Check-in and Walk-in Registration

Welcome

• Kara Moloney, Assessment Lead, Center for Educational Effectiveness, UC Davis
• Kem Saichaie, Executive Director, Center for Educational Effectiveness, UC Davis
• Michael Bradford, Vice Provost and Dean, Undergraduate Education, UC Davis

Plenary Session

UC 2030, This Is Where You Come In

• Laura Kertz, Senior Equity and Diversity Analyst for Institutional Research and Academic Planning, UC Office of the President
  
  With its UC 2030 goals, the University of California aspires to produce 200,000 more undergraduate and graduate degrees—on top of the 1 million already projected, to achieve a 90 percent overall graduation rate and to improve on-time graduation across the board. We aspire to do all of this by eliminating disparities in degree attainment by race and ethnicity, household income and parental education status. A lot has happened since these goals were laid out in 2018. And a lot still needs to happen. This is where you come in.

Concurrent Sessions

Adapting Assessment, Advancing Equity 

(Ballroom A)

• 10:00am | Alternative Grading for Advancing Equity
  • Brie Tripp, Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, UC Davis
    
    Alternative assessments and grading practices can increase student motivation, autonomy, competence, and sense of relatedness among peers and the instructor. These approaches emphasize ongoing improvement rather than relying on traditional assessments that offer only one opportunity to showcase knowledge. Research indicates that offering students numerous chances to enhance their comprehension of subject matter diminishes adverse emotional factors like stress and feelings of inadequacy. In this session, participants will learn how to develop and implement 'multi-chance' assessments into their syllabi that promote true learning and foster more equitable classroom environments. Participants are highly encouraged to bring their syllabi. 
     
• 10:25am | Re-Assessment, Growth Mindedness, and Equity
  • Korana Burke, Mathematics, UC Davis
    
    It is well known that we all learn best when given a chance to improve on our work after being given feedback. Furthermore giving students reassessment opportunities enforces growth mindset, helps with information retention, and increases equity. In this session I will share practical logistical steps for introducing reassessment opportunities in large (and small) classes. I will also share some student suggestions and reflections about the practice.

Aligning Course & Program Assessment

(Ballroom B&C)

• 10:00am | PACE4Equity Alumni Discussion 
  PACE4Equity alumni discuss the challenges of aligning course- and program-level assessment and the equity-minded strategies they’ve implemented. 
  • Aldrin Gomes, Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, UC Davis
  • Heather Hether, Communication, UC Davis
  • Chris Nitta, Computer Science, UC Davis
     
• 10:25am | Course-Level Strategies for Assessing Program-Level DEI Outcomes 
  • Jen Choi, Biomedical Engineering
  • ​​​​​Xianglong Wang / 王翔龙, Biomedical Engineering, UC Davis
    
    An increasing amount of emphasis is being placed on course-level and program-level outcomes on assessing DEI.  Particularly in engineering, ABET is piloting new Criteria 5 and 6 that include DEI aspects to them.  This session introduces strategies adopted by the moderators for assessing DEI in courses for program-level DEI outcomes, followed by a discussion on how session participants can adopt strategies in their own courses to assess DEI outcomes.  This session may be of interest to those who would like to incorporate DEI in their next program-level review on campus or by an external accreditation agency.

Plenary Session

Making Assessment Meaningful for Faculty in the Era of Student Success and Equity

• Jody Greene, Associate Campus Provost for Academic Success, UC Santa Cruz
  
  Over the past decade, faculty at UC campuses have responded to a series of movements and initiatives around improving undergraduate education—the student success movement, becoming minority-serving institutions, and the Governor’s 2022 Compact with the UC, to name only a few. With the significant course and curricular redesign undertaken in the name of equity and student success, doubts have arisen about the reliability of grades and grading practices as they relate to concepts like “rigor,” “foundational knowledge,” and “the value of a UC education." Assessment, once resisted by many faculty members as bureaucratic busy-work, is now emerging as a powerful tool to get reliable information on student learning in a way that can spur reflection on curricular coherence at the course and program level. This talk explores how to make assessment both meaningful and sustainable for faculty members while helping them to receive reliable real-time evidence about student learning.

Lunch

Plenary Panel

Equity-Mindedness Assessment in Action: Faculty Transforming Grading Practices to Promote Equity

• Colleen Bronner, Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Davis
• Rob Furrow, Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology, UC Davis
• Kenji Quides, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, UC Davis

Concurrent Sessions

Equity-Minded Exams

(Ballroom A)

• 2:00pm | Scaling Innovation: Implementing Equitable Assessment Strategies in Large Lecture Courses
  • Annie Ditta, Psychology, UC Riverside
    
    Too often, educators read about teaching innovations that promise to improve learning outcomes and reduce equity gaps—that have been successfully implemented only in small-enrollment courses. In my work, I am interested in identifying ways to successfully implement versions of these innovations in large-enrollment courses. In this presentation, I will detail my experiences with implementing two different innovations for equitable assessment in large lecture courses: test corrections and ungrading. Together, these experiences span from a small tweak to a complete overhaul of a course design.
     
• 2:25pm | The Benefits of Collaborative Practice Testing
  • Melissa Paquette-Smith, Psychology, UC Los Angeles
    
    Practice testing (or retrieval practice) is a highly effective study strategy (Dunlosky et al., 2013). Integrating group practice testing activities into the formative stages of learning can support students by increasing transparency around course assessment and by providing an opportunity for students to work with their peers to better understand course content. In this talk, we will discuss our experience implementing in-class collaborative practice testing activities in a large lower-division psychology course. We will also present data we’ve collected to demonstrate the benefits of collaborative practice testing over individual practice testing on students’ retention of course material.  

Assessments that Support Student Writing

(Ballroom B&C)

• 2:00pm | Using Iterative Writing Processes in CUREs: Fostering Advancements in Students’ Scientific Writing 
  • Carrie Spratford, Biomedical Research Minor Program, UC Los Angeles
    
    Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) play a pivotal role in introducing students to laboratory research and have demonstrated significant potential in bolstering STEM retention among participants. However, CUREs are often restricted to larger institutions with more financial support and availability of laboratory space which excludes a substantial number of students at smaller educational establishments and community colleges from this type of experience. We evaluated the virtual CURE format by comparing student self-assessment data alongside independently evaluated writing assignments to discern the benefits and learning gains experienced by virtual CURE students. This research provides support for the idea that virtual CUREs can rival the success of traditional in-person CUREs in achieving focused learning objectives, fostering advancements in scientific writing, and nurturing an enduring commitment to scientific careers. This data supports expansion of virtual CUREs across diverse educational institutions potentially leading to broader representation within the STEM field. 
     
• 2:25pm | Writing Assessment, AI Feedback, and Peer Review: An Evolving Landscape
  • Carl Whithaus, University Writing Program, UC Davis
  • Marit MacArthur, University Writing Program, UC Davis
  • Sophia Minnillo, Linguistics, UC Davis
  • Lisa Sperber, University Writing Program, UC Davis
  • Nick Stillman, English, UC Davis
    
    While much of the conversation around GenAI and writing has focused on concerns about students’ unethical use of GenAI writing technologies, our presentation examines the potential to use GenAI feedback in conjunction with peer review. Based on an ongoing study of required writing courses and writing experience at UC Davis, we describe a system of pairing AI feedback and peer review. We believe that faculty need to decide if, how, when and why to use AI tools for feedback on drafts. We will share the paired AI and peer feedback activities used in this study, student reflections on their experiences, and preliminary findings about how writing assessment processes can shift to include paired GenAI feedback and peer review.

Group Discussion

What Did We Learn? What's Next? Making Plans. Crowdsourcing through Community.

Closing

• Kara Moloney, Assessment Lead, Center for Educational Effectiveness, UC Davis