A Webcast with Peter Ewell, David E. Shulenburger, Susan Hatfield and Barbara Wright

 

Webcast Details
November 29, 2007
2–3:30 PM, Eastern Time
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Moderator and Presenter
Peter Ewell, Vice President, National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS)

Presenters
David E. Shulenburger, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Vice President for Academic Affairs, NASULGC, A Public Universities Association

Susan Hatfield, Coordinator of Assessment, Winona State University

Barbara Wright, Associate Director, WASC - Western Association of Schools and Colleges, Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities

Webcast Description
The report of the Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education, and potentially radical changes in accreditation in its wake, bring unprecedented national attention to assessing student learning. But how to proceed "reasonably" in this direction, without homogenizing diverse institutions or "teaching to tests" remain much debated questions for colleges and universities. Are there better ways to assess institutional quality to assure policymakers, students, and their parents that they are getting their money's worth? And how do we bring faculty and academic leaders into this conversation to ensure that better teaching and learning is the objective, not just more assessment? Join a dialogue among national thought leaders on the topic to explore these and other questions.

About the Moderator and Presenter

Peter Ewell is the vice president at the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS), a research and development center founded to improve the management effectiveness of colleges and universities. A member of the staff since 1981, Ewell's work focuses on assessing institutional effectiveness and the outcomes of college, and involves both research and direct consulting with institutions and state systems on collecting and using assessment information in planning, evaluation, and budgeting. He has directed many projects on this topic, including initiatives funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the National Institute for Education, the Consortium for the Advancement of Private Higher Education, and The Pew Charitable Trusts, and is currently a principal partner in the Pew Forum on Undergraduate Learning. In addition, he has consulted with over 375 colleges and universities and twenty-four state systems of higher education on topics including assessment, program review, enrollment management, and student retention. He has also been actively involved in NCHEMS's work on longitudinal student databases and other academic management information tools.

Ewell has authored six books and numerous articles on the topic of improving undergraduate instruction through the assessment of student outcomes. Among his publications are "The Self-Regarding Institution: Information for Excellence" and "Assessing Educational Outcomes," both of which have been widely cited in the development of campus-based assessment programs. Widely sought as a speaker on assessment, in 1985 he gave the keynote address for the first national conference on Assessment in American Higher Education and has since spoken widely on this topic at both national and international conferences. In 1998, he led the design team for the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and currently chairs its Technical Advisory Panel.

A graduate of Haverford College, Ewell received his PhD in Political Science from Yale University in 1976 and was on the faculty of the University of Chicago.

About the Panelists

Susan Hatfield is coordinator of assessment at Winona State University. She is also a professor and served for nine years as chairperson in the department of Communication Studies at WSU. She has recently coordinated her university's regional accreditation self study and authored as well as served as the project director for her university's Title III grant which developed a software program to collect and analyze assessment data. In addition to her university responsibilities, she serves as a peer consultant for the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association and has been appointed by the United States Secretary of the Navy to the Marine Corps University Board of Visitors. During the past twelve years, she has presented numerous workshops on assessment at state, regional, and national conferences as well as conducted faculty development sessions at a number of colleges and universities on issues related to assessment of student learning. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Susan has degrees from Miami, Ohio and the University of Minnesota.

David E. Shulenburger's position at NASULGC is a new one for the organization. His immediate areas of concentration are on accountability and assessment in higher education. Before joining NASULGC in June, 2006, David Shulenburger was provost and executive vice chancellor of the University of Kansas. He served there as chief academic officer for thirteen years. He came to the University in 1974 as an assistant professor and currently holds the faculty rank of professor in the School of Business. He received his PhD and Masters degrees from the University of Illinois and his undergraduate degree from Lenoir Rhyne College. He previously served as a faculty member at Clemson University and as a labor economist for the US Department of Labor.

His teaching areas are business economics and labor economics, and his most recent area of research focuses on the economics of scholarly communications. He has been active nationally and internationally as an advocate for reform in the areas of accountability, scholarly communication and academic accreditation.

He was chair of the Board of Directors of the Center for Research Libraries from 2005-07, and is currently a member of that board and of BioOne's board, member of the National Commission on Writing, and consulting editor for Change Magazine. He was chair of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges Council on Academic Affairs in 2000-2001.

Barbara Wright is currently an associate director at the Senior Commission of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Prior to that, she spent six years as a member of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges Commission on Institutions of Higher Education. In addition to serving as a faculty member at the University of Connecticut until her retirement in 2001, she has experience in a variety of higher education administrative positions. Over the years she has consulted widely on assessment of student learning, general education, foreign language instruction, curricular reform, and faculty development. She holds a BA from Trinity University (DC), an MA from Middlebury College, and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, all in German.

Who Should Attend
If you have an interest in accreditation, accountability, assessment and the pressures on higher education in these areas-we encourage you to gather your team and use this webcast to stimulate ideas and exchange.

What Is Needed to Participate in the Webcast
This program will be delivered by live streaming video with accompanying audio. You will need a computer with an Internet connection and speakers from your computer to project the sound to your audience. A data projector can also be used to share the presentation to a larger group at your location under that single connection. There is no limit to the number of participants at a single listening site.

One low fee purchases a single link to the broadcast. After you register, you will be forwarded an email with preliminary information about the broadcast and how to access it. Four days before the live broadcast you will receive an email titled "NYT/SCUP Webcast Instructions." It will contain information about how to test your computer and provides a password to access the program.

More Information
For registration questions, please contact: webcast.registration@scup.org. For all other questions, please contact: kathy.benton@scup.org, or 734.998.6966.