Student Affairs Assessment Certificate
Adopted April 2007(updated 12/11)
The Assessment Center in the USC Division of Student Affairs is charged with creating a “culture of evidence” that demonstrates Division activities and the student learning that results from these activities. In order to fortify the assessment capacity and professional development of Student Affairs professionals, the Assessment Committee offers a non-academic-credit certificate program. The Student Affairs Assessment Certificate (SAAC) program provides participants an opportunity to gain knowledge and hone their skills in conducing learning outcomes assessment in a structured way that complements the work they do as professional staff, paraprofessional staff and graduate students. The SAAC focuses on assessing student learning by guiding participants in applying theory to
practice through all the steps involved in developing, implementing and presenting an assessment plan. By training participants to be able to carry out an effective assessment plan to demonstrate the student learning that occurs through the programs and services they offer, the SAAC most clearly supports one of the three pillars of the USC Strategic Plan: Promoting Learner-Centered Education. Furthermore, the SAAC addresses two of the five Division of Student Affairs’ Strategic Initiatives:
1. Create a Culture of Evidence—The SAAC supports the creation of a “culture of evidence” by arming members of the USC community with the knowledge and skills to perform outcomes assessment effectively. Thus, the SAAC contributes to the body of knowledge about student learning and empowers University members to make continual
improvements to their work using evidence-based decision making.
2. Foster an Intellectually Centered Student Culture—The SAAC helps foster an
intellectually centered student culture by providing graduate degree-seeking students at USC (some of whom also work as paraprofessional staff in the Division of Student Affairs) the opportunity to have intellectual interactions through a co-curricular experience that enhances their professional training and development.
EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES
• Perform on-going assessment of Department or Program activities and make assessment a routine part of their operating philosophy and practice
• Identify the skills and tools needed to perpetually evaluate program performance and be responsible for keeping their skills up-to-date with regular training
• Make routine program decisions based on evidence so that most (but not necessarily all) decisions will be informed by data obtained through assessment
• Present assessment activities and outcomes at professional conferences in order to share and contribute to the scholarship on, and practical application of, assessment in Student Affairs
PROGRAM DETAILS
The Student Affairs Assessment Certificate program consists of a series of Workshops and a Capstone Outcomes Assessment Project. In the Workshops, participants will learn the requisite knowledge and skills to perform learning outcomes assessment successfully. Students will attend 9 Workshops, totaling 13.5 classroom hours—4 of which are required and the remaining 5 to be selected from a list of options (see Curriculum below). In the Capstone Project, participants will demonstrate what they have learned by applying learning outcomes assessment to an existing program or service.
Time to Completion: 2 years (4 academic-year semesters)
Workshops for the Certificate Program are to be completed within 3 academic semesters of initial enrollment, excluding summer term (fall/spring). Workshops offered during summer term will count toward the Certificate Program but will not affect the time allowed for completion of the program. For example, if one enrolls in the Certificate Program in the Spring 2009 semester, she or he has until the end of Spring 2010 semester to complete all the workshops, and he/she may take any workshops offered during Summer 2009.
Enroll during: Take eligible wokshops during:
Spring term: 1st spring term, summer term, fall term, spring term of the next year
Fall term: 1
st
fall term, spring term, summer term, fall term of the next year
Summer term: 1
st
summer term, 1
st
fall term, spring term, 2
nd
summer term, 2
nd
If a student decides to enroll in the Certificate Program after having completed one or more Workshops, those completed Workshops will count toward the Certificate Program if they were completed within two academic-year semesters of the term of enrollment (e.g. enroll during fall term, workshops completed during the previous summer, spring and fall terms will count toward the Certificate Program). Since individual circumstances may vary, these terms may be negotiated with the approval of the Assessment Committee.
The Capstone Project must be completed by the end of the 4 th
academic semester after the student first enrolls in the Certificate Program. Thus, participants have one extra academic-year semester beyond the completion of the Workshops to present the final Capstone Project.
Curriculum*
Core Courses (mission statements, learning outcomes, ethics) 3 required workshops:
• Learning Outcomes: Let Your Mission Statement Guide You (required) • Developing an Assessment Plan for Your Program & Services (required) • Ethics in Research & Assessment (required)
• Data Collection: Review of Existing Sources of Data (required)
Data collection methods (qualitative and quantitative data collection) 2 workshops chosen from among the group
• Interviews & Focus Groups • Survey Research & Portfolios • Survey Item Writing
Data Analysis (qualitative and quantitative analysis) 2 workshops chosen from among the group
• SPSS part 1 • SPSS part 2
• Analyzing Data: Interviews & Focus Groups • Introduction to Interpreting Quantitative Data
Presenting Findings (writing, presenting) 1 workshop chosen from among the group
• Writing the Report • Presenting Your Results
• Introduction to Multimedia for Presentations
*Additional Workshops may be developed and offered to participants in the future.
Capstone Project (required)
Participants will complete an Outcomes Assessment Project and present the project at a professional conference, colloquia or other similar public forum approved by the Assessment Committee. Participants may opt to submit their project for publication to a peer-refereed journal. Projects accepted for publication will fulfill the Capstone Project requirement toward completion of the Certificate program.
TARGET AUDIENCE
The Student Affairs Assessment Certificate program targets as its participants the following:
• Student Affairs Professionals working in the USC Division of Student Affairs • Student Affairs Professionals working in USC Professional Schools
• Degree-seeking graduate students in the Rossier School of Education, particularly the Post-Secondary Administration and Student Affairs Master’s program (PASA), the Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) and Doctor of Philosophy in Education (Ph.D.) programs
• Paraprofessional graduate student staff working in the USC Division of Student Affairs • Other interested parties across the University (e.g. staff in Enrollment Services, the Office of
the Provost, etc.)
Participants in the Certificate program may or may not be degree-seeking students, depending on their current status with the University. The SAAC is NOT an additional designation related to the
completion of a concurrently enrolled academic degree program, at this time. The SAAC is an independent, non-degree, certificate-only program.
RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER USC PROGRAMS
As indicated above, the SAAC is associated closely with the Rossier School of Education. This relationship is further enhanced by the fact that many students enrolled in graduate programs in the Rossier School also work as paraprofessional staff in the USC Division of Student Affairs. The SAAC draws upon the resources of the Rossier School to identify potential enrollees in the
Certificate program from among degree-seeking students in the PASA, Ed.D. and Ph.D. programs. As a compliment to their Rossier degree, the SAAC provides Rossier students additional training in their field and experience applying theory to practice.
Furthermore, the SAAC program will identify and recruit faculty from the Rossier School of
Education to facilitate SAAC Workshops and serve on the Student Affairs Assessment Committee as needed.
RESOURCES
Assessment Committee
The Assessment Center and the Workshops it currently offers are facilitated by members of the Student Affairs Assessment Committee. The 2009-2010 Assessment Committee includes the following members:
Agua, Jade
Assistant Director, Asian Pacific American Student Services
Al-Samarrai, Najib
Associate Director, Center for Testing and Assessment Calhoun, Juliana
Coordinator, Center for Testing and Assessment
Faris, Shannon
Director, Planning & External Reporting for Marshall School of Business
Kaufman, Anne Schafrik, Janice
Seli, Helena
Clinical Associate Professor, Educational Psychology and Technology for Rossier School of Education
Swinford, Paula
Director, Health Promotion & Prevention Services
Tobey, Patricia E.
Associate Dean, Academic Support (Chair)
Staff
The SAAC is staffed by the current Assessment Committee. The Committee may call upon other staff in the Division of Student Affairs to assist with administrative tasks, as needed. In the future, if the need develops, the Assessment Committee may seek to hire an Assessment Center administrative staff consisting of one 50% graduate student position.
Library
Currently, the Student Affairs Assessment Center has a collection of 25 volumes and various multimedia resources housed in its Student Union 301 location and on its website at
www.usc.edu/assessment. The Assessment Committee plans to continue to add to the library collection as resources allow.
Physical resources
The SAAC utilizes available meeting room space (conference rooms, classrooms, general purpose meeting spaces) and technological resources (computer labs) as needed, in collaboration with existing University resources and procedures.
