Stanford’s Student Affairs office has been busy this year with a variety of assessment and evaluation projects. The establishment of the Assessment Coordination Committee in 2009 furthered the objective of creating a culture of assessment within Student Affairs and encouraged the use of primary data, collected internally, to inform decision-making in program management and strategic planning. The committee worked diligently over the past year to evaluate the performance of programs and policies, and to implement evaluation studies.
A Sample Poster
Student Affairs held its Second Annual Assessment Poster Fair on May 28, 2010 as the culmination of the year’s work. Twenty-three different projects were showcased at the session- more than twice as many as the 2009 session! The posters were displayed for 3 hours and the session was very well attended. Topics ranged from projects involving small technological improvements and related monitoring to department-wide evaluation studies. Most of the individuals presenting had no specialized research training. For some presenters, these projects reflect their first experience conducting evaluation studies. A few others were spurred on by the well-received presentations at the 2009 session and presented for the second successive time, building upon the knowledge and evaluation skills they have acquired.
Some examples of the assessment projects presented at the fair include:
- Pilot Assessment: Analyzing Trends, Data & Student Feedback from the Electronic Dissertation/Thesis Submission Process
- Stanford Evaluation of the Alcohol Edu Program
- Career Development Center External Review
Visit the Student Affairs Poster Fair website to see all of the interesting topics covered:
http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/assessment/2010
Ken Hsu, Director of the Graduate Life Office, describes his study of Community Associate Training methods to a Poster Fair visitor, Ira Friedman, Medical Director of Vaden.