Faculty Assessment Fellows

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Satyajit Ghosh, Ph.D.

During his long teaching career Dr. Ghosh has always been interested in assessment.  He served on various assessment committees: Subcommittee on Assessment, Middle States Accreditation Committee (1997); Committee on Program Evaluation (1994-1996); and the GE Subcommittee of Middle States Accreditation Committee (2006). But it was 2007-2008 when he became very directly involved with educational assessment as he started to work closely with KSOM Assistant Dean Paul Perhach who was the main architect of Kania School’s assessment program. Dr. Ghosh worked as a faculty assessor on every KSOM assessment day that was held between 2008 and 2012. During this time with the help of his departmental colleagues Dr. Ghosh also developed the Student Learning goals for Economics and Finance majors. He continued his assessment related activities through his two recent committee appointments. In 2013 he served on the Institutional Learning Outcomes Working Group and helped to create a “draft” of the institutional learning outcomes—an integral part of University’s assessment plan. He served on the Middle States Monitoring Report Coordinating Committee in 2014. Over the past few years Dr. Ghosh has been developing various interactive teaching tools, based on “active learning models” to  “close the loop” in individual course assessment plan and help students attain their learning goals. He presented various research papers containing these alternative pedagogical tools and their assessment in several national and international conferences. Email: satyajit.ghosh@scranton.edu
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Vanessa A. Jensen, Ed.D.

Dr. Ferrance has been involved with assessment since 2008, when she served as a member of the Education Curriculum Committee, which was responsible for preparing the special education program revisions for the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Since that time, she has continued to serve on the curriculum committee for program revisions of the Middle Level 4-8 program as well as the Early and Primary PK-4 program. She served as chair of the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) internal audit committee for the Education Department and was a member of the TEAC inquiry brief proposal committee. Dr. Ferrance also served as a member of the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) annual report committee. She currently serves as the chair of the Assessment Committee in the Education Department. In 2013, Dr. Ferrance served as the chair of the Middle States Periodic Review Report Subcommittee on Institutional Assessment and Planning for Standard 7: Institutional Assessment. Email: vanessa.ferrance@scranton.edu

Past Faculty Assessment Fellows

Tara Fay, M.S.

Prof. Fay currently serves as the Laboratory Supervisor for Human Anatomy and Physiology and teaches Human Anatomy and Physiology lecture and laboratory, General Physiology laboratory, and a travel course called Extreme Physiology.  She became interested in using assessment as a tool to help her continually improve her courses and has attended numerous teaching workshops and conferences related to pedagogy and assessment. 
Email: tara.fay@scranton.edu

Linda Ledford-Miller, Ph.D.
Dr. Ledford-Miller first became involved with Assessment under the then-CAS Dean Dreisbach. She attended several workshops by external assessment consultants sponsored by the Dean, and subsequently led the Department of World Languages and Cultures in the creation of its Program Assessment Plan for modern language majors, completed in 2008. The Department revised its Assessment Plan in fall 2013. In spring 2014 she collaborated with Dr. Joseph Wilson to begin an Assessment Plan for Classics. Dr. Ledford-Miller was an inaugural Assessment Fellow from November 2013 until Fall of 16, and was an active member of the Monitoring Report Coordinating Committee. Together with colleagues from the MRCC,  she attended a special workshop in Philadelphia on "Creating and Selecting Assessment Tools." She served as co-author of the 2014 Middel States Monitoring Report.

John Deak, Ph.D.
Dr. Deak learned about assessment practices and expectations when co-chairing the committee responsible for drafting the Middle States periodic review report in 2012-2013. He has attended Middle States workshops regarding assessment of student learning, participated in the Intersession 2014 CAS Assessment Pilot, and participated in several assessment related workshops and activities on campus. During his tenure as an assessment champion and fellow, Dr. Deak has assisted faculty and departments in refining their assessment practices and in conveying faculty concerns regarding assessment.

Harry Dammer, Ph.D.
Dr. Dammer has been an advocate for assessment since he developed an assessment plan for Sociology and Criminal Justice Department in 2007. Since that time he has worked on assessment planning and implementation in his Department and also has become active in assessment in the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS).  His recent activity with ACJS includes reviewing the assessment procedures of criminal justice programs across the country to determine if they meet accreditation standards.  Dr. Dammer feels strongly that assessment need not be onerous, has improved his own teaching, and has helped his Department focus on improving student learning for all who take Sociology and Criminal Justice classes.

Nicholas P. Truncale, M.S.

Prof. Truncale participated in the pilot Intersession Assessment Group in 2014, assessing a GE Natural Science course “It’s Only Rocket Science” he developed. Since then he created a new course, Foundations of Physics and Engineering, which serves as his department’s first year Eloquentia Perfecta (EP) Level I oral communication and digital technology requirement. He assessed all of the EP student learning outcomes earning the course permanent EP status and also presented these assessment results at a physics education conference. He co-authored a physics program review, participated in a departmental student retention study, and “closed the loop” by helping to enact changes based upon the results of the retention study. A Faculty Assessment Fellow since 2014, he currently directs the Provost Assessment Scholars Program with more information about that found here: http://www.scranton.edu/provostscholars

Adam Pratt, Ph.D.
Dr. Pratt joined the OEA in September 2017. As a member of the History Department, he teaches courses on the Age of Jackson, the American Civil War, and Native American History, as well as introductory courses to U.S. history. In addition, he teaches courses on historical research methods for undergraduates. In addition to the OEA, he sits on the General Education Assessment committee, and is a member of the CAS Curriculum and Assessment Committee and the Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee.

 

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