Dr. Mijia Yang, associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was selected for North Dakota State University’s (NDSU) 2020 Award for Excellence in Course Assessment.
The Assessment Award Committee chose Dr. Yang because of the quality and variety of formative and summative assessments used in his CE 430: Timber and Formwork Design course, which focuses on inquiry- and information-based learning to improve student interaction with the instructor. Yang's nomination particularly stood out to the committee because he demonstrated that ongoing instructional change has occurred, and is occurring, in the classroom as a result of assessing individual student learning. His assessment plan was organized, focused, adaptable over time, and demonstrated the continual flow between teaching, assessment, and student learning.
Dr. Yang, has been an Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) assessment coordinator for his department since 2017. In his experience at NDSU, Yang says, "As a department, we conduct course and program assessments every year. However, there is always some subjective nature in this process. Typically, student outcomes are clear for a program, but what assessment tools and data the faculty intend to use or collect needs to be well planned before the start of the class.” He goes on to say, “This Course Assessment Award strengthens our rationale in aligning the assessment tools with student outcomes and enhances our confidence in future course and program assessments."
The Office of Teaching and Learning at NDSU sponsors this award to honor individuals or small teams for creative and thorough methods of assessment in individual courses or a series of consecutive courses. The award promotes sharing of outstanding assessment models with the NDSU community. Dr. Yang received a $500 prize to use toward a professional development opportunity of his choice.
Nominations for the 2021 NDSU Award for Excellence in Course Assessment will be accepted January 1 through March 1, 2021. If you know of someone who is doing standout work in the area of assessment in their course, nominate them for this important award at https://www.ndsu.edu/otl/faculty_resources/awards/excellence_in_course_assessment/.
The Office of Teaching and Learning’s mission is to create and share best practices to enhance teaching and learning.