October 17th - 20th

The 2011 Fall Forum on Assessment and Learning will focus on how we can use assessment data to make informed decisions relating to continued development of our curricula and programs. On Monday, October 17th, at 11:30 am in the Union East Ballroom, our Keynote Speaker, Trudy Banta, will highlight the importance of actually using assessment data to maximize student learning. She will provide practical examples from graduate programs assessment, as well as from seniors' culminating experiences.

Seminars and workshops will also focus on how capstone experiences, service learning, and internships and externships can be used to enhance student learning.

Additionally, most departments and programs list "critical thinking" as a desired learning outcome for their students. But how do we define and assess "critical thinking"? A national instrument (the CAT) that measures critical and creative thinking, will be presented and discussed.

And finally, assessment of graduate student learning will also take center stage. How, for example, can faculty use existing requirements/experiences such as the thesis, dissertation, seminars, oral and written culminating exams for assessment purposes?

For full details and to register for these, and other sessions, please go to the complete Schedule of Events.

Keynote Speaker: Trudy Banta

Trudy W. Banta is Vice Chancellor for Planning and Institutional Improvement and professor of higher education at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). She is a pioneer in the field of outcomes assessment in higher education, having established two centers focused on this topic, the first at the University of Tennessee and the second at IUPUI.  Recipient of 9 career achievement awards from national associations, Banta is the author or editor of 18 books and monographs and over 200 articles and reports.  Several of her publications focus on general education assessment.  She has consulted with faculty and administrators in 47 states and addressed audiences in 22 other countries on the topic of outcomes assessment.

Trudy Banta will be delivering a keynote address, titled "Closing the Loop - and Beyond - in Outcomes Assessment," in the Wyoming Union East Ballroom on October 17th from 11:30am - 1:30pm. For more information or to register for this and other Fall Forum events please view the full Schedule of Events.  This session will be available for live viewing on WyoCast and afterward on Wyocast-On-Demand. Presentation will start at approximately 11:50 am. Click here to access Wyocast presentation.

The 2011 Fall Forum is co-sponsored by the Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Leaning, the University Assessment Coordinators, and the Office of Academic Affairs.