Announcements:
- 2023 Assessment 101 dates have been confirmed! See below for more information. Registration links are posted below. The links will remain active until all available seats are sold out.
Upcoming Events:
- June 12th – 16th, 2023 – Virtual Assessment 101
- June 26th – 30th, 2023 – Virtual Assessment 101
Assessment 101
About Assessment 101
In this nationally-acclaimed (NASPA Silver Award winning) workshop, participants learn about each step of the assessment cycle with a special emphasis on learning improvement. Assessment 101 is a 5-day virtual, intensive workshop designed to combine synchronous and asynchronous time to reinforce the knowledge gained while also imparting tangible skills. Individuals and teams from across the country come to learn strategies regarding how to teach others about assessment.
Assessment 101 will explore topics such as:
• writing student learning outcomes
• mapping the curriculum
• creating instruments
• examining implementation fidelity
• analyzing data
• reporting results
• using results to make evidence-based decisions
Assessment 101 is ideal for those relatively new to assessment practices. Many seasoned assessment practitioners attend as well. A $1350 registration fee covers participation and materials provided in during the 5-day workshop. There are a limited number of seats for each cohort.
If you have further questions, please contact us at assessmentdevelopment@jmu.edu.
Summer 2023 Workshops:
Participants external to JMU can enroll online by May 30th (seating is limited):
JMU faculty or staff members can apply online by completing the scholarship application by April 30th.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Assessment 101 costs $1,350 per person to cover participation and materials provided in the 5-day workshop (reduced from $1,500 per person). All individuals external to JMU will need to enroll with a payment by May 30th.
Faculty and staff at James Madison University may apply by April 30th to have this fee waived through an assessment scholarship. The assessment scholarship application can be found here: scholarship application.
You can register for as many people as will attend as long as payment is completed for each person by the enrollment deadline. The person sitting for the workshop does not have to be the one completing the registration.
You may cancel your registration up to two weeks prior to the program start date and receive a refund of course registration fees, less a $25 administrative fee. To withdrawal from this course you must send a request to pce@jmu.edu. Requests received beyond the deadline will receive no refund. For more information, please visit Policies & Notices.
As part of Assessment 101, each participant completes an individual or group project. These projects usually pertain to some aspect of the assessment cycle. For example, an individual may choose to focus on writing student learning outcomes for an academic degree program or identifying an appropriate instrument to measure such outcomes.
Here a few examples from previous projects:
While you can expect to receive an orientation email sent the week prior to the session, there is no formal pre-workshop preparation material. However, participants new to assessment may benefit from exploring the CARS Professional Development in Assessment webpage to learn more about the Assessment Skills Framework and other freely available resources.
APT Raters & Rater Training
Assessment Progress Template (APT) Rating
The 2023 APT Rating session will be held July 18th through 22nd.
CARS has asked for one rater per academic college. If you are interested in serving as a rater please contact your Dean. CARS will contact Deans in mid-spring for nominations.
Over five days, faculty will participate in the CHEA-award winning process of evaluating academic degree program assessment reports (known as APTs). For the first two days, faculty are trained to evaluate reports. For the next three days, raters pair up with pre-selected partners to evaluate approximately 10 reports from various disciplines. Past participants report that this behind-the-scenes view of assessment immediately helped them contribute to their own program-level assessment practices. This session is ideal for academic degree program assessment coordinators, or others heavily involved with program-level assessment.
For JMU Employees: Participation as an APT rater is subject to nomination by the Dean or Department head of your academic unit, college, or student affairs unit. If you are interested in serving as an APT Rater, please contact your Dean or Department Head.
For External/non-JMU Employees: APT Ratings are not currently open to external participants on a regular basis. If you think your institution may benefit from learning more about JMU’s academic program assessment model, please contact Dr. Megan Good, CARS Interim Executive Director at good2mr@jmu.edu for more information and possible opportunities.
