Pre- Conference- Workshops

							Pre-conference Workshops

                 2010 MSCHE Annual Conference



Wednesday, December 8, 2010
The following workshops are separately ticketed events. Pre-conference workshop participants
must register for the full conference. Each workshop has a maximum enrollment of 50 people.
Register early to ensure a seat in the workshop of your choice.


Full-Day Workshops
(Includes lunch and refreshment breaks.)

W-1 A Basic Toolbox for Assessing Institutional Effectiveness
8:45 am – 4:15 pm
Understanding the many aspects of student life, faculty and other employee productivity, cost
containment, and other facets of institutional operations is essential to assessing institutional
effectiveness. This workshop provides a fundamental understanding of the basic components
involved in assessing institutional effectiveness. It will focus on ways to measure the extent to
which an institution is making the most effective and efficient use of its human and fiscal resources
in support of the teaching/learning process.
The workshop will include presentations and interactive discussion with participants on strategies to
identify those dimensions of institutional effectiveness that are appropriate for your institution; an
overview of data collection instruments that have been found to be demonstrably effective in
assessing institutional effectiveness; student learning outcomes as a component of overall
institutional effectiveness; and analytical approaches that foster the effective use of information on
institutional effectiveness to support institutional decision making, particularly with respect to the
allocation of human and fiscal resources.
Audience: Beginning-Intermediate
Presenter: Michael F. Middaugh, Associate Provost for Institutional Effectiveness, University of
Delaware, and Chair, Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
Fee: $235 (includes a copy of the book, Planning and Assessment in Higher Education:
Demonstrating Institutional Effectiveness, by Michael F. Middaugh.)

W-2 Becoming An Assessment Facilitator
8:45 am–4:15 pm
If you are familiar with assessment and want to learn how to guide others in developing plans and
tools for assessing student learning, this workshop is for you. Topics will include characteristics of
good facilitation; strategies for organizing assessment workshop activities for faculty; examples of
workshop techniques; and strategies for evaluating your institution’s assessment needs.
The program will include presentations, interspersed with discussions and brief group and
individual exercises that will give participants the opportunity to engage in and practice applying
key facilitation concepts. This workshop is ideal for assessment directors and assessment
committee members, institutional research directors, faculty developers, and academic affairs and
student affairs administrators.
Audience: Beginning-Intermediate
Presenter: Jodi Levine Laufgraben, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Assessment, Temple
University.
Fee: $235 (includes a copy of the book, Assessing Student Learning, 2nd Edition, by Linda A.
Suskie.)

W-3 Understanding and Using Student Learning Assessment Results
8:45 am – 4:15 pm
Your assessments have been conducted. Your students have finished tests, assignments, and
surveys. Faculty have evaluated student work. The results are piled up on your desk. Now what?
In this fast-paced workshop, we’ll kick things off by talking about the many ways to set standards
for interpreting assessment results, including the pros and cons of “value-added” and “comparable”
benchmarks. We’ll then talk about some tips on how to share assessment results in clear and
useful ways with your assessment’s audiences. Then, we’ll focus on using assessment results to
improve teaching and learning. Finally, we’ll talk about the expectations of the Middle States
Commission on Higher Education regarding student learning assessment and how to share your
assessment results with the Commission.
Presentations on each of these topics will be interspersed with small group hands-on exercises that
will let you think about and practice what you’re learning.
Audience: Beginning-Intermediate
Presenter: Linda A. Suskie, Vice President, Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
Fee: $235(includes a copy of the book, Assessing Student Learning, 2nd Edition, by Linda A.
Suskie.)

Half-day Workshops
(Includes lunch and refreshment breaks.)

W-4 Starting a Compliance Program
8:45 – 11:45 am
FTC, ADA, NCAA, and HEOA. Do these letters make you think of a soothing, warm bowl of alphabet
soup or something frightening enough to keep you up at night? This interactive session takes a
comprehensive look at compliance in higher education from accreditation to student affairs,
finance, institutional research, and faculty issues. We consider the questions: How do you ensure
that your college or university is complying with federal and state laws and regulations, as well as
your own institutional policies, while keeping up with ongoing reporting and disclosure
requirements? What components of a compliance program are relevant for your institution’s size,
resources, complexity, and risk factors? What are the roles of the administration and the Board of
Trustees in a campus compliance program?
Learn about the eight best practices for compliance programs, including establishing standards and
policies, identifying key personnel to serve as compliance liaisons, ensuring effective
communication and training, and monitoring and responding appropriately. Discover what your
institution is already doing about compliance and how it benefits the institution, your employees,
and students. Participants will complete a brief compliance inventory prior to the workshop and
discuss next steps as part of the session.
Audience: Beginning-Intermediate
Presenter: Ellie A. Fogarty, Vice President, Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
Fee: $115
W-5 Self-Study: Writing the Report and Preparing for the Team
1:15 - 4:15 pm
Your institution is in self-study and the evaluation team visit is coming up in the next year and a
half. If your visit will take place between Spring 2011 and Spring 2012, you have completed the
planning and research phases of the self-study and now need to begin turning your data and
analysis into a coherent, effective self-study report. If your visit will take place this coming Spring,
you have completed the self-study report and are now preparing for the culminating event of the
process, the visit of peer evaluators to your campus. In this practical workshop, experienced
self-study leaders, a Commission vice president, and workshop participants will draw on the
information contained in the Commission’s Self-Study handbook and their own experience to
provide guidance for navigating the critical transition from research to writing and advice on
preparing for the team visit. What are effective approaches to editing work group reports into a
single report, and reviewing and revising that report? How can all the logistics of communicating
with the team and planning the campus visit be managed to ensure that the visit is an effective
part of the evaluation process and a positive experience for all involved? What happens after the
team leaves?
Presenters: Robert A. Schneider, Vice President, Middle States Commission on Higher Education,
and experienced self-study leaders and evaluators.
Fee: $115