Fostering a Culture of Assessment
September 22, 12-1:30 Preconference Event - Assessment Basics
Location - Virtual
Who - Larry Hurtibise and Dan Seward
September 25th In-Person Conference at the The Blackwell Inn
See speakers, location, skill level and descriptions by clicking the session blocks below.
8:30 a.m. Check-in and coffee
Who - Staff for registration
Where - Blackwell Lobby
9:00 a.m. Welcome
Who - Randy and Provost
Where - Blackwell ballroom
9:20 – 10:15 a.m. Opening Plenary - Assessment and Improvement in Higher Education: Enduring Principles, Emerging Opportunities
Who - Stephen Hundley, Founding Executive Director, Center for Leading Improvements in Higher Education
Professor of Organizational Leadership
Chair, Assessment Institute in Indianapolis
Executive Editor, Assessment Update
Host, Leading Improvements in Higher Education Podcast
Indiana University Indianapolis
Where - Blackwell ballroom
Facilitator - Michele Hanson
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.
10:15-10:30 a.m. Break and Transition
10:30 – 11:20 a.m. Concurrent sessions 1 - Sharing Problems and Opportunities for Assessing Student Learning
Title - Concurrent sessions 1- Sharing Problems and Opportunities for Assessing Student Learning
Level - Intermediate
Who - Steven Brown (Associate Professor of Teaching, Department of Philosophy), Shereen Agrawal ( Associate Vice President for Student Innovation and Entrepreneur, Office of Academic Affairs)
Where - Blackwell Ballroom
Description - This panel features a new online resource to instructors looking for ways to assess student learning after the widespread availability of artificial intelligence. This new resource offers short scenarios, authored by Ohio State instructors, that present a problem for assessing student learning or an opportunity for student learning offered by this new context. In light of the problem or opportunity, a change in instructional and/or assignment design is
offered and evaluated. We aim to share this resource, discuss ways of using it, invite feedback for further refinement of the resource, and solicit additional scenarios for inclusion in it.
10:30 – 11:20 a.m. Concurrent sessions 1 - Incentives and Invitations: Best Practices for Encouraging Students to Take a Survey
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.
10:30 – 11:20 a.m. Concurrent sessions 1 - Game On: Using AI-Supported Design to Engage Students and Measure What Matters
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.
10:30 – 11:20 a.m. Concurrent sessions 1 - Integrating Generative AI Into PharmD Course Assessment Practices: Insights From a Semester Long Pilot
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.
11:20-11:30 Break and transition
11:30 –12:20 Concurrent sessions 2 – Designing for Thinking: A Framework for Making Student Reasoning Visible in an AI-Available Environment
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)
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.
11:30 –12:20 Concurrent sessions 2 – Assessing AI Integration and Students’ Reactions to the AI Fluency Initiative
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 - AI Fluency is a major university initiative with many resources tied to it. In this session, Institutional Research & Planning will outline the assessment plan for AI fluency, with a focus on the mixed-methods approach to assessing student feedback. Participants will learn strategies for assessing and analyzing large volumes of student feedback for emerging AI technology initiatives.
11:30 –12:20 Concurrent sessions 2 – Assessing Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) Research Competencies through Entrustable Professional Activities
(EPAs)
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.
11:30 –12:20 Concurrent sessions 2 – Self As Learner: Designing for Success with Metacognitive Goals
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.
12;20-12:30 p.m. Break and Transition
12:30 – 1:20 p.m. - Closing Plenary - Putting it All Together: Panel of Assessment Exemplars at The Ohio State University
TItle - Closing Plenary - Putting it All Together: Panel of Assessment Exemplars at The Ohio State University
Location - Blackwell Ballroom
Facilitator - Stephen Hundley
Panel:
- GE-Kate Hallihan (Senior Assistant Dean of Students, John Glenn College of Public Policy)
- Grad-Mark Moritz (Professor, Department of Anthropology)
- Undergrad-Jennifer Higginbotham (Associate Professor, Department of English)
- Accredited program-Kathleen Lynch ( Associate Director, Accreditation, Placement and Licensure)
- Co-curricular/student life-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.