CWAAC thanks all members of the Ramapo College community who participate in assessment including faculty, staff, administrators and students. Ramapo College has both maintained its assessment schedule this academic year and improved our assessment processes, particularly through fully integrating the external program review into our assessment schedule. Here are some 2021-2022 assessment highlights and programming for 2022-2023.

• Creating Synergy: Five Year Academic Program Review as Yearly Assessment Activity
• Thanking Previous Assessment Leaders
• Meet the New CWAAC Representatives
• Assessment Highlight: Using Google Forms to Simplify Assessment
• Ramapo College Assessment Leader Shares Expertise
• New Programming: CWAAC Assessment Workshop
• External Accrediting Bodies Recognize Assessment Excellence
• Friendly Reminders
• CWAAC Members

Creating Synergy: Five Year Academic Program Review as Yearly Assessment Activity

Collecting, analyzing and reflecting on assessment data is at the core of the Five Year Academic Program Review and assessment results are shared with external reviewers. CWAAC recommends that programs use their Five Year Academic Program review as its assessment activities for one academic year. In 2022-2023, twelve programs took advantage of this new opportunity. Doing so provided convening groups time to reflect on past assessments, gain a better picture of where the program stands and will help faculty make data informed decisions when considering program revisions.

Thanking Previous Assessment Leaders

Homegrown assessment leaders who help programs throughout the assessment cycle from planning to reassessment and loop closing are essential to our assessment approach. These leaders help shape campus-wide assessment procedures, review college-wide assessment reports, contribute to assessment related aspects of external accreditations and assist program reviews. We thank the assessment leaders who have recently left their positions for their work, collegiality and personal contributions to our culture of assessment:

ASB: Tim Haase was involved in the ASB Assurance of Learning process for over 10 years. He actively participated in the ASB School Assessment Committee for six years, serving as chair for the last five years. Even though he is rotating out of the role, he will remain involved in the assessment process.

ASB: Karen Norton worked at Ramapo College for 17 years, initially as AACSB Coordinator and currently as Assistant to the Dean of ASB.  In both roles she was an integral part of the ASB School Assessment Committee to ensure that its work aligns with the AACSB Assurance of Learning Standards.

HGS: Stacie Taranto (HGS) was a member of CWAAC since fall 2018 and will now serve as the HGS ARC representative.

TAS: Caroline Brisson joined CWAAC as the TAS School Chair in fall 2019. Prior to joining CWAAC, Caroline was involved in the Engineering Physics assessment process. 

Meet the New CWAAC Representatives

Faculty willingness to become assessment leaders demonstrates our sustainable culture of assessment. It is a pleasure to introduce three new CWAAC members who will bring fresh takes on assessment and continue to provide seamless assessment leadership.

ASB: Rick Nunez, Associate Professor of Management. Enrique Nuñez,  is an Associate Professor of Management in ASB, where he teaches courses in Entrepreneurship, Strategy, and Managing Organizational Behavior. Enrique received a Ph.D. from Stevens Institute of Technology. Prior to his academic career, Enrique was a consultant and entrepreneur. He has been actively involved with ASB’s Assurance of Learning process since his return to Ramapo in 2015, and has actively served on the ASB School Assessment Committee for the last two years.

HGS: Sarah Koening, Assistant Professor of History. Sarah Koenig is an assistant professor of American Studies and history at Ramapo College of New Jersey, teaching courses in Native American history, the American West, and the anthropological study of religion. Her first book, Providence and the Invention of American History, was published in 2021 by Yale University Press. She also works on various digital humanities initiatives at the college, including the digital mapping project, Mapping the Ramapough Lenape

TAS: Carrie Miller, Assistant Professor of Environmental Chemistry. Carrie Miller has been a TAS faculty member for four years and is part of the Chemistry and Environmental Science convening groups.  Carrie is currently the Environment Science assessment coordinator and has experience with assessment from a previous position as the coordinator of the Environmental and Biological Sciences graduate program at Troy University.

Assessment Highlight: Using Google Forms to Simplify Assessment

CWAAC and FRC Director Tammi Redd teamed up for a workshop on assessing small programs using Google Forms in December 2022, which can help programs of any size. Participants learned how to use Google Forms to assess embedded class assignments, direct and indirect assessment surveys, and combine Google Forms with Google Sheets to manage student portfolios. These approaches simplify assessment by providing students and faculty a single link to upload and assess student work. In addition, it enhances collaboration by allowing all stakeholders to access and evaluate student work without relying on email and sharing documents individually. As an added bonus, collecting all assessment data in one place makes it easier to access data across years, which facilitates program planning and five year academic reviews.

Ramapo College Assessment Leader Shares Expertise

Christina Connor, Assessment and Instruction Librarian, helped organize a virtual Spring Workshop for NJ academic librarians in April 2022. The workshop, entitled Assessment 101: Getting Back to Basics, focused on the fundamentals of why and how we assess. Participants learned about various assessment methodologies and Christina discussed strategies for outcomes development. She also participated in a panel on general best practices in assessment and how to best capture and utilize data at institutions. Workshop participants came from across the state and academic spectrum including public and private institutions, and two and four year college librarians.

New Programming: CWAAC Assessment Workshop

CWAAC’s Assessment Workshop on “Using Canvas to Assess Multiple Courses coming this academic year.

External Accrediting Bodies Recognize Assessment Excellence

It must be a trend! First, the Middle States Commission and Higher Education commended Ramapo College for noting that “the level of commitment to and engagement in academic program assessment and in general education assessment by Ramapo College’s full-time faculty serves as a model for enhancing an authentic culture of assessment.” Now, AACSB and CAEP have noted ASB’s and Teacher Education’s successful assessment activities in 2021-2022. 

“ASB has a well-developed, comprehensive and systematic student learning outcomes assessment program that utilizes both direct and indirect assessment methods. The undergraduate program is assessed within the fourteen-course core, in which they measure student learning in five areas: communication, ethics, foundational knowledge, perspectives, and reasoning. Using a rotating schedule, they ensure assessment of each learning goal twice in a five-year period. They have a well-coordinated assessment matrix that indicates which courses will be assessed, a clear reporting format and a closing the loop retreat each semester.”–The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) Team Report (2021)

 All five initial-level program standards and all five advanced-level program standards were met. The CAEP site visit team commended Ramapo’s educator preparation programs, among other things, for: collecting, analyzing, summarizing and providing robust, valid and reliable data that demonstrates candidates meet rigorous professional standards as beginning teachers and school leaders; and developing and maintaining a sound quality assurance system that engages faculty and stakeholders in regularly and systematically reviewing data and making recommendations to aid in continuous improvement.

Friendly Reminders

• 2021-2022 Assessment Reports can still be submitted for review.
• 2022-2023 Draft Assessment Plans should be submitted by Monday, Oct. 3 for review and feedback
• Academic majors may use their Five Year Academic Program Review as their assessment activity for one academic year.

CWAAC Members

Michael Unger (Chair), Sarah Carberry (GECCo), Christina Connor (Potter Library), Sarah Koenig (HGS), Sharon Leathers (SSHS), Carrie Miller (TAS), Nick Nunez (ASB), Jackie Skrynski (CA), Gurvinder Khaneja (Dir. of Institutional Research, ex-officio) and Susan Gaulden (Interim Provost & Vice Provost, ex-officio)