Published on December 21, 2012

Yes, this building really is as enormous as it looks!

On Friday, I gave the first of two talks at Shibaura Institute of Technology, entitled “Institutional Research and Educational Assessment at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology:  Creating a Culture of Evidence.”  Faculty and staff involved in SIT’s Global Initiative were there, along with faculty involved with SIT’s new electronic portfolio project and their problem-based learning project.    Also in attendance was the president of SIT, Dr. Masato Murakami, who is also a professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department (he was promoted to president from within SIT).

After my presentation, which focused quite a bit on the RosEvaluation Tool (Rose-Hulman’s own portfolio project), there was a lively question and answer session.  I was interested to hear that many of the SIT faculty’s concerns about implementing a portfolio project were concerns we have dealt with at Rose-Hulman, such as faculty and student motivation, rubric development, and using the assessment results for continuous improvement.

I was glad to see a few friends who are not connected with SIT but who attended the event at the invitation of my host, Atsuko Yamazaki.  Jun Fudano is on the faculty at Kanazawa Institute of Technology, a college with whom Rose-Hulman has enjoyed a 20-year collaboration, and Yoshimasa Ono has attended IPCCs in the past.

After the session, I was invited out to dinner with Atsuko, Hiroshi Hasegawa (Machinery and Control Systems), Masahiro Inoue (Electronic Information Systems) , and Tachibana Masahiko (Global Initiative Section) for a wonderful dinner of tempura, soba noodles, and many other dishes I don’t know the names of but were absolutely delicious!