Measuring Educational Effectiveness Through University Assessment and Testing

The Office of University Assessment and Testing is responsible for the institutional assessment plan at Oklahoma State University. At OSU this process is almost exclusively faculty driven and involves four components of assessment: 1) entry level assessment, 2) student achievement of general education learning goals, 3) program outcomes, and 4) assessment of the student experience and alumni satisfaction. Dr. Pamela Lumpkin Assistant to the Vice President for Student Affairs and Director University Assessment and Testing Oklahoma State University Click here to see the interview. Click here to see the presentation. (Requires Real Player)

Okay, so there's been a lot of talk about effective teaching and student engagement. Are these a problem at OSU or not? How can we know what our students are learning? What could we do about it if we did know? Or maybe the more pertinent question might be, how do we get all OSU stakeholders actively involved in this conversation? The Oklahoma State University Office of Assessment and Testing can help give clear direction to all of these questions.

Dr. Pamela Lumpkin is the Director of the Office of University Assessment and Testing. And when she speaks of student affairs at OSU, she speaks from a heart with a history of work in the Division of Student Affairs. Graduating form OSU in 1979 she has since served as Freshman Services Counselor, Coordinator of Special Programs, Assistant Director of University Placement (now OSU Career Services), and presently as Assistant to the Vice President for Student Affairs. Along the way she also picked up her M. S. in Student Personnel and Guidance, and Ph.D. in Applied Behavioral Studies, all from OSU.

For this NOT-Tech Tuesday, Dr. Lumpkin discussed the general function of the Office of University Assessment and Testing. She did this primarily from the perspective of the surveys they facilitate which focus on student satisfaction and what students experience while they are at OSU. These surveys can help offer actual data and more tangible evidence of whether or not we are fulfilling our institutional education mission. One survey of particular interest is the National Survey of Student Engagement, which OSU has now participated in twice, and is in the process of gathering data again. This survey tries to get to the heart of student engagement by measuring how much time OSU students spend doing the things that 25 years of empirical evidence show directly contribute to their academic success.

For more information on Tech Tuesday, including time, locations, links to recent presentations, or to access last semester's archives, click on any Tech Tuesday link or go to http://fp.okstate.edu/techtuesday.

This page was last updated on Sunday, April 3, 2005 1:13 PM .

For more details or information email Steve Brown.