Assessment day is an annual event hosted by UW-Whitewater where people are brought together to share ideas focused on improving student learning throughout campus.

People belonging to individual programs throughout campus came together to bring information and data that they have gathered on student experiences from their programs. It’s a day for people to share their work and their accomplishments.

Every year there is a keynote speaker presentation, a panel presentation and a poster session.

The keynote speaker for 2019 was Dr. Peter Felten. Felten is a professor of history, assistant provost for teaching and learning and executive director of the Center for Engaged Learning at Elon University.

Felten’s research keyed him to focus on six factors learning, relationships, expectations, alignment, improvement and leadership.   

“We can always do better in what we are doing at Whitewater, and we can always support our students in learning more,” said Felten.

Assessment Day is a day to honor research on improving student assessment and performance. At the University Center in the Hamilton Room for the event there were 44 informational posters made for Assessment Day which display findings from the research. These posters were accompanied by tables set up for the people that attended to look over brochures about the topics researched and discuss the topics at hand. 

Joan Littlefield Cook, the interim associate host and the director of academic assessment assists in the preparation and execution of the event. This included creating the theme for Assessment Day which was “Celebrate and Contact.” Cook wants to make sure that the people at Assessment Day are sharing and celebrating their work. 

“It is a fun day to relax a little bit and celebrate the great things that are happening,” said Cook.

Assessment Day’s goal is to celebrate and to make people across campus aware of all the work that is going on to improve the university. The event this past week was the largest Assessment Day in its existence and the hope is for continued growth. The annual event is open to all student, staff and faculty. 

“Come and enjoy,” said Cook. “It would be great if we could get more students to get a sense of what is going on in terms of staff and faculty and the interests in what our students are learning and what students can do to become more successful.”