Conference Session Descriptions
Conference Session Descriptions
Listed below are brief descriptions of the sessions being offered at the 2007 annual conference. These descriptions may be of value to you as you register for the conference and identify on the conference registration form the sessions you plan to attend.
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Session 1
Wednesday 2:15pm - 3:45pm |
A. Dare to Relate |
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An exciting, thought-provoking, highly-interactive session sure to motivate professionals to deal comfortably with major changes in diverse populations in testing centers, this will be a multi media, ACTION approach to learning! Attendees will acquire new, positive perspectives and greater ease and appreciation in dealing with diverse personalities and cultures.
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| B. ACCUPLACER’s New Platform - Talk about Enhancements! | |
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Talk about enhancements! This session will give an overview of the exciting new features of ACCUPLACER 2.0 Online. Join us to be surprised and pleased at the myriad of new features that will make your job as a college placement test administrator so much easier. We’ll show our best tips for configuring ACCUPLACER 2.0 to meet your needs and share how we are using it to re-invent assessment of college readiness skills of our students in a variety of settings, including college testing labs, high schools, corporate locations, and a state-wide administrative model.
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| C. LSAT and YOU: Look Back, Leap Forward | |
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In this forum for LSAT test center supervisors to share experiences and to provide input for the future, Law School Admission Council (LSAC) staff wants to hear from you. Join a round table discussion about administering the LSAT. What impact have the recent changes in test center regulations had on you and your staff? What works? What doesn't? Hear about proposed future initiatives and provide your input. This is an opportunity to meet with representatives from LSAC, discuss current test center procedures with colleagues, and influence future LSAC procedures. LSAC staff needs to hear from the experts -- you.
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| D. Placement Testing: High School Outreach and Remote Testing | |
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This session will discuss the pros and cons of setting up test centers on satellite campuses, in high schools, and through remote/distance testing at other COMPASS sites. Emphasis will be on who does the work, best practices, and initial setup features. This will be an interactive session, so bring your experiences so that we all learn from them.
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| E. The Biometric Buzz | |
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Test developers and program managers will be presented with the challenge of how to incorporate the latest advancements in biometric technology into their testing centers. What is biometric technology? How can it improve test security and program quality? Why should I care? All these questions and more will be answered in this session. Biometrics is no longer science fiction but part of today’s testing reality. Is your testing center up-to-date? As a result of this session, participants will be able to describe the latest innovations in biometric technology and their applications in enhancing test security and program quality.
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| F. Open and Secure Testing in a Multi-Campus, Mixed Learning Environment | |
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The trend toward online learning has created new challenges to delivering secure, high-stakes, departmental tests together with low-stakes tests in an online environment. This presentation will discuss obstacles and solutions found at a multi-campus institution of higher education that delivers both online courses and face-to-face courses with an online component, including software developed in-house and commercial solutions.
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Session 2
Wednesday 4:00pm - 5:30pm |
A. Effectively Changing CLEP Policies on Your Campus |
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Would you like to convince departments on campus to revise their CLEP policies? This practical workshop will demonstrate the procedures used successfully to do just that. Within four months, Abilene Christian University adopted five new CLEP exams never before accepted for credit and lowered cut scores or expanded credit offerings for five other subjects. Come learn how this was accomplished and brainstorm ideas for how it could work on your own campus.
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| B. Assessing and Improving Your Organization | |
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This session is a review of how the Test Information Policy and Administration (TIPA) Unit at the University of Texas at Austin assessed its organization through its application to the Malcolm Baldridge Organizational Excellence Program. The TIPA Unit annotated its Organizational Profile and responded to questions related to its internal processes and results. The application was submitted to the University of Texas Center for Performance Excellence (UTCPE) for a review and site visit by an official Board of Examiners. This session will also include the organization's implementation of the feedback from the Board of Examiners and assessment components with current and future implementation of activities for improvement.
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| C. See It More Clearly With a Map! | |
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Many of us are visually-based; if we can see the process or system in a diagram, it just makes more sense. You can apply proven Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) techniques to your operations and services by using several CQI mapping tools. We will work as a group to create a system map of a testing center, map a specific testing center process, and look at other mapping techniques useful in testing center management.
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| D. MELAB: Arching the Gap for Non-Native Speakers | |
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In this presentation we will discuss the advantages of the Michigan English Language Assessment Battery (MELAB), a paper-based, secure, alternate test for non-native English speakers seeking admission to colleges or universities. The MELAB, developed by the English Language Institute of the University of Michigan, evaluates all language skill areas. Among the items discussed will be the flexibility of test dates, the security and accuracy of the test, the turnaround time of test results, test preparation options, and the customer service offered by MELAB staff. We will also look at the services that MELAB test centers can offer to the local community as well as the benefits for the test site.
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| E. Getting All the Credit You Deserve | |
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Representatives from the College Board, DSST, and Excelsior College will conduct a panel discussion to compare the CLEP, DSST, and Excelsior College credit-by-examination programs offered by their respective institutions. Because these institutions are committed to helping adult learners earn academic credit for college-level knowledge, it is important to convey the differences in these credit-by-exam programs and how each in its own way offers the flexibility, support, and choices needed by our adult learners.
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| F. Strategic Planning or Creating Your Own P.I.E. Process | |
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With lucrative profits from computer-based testing drying up at ETSU, the question “Where do we go from here” arose. We have a mission statement and goals, but the University saw us only as a moneymaking entity. Taking a proactive stand, it was important to look at the test center’s worth not in terms of dollars it could generate but in what services we were offering that the University saw as valuable. Our test center Planning and Institutional Effectiveness (P.I.E.) process began in January of 2006 and was completed in March of 2007. This workshop outlines our process, which can be adapted easily to your center.
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Session 3
Thursday 10:15am - 11:45pm |
A. University Testing with Prometric |
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Come hear about the exciting year the university testing community and Prometric have had since the last NCTA conference. With the addition of MCAT and a strategic focus of increasing its presence on college campuses, Prometric has more than doubled the number of test sites operated by university testing centers over the past year. During this session you will hear directly from your colleagues on how the expansion of their testing services through Prometric has provided a dramatic increase in the number of different exams offered to their students and community. Learn how your institution could increase testing opportunities with Prometric.
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| B. Are You Getting Full Use of the COMPASS/ESL System? | |
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COMPASS/ESL Internet has many new enhancements. This session will demonstrate remote testing, new test center setups, creation of new reports and test packages, and upload of scores to mainframe systems. Current users and potential users are invited. There will be a discussion of COMPASS plans for the future and past frustrations experienced by some test sites.
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| C. Grant-Funded Projects for Test Center Growth, Service, and Involvement | |
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This presentation will include an overview of three grants: Industry-Based Certification Project, Workforce-Related Training and Production of IT Certified Individuals, and Enhancement of Workforce and Academic Testing Center. We will review each grant’s goals and objectives, an overview of individuals served and IT certifications earned, budgets and items purchased, and other information about each grant. We will provide suggestions for anyone interested in writing similar grants including what worked well and what you might want to do differently. Come learn why, for many grant participants, these grant-funded projects have been almost too good to be true!
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| D. Diversify Your Assessment Delivery and Reporting Options | |
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Explore different assessment creation, delivery, and reporting options that provide cost-effective assessment management and quick, meaningful results. This demonstration of the Questionmark “Perception” assessment management system will explain ways to make it easier for learners to participate in course evaluations, quizzes, tests, and exams. It will also show how to organize and schedule assessments by groups and subgroups, by class, by department, by campus, etc. The presentation will also explain how to create graphical, easily understood analyses of answers to questions.
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| E. CLEP 101: An Orientation for New Test Administrators | |
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If you are a new CLEP Test Administrator or you plan to become one, this session is for you. Learn the nuts and bolts of operating a successful CLEP testing program, see a demonstration of the online training course that you can take to become certified as a CLEP test administrator, and learn strategies for reaching students with information about your CLEP program. This is your opportunity to get your new testing program started on the right foot.
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| F. DSST: The Best Kept Secret for College Credit! | |
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If you are interested in expanding college credit services to your students, come to this session and learn how accepting credits can help you increase your appeal to traditional as well as nontraditional candidates and especially international candidates; how you can become a DSST test center and earn additional revenue; and how you can benefit by using the DSST Internet-based testing (iBT) platform by providing an easy solution to deliver tests as well as offer immediate scoring for candidates.
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Session 4
Thursday 1:30pm - 2:30pm |
A. Training Staff for Test Administration |
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To ensure successful test administration, the Measurement and Research Center of Temple University provides essential staff training. It is imperative that all staff understand and fulfill their roles while simultaneously providing excellent customer service and ensuring materials are secure. Our test administration roles consist of Test Center Supervisor, Room Supervisor, and Proctor. This presentation will outline our training regimen which includes competency exams for all staff and evaluation of supervisory positions.
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| B. Streamlining Your Testing Center | |
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This presentation will review customer service, scheduling issues regarding our proctors and students, and policies and procedures in our testing center. These criteria allow us to streamline our testing center to make it easier for proctors to do their jobs, easier for students to come and take their exams, and easier to respond to and accommodate our customers. We will raise issues from uninformed to irate students as well as how to schedule your students and proctors to assure the smooth operation of the testing center. Last, we will share some policies and procedures that we have implemented to help the testing center reach its everyday flow.
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| C. Serving Students Faster with Online Scheduling | |
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The testing centers represented by this panel implemented a way for students to schedule their own tests. Discover the driving factor which led to trying/using online scheduling, how online scheduling is helping their testing/assessment centers, what they expected before and after implementation, and what recommendations they would give to other assessment/testing centers.
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| D. The Slippery Slopes of Accommodated Testing | |
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This presentation will focus on our testing office’s transition into providing accommodated testing. As we enter our second year of accommodated testing, we have found that this transition has been both challenging and rewarding. This presentation will include 30 minutes of the presenters’ lecturing followed by an open forum for questions and round table discussion.
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| E. Humanizing Testing! Isn't that an Oxymoron? | |
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Test centers find themselves in a very unique (albeit uncomfortable) position. Testing companies and school policies dictate multiple rules that must be followed to ensure the security of each exam as well as standardization of all test administrations. Students dread their exam day and arrive in all stages of exhaustion, fear and sometimes even anger. There are areas that test centers can explore to link both worlds. The University of Toledo's Academic Test Center has been involved in creating such an environment for the past 10+ years. This presentation will give the audience an opportunity to look at multiple areas of testing and discover ways to meld technology and humaneness to create the optimum environment enabling examinees to perform at their personal best.
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| F. Test Anxiety: Not Just for Examinees | |
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In this session, we will discuss the ever-increasing stress levels that come with being a test administrator and explore ways to help reduce stress levels. As test administrators, we are in the unique position of being stuck in a triangle between our institutions, the testing companies, and examinees. Each of us has had bad days dealing with these and other sources of stress and frustration. Come explore how to reduce stress prior to big days, keep your cool on the big day, and decompress at the end of that day. Join us as we peel away the layers of frustration and anxiety and get to the business of staying sane.
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Session 5
Thursday 3:00pm - 4:00pm |
A. Opportunities for Growth in Graduate Admission Testing |
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Harcourt Assessment, Inc. will provide a session based on opportunities for growth in graduate admission testing. Information will be provided about the Miller Analogies Test (MAT), both paper/pencil and computer-based, and the Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT). This session is for current testing centers as well as any new centers that are considering administering the MAT and/or PCAT. Please join us and learn about these admission testing options!
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| B. Placement Retesting Patterns, Implications, and Strategies | |
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This presentation will identify patterns of college admission placement tests and retests by gender, age, and ethnicity. The sample size of 11,695 students spans 2003-2006. Analyses include descriptive statistics comparing student groups by demographics and those enrolled in a focus group of incoming freshmen. Findings from this research project indicate that the overall improvement rate was not significant enough to warrant the high retest rates. Though scores generally increased across all student groups, they did not increase enough to alter the original course placement. Additionally, the retest rate was significantly increased among the incoming freshman focus group without a corresponding rate of improvement. This suggests that the high retest rates, lack of placement improvement, and low scores in general can be attributed to a lack of preparation.
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| C. You Want Me to Do What? Recruiting and Training Proctors | |
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Finding and training test proctors is an ongoing process. Proctoring is not for everyone; it takes a special set of skills to deal with this sometimes arduous task. We will go in search of the elusive test proctor. We will discuss ways to identify good proctors and where to find them. Once you have identified a potential proctor, what then? Training. Training. Training. We will discuss what to cover in your annual training as well as any follow up training and when to retire your proctor.
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| D. Now is the time for Online Registration | |
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This session will discuss and demonstrate how online registration can take your test center to the next level! Learn more about online test registration and payment and how to implement a customized version for your test center when you return to your campus. When considering online registration, review several factors: payment processing and security of student information, multiple campuses and/or multiple test locations, automatic registration deadlines and seating limits, automated student email confirmations upon registration, administrative rescheduling options, and types of reports generated. Workshop participants will have an opportunity to see how this type of online registration system works from the student's perspective and also view the administrative features of the program that test center staff use. If you have a test schedule, policies on the issues above, and a small amount of money in your budget, this presentation can show you how to implement online registration quickly with no trial and error involved.
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| E. Universal Design: A Way to Improve the World of Testing | |
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Universal design has made life easier for all of us. While it is often mentioned as a way to make education more accessible for students with disabilities, it is really a way to make education more accessible for everyone. This workshop will discuss the history and principles of universal design and how this concept is affecting the testing world.
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| F. Placement Score Validity: Setting the Right Cut Scor | |
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Our presentation addresses the need for colleges and test administrators to support internal efforts to gather and use in-house data for creating a culture of evidence. We will outline our studies to find cut scores that simultaneously maximize correct placements and minimize incorrect placements. We will show that local research is important for Institutional Research and accreditation.
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Session 6
Friday 10:15am - 11:15am |
A. WorkKeys for Student Success |
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ACT's WorkKeys are a key to assessing the strengths of students and adults in relation to successful employment. Mid-Plains Community College, North Platte, Nebraska, is a long-time user of WorkKeys assessments. We are pleased to offer a reliable method of measuring the foundational skills of examinees in high school classrooms and in community college programs for paraeducators and for business and industry. We will share information about the assessments and how MPCC has successfully used the WorkKeys system. Unlike many assessments that relate most closely to academia, WorkKeys is more useful to economic and workforce developers. A new facet of the system is the National Career Readiness Certificate which provides visual demonstration of an examinee's skill level. Learn all about WorkKeys for Student Success.
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| B. Bridging the Gap in Assessing, Recruiting, and Retaining High School Students | |
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High school graduates who are underprepared have greater potential for academic success if they matriculate at a two-year or private institution. This panel discussion will focus on helping students to bridge the academic gap by administering ACCUPLACER in the high schools. Using a team approach, your institution can recruit and retain those students and help them achieve their academic and career goals.
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| C. Testing for the Nontraditional Student | |
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The Regis University School for Professional Studies (SPS) was established to offer working adults flexibility in earning their degree. Testing options at Regis provide answers to the questions “How much is this degree going to cost and how quickly can I graduate?” This session will discuss how this unique program for nontraditional students exists within a traditional university setting. We will also discuss the differing expectations of the testing center existing across the three colleges that make up Regis University.
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| D. Don’t Get Stung by Conflict: Approaches to Handling Conflict | |
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There are five common approaches to handling conflict and times when one approach may better meet the needs of the situation. This presentation will assess each participant’s conflict resolution style and interpret these styles in a fun animal motif. The interpretations will include an exploration of individual default styles, when that style might be appropriate, and when another style may be safer, more secure, more productive, and more rewarding.
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| E. Small Centers Can Do It All: Annual Reports to Help One Grow | |
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View the three to four year journey that the University of Missouri-Rolla Testing Center has taken from an exclusively paper-pencil center to a well rounded testing center. Learn how the manager of the testing center used communication through annual reports, proposals, and casual opportunities to promote the testing center to the university community. With these tools, the university has stood behind the testing center to assist in becoming an ETS Internet-based testing (iBT) site and a Pearson VUE and Pearson VUE Select Test Center. See how the growth of the center generated the need for more personnel and space and how these resources were acquired. Learn how I am coordinating all the new growth opportunities, and find out the lessons I have learned (positive and negative) in this time period.
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| F. Framing Your Finances as Opportunities for Growth | |
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Most testing departments report on expenditures and submit budgets each year, either as profit centers supporting themselves through revenue earned or as service centers with some level of institutional support. In both cases, the budget process can be a stressful time as we attempt to justify current costs and requests for our future resources. Colleges tend to use simple formats for budget reporting and requesting, often requiring limited if any supporting data. While these formats may make budgeting easier, they can seriously hamper our ability to defend our costs and win the funds we need. This workshop will look at the budgeting process as an opportunity to enhance our professional standing within the college, shape perceptions of our staff and their work, and position our departments for stability and growth in the future. Techniques will be considered for framing costs in relation to capacity, volumes and service levels, highlighting staff productivity and operational efficiency, and calculating return on expense versus return on investment to demonstrate our value add.
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| Additional Sessions | Track Speaker - Test Center Security |
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| Professional Development | |
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