ALC: Student Learning Outcomes Assessment

Conveners

• Ulemu Luhanga, Assistant Professor, School of Medicine
• Jennifer M. Heemstra, Associate Professor, Chemistry, Emory College
• David Jordan, Director, Institutional Effectiveness, Office of Provost

This academic learning community (ALC) will explore student learning outcomes assessment and the benefits of quality assessment, with the goal of developing educators’ pedagogical content knowledge around assessment. Through ALC sessions, participants will debate controversies around assessment in higher education and professional education programs, identify assessment strategies that improve teaching and student learning, and share best practices for assessment across Emory programs and schools.

For the purposes of this ALC, assessment (of student learning) is defined as “the systematic collection of information about student learning, using the time, knowledge, expertise, and resources available, in order to inform decisions about how to improve learning” (Walvoord, 2004, p. 2)

Academic Learning Communities are informal seminars that are intended to:

• engage faculty in collaborative explorations of innovative research and teaching topics;
• bring guest speakers to campus to enhance the curriculum and learning; and/or
• help disseminate important research discoveries and innovative learning strategies to the broader community.

Particulars

• The Seminars will meet from 12:00-1:30pm on the following dates: September 24, October 8, October 22, November 5, and November 19.
• Potential outputs for the Academic Learning Community could include: developing a repository of examples of effective assessment strategies developed by Emory educators to be shared via Box and/or posted on the Emory assessment website; documenting educator concerns, suggestions, and attitudes around assessment to inform assessment policies, practices, and procedures and the work of the Learning Outcomes Assessment Committee; and developing of a network of educators for collaborative learning and assistance around assessment.
• Each meeting will balance presentations by facilitators or seminar participants with group discussions of pertinent readings.
• Suggested readings will be loaded into an Emory Box folder prior to the session, and/or will be made available separately.
• Up to 20 participants will be accommodated and will include both faculty and graduate students from across the university. 

The deadline for application is Friday, August 24.

Selections will be announced in early September. A limited number of spaces will be reserved for graduate students based on the relevance of their research to the topic.