Assessment

At our student affairs retreat today I learned about 2 assessment tools which looked excellent for NYCC-VISTA work. Comprehensive assessment can be often very complicated, but these tools seemed to make things easier, and if implemented, you would gain access to a support structure and not have to start from scratch.

First was the student voice system which is an assessment tool utilized for everything from campus-wide strategic planning to tracking activities in one area. Currently it is only fully implemented few institutions in New York State, but you can also get a reduced cost license for a specific project through their auxillary program. Of course, this isn't something you can do on your own, but it might be good to bring up to your supervisor or anyone who works in assessment. The website is http://www.studentvoice.com

Another tool was MAP-works (Making Achievement Possible.) This is more of a databse tool to help track individual student academic success, retention, personal issues, and extracurricular involvement. This does have utility for service-learning and community service departments as well. It is more user-friendly than studentvoice, although has more limited applications. However, you can also generate reports. For example, it could be used to analyze a relationship between community service involvement and retention. The site is http://www.map-works.com/ . Like the other one, it would require funding from someone higher up, and also participation from various staff and faculty.