Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) General Education Conference Phoenix, February 23-25, 2016

It isn't fair that it was warmer in Virginia than it was in Phoenix, but it was still lovely, as seen from the jade plants on the hotel balcony.  

This conference's theme was Design Thinking for Student Learning.  One of the plenaries was given by Peter Dolittle (Virginia Tech) from my notes I have a quote, "stop chasing grades and start to invest in the learning of others versus making straight A students" that I think I attribute to him.  

I attended several sessions that reported to help make sense of out assessment reports and data.  One session that was particularly useful for me was the NILOA sponsored session regarding the Excellence in Assessment award (I was on the committee working to draft JMU's submission).  Mary Kay Flemming (Mount St. Joseph) provided excellent ideas regarding submission and considerations for what do when/if schools achieve the designation.  It was fun to be able to pass along her suggestions to the submissions committee.  

The real reason to attend, presenting with Gretchen Hazard and Jeanne Horst, "Boring, Ugly and Useless Reports: Where Evidence Goes to Die."  We had a MUCH larger turnout than we anticipated, but we still managed to stick to our plans.  Participants assumed a role (e.g. Dr. Amanda B. Reckonedwith or Dr. Vlad Litity) and were asked to view assessment reports through the perspective of the persona they were assigned.  Two nuggets made the twittersphere afterwards, "steep long in your data tea" and "never write your assessment reports alone, bring in others."  

Two of my favorite people at JMU and in the world.