Culture Change:Engaging Colleagues to

Improve Student Learning

Dr. Karen Ann Tarnoff

Assistant Dean for Assurance of Learning and Assessment

College of Business and Technology

The Basic Process

Define Information

Fluency

QuestioningSeeking

EvaluatingUsing

CommunicatingRecognizing

Create Fluency Measure

Gather Student Data

Evaluate Students’

Fluency Skills

Implement Targeted

Improvements

Gather Student Data

Evaluate Improvements’ Effectiveness Seeking Excellence

through Continuous

Improvement

Seeking Excellence through

Continuous Improvement

“Okay, I get what we need to do.

But my question is…”

“How am I going to get my

colleagues to engage and do this?”

Share Key Concepts• Information fluency is a key skill for our students.• This is evaluation/assessment of student learning.• Many things impact learning over which faculty have no

control.• Student learning/mastery is a curriculum function not a

course function.• Faculty own the curriculum; faculty shown own its

assessment.

Addressing Resistance…Some Best Practices

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Understand Drivers of Resistance

The Concern• “I don’t know how…”

• “I shouldn’t have to…”

• “You can’t make me…”

• “I don’t want to…”

A Solution

• Train

• Show how it counts

• Tie participation to evaluation and rewards

• Leave them alone until they come around

A Strategic Engagement Model

35%Late Majority

35%Late Majority

The single worst hammer ever invented to motivate engagement…

SACS

Tips to Increase Engagement• Teach colleagues that this process is designed to help

students.• Teach, assure, and reassure colleagues that student data

gathered using course-embedded measures (e.g., rubrics) will be used to evaluate only student learning and will NEVER be used to evaluate teaching effectiveness or faculty classroom performance in annual or promotion and tenure evaluations.

• NEVER USE DATA FROM COURSE-EMBEDDED MEASURES TO EVALUATE FACULTY PERFORMANCE!

Tips to Increase Engagement• Don’t ever explain or justify the need to assess as an

accreditation requirement.• Don’t ever request participation in assessment…request

participation to help students improve.• Couch assessment as total quality management of

students drawing upon continuous improvement principles.

• Invite participation based on individual interests (e.g., “I know that you care about students’ critical thinking skills because of the assignments you give in your classes…”)

Tips to Increase Engagement• Show how assessment (e.g., rubrics) can save time.• Share successful experiences.• Request the faculty’s time and input only when it’s truly

needed.• Be appreciative of contributions and effort.• Show how participation in assessment can be double-

dipping (i.e., teaching/service and research).

Tips to Increase Engagement• Meet them where they are:

– Build upon pedagogical practices in their own classes.– Build upon rich history of course assessment and

course improvement and then help faculty understand that INtopFORM is an extension of their ongoing improvement efforts for their students and their courses.

An Important Lesson from the Farm

The livestock doesn’t get fatter merely by weighing it…The students won’t improve merely by measurement…

You have to share the data with and use the data to drive improvements!