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Half-day Pre-Conference Workshop
Wed., Oct. 29, 2008, 1p.m. - 4p.m.
Writing Center Assessment 102:
Running the Numbers-from Ideology to Methodology

Workshop Facilitators
Neal Lerner - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
                       Director of Training in Writing Across the Curriculum
Clint Gardner - Salt Lake Community College
                          Student Writing Center Coordinator
Jill Pennington - Lansing Community College
                          Writing Center Coordinator
Jason Mayland - Lansing Community College
                          Director of Institutional Effectiveness and Research
Kimberly Cole - Lansing Community College
                          Lead Writing Assistant
Tiffany Turcotte - Lansing Community College
                            Peer Writing Assistant

This workshop will address assessing and collecting data as well as thinking strategically about how deploy assessment data.

-Holistic assessment framework.
-Direct and indirect measures.
-Thinking strategically about how deploy assessment data.

This session will focus on teaching writing center administrators how to develop a holistic assessment framework as well as quantitative and qualitative research methods applicable within a writing center context. Assessment projects at the Lansing Community College Writing Center and Salt Lake Community College Student Writing Center will provide examples, though techniques presented will be broadly useful across any type of institution.

Quantitative research techniques will include examining the effect of writing center intervention on grades in first-year composition, identifying cohort groups to develop a writing center user profile, and using U.S. Census data and GIS mapping to gain a broader understanding of who uses the writing center.

Qualitative techniques will include uses of formal satisfaction/evaluation surveys completed by students, staff, and faculty, as well as anecdotal evidence from those surveys to recorded student, staff, and faculty interviews. These methods address individual tutoring efforts as well as program-wide impact using traditional and innovative media and technologies.

Preparation
In preparation for this workshop, participants should read Neal Lerner's "A Framework for Research on Writing Center Effects" in The Center Will Hold, Ed. Michael A. Pemberton and Joyce Kinkead. Logan: Utah State UP, 2003: 64-73.

Please also bring any data you have previously collected or assessment projects you have conducted.

Limit: Twenty participants.

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