Moral, Ethical and Spiritual Compass * Visionary Leadership * Quality Programming * Evaluation and Assessment * Counseling and Advising * Budgeting and Fiscal Management * Fostering Student Learning * Legal and Ethical Issues Effective Campus and Community Relationships * Managing Conflict and Crisis Multicultural Awareness, Knowledge and Skills * Technology
“Assessment is now the cornerstone of our ability to plan, improve and most important survive. Countless examples are available of the successful use of assessment to justify and improve our programs, services and facilities, and to provide systemic information that helps frame policy and practice” (Shuch & Upcraft, 1998.)
In CSA 575: Quantitative Analysis in College Student Affairs we were assigned an article analysis. The analysis included descriptions of the research question, the methodology and statistical analyses used, the major findings and their implications for student affairs. The analysis demonstrates my competency in accurately applying and interpreting statistics.
My first week as a graduate assistant in the Women’s Resource Center, I soon realized how out of touch I was with student life at APU. I had little knowledge of student need or interest. A question I asked myself was how I provide quality programming if I have no idea what it is like to be an undergraduate student at APU? As a result I created a brief survey for female students to be distributed at an all female Worship night. The questions included requests for ideas of speakers or topics they would be interested in discussing. I was interested in finding out if their year in college was a significant factor. The information gathered was useful in creating effective programming that worked on our campus. An example of the findings was that upperclassmen showed significant interest in mentorship opportunities. As a result I knew that senior programming was important, not so much as an educational piece but as a way for the women to stay connected to and hear from staff. For the spring semester I developed a Senior women’s forum as a result of the evaluation.
In CSA 562: Today’s College Students, we were assigned a final assessment project. In the final project, I demonstrated a qualitative assessment and constructivist inquiry of first year female student experience in order to better understand environmental variables that affect learning and sense of belonging. I created an objective, discussed the limitations of the study, conducted academic research and included a literature review. After conducting 1 group interview and 6 personal interviews, I coded the transcripts and field notes into relevant and pervasive themes. The final paper and findings can be found in the attached paper.
Assessment- First year female student experience
