Virginia Assessment Group Conference - November 13-14, 2015 Norfolk, VA

Again, I love other people's conferences.  You know you are exotic when you sign in and the nice people handing out the name tags say, "oh you are the librarian! We're happy to have you here."  How nice.

This conference is an interesting mix of university assessment officers and administrators.  So some OIR-types but just as likely to be faculty development administrators, deans, student affairs professionals, and several staffers from the State Council of Higher Education (SCHEV).

I was attending to present with Donna Sundre (CARS) - Information Literacy Assessment:  A Case Study in Collaboration.  This talk was about how we (the libraries) were working with CARS and instructional faculty to develop information literacy tests in major programs that also worked in tandem with our information literacy assessment in General Education.  We also touched on how we were using CARS graduate assistants in our organization and on this particular project.  It was another one of those moments when I just have to stand back be really proud to work here, but humble enough to know that not many universities or libraries are anywhere near where we are with this stuff.

But the best presentation I attended was the keynote speaker, Scott Jaschick, who is an editor from Inside Higher Ed.  His talk was titled The Evolving Assessment Conversation, and he challenged everyone in the room to consider what he saw as the big five issues that will happening assessment-wise in higher education in the near future - creditability of assessment tools, demonstrating the value of a degree, moves towards outcomes based education, scalability and faculty investment/fatigue.  He had great examples and anecdotes.  I can certainly recommend him if you ever have the opportunity to hear him speak.

Other sessions I attended included, data visualization tools, oral presentation assessment (not from JMU!), sessions related to LEAP and Lumina initiatives, inserting learning outcomes assessment into academic program reviews, and using AAC&U value rubrics for various types of assessment.

This was one of those, you-never-leave-building conferences, so we were somewhat trapped in the Waterside Marriott (not complaining). but it was interesting to share conference space with the Mid-Atlantic Bridge Association.

I kept getting on elevators with people dressed in card-playing regalia (pins, t-shirts, earrings, jumpers, tote bags).  But it is weird to walk past rooms of full of people and all you hear is cards shuffling.