First Open Forum Held Jan. 9, 2013

The Fletcher Center held its first open forum during the 2013 Spring Faculty Workshop Week. The focus was grading vs. assessment and the opening was an explanation of the difference between the two. For example, "assessment: is a term that:

• Includes both graded and ungraded activities
• Evaluates learning and/or teaching outcomes
• Should be highly correlated to grades, but allows that grades should also include other  evaluation of behaviors or activities that do not explicitly measure learning, (e.g. attendance)

There was a lively discussion that followed where faculty members shared some concerns and potential barriers to outcomes assessment. Faculty members also shared current methods of data collection in their respective divisions.

Plans are in the works for another presentation during the May Workshop Week. The focus is leaning to Instructional Design. It will also show ways to link the instructional design to include using the Learning Support Center (LSC).