels and on both New York campuses—led a discussion of ways to conceptualize and evaluate critical thinking both in a generic sense and in the disciplines, as well how to encourage more of it in our students.

• January 16, 2013: Assessment Leadership session theme was improving processes for assessing student learning in academic programs using the MSCHE "Rubric for Evaluating Institutional Student Learning Assessment Processes" as a guide. Items in the rubric were discussed one by one, with instances of good practice at NYIT described as exemplars. The Assessment Leadership session theme was improving processes for assessing student learning in academic programs using the NYIT Process Evaluation Rubric that was developed based on MSCHE Rubric for Evaluating Institutional Student Learning Assessment Processes. Items in the rubric were discussed one by one, with instances of good practice at NYIT described as exemplars. View the detailed meeting presentation.

• August 28, 2013: The theme was how students' global competencies can be assessed in the majors. In the afternoon session, Faculty across disciplines and staff members from student services gathered together to share practices and strategies they are using in fostering the development of students' global competencies in three C's: curriculum, co-curriculum, and community. View meeting presentation.

• January 15, 2014: The focus of this assessment day was on MSCHE Criteria #3: Those with a vested interest in learning outcomes of the program or curriculum are involved in developing, articulating and assessing them. Members of the leadership program shared different approaches of involving stakeholders, including feedback from internship supervisors, external program reviews, industry partnership, practitioner juries evaluate students work, input from students (NYIT COM), alumni/employer survey, and advisory boards. Read the meeting notes here.

• August 27, 2014: There were two major themes for this assessment day. One was to report the results of global competencies assessment from academic departments, and from the NSSE (National Survey of Student Engagement) global perspectives survey, and the other was to allow faculty to discuss the challenges and opportunities of using NYIT's diverse (and increasingly international) student body as a resource for fostering students' global competencies, especially, students' ability to work with people who have different cultural and (or) linguistic backgrounds. Over 160 faculty members participated in the morning assembly. View meeting presentation.

• January 14, 2015: Members of the leadership program reviewed and discussed of the Middle States new standards (III & V) and other background documents. The conclusion was made to review and revise NYIT educational goals. Read details here.

• September 2, 2015: All NYIT faculty members were invited to learn about the development of institution-level educational goals that will apply to NYIT students-students in all programs, at all levels and locations. 141 faculty and staff members attended the meeting and discussed the first draft of Read about NYIT's educational goals. View the presentation here.

• January 20, 2016: Members were required to submit "High Impact Educational Practices" that are already in place in their own programs by end of February 2016, with reflection on the assignment. Please find the details of the program here.

• August 31, 2016: NYIT faculty members, staff and administrators were invited to the event, which included a morning session on "Ensuring and Assessing the Learning in Applied and Experiential Learning Assignments," and an optional afternoon session on "Writing Objective Test Items That Assess Thinking Skills." 145 members attended the event. Please find the details of the program here.

• January 18, 2017: This Assessment Day Leadership Program was led by Dr. Kathleen Gill, Director of Research, Assessment and Decision Support. Dr. Mark Hampton, Vice President for Research, Assessment, & Decision Support was on hand to make remarks. Associate provosts, deans, associated deans, chairs, and assessment coordinators—total of 54 members of the NYIT academic leadership—participated in the event. The meeting agenda included discussion of changing higher education landscape, the 2019 NYIT Middle States reaccreditation, demonstration of student learning and achievement, and expectations and evaluation of annual assessment reports. Please see detailed presentation here.

• August 30, 2017: NYIT's fall Assessment Day for faculty members was held on Wednesday, August 30. All NYIT faculty members were invited to join Mark Hampton, vice president of Planning Analytics and Decision Support. 162 members attended the event. Please find the details of the program here, and morning session PowerPoint (.pptx) presentation here.

• January 17, 2018: This Assessment Day Leadership Program was led by Dr. Kathleen Gill, Director of Research, Assessment and Decision Support. The Interim Provost, Associate Provost/Director of CTL, deans, associate deans, chairs, VP for Research, Assessment and Decision Support, and Research, Assessment and Decision Support staff—total of 48 attendees—participated in the event in DL3 in OW and EGGC 702 in MA from 9:30–11:30 a.m. The meeting agenda included a discussion of the importance of academic quality in achieving the new NYIT vision, the role of institutional improvement in Middle States expectations, a proposed Continuous Program Improvement (CPI) Framework for all academic and administrative units, and draft templates, process, and timeline for consideration. Please find the detailed PowerPoint Presentation here.