Assessment Conference Schedule

Who - Staff for registration

Where - Blackwell Lobby

Who - Trevor Brown, Interim Executive Vice President and Provost and Randy Smith, Vice Provost for Academic Programs

Where -   Blackwell ballroom

Who - Stephen Hundley,  Founding Executive Director, Center for Leading Improvements in Higher Education
Professor of Organizational Leadership - Introduction by Michele Hansen, Associate Vice President, Institutional Research and Planning
Chair, Assessment Institute in Indianapolis
Executive Editor, Assessment Update
Host, Leading Improvements in Higher Education Podcast
Indiana University Indianapolis    

Where - Blackwell ballroom

Title -  Assessment and Improvement in Higher Education: Enduring Principles, Emerging Opportunities        

Description - Assessing and improving student learning in courses, programs, and other collegiate experiences continues to be a priority for faculty, staff, and instructional partners throughout the higher education landscape. This interactive keynote session offers important reminders about fundamental principles of assessment and improvement, including planning for learning; implementing evidence informed interventions; assessing and evaluating progress and outcomes; making improvements to instructional contexts; and fostering a shared culture of evidence reliant on distributed leadership for assessment and improvement. Finally, the session will identify emerging assessment trends and provide an opportunity for participants to take stock of current assessment strategies and activities at The Ohio State University.

Title - Concurrent sessions 1- Problems and Opportunities for Assessing Student Learning in the AI Era 

Level - Intermediate

Who - Steven Brown (Associate Professor of Teaching, Philosophy), Jennifer Patton (Senior Lecturer, College of Engineering), Matthew Stoltzfus (Assistant Professor of Teaching, Chemistry and Biochemistry)

Where -  Blackwell Ballroom      

Description - Artificial intelligence is creating new challenges for instructors trying to determine what students know, how deeply they understand it, and whether submitted work reflects the thinking and analysis that an assignment was designed to elicit. This panel introduces a new online resource developed by Ohio State’s AI Assessment Taskforce featuring faculty-authored scenarios that identify assessment challenges or opportunities, describe changes made in response, and reflect on what worked and what questions remain. We will share examples, discuss broader assessment implications, invite faculty feedback, and solicit additional scenarios for inclusion in the resource. 

TItle - Concurrent sessions 1 - Incentives and Invitations: Best Practices for Encouraging Students to Take a Survey

Who - Erica Regan (Director, Center for the Study of Student Life) Chrisse Edmunds (Associate Director, Center for the Study of Student Life)

Where -  Pfahl Hall 140       

Level - Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced

Description -  When collecting data about students’ experiences, it is important not only that the instrument helps you gather the information you need, and also that you consider how you are inviting students “in” to participate in your project. In this session, the Center for the Study of Student Life (CSSL) will share results from its experiments related to survey incentives and survey invitations, as well as best practices CSSL has adopted based on the experiment results.

Title - Concurrent sessions 1 - Game On: Using AI-Supported Design to Engage Students and Measure What Matters 

Who - Jessica Henderson (Senior Instructional Designer, Center for Digital Learning and Innovation), Ari Bond (Laboratory Research Operations Analyst, College of Education and Human Ecology)    

Where - Pfahl Hall 202           

Level - Intermediate    

Description - Supporting a culture of assessment requires learning experiences that generate meaningful evidence while sustaining faculty workload and student engagement. This session highlights how an instructor–instructional designer partnership leveraged AI supported design practices to reimagine lab assignments as gameful, scenario based experiences, including simulated labs, mini escape rooms, and narrative case studies. These designs balance low stakes, auto graded pre labs with scaffolded opportunities for application, reflection, and creation aligned with higher order learning objectives. By centering student buy in and shared design expertise, this approach demonstrates how technology and collaboration can support sustainable, student centered assessment practices across programs.

Title - Concurrent sessions 1 -  Integrating Generative AI Into PharmD Course Assessment Practices: Insights From a Semester Long Pilot

Who - Kristine Cline (Associate Professor of Practice, College of Pharmacy)

Location - Pfahl 302

Level - Intermediate    

Description - This session shares results from a semester‑long pilot exploring how second‑year PharmD students used generative AI (GenAI) tools, specifically Google’s NotebookLM, to support learning in an integrated pharmacotherapy course. Through course surveys, we examined changes in AI adoption, study strategies, and students’ perceived cognitive load and exam‑preparation confidence. Participants will learn how this student preparatory effort, including structured AI‑guided prompts, influenced student engagement and how these findings can strengthen assessment cultures that value experimentation, transparency, and data‑informed practices in teaching and learning. 

Title - Concurrent sessions 2 –  Designing for Thinking: A Framework for Making Student Reasoning Visible in an AI-Available Environment   

Who - Steven Nagel (Lead of Emerging Technology Programs, Timashev Center for Software), Molly Downing (Assistant Professor of Practice, College of Pharmacy) and Michael Flierl (Student Learning Librarian, OSU Libraries

Location - Blackwell Ballroom

Level - Intermediate

Description - Generative AI didn't create broken assessment design; it exposed it. This session presents a practical framework built around a single question: when students use AI, how do we know they are actually thinking? Participants will examine a three-category skilling framework (up-skill, de-skill, never-skill), explore how floor skills function as the threshold for effective AI supervision, and see how these principles were applied in two courses: a new Cosmetic Pharmaceuticals course and a redesigned Health System Finance course. The session moves from philosophy to concrete assignment design with emphasis on making student reasoning visible rather than policing AI use.

Title -  Concurrent sessions 2 – Assessing AI Integration and Students’ Reactions to the AI Fluency Initiative 

Who - Michele Hansen (Associate Vice President for Institutional Research and Planning, Institutional Research and Planning) 

Location - Pfahl Hall 302

Level - Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced 

Description - Institutional Research & Planning will share results of a mixed-methods study of the student experience with AI at Ohio State: their use and confidence levels, needs, expectations, and perceptions of AI integration. Participants will learn how indirect measures can inform direct measures of student learning. They will also learn strategies for assessing and analyzing large volumes of student feedback for emerging AI technology initiatives.

Title - Concurrent sessions 2 – Assessing Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) Research Competencies through Entrustable Professional Activities
(EPAs)

Who - Nicholas Denton (Senior Lecturer, College of Pharmacy)

Location - Pfahl Hall 202        

Level - Intermediate, Advanced   

Description -  This session presents a comparative assessment of research competency development in a pharmaceutical sciences Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) using validated measures including the Persistence in the Sciences (PITS) survey and Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) for pharmaceutical research. Presenters will demonstrate how CURE participation significantly enhances students’ science identity, self-efficacy, project ownership, and research skills. Attendees will explore how embedding authentic research into required coursework strengthens scientific community building and supports equitable access to undergraduate research training, fostering a culture of assessment for undergraduate researcher competencies. 

TItle - Concurrent sessions 2 – Self As Learner: Designing for Success with Metacognitive Goals 

Who - Lisa Cravens-Brown (Associate Professor of Practice, Department of Psychology)

Location - Pfahl Hall 140

Level -  Beginner

Description - One of the changes in the new GEs at Ohio State was the addition of a specific metacognitive goal in the themes category. ELO 2.2 states that students will “demonstrate a developing sense of self as learner.” As research has shown, students who engage in metacognitive work have increased performance. However, it is not always clear to instructors how such work in a course is distinct from work on content. This session will focus on designing successful implementation and assessment of metacognitive goals and will be useful for all instructors, including those who wish to propose courses into the themes.

Title - Closing Plenary - Putting it All Together: Panel of Assessment Exemplars at The Ohio State University        

Location -     Blackwell Ballroom 

Facilitator - Stephen Hundley
Panel:

1. Kate Hallihan, Senior Assistant Dean of Students, John Glenn College of Public Affairs
2. Mark Moritz, Professor, Department of Anthropology
3. Jennifer Higginbotham, Associate Professor, Department of English
4. Kathleen Lynch, Director, Accreditation, Placement and Licensure
5. Erica Regan, Director, Center for the Study of Student Life

Description - Colleagues from The Ohio State University will be panelists for a discussion—moderated by Stephen Hundley—on the range of assessment and improvement activities unfolding across campus. Specific examples of how goals for learning are developed, implemented, assessed, and improved will be shared. Successful strategies, pitfalls-to-avoid, and resources to strengthen and support a culture of assessment and improvement across the institution will be discussed. Time will be allocated for audience Q&A and discussion. We will also use this session as an opportunity to reflect on the day’s sessions, identify crosscutting themes, and discuss next steps, including previewing the Zoom-based follow-up sessions (described below) that Stephen will facilitate in the weeks and months ahead.

*Time will be available after 1:30 for conversation amongst attendees.