Introduction: Special Issue on Authentic Assessment

Like many of our instructional endeavors over the past few years, the topic of this special issue arises in part out the COVID-19 pandemic. As we shifted our instruction in the fall of 2020 to various forms of remote learning—synchronous, asynchronous, hybrid, and HyFlex—there was significant concern about academic integrity for exams now being taken online. While many institutions tried to rapidly adopt and scale the use of online proctoring tools, there was a deeper movement to shift us away from the large-scale, objective testing that has been ubiquitous in our on-campus courses. Instead of patching up an imperfect system, why not introduce a new assessment paradigm that both addressed the immediate integrity concerns and encouraged more enriching approaches to learning and assessment? While we all explored different types of alternative assessments—more writing and application questions, smaller low-stakes assessments, and take-home and collaborative exams—the gold standard was authentic assessment

SoTL Principles and Program Collaboration in the Age of Integration

The increasing acceptance of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) on our campus has led to spreading SoTL principles outside of the usual faculty classroom research projects and teaching/learning center. Three programs examined how SoTL principles aided in integration and initiative building. The programs are the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Program, and the Faculty Colloquium on Excellence in Teaching. Attempts at integration and collaboration have successfully brought SoTL principles into community building, consensus building, and program assessment. A unified voice, mutual respect, and responsiveness to institutional needs have been the necessary conditions to support the work, which may have directly and indirectly effected change in the campus cultur

SoTL Principles and Program Collaboration in the Age of Integration

The increasing acceptance of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) on our campus has led to spreading SoTL principles outside of the usual faculty classroom research projects and teaching/learning center. Three programs examined how SoTL principles aided in integration and initiative building. The programs are the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Program, and the Faculty Colloquium on Excellence in Teaching. Attempts at integration and collaboration have successfully brought SoTL principles into community building, consensus building, and program assessment. A unified voice, mutual respect, and responsiveness to institutional needs have been the necessary conditions to support the work, which may have directly and indirectly effected change in the campus cultur