Today, I created several higher education and blogging goals. These goals included: writing posts as soon as possible and posting these posts as soon as I arrive home from a conference, etc.
The #SACSCOC conference was amazing and I was pleased to connect with several individuals from other universities. I stored these business cards in a special part of my Vera bag, because one of my new years resolutions is to keep in contact with higher education connections formed during conferences.
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| Courtesy of @heatherplez |
This SACSCOC conference was held in Nashville, TN and the attendees had several hotel options. I chose the Courtyard Marriott, because it was slightly cheaper than the other options. I traveled via shuttle to the hotel and connected with several SACSCOC attendees (one from Tarrant County College and the other from Savannah State University).
In fact, I was fortunate enough to have breakfast on two separate days with two of the individuals I hope to add to my highered contacts list!
One of the first sessions I attended was the Newcomers session and it featured the President of SACSCOC, Dr. Belle Wheelan. She is an outstanding woman and I always enjoy hearing her speak. Through the session, I learned about several new developments regarding SACSCOC.
After this session, I walked through the hallway and heard my name. One of my colleagues found me and I was pleased to see her familiar face. We exchanged notes and later discovered that we planned to attend the same session for the next conference slot. Surprisingly, I discovered the presenter was my fabulous sorority sister, Dr. Amanda Chesser Drum (yes, she is amazing). I look up to her for a variety of reasons and she always has a smile on her face.
Dr. Drum is from Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi and she serves as the Executive Director of Strategic Engagement Initiatives. She is also charged with assessment and the SACSCOC 5th year reviews. She worked interactively with various departments under student life and other similar student services-focused departments to develop student learning outcomes that coincide with the
CAS Standards. I thought this approach was very effective and it helped her developed her university's SACSCOC report. I plan to use the CAS Standards for an internal review process for several areas at the university for which I work in Texas.
Since I learned a wealth of information about section 2.10, I wanted to learn more about the QEP initiatives in the next session. This session was presented by Dr. Wayne Atchley from Tarleton State University and he did a dynamic job presenting his university's "Keeping It R.E.A.L" initiative for engaging students in the following areas: undergraduate research, leadership, study abroad/study away, service learning, and internships.
These individual sessions provided me with a stronger foundation for assessment for this next year. I feel fortunate to have this experience and I cannot wait to research additional innovative and dynamic ways to perform assessment (qualitative and quantitative) on our student learning outcomes.
Also, I followed the backchannel on Twitter for the #SACSCOC conference. Here's a recap of the conference so far:
I learned a wealth of information from the conference and I am fired up for assessment! Also, I wanted to add that I was especially excited that the Convention Center is a LEED certified building! :) This is very exciting to an environmental sustainability-focused millennial!
Sincerely - @drjtedwardsTSU
