Connecting to other schools and NSF programs related to Assessment
11/07/07 TIME: 20:49:19

Dear Assessment/Retention group,

I said last week that I noticed UC Irvine had gotten a million dollar grant from NSF, but I hadn't checked if I knew the people involved. Well, in a way I do. I worked on a grant with George Miller who is the main contact person for this new grant. I don't include the grant I'd worked with him on in my vita, because I wasn't principal investigator on that one. Nevertheless Miller and I have worked together well, and that is a connection.

The announcement of that grant is the attached pdf file. I mentioned also that the IT person at UC Irvine is someone with whom I communicate – still – fairly often. It was with him that I put together the WebWorks program that succeeded so well at UCI. The success of that is documented in my powerpoint talk.

The documentation of that success shows it was a phenomenal success: People from all over the curriculum voluntarily now (as we read) use it. Voluntarily really means "voluntarily." It isn't like how departments here work.

WebWorks, I remind you is a mastery learning program. The first "seminar" I put on at MSU-Billings about assessment, brought in one of the creators of that program to explain it. What Joe Howell has done is tried to piggy-back on what I explained while avoiding the route I suggested. He wanted to avoid that route, because it required someone to administer the WebWorks program to help people get into it.

The general rule is this. It doesn't make any difference how simple the technology is. If you want people to increasingly buy into it, you need a help desk. WebWorks, being just a mastery learning approach, doesn't handle everything what our group has in mind. Still, it does a lot, and the amount of administration is not a full-time job. It's a way to get started. Keep it in mind, and I will raise it further in our discussion.

Later Addendum:

Classes involved: One thing my "proposal" didn't cover is what classes we'd be dealing with. We have an outline of goals. Yet, we need actual classes that are part of this. For such classes we then have to do a preliminary assessment of the impact of those classes on MSU-Billings: upper division courses, retention in courses, etc. I have some sense of my own role in this. That could be a main item for a meeting, following Christy's suggestion: "I would suggest we meet again, verbalize the outline, develop a concrete plan and assign roles for everyone....?" Once we have that, we want to prepare a plan for talking with grant agencies.

STEP as a possible grant: Even if, as Dave suggests, STEP is a perfect proposal for us, it is better to talk to grant agencies. We're small, very small. Compatible with that, Montana is small, and so we are justifiably small. Still, we must prepare to deal with our smallness when going to a granting agency.

Another possibility is to seek some grant in Montana as a starter, though I hold out hope that Sloan might find our goals interesting. We could do both these things in one meeting. If we met again next Wednesday at the same time as we did previously, that would give Dave time to think if he wanted to be there. I have more times available than you, though I use my mornings to write, and Tuesdays are out.

A New Yorker Cartoon: Yes, it would be better if I faxed it, but ...). An elementary teacher stands in front of her little students. On the blackboard behind her are three small digit multiplications. Very warmly (you can feel the concern in their little faces) the teacher says:

"Before we go on to division, does anybody want to share any feelings about multiplication?"