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What does it take to turn a classroom, a school, or a university from struggling to stable? Dr. Jonathon Saphier, Founder and President of Research for Better Teaching in Acton, Mass., has been investigating that question for more than 50 years – first as a classroom teacher, then as an instructional coach and consultant. He recently hosted a Lumivero webinar, 50 Years of Lessons on Leadership for Teacher Development: What Teachers and Higher Ed Administrators Can Learn, to share key insights about turning schools into professional learning communities where educators can grow alongside their students.
Sponsored by Lumivero’s Sonia and Tevera student management software solutions, this webinar offered actionable insights for school district and higher education administrators alike. Watch the webinar or continue reading for the highlights from Dr. Saphier’s presentation.
Starting off, Dr. Saphier presented evidence that demonstrated the impact skillful teaching has on student achievement.
“It’s well-known that the expertise of the individual teacher is the most powerful influence,” Dr. Saphier explained.
However, the knowledge base required for effective teaching is also broader and more complex than many people recognize – even people who are educational professionals. Skillful teaching is more about understanding the content area or innate intelligence. It requires a wide set of competencies spanning organizational management, the ability to motivate, cultural competence, and more. Dr. Saphier pointed out that most of this knowledge base is not acquired during training. Instead, it’s acquired on the job.
Teachers can’t effectively develop their knowledge base without support from their administrative leaders. Evidence shows that administrative leadership also matters when it comes to student learning and achievement. In fact, according to Dr. Saphier, “there's a multiplying effect going on” when educational leaders focus on empowering high-expertise instruction.
“If I improve as a teacher, I'm going to influence the kids I have in my room, but if I [as an administrator] get all the teachers in my building to improve, then I'm influencing all of the kids,” said Dr. Saphier.
A 2021 study on the impact of principal effectiveness commissioned by the Wallace Foundation supports this, estimating that while an improvement in teacher performance affects an average of 21 students, an improvement in principal performance impacts 438 students. The study states that “if a school district could invest in improving the performance of just one adult in a school building, investing in the principal is likely the most efficient way to affect student achievement.” (p. 34)
Dr. Saphier explained that this improvement isn’t needed in operational management. “I'm not talking about budgets . . . what I'm talking about is what [an administrator] does to influence the expertise of the teachers for teaching in their building,” said Dr. Saphier.
Educational institutions at every level need to re-focus their priorities, explained Dr. Saphier. “We want to make every school a reliable engine for constant learning about high-expertise teaching.” When administrators see empowering high-quality teaching as their main role, they are really focusing on improving the single most important influence on student achievement. There are many levers of influence administrators can use to create an environment for effective teaching.
The first step administrators can take to support teachers is to create dedicated time and space for planning.
“When things are not going as we want them to in classroom, it often has an origin in the planning that went into the design of a lesson,” said Dr. Saphier.
Administrators need to schedule regular meetings for:
The key is to ensure that high-level instructional planning is focused on making decisions for the entire school or department, instead of “the independent duchy of English or the republic of mathematics, as sometimes happens with secondary school leadership teams,” said Dr. Saphier. Working with an instructional adviser or coach, if available, can help guide this type of decision-making.
The next step for administrators is to ensure they are regularly observing teachers, both in the classroom and during prep time. However, observing and providing feedback are skills that require development, even for administrators who have teaching experience.
“Because one was an effective teacher doesn't mean that one knows how to . . . put into words and give evidence-based feedback about what it is that you have observed,” said Dr. Saphier. This is where embedded professional development matters.
Educators at all levels engage in professional development days throughout the year. However, Dr. Saphier points out that “the main place people get better at their teaching is their own . . . workplace.” Professional development that’s delivered via seasonal, one-off workshops isn’t enough, he argued. Anything learned during a workshop or in-service must be followed up by administrators, instructional coaches, and teachers so that professional development becomes embedded in the life of the school.
Dr. Saphier played a clip featuring Principal Tara Gagnon who was able to take her struggling school to a high-performing one by focusing on empowering teachers. She explained that one step she took was to attend professional development workshops with her teachers.
“You wouldn’t ask anybody to do anything you wouldn’t do yourself,” said Principal Gagnon. Engaging in professional development alongside teachers demonstrated her commitment to better instruction. “They see oh, I'm not just top-down making demands. I want to be part of this because I can't wait to see where this takes us.”
Attending workshops is not just about sending a signal. It also ensures that administrators really understand what teachers will be working toward implementing in their classrooms. They can then ensure the skills covered in the workshop are followed up through planning and observation.
“When [educators] see the leader willing to be a learner and willing to be in dialogue about how it's going,” Dr. Saphier said, “that leader is demonstrating the importance of professional development. It is also part of fostering an adult professional culture in the institution.”
An adult professional culture is a workplace environment that fosters high performance through respect, constant learning, and interactions that build trust among colleagues. The foundation of a healthy adult professional culture is the attitude of the leader.
Over years of observing effective administrators and reviewing research findings, Dr. Saphier describes the ideal attitude as one of “vulnerable strength.” Leaders are vulnerable when they demonstrate that they, too, need to constantly learn and improve. They are strong when they consistently make decisions that empower constant learning and improvement.
Strong educational leaders make it possible for instructors to admit when they are stuck or struggling by ensuring that they will not be subject to sarcasm or harsh criticism. They foster deep collaboration among instructors that focuses on learning more about good teaching. They also encourage honest evaluation of student performance data to guide re-teaching and learning where necessary.
By consistently modeling a willingness to learn and improve, and by rewarding and acknowledging others who do the same, administrators gradually create a more open and collegial dynamic among teaching teams – in other words, an adult professional culture.
Dr. Saphier’s focus during the webinar was on the importance of re-focusing educational institutions on empowering high-performance teaching. He briefly mentioned the importance of using data for instructional improvement, but skillful use of data is a major focus for his organization.
On the Research for Better Teaching website, he stresses that data must be used in an environment of collaborative inquiry about assessing student learning and where improvement is needed – not as a tool for punishing or micro-managing instructors. He then offers four steps for making skillful use of performance data for assessment of student learning and driving instructional improvement to help students.
These four steps include:
When deployed within a strong adult professional culture, student performance data can be an important tool for driving constant improvement in teaching at any level of education.
Interested in learning more about creating a culture that supports high-expertise teaching? Watch the complete webinar with Dr. Saphier.
If you need help with using your data for formative and summative assessments to better support students, explore Lumivero’s solutions for educators! Sonia, a student placement software solution, and Tevera, an outcomes-based student assessment and field experience management platform, are designed to empower instructors and students while driving program improvement.
Central Michigan University’s Counselor Education program needed a new software partner that was more user friendly and eased the administrative burden on its program administrators. They found Tevera and haven’t looked back.
Sheri Pickover’s counseling journey started at the University of Michigan. After earning her bachelor’s degree in psychology followed by her doctorate, she started working in shelters and running counseling clinics. Her career led her back into academia where she landed at Central Michigan University in her role as a faculty member and program administrator.
When Sheri started, the program was using other assessment software. Because of the amount of manual labor and tedious tasks that went into using the system, Sheri began to search for a solution that would allow their program to grow more efficiently and keep up with their burgeoning student population.
As the person doing all of the program assessments, Sheri was frustrated that the software wasn’t as intuitive or forgiving as it could’ve been. For example, when she created something and then needed to change it, the program wouldn’t allow for those changes. It forced her to start all over again and rebuild everything for the users’ end.
So, Sheri started looking for a new software partner.
Sheri had heard of Tevera while working at another university and decided to start exploring whether they might be a good fit for Central Michigan’s Counselor Education program.
She wanted to make sure that Tevera would:
But most importantly, Tevera needed to have a best-in-class customer support system.
After doing her research and taking Tevera for a test drive, Sheri was able to answer “yes” to all of the above questions and the program adopted Tevera in January of 2021.
Right away, Sheri noticed how much easier Tevera was to use, how it helped streamline their internal processes, and a significant increase in how much support their students were able to get.
First, Tevera is user-friendly.
Tevera offers easy access and accessibility not only to administrators like Sheri but even supervisors, faculty members, and students.
Sheri is also a fan of the interface and data reporting systems. With Tevera, she only has to run two reports, “I have to run one just by program and then I can run by program and cohort and everything pulled out to organize.”
Along with this, she has more control of the data with Tevera. She can easily log into the program and assess the data.
When problems arise, which they rarely do, Sheri notes that Tevera’s help desk is a great resource.
Next, Tevera has improved administrative processes.
Sheri estimates something that might’ve taken three hours in their old program now might only take thirty to forty-five minutes.
Sheri also finds it much easier to communicate with students. Before Tevera, students had to email in their applications and files. Not only did this flood her inbox, but things got lost or students were missing information. Sheri no longer finds herself reaching out to students about gathering missing elements.
Finally, Tevera offers ease of use.
And how does Tevera serve their students?
The time tracking component is huge and students love how simple it is to use and that they can do it on their phones, making it easy to stay on top of everything.
As Sheri says about Tevera, nothing is more than “a few clicks away.”
Your students spend hours of time and effort keeping track of all their hard-earned experience, and you and your faculty and external site supervisors invest as much time trying to maintain cohesive and collaborative support of student field experiences. But in the end, everyone is left with their own siloed jumble of in-progress and finalized files and folders, and trying to determine whose to go by can be a messy digital- and looseleaf-mess!
To facilitate a collaborative time tracking process, your students need to:
With spreadsheets and other individualized tracking tools, even that basic process can devolve into three disjointed steps that require a whole lot of manual effort.
What you need is a single tool that is so straightforward and efficient that you, your students, and their supervisors can focus on what’s most important: the placement experience itself.
Here’s where Tevera steps in with Student Activity and Time Tracking. In our all-in-one Timesheets workspace, students can:
Tevera–designed to be easily navigable, user intuitive, and functionally thorough–not only meets those core fundamentals, but exceeds them, elevating your student’s activity and time tracking:
Core Experience Tracking
Tevera works with universities to construct tracks that meet their programmatic needs. Our skilled experts can craft consistent and uniform tracks that are customizable to your program!
Programs often require their students to meet specific guidelines and criteria as they work toward their degrees such as total hours and minimum hours requirements. Students, faculty, and site supervisors can monitor progress toward these criteria in real time using the Track Progress Display, keeping everyone in the loop throughout the student’s field experience!
Forget passing paperwork back and forth! In Tevera, time entries and timesheets can be reviewed and approved by supervisors electronically.
Time reports can be generated to show the hours tracked by students over a specified timeframe. These reports can then be sent to reviewers (site supervisors and/or program faculty) for signature. Designated reviewers have the option to either approve or return timesheets back to students.
If a time report is returned to the student, they will receive a notification to make the necessary corrections and resubmit it for approval.
Once all reviewers have signed the final report, students are left with a PDF document that will be stored in Tevera for life, or downloaded and printed as needed, giving them permanent access to their earned experience hours for licensure or job applications.
You can choose from a number of time report formats to facilitate this process. See a full list of time reports that can be run in Tevera here!
For California universities, don’t worry! We didn’t forget about you—Tevera coordinates with universities to monitor Board of Behavioral Science (BBS) changes to licensure requirements, so you’ll always have access to up-to-date BBS reporting!
Tevera’s innovations to the core needs of experience tracking can already elevate some university programs, but Tevera strives to elevate all programs by including various efficiency features and entry sorting capabilities:
Streamlined Efficiency Features
Manual input of every entry into a log can be time consuming, but Tevera offers streamlined features to help provide efficiency to your student’s time tracking. Some of our efficiency features include:
As students complete their placement experiences, they may need to review their past time entries for various reasons. With Tevera’s Agenda View, students can not only display all of their past time entries but also sort those entries using various filter options. Tevera can filter time entries using a single or multiple filters including but not limited to:
With Tevera, you cannot only ensure that your students are fulfilling their activity and hours requirements, but you can also ensure that they are making the most of their placement experiences by removing the time, energy, and effort needed to document them.
Help your students make the most of their education by scheduling an overview with Tevera!
The phone calls, emails, paperwork, and negotiations are done! Your placement team has successfully placed all your students at external agencies for their practicum experiences in teaching education, social work, counseling education, and beyond. Now, they are gaining real-world experience under the supervision of qualified field instructors, but the work doesn’t stop here.
How can your program faculty remain connected to students and support their skill development while they are out in their placements? How can you ensure site supervisors provide high-quality feedback to students that helps improve their learning process? And how can you be sure each student in your program is meeting competency benchmarks, no matter how remote their placement?
With Lumivero, you can achieve all of this and more, guiding students toward their learning goals!
Your program faculty can’t be everywhere at once, but with smartphones and increasingly accessible recording devices, it’s never been easier for students to record their clinical experiences! With the right tools in place to assess student learning, this raw footage is rocket fuel for your students’ professional development – providing key insights into the formative and summative assessment process.
Tevera’s video assessment tool allows students to upload video recordings to an interactive platform that brings students, program faculty, and site supervisors together.
Once uploaded, students, program faculty, and site supervisors alike can review video footage and share actionable, time-stamped feedback, directly linked to the video.
Finally, program faculty and site supervisors can evaluate student competency development all in one place, so you can keep an eye on student progress across your entire program in real time!
For Students:
Hone skills and drive professional success with contextualized, actionable feedback from supervisors.
For Instructors and Placement Supervisors:
Provide insightful and actionable feedback on students’ authentic client interactions at any time and place.
For Program Administrators:
Have peace of mind that students are getting the most out of their placement experience with all the resources your program and their placement site have to offer – supporting both their formative and summative learning outcomes!
Tevera's video assessment tools not only enhance student learning through improved feedback but also streamline the supervisory processes – ensuring that educational programs can deliver high-quality, consistent, and scalable support to their students.
By integrating video assessment into practicum management tools, placement teams can ensure comprehensive, effective, and accessible assessments for all students – preparing them for successful careers in teaching education, social work, counseling ed, and more!
Combine Tevera’s video assessment feature with our complete suite of field experience and program outcomes solutions for unbeatable program management that help students achieve their learning objectives! Schedule a product overview with our team to learn more.
Academia has always had a complex relationship with emerging technology, as is evidenced by its stance on AI tools being used in the classroom and in research.
But students, teachers, and administrators are demanding more efficiency and collaboration across physical boundaries, and the benefits to technology are expansive for day-to-day placement tasks and reporting.
To help you scale and improve your program, we’ve outlined the seven functions that are essential to have in your student placement management tool.
We have the right student field placement tool to fit your needs! Contact us to start the conversation!
In any educational setting, the supervisor's role is crucial in ensuring that the field work experience runs smoothly as they not only supervise the daily operations but also play a key role in providing guidance to students and staff. With so much at stake, academic institutions need to have a digital system in place for tracking and monitoring the qualifications of their supervisors to ensure their program’s continued quality.
Learn more about the reasons why digital supervisor qualification tracking is necessary and how it can be easily and effectively implemented in education settings in this article.
Supervisor qualification tracking is essential to any educational institution for many reasons, and it’s becoming increasingly important to implement this type of monitoring to stay current and competitive in today’s environment.
One of the main reasons schools and institutions track supervisor qualification is to ensure compliance with regulations and maintain the standards of education set by governing bodies. By tracking professional staff certifications and qualifications in a given field, schools can rest assured they are meeting regulatory requirements and offering the high-quality education that students demand.
With this push to improve standards, educational settings are creating a culture of continuous learning and professional development which encourages professors, practitioners and supervisors, and other academic professionals to update their skills and knowledge – benefiting the students and promoting student learning and development.
But it’s crucial for educational institutions to implement this sort of tracking in an efficient and positive manner to promote these benefits across the organization. One way is to use digital program management software to track supervisor qualifications.
While the desire to improve supervisor qualification tracking is there, the implementation can prove tricky if a school’s administration is relying on outdated, clunky systems. The best practice is to use a digital supervisor qualification tracking tool designed to fit into your existing process.
The transition to a digital tracker necessitates careful stewardship to maximize the software’s program management benefits and integrate it seamlessly into the supervisory routine. Below are five easy steps your school or educational institution can take to implement supervisor qualification tracking.
1. Create a Centralized Database
The first step in implementing supervisor qualification tracking is to create a centralized database where all relevant information can be stored and accessed easily. Lumivero’s student placement management solutions are a great place to start.
2. Set Clear Criteria for Qualifications
Educational settings should have clear criteria for the qualifications and certifications required for each supervisor position. This will ensure consistency throughout the program and avoid any confusion or discrepancies.
3. Regularly Update Information
Regularly update information in the database, especially when supervisors acquire new qualifications or certifications. This will ensure that the information remains accurate and relevant.
4. Define Roles and Responsibilities
Clearly define the roles and responsibilities of supervisors in education and field work experience settings. This will help supervisors understand their duties and ensure that they are accountable for their part in the program.
5. Easy Access to Supervisor and Site Evaluations
Site and supervisor evaluations contain valuable insights on the safety of the practicum environment, quality of a supervisor’s instruction, learning opportunities, resource allocation, and more. This data helps to complete the picture – showing what a student’s actual experience is like at a specific placement site with their supervisor. By having these evaluations easily accessible within your student placement management software, you can quickly gain a holistic view of a supervisor’s qualification.
Supervisor qualification tracking is crucial for maintaining high standards of education as it can greatly improve a student’s educational program experience and ensure that the program’s quality is consistent for all students. Educational institutions need to prioritize this aspect of their operations to work towards creating a more efficient and effective system for tracking supervisor qualifications – made easy with digital tracking for a more modern, automated process!
As the world of education evolves, these digital tools will not be a choice but a necessity – an indispensable facet of the program administrator’s toolkit.
But how do you start implementing it effectively? That’s where Lumivero’s field experience management solutions can help! Learn how Lumivero’s solutions are delivering robust site tracking and qualifications management to universities of all sizes.
This is a case study based on a current Tevera customer. Due to this university’s policies regarding promoting vendors, we have not identified the customer.
“Program X,” a well-respected social work program, had a problem. They were still using faxes and paper to manage their students’ field experiences, among other administrative tasks. These inefficient and frankly, cumbersome, processes were barriers to their students’ learning experience. The program’s field director knew something had to change.
“Program X” wanted a digital tool that would enhance student learning outcomes, make field placements and management easier, and most importantly, be able to grow with them into the future of social work. They hoped to find one that was the whole package, and were unwilling to compromise on the quality of partnership into which they were entering.
When they heard about Tevera, they were immediately attracted to how intuitive its interface was. But they vetted multiple programs, just to be sure and thorough.
In the end, the team decided on Tevera because it made field easier, saved time for their administrators, provided a life-long asset to their students, and was easily configurable to the unique needs of their program.
“Program X’s” field education director was fed up with using paper, faxes, and spreadsheets to manage their social work program’s data. From field to accreditation, data was hard to get and harder to generate reports from.
They knew that they needed to upgrade their processes by finding a software solution that could:
Mostly, they knew they needed a system that was customizable and could grow with their program and accommodate future changes.
If they didn’t adopt a digital solution, and soon, this university risked losing field site partnerships and declining enrollment in their social work program. The field director said, “we had supervisors who in the past had stopped supervising students because the paperwork was so onerous.”
So, they began looking at online solutions and talked to a different program that had started using Tevera and told them that “The support has been terrific and just wonderful. It has really created a lot of time saving in certain parts of the process. We’ve been very happy.” When she heard that, this doctor of social work decided to explore Tevera further.
“Program X” ultimately chose Tevera because of how easy it was to use, its customization capabilities, and its features.
First, they loved how it simplified field management by allowing students to explore all of their placement options to find the best fit for them.
“Tevera is changing the way that our field program has run from before.”
The good news for field doesn’t stop with students. They also chose Tevera because it gives them greater insight into their agencies and allows them to run easy-to-use reports and look at where they’re missing different practice areas. This ability to perform an analysis of their agencies in a few seconds allows them to have greater control over their students’ field experiences and ensure they’re receiving the best possible outcome.
This documentation management for field also enhances collaboration between students, faculty, and site supervisors because it’s all in one spot and the assessment data spits out in one report. Before Tevera, their assessment coordinator would come into their office with boxes of reports and data. Now, it’s a few clicks of a button.
Dozens of hours have been saved by professors, supervisors, and assessment coordinators by using Tevera’s assessment management feature while giving them more insight into how different sites perform and their students’ learning outcomes.
“These aren’t questions that we have to put on a shelf any longer, these are things that we can go and run quickly.”
When this field program director first came on board, original signatures were required on everything and faxing was the name of the game. They remember teaching a capstone class in their first year when a student raised her hand and asked, “is there a portal we could put this into?”
At that time, there wasn’t. But it was a wake up call. The students were there. They were expecting technology in their classrooms and to make their academic career easier. Looking into software became a necessity to remain competitive and continue attracting students. But technology changes fast, so they wanted a software that was easily configurable and could grow with them. Fortunately, Tevera met that and more.
“Tevera is going to play a really important role in our future. Its technology is very valid, it serves as an asset for our program and our university, and we’re going to use it to all of its capabilities.”
“What I really appreciated about Tevera was that it was so configurable. The options were so robust and you could turn on and off just about everything. And so what I quickly realized is that it was built the right way.”
It wasn’t just about the software for the team. They wanted a team behind the software that would be accessible, responsive, and prioritize the customer-vendor relationship. Because Tevera is specifically designed to help social work programs thrive, this piqued their interest.
And on Tevera’s side, this program has been an invaluable partner, giving feedback, making suggestions, and helping shape the future of the software. Both of us are working towards the same goal – shaping the future of social work and to be able to collaborate on the software is a unique opportunity for both.
“We’ve had great support. We really appreciate the insight and the responsiveness of the team.”
“Tevera is really changing the way that our students and our field instructors are able to engage with one another and with their faculty liaisons.”
Interested in learning more about how Tevera can enhance your institution’s field-based program? Request a demo or reach out today to discover its full potential.
Accreditation management is a multi-faceted process that requires meticulous planning, systematic implementation, and ongoing oversight. Among the myriads of challenges faced by educational institutions during the accreditation process, two stand out as particularly daunting: Documentation & Evidence Gathering and Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI).
In this blog post, we’ll delve into these two critical areas, uncovering the challenges associated with them, offering viable solutions, and outlining how Tevera simplifies both.
Documentation and evidence gathering form the backbone of any accreditation process. This ensures that academic standards, policies, and processes within an institution are consistently upheld.
By compiling a comprehensive record of the institution’s practices, achievements, and areas of improvement, documentation serves as a testament to the institution’s commitment to maintaining the highest educational standards. Furthermore, it offers accrediting bodies a tangible insight into the institution’s operations, allowing them to assess its eligibility for accreditation.
Without proper documentation, it’s almost impossible to showcase an institution’s competencies and adherence to stipulated standards. Thus, comprehensive and accurate documentation stands as a non-negotiable pillar in the pursuit of accreditation.
Challenges to accreditation management, especially documentation management and continuous quality improvement, are numerous, but these three might be the toughest:
Volume & Complexity
Accreditation requires a vast amount of documentation, which can be overwhelming given the complexity of topics covered.
Cross-Departmental Coordination
Gathering evidence often involves liaising with various departments, making the task even more challenging.
Timeliness & Accuracy
Accreditation bodies demand not just volume but timely and accurate documentation, which institutions often find challenging to produce.
To address these challenges, a few solutions are often recommended by institutions that have successfully navigated their own accreditation processes:
Dedicate a CQI Team
A team solely focused on CQI can plan, execute, and measure quality improvement initiatives without being encumbered by day-to-day operations.
Institution-Wide Feedback Platforms
Utilizing technology to solicit feedback from students, faculty, and other stakeholders can streamline the feedback process, ensuring that all voices are heard and considered.
Outcome Metrics & Dashboards
Developing specific metrics to measure the outcomes of CQI initiatives can be complemented with visual dashboards. This not only helps in internal monitoring but also provides tangible proof of improvement to accrediting bodies.
Tevera’s all-in-one education management platform simplifies documentation management and continual program improvement through a variety of interrelated features including:
Tevera’s flexible assessment structure allows you to track student performance on key program-wide assessment standards, including those mandated by an accrediting body or your program’s own specific KPIs.
Align assessment standards to rubric criteria and distribute assessment points across courses so that all faculty can assess student performance on relevant, demonstrable criteria, using a consistent rating scale
Importance of this Feature
Tevera allows you to design a consistent, repeatable strategy for measuring student performance and competency development across your program for reliable insights into program and student growth. With Tevera, you can easily align assessment standards to rubric criteria and distribute assessment points across courses so that all faculty can assess student performance on relevant, demonstrable criteria, using a consistent rating scale.
With Tevera, you can take a program wide view of your entire assessment strategy by viewing and exporting your assessment strategy, mapped out across all courses in your program.
Generate an assessment map report to review the assessment strategy that has been built into your program’s courses in Tevera.
Importance of this Feature
Reaffirm your assessment strategy and ensure all standards are evaluated appropriately throughout your program by viewing, exporting, and sharing your comprehensive assessment map.
Generate reports displaying student outcomes by individuals, classes, cohorts, specializations, and select demographic characteristics to analyze student performance on one specific assessment point or across a set of standards evaluated throughout the program.
Importance of this Feature
Gain insights to inform accreditation reports and continuous program improvement efforts by generating assessment outcome reports in a wide variety of formats.
Exporting key program data to a spreadsheet for deeper analysis is as simple as the click of a button. Click the export icon alongside any table in Tevera to automatically generate an Excel spreadsheet of the displayed data.
Importance of this Feature
Take Tevera’s insights with you anywhere, by easily exporting any data, such as documentation, user information, student timesheets, partnering site information, and more, at the click of a button.
Enable program faculty to evaluate student learning outcomes across the breadth of their coursework. Add key assignments and assessment rubrics to all core courses so that students can upload work samples and faculty can evaluate student outcomes aligned with student learning outcome targets.
Importance of this Feature
Foster a culture of reflection and improvement by incorporating outcomes-based-assessment into all core coursework throughout your program.
Organize your program’s data and documentation effortlessly and leave arduous record-keeping in your program’s past. Tevera’s intuitive data storage structure will ensure that your data and documents are automatically organized according to logical schema, making it easy for you to find, update, and export data any time you need it.
Importance of this Feature
Organize, update, store, and export data and documentation in an intuitive system, for thorough record-keeping and program management over time.
Tackling the challenges associated with accreditation management requires a mix of strategic planning, technology, and collaborative effort. Programs that invest in these areas are not only better prepared for the accreditation process but are also better equipped to offer superior educational experiences to their students.
Learn how Tevera can support you by scheduling a product overview for your team to review Tevera’s features and discuss your program’s requirements.
Field-based student learning programs are an excellent way for students to experience and learn through hands-on activities. These programs allow students to immerse themselves in real-life situations and apply theoretical knowledge to practical situations.
However, program administrators and instructors must determine and evaluate metrics to measure these programs’ success. Here are three measurable metrics they can use.
Student engagement refers to the degree to which students show interest and actively participate in the learning process. It’s a telling indicator of how much students gain from their field experiences.
Students’ engagement level often directly correlates with the quality of the field-based student learning programs. When students are genuinely engaged, they’re more likely to grasp complex concepts and develop critical thinking skills.
Field-based programs provide a unique platform for students to participate actively – encouraging them to ask questions, explore, and make discoveries independently. Engagement could manifest as enthusiastic participation in tasks, willingness to take on challenges, or persistent exploration of the subject matter.
For example, if students work on an environmental conservation project, they might actively engage by suggesting innovative ways to reduce waste or finding creative solutions for sustainability. Here, students are not merely passive receivers of information but are active participants in constructing their knowledge.
To evaluate student engagement in field-based programs, instructors can use a combination of methods such as pre-and post-program surveys, observations, and interviews. These can help measure students’ level of involvement before and after attending the program.
Evaluation can also involve tracking participation rates and positive attitudes toward learning the subject. Surveys and questionnaires are also great ways to gather quantitative data on students’ engagement levels for statistical analysis.
The primary objective of any learning program is to impart knowledge. Field-based student learning programs offer a unique opportunity for students to apply theoretical concepts in real-life situations, making it easier to retain the information. This hands-on approach allows students to connect with the material in a more memorable and applicable way.
For instance, marine biology students will develop a deeper understanding of the subject after participating in a guided field trip to the ocean to witness firsthand the biodiversity, adaptations, and interactions between different species – making it easier for them to make connections and retain new knowledge.
To evaluate knowledge retention, instructors can use pre- and post-program assessments or quizzes. These tests can be designed to assess specific learning objectives and compare students’ performance before and after attending the program.
Additionally, instructors can use concept maps or reflective writing exercises to assess how well students have integrated the newly acquired knowledge with their existing understanding of the subject. Some programs also include follow-up assessments a few months after the program to determine long-term retention.
Field-based student learning programs not only focus on imparting knowledge but also aim to develop practical skills in students. These skills range from basic scientific techniques to communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills. Unlike traditional classroom settings, field-based learning allows students to apply these skills in real-world situations – giving them a chance to develop and refine them.
For example, a field trip to an archaeological site can help students learn practical skills such as excavation techniques, artifact identification, and data collection. At the same time, they also have the opportunity to work collaboratively with their peers and practice communicating their findings in a way that is accessible to a broader audience.
Evaluating skill development in field-based programs can include assessing students’ competency in specific techniques, analyzing their group dynamics and communication skills, and observing their problem-solving abilities.
Instructors can also gather feedback from students through surveys or self-reflection tasks to evaluate how they perceive their growth in these areas. This data can provide valuable insights into the program’s effectiveness in developing students’ practical skills that they’ll need for future academic or career pursuits.
If you need to evaluate the success of your on-field learning programs, Lumivero is ready to help. Contact us today to learn how we can support your program evaluation needs and improve the overall success of your field-based learning initiatives.
The quest for excellence begins in academia and extends beyond the classroom and into practical experiences. Crafting robust field placement programs is paramount for department chairs, professors, and researchers in education. These initiatives not only distinguish institutions but also shape students’ futures.
In this blog post, we delve into the significance of field placement software in enhancing educational experiences, focusing on the insights gleaned from department chairs.
The correct field placement experience is critical for student development and education quality, especially in fields like teachers education and social work. But with so many moving pieces from scheduling to finding the best experience to suit individual student needs, it can be complicated and time-consuming organizing these field-based opportunities.
Field placement software makes it easy for administrators and students to organize field placement experiences and track progress over time. Having the software in place to build these experiences offers many benefits to educational institutions including:
In the recent survey Selection of Field Education Management Software in Social Work by Field Educator, the consensus overwhelmingly favored the integration of field placement software into academic frameworks.
Key findings included:
The implementation of software for field placement has resulted in significant enhancements in student satisfaction and helped nurture a more supportive learning environment, fostering a sense of belonging among students and empowering them to take ownership of their academic and professional development.
Student placement software such as Tevera has been observed to provide tangible benefits including improved student outcomes and enhanced collaboration and knowledge sharing among faculty members.
Tevera empowers institutions to elevate their field placement programs and cultivate the next generation of industry-ready professionals by prioritizing student needs, facilitating effective communication, and providing data-driven insights. As department chairs continue to refine their educational offerings, embracing innovative technologies like Tevera is instrumental in shaping the future of experiential learning.
Below are some of Tevera’s key benefits:
Interested in learning more about how Tevera can enhance your institution’s field-based program? Request a demo or reach out today to discover its full potential.
The University of Pretoria, South Africa, in collaboration with researchers from Utrecht University and the University of New Mexico, has used Lumivero's (previously Palisade) DecisionTools Suite software to create a low-cost and easily implementable model to estimate foodborne contaminations and human infections from the avian influenza H5N1 virus in Egypt and Nigeria. The output of this surveillance model, when combined with data generated by several international health organizations, will enable other African countries to better predict, monitor and intensify efforts to eradicate the spread of this highly contagious disease from animals to humans. This work was covered in the article, Development of Disease-specific, Context-specific Surveillance Models: Avian Influenza (H5N1)-related Risks and Behaviours in African Countries, published in April 2015.
The avian influenza virus – or avian flu – is a fast-spreading infection that affects poultry and potentially people worldwide. While the virus has already adapted to other mammals, including ferrets, guinea pigs and cats, the risk to humans is still not completely understood. This makes monitoring and decreasing the rate of contact between infected poultry and humans critical – in particular, stopping exposure to the virus through the production and preparation processes of contaminated food. According to Dr. Folorunso Oludayo Fasina, a senior lecturer at the University of Pretoria’s Department of Production Animal Studies, it is critical to understand “how the virus gets into the food system, how it spreads and how it can be managed. To do this, we need risk assessment and exposure assessment, as well as a response model. Once we have this information, we can implement measures to stop the risks.”
As the University’s Department of Production Animal Studies has significant expertise in disease modelling and risk prediction as part of their epidemiological work, they allowed Dr. Fasina and his colleagues to create a model for foodborne contamination that was specific to Africa, where the virus has already infected 12 countries. The team studied both biological and cultural aspects, including food processing, trade and cooking-related practices, and collected data from more than 375 Egyptian and Nigerian sites including homes, local producers, live bird markets, village and commercial abattoirs and veterinary agencies. According to Dr. Fasina, “We took a ‘from the farm to the fork’ approach, and considered farms as well as livestock markets.”
“Risk mitigation and risk prediction remain some of the most useful tools with which to effectively control the continuous perpetuation of outbreaks in newer territories and eradicate it where it currently exists,” explained Dr. Fasina. However building this new model wasn’t an easy task, taking nearly two years to complete. Most of the existing information was qualitative, which made it difficult to set quantitative parameters, and the quantitative data they did find was inconsistent as it was often out of date, only available for other types of influenza or had been censored by the government. However after attending a training session for DecisionTools Suite in 2013, Dr. Fasina decided to use the software to generate the quantitative values they needed.
The team considered several factors with their model, from the concentration levels of the virus in infected meat and the likelihood of contamination between infected and non-infected meat, to differences between genders and age groups with regard to risk exposure. “We asked a lot of questions to generate this data,” explained Dr. Fasina. “This generated a significant amount of output, which required sensitivity analysis and some triangulation.” As a first step, the team used TopRank tool, part of the DecisionTools Suite, to analyze the sensitivity of each of the identified contributors to the overall risk. This helped the team understand which of the contributors were the most important.
Next, the team moved to the @RISK tool in the DecisionTools Suite to help predict the different ways the virus could be spread. Using Monte Carlo simulation, @RISK can quantify the probabilities of different outcomes – or infection rates – occurring, as well as determine the optimal preventive measures to mitigate the risk of animal-to-person infection. The team used six statistical probability distributions within @RISK to represent different inputs – or risk factors – for their model. They combined the simulated outputs from @RISK with statistical analysis to complete the model, using social data and outbreak information, including human demographic structures in Africa, socio-cultural and behavioral economics and knowledge, and attitude and perceptions or risks within those countries being investigated.
The results revealed numerous opportunities for the avian influenza virus to be spread, and found that the estimated risk for humans was higher than previously reported. “It is very easy for us to miss the influence of viral infections on a community, due to lack of awareness and under-reporting, so people may be more at risk than we’re aware of,” explained Dr. Fasina. “@RISK is a valuable tool to investigate these problems and do risk predictions either prospectively or retrospectively. Utilizing the outputs from models like this can help health policy planners and public health officials to take anticipatory measures to prevent future disasters associated with infectious diseases like the avian flu.”
Originally posted: Feb. 8, 2017
Updated: June 7, 2024
