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Half-day Pre-Conference Workshop
Wed., Oct. 29, 2008, 9a.m. - 12p.m.
Writing Center Assessment 101:
Planning the Work and Working the Plan

Workshop Facilitators
MaryAnn Krajnik Crawford - Central Michigan University
                                             Director, Writing Center/Basic Writing
                                             and University Writing Program
William J. Macauley, Jr. - The College of Wooster
                                      Director of Writing
Ellen Schendel - Grand Valley State University
                          Director, Fred Meijer Center for Writing
                          & Michigan Authors

The session focuses on moving beyond tutorial counts to developing and implementing writing center assessment from an outcomes perspective.

-Educational and writing assessment foundations/orientations.
-Assessing specific outcomes during chosen times.
-Identifying assessable learning outcomes.
-Rough designs for assessment measures in a first round of assessment.
-Thinking carefully about feedback loops.

The overall purpose of this workshop is to help participants design an assessment plan for their writing centers that will enable them to make meaningful decisions about how and where their work might evolve. This workshop will also strive to dispel a number of myths about meaningful assessment by helping participants to work through their own assessment questions and concerns with the support of their colleagues and peers.

We will begin with some discussion of educational assessment and writing assessment trends and practices, connecting these kinds of assessment to writing center work and making the case that there are good reasons for integrating these principles into any writing center assessment design. The bulk of the workshop will be spent helping participants to articulate individualized goals relevant to the local context of their writing centers: program development, tutor training, student learning, or something else altogether. Through discussion and guided activities, participants will be prompted to do the following:

* Prioritize their goals and think about what narrowed-down issues they might assess given
   their particular interests, resources, and context.
* Work through data collection methods options, weighing their benefits and limitations.
* Design feedback loops that use the assessment to make data-driven decisions for their
   writing centers.

Our hope is that participants will leave this workshop excited about the prospect of learning more about their writing centers via the assessment plans they have constructed and feel confident about their ability to follow through, not just because of what they've learned and accomplished in the workshop but also because they have the support of other workshop participants. We would like this workshop to be the beginning of a series of conference gatherings where participants share their assessment plans and results, as well as the ways in which those assessment plans have allowed their writing centers to change in interesting ways.

Lunch will be provided for those attending both sessions
Assessment 101 & Assessment 102.