JMU assessment and measurement faculty partner with Carnegie Mellon

By: Department of Graduate Psychology

Caroline Prendergast, 1st year Assessment & Measurement PhD student, JMU; Dr. Sara Finney, Associate Director of CARS, JMU; Dr. Keston Fulcher, Director of CARS, JMU; Dr. Marsha Lovett, AVP for Teaching Innovation & Learning Analytics, Carnegie Mellon University; Dr. Jeanne Horst, Associate Assessment Specialist, JMU; Morgan Crewe, 2nd year Psychological Sciences MA student

JMU faculty associated with the Assessment & Measurement PhD program and the Center for Assessment and Research Studies have formed a strategic partnership with colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University to assess educational effectiveness. Drs Sara Finney and Keston Fulcher began this partnership with CMU when meeting Dr. Marsha Lovett at the Empirical Educators Project meeting at Stanford in February 2018.

Since that time, JMU faculty member Dr. Jeanne Horst traveled to CMU to engage in training offered by the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation in June 2018. During the 2.5 day Teaching As Research Institute, Dr. Horst engaged in conversation about evidence-based teaching and learning practices. She and the CMU professionals shared experiences regarding the process of developing and implementing intentional curriculum and instruction in higher education and assessing its effectiveness.

In July 2018, JMU hosted our CMU colleagues Mike Melville and Elizabeth Whiteman for training offered during JMU’s week-long national award-winning Assessment 101. During this training, JMU faculty and graduate students offer practice-orientated materials and build skills regarding student learning outcomes assessment.

In August 2018, Dr. Marsha Lovett traveled to JMU to observe JMU’s large-scale Assessment Day. In addition to learning about how to plan, proctor, and engage students during institutional accountability testing, Dr. Lovett also observed a focus group to elicit students’ perceptions of general education courses. She also met with JMU faculty and graduate students to plan the next steps in our strategic partnership. JMU faculty look forward to sharing our expertise in assessment and measurement with CMU faculty while gaining additional knowledge and skills associated with creating and implementing evidenced-based programming from the experts (and our friends) at CMU.