The Assessment Institute is an annual conference hosted by Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and it brings together assessment experts from across the country. This year, according to Michael Johnson, institutional research, the Assessment Institute is being held virtually and the registration fee has been waived, so it is a terrific opportunity for anyone looking to develop their own assessment skills and learn best practices and methods for assessing specific program types. The Institute itself is scheduled for the end of October (10/25-10/28) with 1-hour presentations that run between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
To register for the Assessment Institute, click the link at this site.
Some of the thematic tracks that may be of interest include:
- Assessment in Online Courses and Programs
- Community Engagement
- Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
- Global Learning
- Graduate Education
- High-Impact Practices
- STEM Education
- Student Affairs Programs and Services
A full program and schedule for the Assessment Institute can be found using this link.
Each of the sessions will be recorded and the recordings will all be available to anyone who registers, so if you can’t make it to a particular session or on a specific day, be sure to register to have access to the recording.
Registration closes on Monday, October 12. For more information contact Johnson at johnsomi@up.edu or 503.943.7930.
The Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) will be visiting the UP campus from October 7 to October 9 to follow up on the self-evaluation report that was submitted this past August as part of the regular reaccreditation process.
The Institutional Research Office would like to share with the campus community an annual report highlighting projects from 2018-19. The report is available 
The Office of Institutional Research has updated its Data Snapshots blog with a post about accreditation. Do you wonder how we measure the three core themes at the University of Portland? We use a variety of different methods and one of the tools for measuring “Faith and Formation” is the subject of this month’s Data Snapshot. Use 
The University of Portland continues to pursue ways to improve the educational experience for students by participating in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), according to Elizabeth Lee, institutional research. The NSSE helps us better understand how our students spend time in and out of the classroom compared to the national sample. Insights from the survey will guide decisions that will benefit students.
The Office of Institutional Research has updated its Data Snapshots blog with a post on student retention rates. Are you curious about how many students stick with UP from their first year to their second year? How about from their first year to their third year? Or are you curious about what we mean by retention rate? Look for answers 
The institutional research office’s first edition of the IR Data Snapshots Newsletter is online now at 
The provost’s office has announced the hiring of Elizabeth Lee as the University’s new director of institutional research. She has an M.S. and Ph.D. in social psychology from Pennsylvania State University and has held research positions at University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey, Pennsylvania State, Lisbon University in Portugal, and Kantar Health in New York City. Lee was most recently associate director of analytics and research at Central Washington University. She is a member of the Association for Institutional Research and the Pacific Northwest Association for Institutional Research and Planning. Please welcome her as she assumes her new duties here on The Bluff.