Support for Faculty and Staff

How can we help you?

The Office of Assessment, Accreditation, and Institutional Effectiveness can support and assist you in a variety of ways.

Learn more on this page, and by reading our related pages on Accreditation, Assessment, Compliance, and Institutional Effectiveness.

Please contact Rachel Fester rachel.fester@baruch.cuny.edu or Melissa Sultana melissa.sultana@baruch.cuny.edu  to get started.

We look forward to working with you!

Faculty

Faculty lead all assessment of student learning at Baruch College, as per college governance and Middle States standards for accreditation. Learn more details about how and in what ways faculty at Baruch assess student learning.

We work with all faculty, as well as Associate Deans, School Assessment Managers, and department Assessment Coordinators and school assessment committees to facilitate the process of accreditation support, Academic Program Review (APR, aka Department Self-Study), program assessment of the undergraduate major and of graduate programs, and assessment of general education (Pathways).

We provide custom training for departments, and assist in understanding and implementing tools tto facilitate and support faculty work (for example, some of the national frameworks listed further down this page).

We work with various committees across Baruch College on assessment, planning, and institutional effectiveness initiatives.

We work with each school at Baruch College, their Associate Dean, department Chairs, faculty, and assessment manager, on

• developing or refining program learning goals, and thinking through how to assess them
• mapping the department curriculum
• developing or revising rubrics for assessment
• developing or revising surveys for assessment
• understanding results of assessment — data analysis, interpretation of results, and thinking through next steps

In addition to such ongoing work, upon request we are happy to work with individual faculty members on

• developing your individual course learning goals, and thinking through how to assess them
• connecting course learning goals to programmatic learning goals

Administrators and staff

Each division and department is responsible for periodically engaging in assessment of their programs and services, as per Middle States standards of accreditation.Departments are supported by the Office of Assessment, Accreditation, and Institutional Effectiveness in these efforts. Learn more about assessment of administrative and operational units as well as about institutional and departmental effectiveness.

We work with Vice Presidents, department directors, program directors, division and department assessment committees, to facilitate the process of accreditation support, division or department program assessment, planning, and effectiveness efforts.

We provide custom training for departments, and assist in understanding and implementing tools that facilitate and support unit work (for example, some of the national frameworks listed further down this page).

We work with various committees across Baruch College on assessment, planning, and institutional effectiveness initiatives.

In addition to such ongoing work, we can also help you and / or your department with:

• developing or revising mission / statement of purpose
• developing or revising service and operational goals for the division or department
• understanding the connection between department work and both CUNY and Baruch College goals and strategies
• developing or revising rubrics for assessment
• developing or revising surveys for assessment
• understanding results of assessment — data analysis, interpretation of results, and thinking through next steps

The Learning Collaborative at Baruch College

The Office of Assessment, Accreditation, and Institutional Effectiveness hosts the Learning Collaborative, a virtual and onsite gathering of faculty, administrators, staff and students interested in learning more about institutional and department effectiveness, assessment, strategic and operational planning, and accreditation.

Members of the Baruch College community can use their Baruch Username and Password to access an internal, secure Learning Collaborative site with extensive resources to support faculty and staff on assessment and planning for all academic disciplinary areas and administrative/ operational areas.

On this public-facing page, we are pleased to share some local tools, workshop presentations, and our recommendations for nationally-recognized tools to facilitate assessment, planning, and institutional effectiveness.

Please contact Rachel Fester, Assistant Provost for Assessment, Accreditation, and Institutional Effectiveness, at rachel.fester@baruch.cuny.edu for assistance and support, as well as to suggest ideas for topics on which you would like to see workshops and other types of support materials.

Professional development resources

The Office of Assessment, Accreditation, and Institutional Effectiveness provides general and customized training on a range of topics, including assessment, strategic and operational planning, accreditation, and institutional effectiveness.

Internal workshop presentations

Baruch Learning Collab workshop Intro to assessment Spring 2019

Baruch Learning Collab workshop Intro to IE Spring 2019

Internal tools

Accessible education

Baruch LearningCollab tool_Accessible education for all updated 2020 07 15

Assessment cycle

Baruch LearningCollab tool_Assessment cycle_updated 2020 07 15

Course blueprints for faculty

Baruch LearningCollab tool_ Course blueprints updated 2020 07 15

Using logic models

Baruch LearningCollab tool_Using logic models updated 2020 07 15

Nationally recognized tools and frameworks for quality and inclusivity

The following are excellent tools which we encourage our colleagues within the Baruch College community to use.

Our office is happy to assist you and your colleagues with learning more about these tools, and implementing them.

ACE Framework for decision making and planning

We encourage use of the ACE Framework developed by Plymouth State University (ACE = Adaptability, Connection, and Equity), which is a guide for decision making and planning for assignment-, course-, and institution-level responses during times of crisis. While it is oriented toward academic planning, the principles can also be applied to administrative, educational support, and student support services.

Assessment of online course design and teaching

We encourage use of the Online Learning Consortium’s Quality Scorecard.  The OLC OSCQR Course Design Review Scorecard is a course-level quality rubric for reviewing and improving the instructional design and accessibility of online courses based on online best practices, and can be used to identify and target aspects of online courses for improvement. The rubric includes the following categories: Course Overview and Information, Course Technology and Tools, Design and Layout, Content and Activities, Interaction, Assessment and Feedback.

Assessment of student learning

We encourage the use of the AAC&U VALUE rubrics for assessment of student learning.  These were developed by teams of faculty and administrators from across a range of higher education institutions in the United States. Learn more about the development of the VALUE rubrics.

Assessment of student development

We encourage use of the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) Student Learning and Development Outcomes for assessment of student growth resulting from co-curricular programming.  The Student Learning and Development Outcomes guidelines provide more detail.  These are specifically about learning and development outcomes for co-curricular programs.

Assessment of administrative, educational support, and student support services

We encourage use of the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) Standards for assessment of administrative, educational support, and student support service. These are tools for assessment of an overall unit or program.  The General Standards provide a flexible framework for all units, while CAS also has a broad range of functional area standards.

Members of the Baruch College community can access information about how to use the CAS standards, as well as the actual CAS General Standards and the functional area standards, by using their Baruch Username and Password to access our internal Library of Professional Development Resources section on the CAS Standards.

Designing an Accessible Online Course

We encourage learning more about and applying tools for designing an accessible online course. These are tools for facilitating access and inclusion for all learners, a key value at Baruch College as expressed in our mission and goals.

Universal Design for Learning

We encourage use of the principles of Universal Design for Learning in higher education. UDL is an educational framework that guides the design of learning goals, materials, methods and assessments as well as the curriculum, with the needs of all learners in mind. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning Guidelines.