Excellence in Assessment Award

This award recognizes individuals or teams demonstrating excellence in the use of assessment data to improve student learning, retention, the learning environment, and/or a culture of continuous improvement. Individuals and groups of faculty and staff members are encouraged to apply. Two $500 awards are available. One award is for course-level assessment and one is for recognizing other types of assessment activities. Group awards are disbursed among recipients.  

Excellence in Assessment – Course Level 

This award is designed to recognize and showcase outstanding efforts by faculty and staff who have made a significant contribution in the area of assessment of student learning at the course level. An outstanding assessment process is characterized by the use of assessment results to improve learning. Course level submissions must be for a course taught within the last two academic years and data from more than one cycle and/or ongoing data is preferred, although not required.  

Excellence in Assessment – Beyond Course Level 

This award is designed to recognize and showcase outstanding efforts by faculty and staff who have made a significant contribution beyond the individual course level, including but not limited to: program assessment, co-curricular assessment, and assessment processes and practices that support a culture of continuous improvement. An outstanding assessment process is characterized by the use of assessment results to improve the intended outcome. Data from more than one cycle and/or ongoing data is preferred, although not required.  

Criteria for Evaluation  

1. Outcome(s): clear, measurable outcomes that describe what you are striving to achieve  
2. Methods: assessment methods used are appropriate for the outcomes  
3. Criterion for Success: goals or target success rate that is reasonable  
4. Results: data are directly and logically linked to the outcomes they are purported to measure  
5. Actions: description of how the results were used to inform change/improvement 

Eligibility 

All members of the University community are eligible for this award. Past recipients of the award, either as an individual or as part of a group, are eligible following expiration of the fifth year after receiving their award.  

Nomination Process 

Self-nominations or nominations from others are acceptable for this award by electronically submitting the following: 

1. Nominee’s name, Ferris department and college, and phone number 
2. Letter of nomination that specifically addresses the criteria for evaluation 

All nominations must be received electronically at email address [email protected]. Please include the subject line “Excellence in Assessment Award Nomination” in your email. You will receive a confirmation email indicating that your nomination was received. Please submit a separate nomination for each nominee. 

The Secretary of the Academic Senate will follow up with nominees, providing them with a copy of the Excellence in Assessment Award, and requesting of them the following: 

1. A brief report describing why the nominee is deserving of the award and highlighting each of the 5 criterion that raise the assessment activities to a level of excellence 
2. Relevant examples of the assessment work completed by the nominee, including but not limited to reports generated by Nuventive Improve or other software used to track assessment data (e.g., ExamSoft) 

Deadline

The deadline to submit nominations is by 5 pm, Monday February 13, 2023.  Late nominations will not be accepted.