We look forward to seeing you and your team members at the AAHE/WASC workshop scheduled for March 24-26, 2004 at the East-West Center in Hawaii.  The updated workshop agenda is attached. 

·       During the reception and opening event from 4-6pm on Wednesday, March 24, we will conduct a Best Practices Poster Session.  To prepare for this session, your team should prepare a poster presentation of an assessment practice that you believe is especially successful at your institution as it contributes to creating a culture of assessment. Each institution will receive a 20"x 23"tabletop flipchart on which to display your presentation. Because each institution is itself a resource, we believe these presentations will be helpful to those participating in the workshop as an additional means of understanding how institutions are becoming more learning-centered.  While the poster presentations will take place on the 24, your posters will remain on display throughout the workshop.   

Note to Pepperdine Team Members - Don Thompson has done this. See these materials, drawing from our historically successful digital portfolio project.  Other suggestions are welcome, of course.

·       As a team, complete the attached worksheet entitled, Team Assessment of Your Institution's Evidence of Learner-Centeredness. This information will be helpful to your team as a means of establishing a benchmark for your institution's assessment plan. Throughout the workshop, your mentor will learn more about your analysis and will work with you develop a capstone project designed to build your institution's commitment to focus on learning through assessment.

Note to Pepperdine Team Members - Please print the above mentioned document, fill it out, and send it to Don Thompson via campus mail.

·       Share with each team member the attached article by Diane Halpern and Milt Hakel from the July/August issue of Change magazine.  Please instruct your team to review this resource prior to their arrival.

·       We also ask that team members read the following resources available through the links below:

Maki, P. (2002).  Moving from Paperwork to Pedagogy: http://aahebulletin.com/public/archive/paperwork.asp
Powerful Partnerships:  A Shared Responsibility for Learning (1998) http://www.aahe.org/assessment/joint.htm

This interactive workshop will also include sufficient time for teams to integrate new information and strategies into their work. At the end of the workshop we will ask that each team present its assessment plan as a capstone project.  Capstone projects from past Assessment workshop participants can be found on our Workshop Capstone WebCenter: http://webcenter1.aahe.org:8080/~capstone

Please do not hesitate to contact me at jdepass@aahe.org or Phyllis Burchman at pburchman@aahe.org if you have questions about the workshop. 

We congratulate you on the energy and commitment you have articulated in your applications; we will respond with the same. We look forward to meeting you and working with you to advance your institutions' efforts directed towards focusing on learning through assessment.

Best regards,

Joyce E. DePass
Director of Convenings