Wabash National Study Resource and Information Exchange

August 29, 2008

Why do we have to take this test? Assessment and student responsibility

During the orientation meetings and our discussions about student participation in the spring assessments, someone suggested thinking of the National Study as a social contract between students, faculty, and staff. We also talked about using this contract to build a community of inquiry at our campuses.

Jeanne Williams and her colleagues at Ripon College have turned this idea into reality. All incoming Ripon College students received a one-page handout describing some of the assessment activities in which they will be asked to participate. The handout frames the idea of assessment and improvement as part of the normal life of the college: "The faculty and staff of this college are proud to be part of an institution that is dedicated to student learning and growth.  Here you will learn from professors who continuously work to improve their teaching and from student life experiences designed to allow you many opportunities to develop important skills in leadership, collaboration, and planning."

The document also does a nice job of linking the idea of continuous improvement to the students’ educational experience: "The drive to improve and to provide the best possible education for all Ripon College students requires that we make every effort to understand how well our programs, personnel, and facilities meet the needs and support the aspirations of our students."

We appreciate the thoughtfulness behind this document. It takes an important step towards reframing assessment from being something that we beg and plead students to do, to something that is both a natural part of their education and consistent with their own interests. Ripon is happy to share this document with everyone, and they would like to thank their colleagues at Carleton College for helping them come up with this idea. Click here to see Ripon’s handout. 

We hope that you find this information helpful and that you have an enjoyable Labor Day weekend – CB and KW

August 22, 2008

We deeply appreciate our colleagues’ enthusiasm and hard work in helping us begin the next round of the Wabash National Study. Over the past few weeks, we have heard a number of excellent suggestions for resources and tools for supporting the implementation of the study. What follows is our rendition of that list. Please let us know if we heard things correctly or if you have any ideas that you’d like to add. This page is not yet interactive, so until we introduce that bit of technology, please click here ('here'); // End of Bot Protection Script --> to send your emails to Charlie and Kathy.

Suggestions for resources and tools:

1. A listserv so that people from study institutions can ask questions of and share best practices with each other. (We’ve sent a request to the Wabash IT department to set this up.)
2. An RSS feed from this webpage to notify people of updates. (We’ve sent a request to the Wabash IT department to set this up.)
3. A webpage listing research articles on the instruments that we are using in the study.
4. A webpage with copies of reports, research papers, and presentations from the study.
5. Sample reports and templates for disseminating study data.
6. Information on best practices in recruiting and retaining students in the study, communicating study results to different groups at your institution, and using study data to foster institutional changes.
7. Announcements about upcoming workshops and conferences for study institutions.
8. A mechanism for suggesting workshop and conference topics.

Finally, we have two questions that we would appreciate your help with:

1. Who from your institution would like to be a member of the Wabash National Study institutional listserv? We would like at least one person per institution to join, but you are welcome to select more than one person from your institution as a member of the listserv.
2. When we send back data from the first year, would you like to receive both printed and electronic binders or would an electronic file (a PDF version of the binder) be sufficient?

We will post information on how people are responding to the second question.