August 14, 2017

UIEC Meeting 8/14/2017

The following members were in attendance: Charlotte Mizener, Daniel Bartlett, Kathy Roberts, Helene Thill, Twila Baker, Erin Clarke, Craig Escamilla, Henry Venta, Greg Marsh, Terry Mena, Diane Mason, and Jarrod Rossi

Charlotte moved to approved minutes as written.

Terry seconded; Minutes approved by unanimous acclimation.

Henry started off the meeting with a recap of Dr. Taylor’s visit (Lamar’s SACSCOC Vice President) and what areas dealt with institutional effectiveness.

• Taylor made it clear that assessment online courses/programs need to be assessed the same as their traditional face-to-face counterparts.

Rubric Updates

The UIEC WEAVE scoring rubrics have not been updated for 2 years.  A component regarding online courses and programs needs to be added.

Kathy asked for clarification on whether we were talking about the course level or the program level (in her example, the online versus traditional nursing programs).

• With regards to program assessment, we are not assessing online programs separate from their traditional counterparts (i.e. there will not be an entity in WEAVE for online M.B.A. and one for the traditional M.B.A.).
• For example, if the M.B.A. is using its capstone course for assessment and that capstone course is taught online and face to face, those both need to be assessed and compared to ensure that student learning is the same for each and there are no significant differences between the two modalities.
  • If there are any differences, than those differences need to be addressed.

After much discussion, the addition of the following will be added to both the measures and findings sections:

• If course in which the outcome is being measured is offered in more than one modality (online, hybrid, face to face), the measures should be comparable and results must be shown by delivery format (i.e. online and face to face) and by total (whole).
• These will be part of the “acceptable” criteria, meaning they have to be included for an acceptable (or better) plan and report.

Jarrod brought up marketable skills from last meeting and if there had been any clarification on what the committee is to do with those.  Henry stated that he has not heard any clarifications but has been tasked with going to conferences to learn more.  Henry also pointed out that marketable skills are things such as critical thinking (not necessarily skills as far as welding or trade skills) and the majority of academic programs on campus are already measuring these as part of their SLOs.

Review and Reporting

Jarrod brought up the topic of having a committee of reviewers score the WEAVE reports and plans as opposed to having a single scorer (Jarrod) do so.  Attending the SACSCOC Summer Institute brought to light many colleges and universities use a scoring committee whereas Lamar is one of the few that has a single scorer.

Having a single scorer does not reflect well on a “checks and balances” and can heavily rely on one person’s opinion.

Having multiple scorers would look better in terms of institutional effectiveness.

Henry agreed on principal but did not think that any of the members of the UIEC should be part of a scoring committee.

Henry brought up having a small team of 2-3 graduate students trained to score off of the rubric.  Even offering to lend the office the College of Business graduate student assistant for the month of September. 

Terry stated that having 2-3 graduate students equals the salary of a full time employee, but WEAVE scoring only takes place during a two months of the year and does not justify a full time staff member.

Henry suggested Theresa and Jarrod and himself meet with Dr. Marquart about the possibility of hiring graduate students to help with WEAVE scoring.

The meeting was adjourned with no tentative meeting date, but the UIEC will most likely meet during the Fall 2017 semester.