The University of North Carolina, Greensboro (UNCG) and North Carolina A&T State University (NC A&T) offer a joint program to prepare future leaders (PFL). The two track program addresses the preparation of future faculty and future professionals. Their collaborative project will include a new component in the PFL program dedicated to preparing future faculty for their role in assessment. 

Project Plan and Activities:

The assessment program in PFL will identify:

1. Student learning outcomes
2. Activities for achieving student learning outcomes
3. Measureable performance indicators
4. How to collect and analyze evidence
5. How to develop actions to improve learning
6. Practices to evaluate and improve the assessment process itself.

• Program participants will create electronic portfolios through iWebfolio to document their progress and attainment of goals in the PFL program. The PFL program is made up of twelve folios. Students will upload examples of their work in each folio, as well as comments from faculty and mentors. Each student will also produce a summative electronic iWebfolio which will contain their finished products to be shared with potential employers.

• The assessment component of the PFL program will consist of an expanded folio:  1) a face-to-face workshop containing exercises in developing student learning outcomes and 2) a series of three online interactive modules addressing the level of assessment. The online modules will be available to students in other professional opportunity programs and the CGS Clearinghouse. The modules will focus on:

-- Course and Co-curricular assessment through direct and proxy measures

-- Mapping student learning outcomes to program expectations

-- Closing the loop on improving the process
 

• A reward system will be developed within the PFL program. Once students enter the assessment portion of their program, they will be able to apply for small grants of $500 to field test new approaches to assessment. A culminating award of $1500 will be given to the student at each university who develops the best innovation in assessment as determined by an advisory committee.
   

• Special emphasis will be placed on Nano-Science/Nano-Engineering, Mathematics, and English, programmatic areas representing STEM disciplines and the Humanities respectively. The progress of student in these disciplines will be carefully monitored through their e-portfolios. 
   

• Nanochemistry and Nanomaterials in the Joint Nano School, College Algebra and Precalculus in Math, and College Writing and Introduction to Narrative in English will be used as common courses to engage teaching assistants on both campuses. A limited number of teaching assistants from each campus will teach classes at the other campus.
   
• A pre-test and post-test will assess changes in attitude among PFF students and understanding of assessment.