2005-2006 Activities

Assessment - Background and Details

At its July 2005 meeting, the College's Board of Trustees approved a framework for the assessment of institutional effectiveness and student learning.  This document, An Assessment Framework, builds upon the work of several campus committees over the past few years, including the Institutional Assessment Committee (IAC) and the 2002 Assessment Task Force.

All College units, as defined in the report by the IAC, are required to participate in yearly assessment activities.  Early in September of 2005, liaisons were chosen for academic and administrative and educational support (AES) units.  The liaisons' responsibilities included:

• Collaborating with CIE and participating in assessment workshops and related activities sponsored by CIE
• Assisting departments/units in choosing appropriate outcomes
• Assisting departments/units in completing assessment documentation
• Identifying the specific academic programs within a department that were to be assessed (academic liaisons)
• Communicating regularly with directors and managers in the division regarding assessment requirements and activities (AES liaisons)

During the fall of 2005, the academic, administrative, and educational support units of Bergen Community College developed assessment plans.  In the academic area, assessment plans also were developed for all distinct AAS degree programs, stand-alone Certificates and Certificates of Achievement, and most interdisciplinary programs. "Intended Outcomes" were selected by each unit for that unit and its relevant programs.  Each outcome then was related to the College's Mission and Goals, Strategic Priorities, or Core Competencies, as appropriate.  The ways in which each outcome would be evaluated were indicated under "Means of Assessment", and "Criteria for Success" were chosen.  After an assessment plan is implemented, a synopsis of the data is recorded in a "Summary of Data Collected" section, and how the assessment results would be used for improvement is explained under "Use of Results".

By mid March of 2006, Administrative and Educational Support (AES) units had completed the implementation of their plans as well as the "Summary of Data Collected" and "Use of Results" sections; i.e., a complete cycle of assessment, while the academic units will be in the process of implementing their plans.  Since many of the academic assessment activities took place at the end of the spring 2006 semester, the analysis of data and the decision on how to use the assessment results for improvement did not occur until May and June of 2006.  The academic units, therefore, completed their reports by June 30,2006.

CIE sponsored workshops dealing with An Assessment Framework, the six parts of the assessment process listed above, rubrics, and constructing syllabi.  While these were designed for liaisons, they were open to all interested parties.  At the General Faculty Conference in January a guest speaker, Prof. Michelle Francis from Jamestown Community College, spoke about rubrics in the morning session.  The afternoon session included two workshops dealing with rubrics given by Prof. Francis and two of Bergen's faculty members, Professors Peter Dlugos and Tobyn DeMarco.  CIE also reported assessment progress to the college's Management Team at its monthly meetings.  Presentations were made by academic and AES liaisons who explained approaches used to choose outcomes and means of assessment, how concerns of unit members were addressed, and challenges overcome.

In partial fulfillment of CIE's responsibility to report to the College community on assessment activities, the report, Intended Outcomes for Assessment Plans - 2005-2006, was prepared.  It contains a categorization of the "Intended Outcomes" of all College units.  It is important to note that this report contains only those outcomes that were chosen for the formal assessment process.  Academic and AES units have additional outcomes that were not included in this formal process.