AALHE 2023 Conference Registration

This year we have one FULL DAY pre-conference workshop and five (5) AM and four (4) PM pre-conference workshops to choose from. Lunch will be provided for those who register for a full day workshop OR two half day workshops. 

Full Day Workshop: 9am - 4pm (lunch 12pm-1pm)

Applying the CAEP Criteria for Evaluation of EPP-Created Assessments and Surveys: Ensuring Assessments Meet Sufficiency Through the Content Validity and Reliability Process (All Audiences)
Dr. Timothy Melvin and Dr. Malina Monaco

The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) explained, "Assessments and scoring guides are used by faculty to evaluate candidates and provide them with feedback on their performance. Assessments and scoring guides should address relevant and meaningful attributes of candidate knowledge, performance, and dispositions aligned with standards" (CAEP, 2017). Under CAEP, an Educator Preparation Provider (EPP) uses CAEP's Criteria for the Evaluation of EPP-Created Assessments and Surveys (2022) when the EPP designs, pilots, or judges the adequacy of assessments they create.

Participants will be guided through the process used by the College of Education and Professional Development at Marshall University to determine assessment validity and Reliability. Participants will conduct a Q-Sort, learn tools to establish Lawshe's Content Validity Ratio (CVR), complete Content Validity Index (CVI), use Cronbach's Alpha to determine Reliability, and go through the process of calibrating a rubric and determining inter-rater Reliability using Cohen's Kappa.

Half-Day Workshops: 9am - 12pm

Assessment 101: A Step by Step Guide for Non-Academic Unit Assessment (All Audiences)
Dr. Nasrin Fatima

Although student learning is directly affected by instruction in the classroom, it is indirectly affected by the processes, services, and resources of the operational/administrative support units of an institution. Because these units have great impact on the environment and tools of the classrooms, the goals/objectives of these units must be assessed on a continuous basis. However, many institutions struggle to create a culture of non-academic unit assessment that is systematic, organized, and sustainable. Misconceptions about what assessment is and how administrative unit assessment is relevant to the overarching effectiveness institutional mission, goals, and objectives are the principal barriers to this. This workshop will provide step-by-step guidelines to create a framework for developing and successfully implementing an organized, systematic and sustainable non-academic unit assessment geared to improve institutional effectiveness.

Enhancing Student Learning by Practically Applying Program Theory and Implementation Fidelity with Assessment (Experienced Audience)
Dr. Terri Flateby

Student learning can be enhanced by collaboratively planning and implementing curriculum, instruction, and assessment processes. This workshop will explore cultivating this integration by practically applying key components of Program Theory (PT) and Implementation Fidelity (IF) to assessment practices.

By focusing on essential components of PT and IF, which emerged organically in an institution-wide initiative to foster critical thinking and effective writing in disciplines, attendees will discuss contributors to this natural evolution of key components of PT and IF and the importance of collaborating with teaching and learning centers, libraries, and others to facilitate integrated teaching, learning, and assessment practices. Attendees also will examine these key components’ potential for increasing the initiative’s success. After describing a practical application of the key components, attendees will discuss and apply these in scenarios often encountered in higher education institutions for enabling implementation at their own institutions.

Identifying Effective Affective Instruments for Everyday Assessment (All Audiences)
Dr. Rebecca Gibbons

This workshop will provide the skills and strategies needed to find, identify, and select instruments to measure affective learning in higher education assessment. Learning is an emotional experience, and faculty and staff are becoming increasingly interested in measuring students’ non-cognitive (affective) experiences. There are various strategies for measuring affective learning, including both qualitative and quantitative techniques. This workshop will focus on quantitative measurements, with the goal of empowering participants to respond quickly and confidently when their colleagues seek insight on affective measurement. The activities in the workshop are designed to build upon participants’ existing fonts of knowledge on assessment practice with instrument quality parameters as defined in the Standards of Educational and Psychological Testing. Participants will leave with added layers of skills to bring instrument evaluation to their home institutions.

Strategies for Assessing General Education and Transfer Programs at Community Colleges (All Audiences)
Dr. Fiona Chrystall and Dr. Kathleen Gorski

Community colleges serve multiple missions and are open access. Students attend for a variety of reasons: completing career and technical education credentials; transferring to four-year institutions; or completing individual courses for skill development or lifelong learning. High percentages of students attend part-time around full-time work and family obligations. Many course prerequisites are not required to accommodate busy student schedules. Paths to completion are not perfectly sequenced. All this makes assessment challenging.
Using a co-learner approach, participants will conduct a rapid status check of current Gen Ed/Transfer program assessment practices at their institution. Through discussion and sharing of experiences of assessing Gen Ed and Transfer programs, participants will explore a variety of strategies for tackling this challenging task to ensure the process achieves its goal of effecting meaningful change in students’ learning experiences. Participants will leave with a plan for further improvements in their Gen Ed/Transfer program assessment processes. 

Increasing Equity in the Assessment of Student Learning (All Audiences)
Dr. Karen Singer-Freeman

The Grand Challenges in Assessment project is working to increase the equity of assessments in higher education. A key part of this work is finding more accurate and fair ways to measure learning. Assignment features can support or prevent equity in higher education. Student work on assignments influences the extent to which they learn important concepts. Grades and feedback influence their success and feelings about the extent to which they belong in institutions or majors. In this workshop, we discuss features of assignments that perpetuate equity gaps and interfere with students' ability to demonstrate proficiency. We provide a range of simple ways that assessments can be improved to increase equity and support student success. We conclude with a discussion of ways to engage others in working to improve the equity of their measures of student learning.

Half-Day Workshops: 1pm - 4pm

Monday, June 5, 2023

 Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Wednesday, June 7, 2023

Thursday, June 8, 2023