During the past few years, I've had an amazing experience conducting evaluations with an academic support group on the Brigham Young University (BYU) campus. The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) strives to “improve student learning in the context of the Aims of a BYU Education. The center accomplishes this goal by assisting BYU faculty, instructors, and administrators to -
- refine effective program- and course-level learning outcomes,
- design learning experiences to achieve desired outcomes,
- enhance the quality of learning experiences through technology integration,
- evaluate the effectiveness of learning experiences, and
- advance knowledge of effective learning and teaching.”
As a member of the evaluation team at the CTL, I worked with instructional designers, quality assurance experts, teaching & learning consultants, as well as other evaluators to help faculty members ensure that whatever product or service they wanted to create (e.g., a neuron simulation for a biology class, an instructional DVD for a marching band) was aligned with their learning outcomes for the students and helped students to learn more and to have fun while they learn.
The team environment was exceptional. As an academic support unit, the CTL is the right arm of the university, and constantly strives to be in tune with the academic needs of the faculty. As a member of an evaluation team, we all worked together to not only resolve evaluation issues, but to enhance our own evaluation skills via professional development sessions and references. Evaluators stick together and help each other to continuously improve.
I would recommend to any evaluator to seize the opportunity to collaborate with other evaluators, whether in an academic or business setting. It's a win-win situation when you do.
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