Getting the Faculty Back into Faculty Development and Assessment

Abstract

Valencia College Faculty Development maintains the principle that assessment is a tool for learning. This practice guides authentic measurement of learning and creates a culture of evidence—at Valencia, the learners are students, faculty, and staff. Faculty Development Instructional Designers (FDIDs) are integrated into faculty teams to support the assessment cycle while maintaining the vision of professional development by faculty, for faculty. Strong partnerships between assessment professionals, faculty development, and faculty manifest when findings translate into meaningful improvements. Though Valencia cultivated an assessment culture for years, by 2018 many faculty had become disengaged, and assessment was inconsistently producing actionable results. Rather than developing learning strategies, faculty frequently concentrated on improving the assessment instruments. A collaborative design team was convened and discovered (a) actionable results emerge from assessment close to the learner; (b) a biennial timeline establishes an assessment year and an improvement year; and (c) while faculty are subject matter experts, most need assistance developing assessments and distilling insights from results.