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I am at this conference on assessment, which can be a pretty dreadful thing to conference about, and a wonderful thing has happened. We came here as members of an impromptu "team" with the loosely charged task to rethink our college's assessment plan--not only what we do, but how and why we do it. We wanted to get down to the core: if assessment is to be effective and meaningful, then we need to find a way to get faculty on our campus engaged in something that too ften wholly unengaging.

It is far too easy to slide into academic cynicism and disdain about assessment. What, after all, does it mean, and why are we doing it? What is the value of it?

If we are doing it to comply with some set of accreditation standards, then it is a fairly hollow set of criteria. We are merely conforming to strictures.

But we have insisted on defining accreditation as learning-based, as learning-centered, as improving learning.

Once we agreed on the clarity and power of that definition, we have been able to have a dialogue.

So for our team, the conference has been an opportunity to talk, to share ideas, to brainstorm, to listen, to build on each other's ideas, and to draft an assessment plan that is radically different than what we have conceptualized in the past.

We have usurped the conference time and the structure for our own purposes. We have taken the time to participate in a few of the workshops and sessions, but when we were hot with ideas, we simply met and forged our plans.

In a day and a half, we have developed a plan that is simple and reflective; that is rooted in analysis and critical thinking and creativity; it is developmental in nature; it is aural and visual; it displays the students' visual and creative work, something we have struggled with for years.

In just under two days, our team has worked in a spirit of synergy and enthusiasm and fun.

We have tried to reinevent assesment, to make it fun and creative.

We want an assessment plan that demonstrates that our educational experience is transformative.

We want an assessment plan that demonstrates excellence.

Working like this, in teams, in a partnership, in a synergy, in a continuing creative conversation, is exciting and invigorating.

We think we can get faculty engaged because we're making assessment fun, learning-based, visual, and both simple and meaningful. The plan should not interfere with the discussions we want to have about learning.