General Education Learning Assessment: Year of Learning 2024-2025
Notices: Please make sure to get all your attendance and development/facilitation hours for your YOL activity submitted no later than May 30th!
Welcome to the informational page all about the Year of Learning (YOL) for General Education assessment. Here, you will learn more about the YOL, how to participate, and where to go with questions.
What is the Year of Learning?
It is a year of professional development for SACs with one or more courses on the Gen Ed list (see table below). These SACs will take a break from their regular learning assessment project requirements in order to participate in professional development in the area of Gen Ed learning assessment.
Courses on the Gen Ed list will continue carrying out signature assignments during the Year of Learning, as these assignments were designed to help students engage in the learning of important course outcomes. The completed assignments will not be collected for assessment this year, but you will still need to administer them to help students achieve their goals
Why Are We Doing This?
Prior Gen Ed assessment work revealed gaps in our ability to generate meaningful data about outcome achievement. We all realize that faculty need more support around shared understandings of Gen Ed outcomes, signature assignment design and implementation, and assessment practices. The YOL professional development opportunities will help close those gaps for faculty and for college-wide Gen Ed assessment.
How Will It Work?
During this 2024-2025 academic year, you will perform the following actions:
- Fall term: SACs with Gen Ed courses will discuss and choose from a menu of options and report this choice by the end of fall term (see link to form below) Due: December 6, 2024
- Winter and Spring terms: Engage in your chosen Year of Learning activity
- End of Spring Term: Submit one narrative report about what your SAC learned by end of spring term (see link to form below) Due: June 20, 2025
The goal of the Year of Learning is to encourage and provide support for all faculty (full-time and part-time) who currently teach Gen Ed courses, or who may teach them in the future, to participate in the SAC’s professional development activities around Gen Ed assessment.
Due Dates
- YOL project selection/planning form due December 6, 2024
- YOL final report form due June 20, 2025
Forms
- YOL Planning Form (please note, this form is restricted to the PCC community, so you need to be logged in to your PCC Google account in order to open it)
- Final Deliverable: Link to Google form for the YoL project final report (due June 20, 2025)
- Instructions for Logging Attendance and SPR Development Hours. This document takes you through the steps required to log attendance for YOL activities and approved development hours. This is how eligible faculty will be paid, and it helps us plan for future activities. *PT faculty attending Anderson and D2L will be paid by collecting their registration information from the associated registration systems.
Resources
- Anderson Conference: Here are resources from the Anderson Conference session as well as a recording of the presentation.
- If you would like to attend a Zoom drop-in session to ask questions about the Year of Learning or learning assessment in general, feel free to join with one of the following links:
- Friday, March 7 from 11:00-noon
- Wednesday, April 23 from 3:00-4:00
- Spring SAC Day April 29: This is a great opportunity for your SAC to conduct a follow-up discussion about your YOL project. However, please don’t use this day to schedule a YOL workshop.
- Contact the PCC Learning Assessment Coordinator, Heidi Van Middlesworth with questions (you can e-mail her directly at heidi.vanmiddlesworth@pcc.edu)
- You can also contact your Program Dean for more information
What Support Will SACs Have?
Your learning assessment leadership team and coaches, deans, and administration are all working to support faculty during this year of learning. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to any of them with questions. Check our resources list, below, for additional support.
All part-time faculty will be compensated for their work on the professional development project. Depending on the project you choose, full-time faculty may receive some compensation as well (see the table with menu items, below).
Gen Ed SACs
See a complete list of SAC classifications.
See Spaces for current information about 2024-2025 assessment expectations for CTE and non-Gen-Ed LDC SACs.
Menu of Options for Professional Development Projects
Note: All professional learning options come with event planning support and supplies, when applicable (e.g. room reservation and catering for an in-person meeting)
| Menu Items | Compensation Structure |
|---|---|
| Hold a half-day or 1-day workshop focused on some aspect of Gen Ed assessment | Participants: Meeting Rate for PT faculty only |
| SAC FLC (Faculty Learning Community) with SAC rep and a LAC coach (as co-facilitators) |
Co-facilitators (SAC rep and LAC coach): Special Projects Rate for development and delivery Participants: Meeting Rate for PT faculty only |
|
Course/session during Anderson Conference (90 minutes) on Jan. 31 Title: Teaching to the (Gen Ed) assessment Description: In this session we will discuss ideas for how to implement your Gen Ed signature assignment in ways that make sense for your course, your students, and you. Participants should bring a copy of their signature assignment and come ready to talk about it. *Note that you will also need to schedule time for your SAC participants to meet afterwards to discuss what was learned and create your final deliverable. |
Participants: Meeting Rate for PT faculty only |
|
Complete asynchronous assessment course (D2L course, available around mid-Winter term) *Note that you will also need to schedule time for your SAC participants to meet afterwards to discuss what was learned and create your final deliverable. |
Participants: Meeting Rate for PT faculty only |
| Do a practice assessment with feedback | TBD; assessment leadership and administration will work with the SAC to determine the reasonable number of hours and rate. |
| Choose your own adventure | TBD; assessment leadership and administration will work with the SAC to determine the reasonable number of hours and rate. |
Due Dates
- YOL project selection/planning form due December 6, 2024
- YOL final report form due June 20, 2025
Forms
- YOL Planning Form (please note, this form is restricted to the PCC community, so you need to be logged in to your PCC Google account in order to open it)
- Final Deliverable: Link to Google form for the YoL project final report (due June 20, 2025)
- Instructions for Logging Attendance and SPR Development Hours. This document takes you through the steps required to log attendance for YOL activities and approved development hours. This is how eligible faculty will be paid, and it helps us plan for future activities. *PT faculty attending Anderson and D2L will be paid by collecting their registration information from the associated registration systems.
- Q: Can my SAC use Spring SAC Day to hold our Year of Learning workshop or meeting?
- A: If you are doing a workshop, it should not be on SAC Day. However, SAC Day would be a good time to conduct follow-up meetings or other YoL related discussions.
- Q: Will my SAC still have to administer signature assignments in our Gen Ed classes during this year of learning?
- A: Yes! The signature assignments were designed to help students engage in learning of the Gen Ed and other important course outcomes for your course. The completed assignments will not be collected for assessment this year, but you will still need to administer and grade them to help students achieve their goals.
- Q: What happens if I get sick or otherwise cannot participate on the day my SAC planned to engage its YOL professional development project?
- A: Although full participation from SAC members is encouraged and supported, there is no penalty for those who cannot participate.
- Q: Do all SAC members need to participate in the professional development project?
- A: Again, although full participation from SAC members is encouraged and supported, there is no penalty if not all SAC members participate.
- Q: What is SAC members cannot agree on which project to engage in? Can we do different projects within the same SAC?
- A: One of the main goals of the project is to have your SAC come together to decide what will help you as a whole group. If you think different components of the projects in the menu will help rather than just one, then you should select the “choose your adventure” option and piece together something that looks right for you. Ultimately, you will come together as a SAC at the end to discuss what you all learned (no matter which task you completed individually) and turn in one final report.
- Q: What if some members of a SAC never teach a Gen Ed course? Are they still expected to participate in the SAC’s YOL project?
- A: The goal is to undertake a unified, inclusive approach to participation in the YOL professional development project to do what’s best for your SAC’s development around Gen Ed assessment. Keep in mind that this year of development is meant for faculty who currently teach a Gen Ed course as well as those who might teach one in the future. To that end, it would be a good idea for all faculty within the SAC to participate in the project.