Samantha Swindell has received the first Assessment Champion Award presented by the Office of Assessment for Curricular Effectiveness (ACE) in recognition of her long-standing support and partnership in advancing undergraduate program assessment at Washington State University.
“This award honors faculty and staff members who promote meaningful assessment efforts that support student learning, and Dr. Swindell is a true champion and role model for effective practices in this area at our university,” said Lindsey Brown, ACE director. ACE is part of the Division of Academic Engagement and Student Achievement in the provost’s office.
“She also masterfully communicates the value of program assessment and establishes partnerships with colleagues at multiple levels across the university and across campuses.”
Swindell is a professor in the Department of Psychology and serves as the College of Arts and Sciences’ (CAS) associate dean for undergraduate studies.
“It is a tremendous honor to receive this award, and I can’t wait to celebrate future recipients,” said Swindell.
Brown said Swindell has had broad and deep impacts for many years on efforts to assess student learning leading to improvements of undergraduate degree programs. She:
- developed and implemented an assessment plan and coordinated related efforts and logistics when in her role as the Department of Psychology’s faculty assessment coordinator.
- championed a revision of the WSU Faculty Manual in 2018 to formally recognize in the annual review process a faculty member’s participation in assessment work, which reinforces the message that assessment is integral to what faculty regularly do as teachers.
- leads a CAS-wide committee of faculty assessment coordinators from each undergraduate program, providing a valuable avenue for sharing and receiving ideas and resources, as well as strategizing about challenges and opportunities, to support iterative improvement.
- serves on WSU’s Liaison Council for Undergraduate Program Assessment, playing a pivotal role in reviewing university-wide progress and practices and collaboratively developing strategies and policies for making program assessment sustainable.
- has served on the University Common Requirements (UCORE) Subcommittee for Assessment since it began in 2016, helping to examine results of UCORE/general education assessment of student learning and suggesting uses of those results to inform or influence decisions intended to enhance undergraduate student learning.
Swindell said, “People often associate assessment with meeting our accreditation requirements and that is certainly important. But beyond that, I’ve always thought about it as our commitment to serving students to the best of our ability.
“Assessment requires us to think carefully and intentionally about what we do. It challenges us to define the skills and knowledge we want our students to develop, to create curricula that supports that development, and to be willing to routinely ask — through assessment activities — if we are achieving those goals.”
She said that a wide range of positive changes come out of program assessment including course revisions, changes in course sequencing, refinement of outcomes, and training to support specific aspects of teaching.
“I’m not sure that those changes would have happened in the absence of assessment.”
