PEI faculty, staff and students present at annual university Assessment Conference
Faculty, staff and students from the College of Pharmacy’s Division of Pharmacy Education and Innovation presented at The Ohio State University’s 2025 Assessment Conference on Sept. 26 at the Blackwell Inn. The theme of this year’s conference was, “The Future Is Now: Assessment in the Age of Technology.”
The Assessment Conference was an opportunity for members of the College of Pharmacy to share with the university community how we use data to make decisions related to teaching and other aspects of our curriculum.
Nicole Kwiek, senior associate dean for academic affairs and education innovation, participated in the opening plenary session titled, “Next Steps in AI Fluency and the Opportunities (and Challenges) for Assessment and Student Learning.” The panel provided an overview of the university’s AI Fluency initiative, focusing on how programs have incorporated AI into their curriculum and assessment and a discussion on the challenges brought by the use of AI by students in the classroom.
Mary Higginbotham, MA, resource planning specialist, and Katherine Kelley, PhD, associate dean for assessment and professor-clinical pharmacy, presented “Round up those data! Leveraging assessment tech to close the loop in student learning evaluation” in session one of the conference. Their presentation discussed the strategic implementation of available technology to support a program-level assessment. Higginbotham and Dr. Kelley closed their presentation by offering useful tips for supporting your assessment cycle and data-informed decision-making.
Brittney Mize, PhD, academic fellow; Nicholas Denton, PhD, senior lecturer; and Naomi Williams, BSPS student, presented in session two of the conference. Their presentation titled, “The analysis of reading complexity level of assessment questions and student performance,” discussed the analysis of student reading performance as an effect from the pandemic. The presenters used measuring tools such as Gunning Fog readability scoring and Bloom’s comprehension level to test the causal factors for decrease in exam score proficiency.