D1: Best Written Work, Student Activities Assessment Project
LO 7: Utilizing assessment, evaluation, technology, and research to improve practice
The entry contains my final project for SDAD 591 Research and Assessment in Higher Education. I worked as part of a group to conduct a formal assessment project for the Student Activities Office at Seattle University, investigating the content of what students learn through their leadership experience in groups affiliated with the department. We grounded our work in best practices and leadership & retention theory, conducted focus groups with students, and provided recommendations and a plan of action for the office.
This entry demonstrates my understanding of assessment, evaluation, technology, and research to improve practice through my ability to utilize theory to inform practice, my understanding of assessment as a creative process, and my ability to collaborate with colleagues with the goal of improving practice.
-Create a centralized training/retreat for all student leaders within Student Activities
-Institute formal connections between academics and leadership experience
-Create a culture of leadership where students can identify themselves as a leader
-Defining what the office does, noting which groups are under its umbrella
-Creating a visual representation of these relationships will help to clarify
-Collaborate with other offices for professional development or training opportunities
References
Astin, A.W. (1984). Student involvement: A developmental theory for higher education. Journal of College Student Personnel, 25, 297-308.
Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
The entry contains my final project for SDAD 591 Research and Assessment in Higher Education. I worked as part of a group to conduct a formal assessment project for the Student Activities Office at Seattle University, investigating the content of what students learn through their leadership experience in groups affiliated with the department. We grounded our work in best practices and leadership & retention theory, conducted focus groups with students, and provided recommendations and a plan of action for the office.
This entry demonstrates my understanding of assessment, evaluation, technology, and research to improve practice through my ability to utilize theory to inform practice, my understanding of assessment as a creative process, and my ability to collaborate with colleagues with the goal of improving practice.
- Theory to Practice. Our research question, “How do student leaders within the Seattle University Student Activities Office perceive their leadership roles?,” led us to begin our work with a review of literature in order to determine how leadership roles and involvement in activities on campus can affect students’ psychosocial development, academic learning, retention, and awareness of diversity. With our background in current literature and best practices, we were able to draw connections to our findings in a meaningful and important way. Building off of Astin’s (1984) theory of involvement, which states that that student involvement in both curricular and co-curricular experiences enhances student’s cognitive and affective development, we were able to define dimensions of involvement, including professional skills development, academic learning, being held to high standard, and building relationships and community.
- Curiosity and Innovation. In developing this assessment project with my team mates and our stakeholder, the true nature of academic inquiry emerged for me. While some may see research and assessment as dry and boring, for me, it is when our work truly comes to life, and when we can demonstrate the impact that we know our work has on students and their experiences on campus. This process was truly a creative one for me and my team; Creswell (2009) discusses the many possibilities for research design, including examining philosophy, strategies of inquiry, and methodology, which illustrated for me the multiple ways we could have gone about collecting data to answer the same question (p. 5). Our group learned how to think outside of the box when it came to our recommendations and action plan, which I took the lead on. We recommended our stakeholder do the following:
-Create a centralized training/retreat for all student leaders within Student Activities
-Institute formal connections between academics and leadership experience
-Create a culture of leadership where students can identify themselves as a leader
-Defining what the office does, noting which groups are under its umbrella
-Creating a visual representation of these relationships will help to clarify
-Collaborate with other offices for professional development or training opportunities
- Collaboration. Our final product was made so much stronger by the multitude of experiences, strengths, and skills that each member of my team brought to the table. The four of us learned how to balance our expectations and workload among us while playing to one another’s’ strengths. My contributions to the team included a background in conducting literature reviews, coding qualitative data, and strength in academic writing and APA format. I appreciated that my team mates were able to address methodological approaches, academic presentations, and connecting theory to practice.
References
Astin, A.W. (1984). Student involvement: A developmental theory for higher education. Journal of College Student Personnel, 25, 297-308.
Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
artifact_d1.pdf | |
File Size: | 411 kb |
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final_group_presentation_stuact.ppt | |
File Size: | 348 kb |
File Type: | ppt |