Collaborating Partner Expectations

By May 10, 2010, Colorado College and Lake Forest College hope to identify several other ACM colleges to collaborate on this project. (Application Form) In becoming a Collaborating Partner, an institution will agree to do the following over the course of the project:

• By summer 2010, make substantial progress on developing a mission statement, learning outcomes, and pilot assessment plan for a first-year studies program or its equivalent, as appropriate to your institution.
• In the early fall of 2010, conduct (minimally) a pilot assessment of a first-year course program or its equivalent, as appropriate to your institution.
• In early November 2010, be prepared to present the institution's work on learning outcomes and direct assessment measures for first-year programs at a meeting of Collaborating Partners to be held in Chicago. A central aim of these discussions will be to compare notes on how student academic work, especially substantive written work, may be used to validate outcome measures and provide feedback for program improvement.
• In the spring of 2011, refine plans for a full-scale assessment of learning outcomes in first-year courses to be conducted subsequently, as appropriate to your institution.
• Develop presentations of these plans to be given at an ACM-wide conference on learning outcomes and assessment in the summer of 2011 in Chicago.
• Work with other Collaborating Partners in planning the conference and writing a final report, to be completed by September 2011.

FaCE funding will provide the following for the Collaborating Partners:

• Up to $900 for one participant's expenses, including travel, two nights lodging, and meals, at the November 2010 meeting of the Collaborating Partners in Chicago.
• Up to $900 for one participant's expenses, including travel, two nights lodging, and meals, at the summer 2011 ACM conference in Chicago.

Collaborating Partners are welcome to send additional representatives to these meetings, at their own expense. Funding is limited, so it is possible that not all applications to be a Collaborating Partner will be accepted.