Assessment Day will help Liberty make beneficial changes to departments

Liberty University’s Assessment Day, April 3, 2019, will give students the opportunity to share feedback on their experiences with various Liberty departments. To encourage participation, Convocation and most classes are canceled, except for some labs, classes that meet only on Wednesdays and some graduate courses.

In the morning, students will be selected to participate in activities with their academic departments, while the afternoon will be for co-curricular departments. 

Students who complete afternoon A-Day activities will have the opportunity to win one of over 40 prizes, including headphones, iPads, GoPros and Walmart gift cards valued from $50 to $300. Prizes are subject to the rules on the OIE’s website. 

According to Elicia Charlesworth, director of analytics for Liberty’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness (OIE), both morning and afternoon will include a range of activities. In the morning, students will take part in comprehensive tests and standardized tests that compare Liberty with other schools or students in similar programs. Some activities are specific for seniors, while others are specific to students who are newer in a program. Afternoon activities include focus groups and online surveys.

Most morning A-Day activities will range from one to two and half hours. For some departments, like the School of Nursing and the Teaching English as a Second Language Department, their activities will be closer to three hours. However, Charlesworth said these departments let students know well ahead of time if they were chosen.

Charlesworth said A-Day is about more than just taking surveys and tests – it is about using those results to help Liberty improve programs and departments for future students. 

“Assessment isn’t just about testing. It’s about determining if we’re meeting our goals and how to get there,” Charlesworth said.

Associate Director of Assessment for OIE Brandon Moore explained receiving this feedback helps Liberty be accountable and ensure it is following through on promises it has made to students.

“Assessment is our investment into those goals and outcomes,” Moore said.

Participating in A-Day will also benefit students in the long run.

“It’s not only a service to Liberty, … but as a student, it improves the quality received of my (education). That’s good for me beyond just today,” Moore said. “Some students may think, ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter, I’m going to be gone anyway.’ But for the rest of your life, you’re going to carry this credential of Liberty. So, if I can do something that can improve my university, I’m improving the credential that I have for the rest of my life.”

Liberty’s academic and co-curricular departments use feedback given during A-Day to improve their programs. In the past, changes have included office hour changes or changes to course material.

Departments work with Charlesworth to coordinate surveys and schedule focus groups to streamline the process.

“That way, they don’t have to figure out how to get access to students. They tell me what students they need to survey,” Charlesworth said. “Advising, for example, may only want to talk to freshmen, or juniors and
seniors.”

The OIE then emails these surveys to specific students on A-Day. These afternoon surveys cover topics like students’ usage and satisfaction of departments, such as the bookstore and Student Activities, among others. Each time a student completes a survey, they will be entered into the prize drawing. They can complete multiple surveys for multiple entries.

While departments want to gather feedback from a range of students, seniors are often selected to participate in activities more often than others.

“Seniors have been here for a while, so they have more to offer in terms of their feedback and experience,” Charlesworth said. “So, they’re going to hear from their program more often for assessments. I think a lot of their academic programs are interested in them because they’ve been here long enough they can give feedback on their experience.”

Charlesworth explained A-Day is timed carefully. Having it too early in the semester means some content may not have been covered in class yet. But later in the semester, it is more likely to conflict with end-of-semester exams and projects. 

“It’s really important for students to participate in their academic assessments, and it is up to the department if there are any consequences (for not participating),” Charlesworth said.

Students will find out from their department via email if they will be participating in morning activities, and from other Liberty departments if they will be participating in afternoon activities. More information about A-Day can be found at www.liberty.edu/ADay.

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