April 2012 Archives

(Apologies in advance for the length of this post and for "preaching to the choir" J.)

 

For the last two and half years, I've served as the director for Penn State's office of Student Affairs Research and Assessment. On May 1^st, I'll be starting a new adventure as a Senior Planning and Research Associate in Penn State's Office of Planning and Institutional Assessment. I am really looking forward to the chance to work in this office and to collaborate with old friends, but the change has also led me to reflect on what I have learned in Student Affairs.

 

I am not a natural "student affairs" type. As an undergraduate student I lived in a residence hall for only a few months, was never active in student organizations, and just generally didn't get involved in university-sponsored events outside of my academic major. As a student and researcher of higher education, I learned to value student affairs based on the research findings I studied that extolled the influence of cocurricular experiences (thanks Bob R. and Pat T.!) and on my interactions with friends and colleagues with student affairs backgrounds (thanks Jen D-G. and Emily J.!). But until I worked in Student Affairs and saw how hard its practitioners work, how closely they interact with students (many of whom will never have an extended conversation with a faculty member), how much they care, how much of themselves they give to their jobs, and how much students get out of the work that they do, I just didn't get it.

 

Student Affairs practitioners work to develop attitudes and skills that are important in developing the "whole student", but that doesn't mean that these are simply add-ons to the main academic goals of the university.  In what discipline or what office are skills like leadership, teamwork, and ethical decision making not important? What workplace wants to hire a person with unhealthy habits that lead to excessive sick days and low energy? In what community are people who live sustainable lifestyles or become involved in community government and organizations not valued? Student affairs programs and staff are not just there to provide something productive for students to turn their energy towards between classes on the weekends - they are a key part of the learning experience in American higher education. Students may not know what "student affairs" is exactly, but if you ask a college graduate about the people that had the greatest influence on their educational experience, chances are a student affairs practitioner's name will come up.

 

Over the last couple of weeks, I've had the pleasure of watching the capstone presentations of graduating students in Penn State's College Student Affairs (CSA) program. What an amazing group of graduates! The CSA program is designed to bridge theory and practice and it requires/forces students to constantly reflect on their learning and their experiences to make the connections. Watching them inspired me and it reminded me how important and meaningful it can be to give one's self time to reflect. I hope that I will take that lesson with me to my new job and that I won't forget it again when things get busy in the future. Even though I will always be more at home on the analytical side, I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to engage so closely with student affairs practitioners and to have had the chance to observe first-hand how important they are in the academic enterprise.

I found this article interesting as Warren Wilson College updates it service learning requirement to include social activism and policy work.  They have been requiring service learning since the 1960s.  Here is the link to the article: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/04/18/warren-wilson-gives-service-learning-program-makeover and also a link to the the Warren Wilson College service learning website.

Recently, I attended an excellent NASPA webinar entitled Powerful Data: The benefits of Direct Assessment in Student Affairs. Presenters Nathan Lindsay, Aimee Hourigan, and Jenn Smist did a great job of providing concrete examples that take some of the intimidation factor out of direct assessment.

 

Direct assessment is based on analysis of student behavior or artifacts (tests, papers, etc.) that demonstrate students' skills and abilities. Indirect assessment is based on reported perceptions of students' skills and abilities. So, for example, a Pulse survey that asks students to rate their ability to communicate effectively is an indirect assessment, and an evaluator's score of a student's presentation is a direct assessment.

 

But, only faculty can do direct assessment, right? Wrong! Admittedly it is easier to do direct assessment when you can require students to do something in order to pass a class, but it isn't impossible to do outside of the classroom. Let's start with the low-hanging fruit - those Student Affairs programs in which students are already required to meet certain requirements in order to participate. For example, resident assistants, peer educators, student employees, and student organization leaders all have to meet certain requirements in order to hold their positions. Direct assessment can be incorporated into these requirements. For example, peer educators need to have certain knowledge in order to do what they do effectively. A simple knowledge-based quiz administered before their training and after their training can provide direct evidence of knowledge gained. Further, you can go the extra mile and give them the quiz 3 months down the line to provide direct evidence of knowledge retention over time.

 

If you want to do direct assessment of an educational program or some other activity where you want to minimize student "work" in order to maximize student participation, you have some other options. For example, students are frequently asked to provide feedback about events via a short survey. It is possible to insert one or two questions (closed- or open-ended questions) that ask students to demonstrate what they learned or how a program affected their perspective. I believe it was Aimee who talked about this and when I inquired, she indicated that in her experience students were willing to complete these questions as long as they could be answered quickly and concisely.

 

Okay, but what if I want to assess higher-level skills, such as leadership ability among student organization leaders? Well, first you need to define the critical components of leadership ability. That's no small job, but you have some options. You might develop a rubric that could be used to do a 360-degree evaluation of a student leader. Members of the student organization, the organization's adviser, and other key people who interact with the leader might be asked to provide feedback using the rubric. Another option would be to require your student leaders to participate in reflective writing - probably not possible for every club president at Penn State, but perhaps with a few key leaders or with a group of RAs or peer educators you could make this work. For students that maintain an online portfolio, reflective writing about their experiences and learning can provide artifacts.

 

These are just a few ideas to get you thinking. What I took away from this session is that the key to direct assessment in Student Affairs is to focus in very tightly on critical or essential knowledge. This will help keep the task manageable.