Image from Mathieu Odin (@mathieuodin) via Unsplash
As the open course prepares for its 10th year of running, SAAL has a few extra marketing and promotional elements planned this year. One such treat is this blog from the current course instructors. While some are newer as instructors, you may be surprised to know of their years’ long history and relationship with the course. Follow along in this blog as each instructor shares their relationship and engagement with the course over the years.
First up, “old timer” Joe Levy!
I (Joe) refer to myself as “old timer” since I’m currently the member of the SAAL board who has been part of SAAL the longest and, more specifically, been part of the course since its inception. In 2015, I was part of a group of about 20 student affairs assessment practitioners who were trying to make some resource guides related to assessment. Once we had those guides complete, unsure how best to package and share them, I engaged my alma mater (Colorado State University) about possibly turning the content into a course. They had been successfully running a few student affairs-related MOOCs and I knew CSU was big on assessment - they were more than happy to try and make this experiment work.
We first asked the original content creators if they wanted to help turn their content into a course - some said yes, others politely declined. I was one of the yes folks and spent 2016 helping to transform PDF material to active course content. When this was all set, CSU called for formal applications and hired the initial instructors - of which I was lucky to have been selected of three. We reviewed and primed material for the initial course run in spring of 2017. And the rest is history!
I can honestly say that being involved with this course has had such a profound impact on my career in tangible and intangible ways. First and foremost, I take great pleasure knowing that I, on behalf of SAAL, help provide such rich information via accessible (free and self-paced) resources in the course every year. Over 15,000 course participants later, I am constantly reminded in a variety of settings how the course has benefitted and impacted people’s professional lives and assessment experiences.
I sometimes feel like an assessment orientation leader. I’m doing my job with the course and I certainly remember certain people, but being one of a few leader voices/faces/names to the many in the course, it’s easier for them to remember me. And while my LinkedIn connections may not show it, I often am running into people who give a note of thanks for the course or pass along kudos from their colleague or supervisor who took the course and had great things to say about me, specifically. It’s less about making myself feel important and more about the earlier point that I’m helping facilitate content many people helped bring to life years ago and several since have made great efforts to maintain and elevate.
Moving from selfless to selfish, the last point I’d make is how helpful the course is for me. Year in and year out, I benefit and learn from the 1600+ average people in the course reflecting on their assessment journeys. I’m reminded of practices and principles I should be pushing harder for and/or perhaps put on the backburner but, with the course as a nudge, am motivated to re-engage. I also get to dialog with so many people about assessment, offering advice where I can, commiserating perhaps too often, and empathizing with their challenging circumstances. As often as possible, I share about my own assessment struggles and challenges, not to mention where I fall short of good practice and institutional culture around assessment. I believe it’s important for people to know that a) we’re all on a continuous improvement journey (no matter how far you are in your career!) and b) you can be a leader/teacher without having best practice efforts attached to your name/institution. With so many elements outside our control and only so much progress we can make given our institutional cultures, populations, and resources, the course humbles me each year of how much I still have to learn and model in my practice. I hope that comes through earnestly and honestly to others as a reminder they, too, always have room to grow. And for those just starting out, I hope you take heart in the fact that no one knows it all - we’re all starting where we are and trying to elevate our practice just a little bit better, as there’s always more we can be doing to more positively support and impact success for all students.
Next up, Ciji Heiser!
While my (Ciji) birthday is the day before Joe’s, I’ll refrain from labeling myself as old. Though my partner and children are QUICK to remind me that I’m bordering on ancient, apparently. Anyway, let’s talk about SAAL and the SAAL course over the last ten years.
In 2012, I transitioned from working in housing and residence life with assessment responsibilities, to my first full-time role focused on assessment work. At this time, I remember looking out into the field of higher education and student affairs and thinking to myself, where can I find data people? I started reaching out to professionals that I admired and asking for ideas and resources for how to grow into those assessment professionals that I admired. One recommendation was to join SAAL.
I came into the profession at a time when assessment in student affairs was growing and I feel that I’ve had the distinct privilege of watching the field, SAAL as an organization, and the course evolve over the past decade (and then some). My initial involvement was lurking. If you’ve ever met me in person, you know I’m a talker and I like to laugh - loudly. But online, I do not tend to be as vocal, I lean into listening and reading through all of the information shared by the brilliant minds on the listserv. When the call came out to develop the initial set of eight modules that would serve as the backbone to the course, I remember thinking - okay, this is my opportunity to jump in, learn, share, and give back in a way that my mentors gave to me.
At the same time the call for developing modules came out, I was beginning to explore and gain a deeper understanding of critical theory, justice, and equity and how these concepts might intersect with the process and product of assessment work. This created a perfect storm to contribute to one of the modules that has evolved alongside the course - critical approaches and mindsets. While this was, and continues to be an important part of the course, this was also a moment where I believed SAAL could be a home for equity and inclusion work as it relates to assessment and the processes related to assessment work in student affairs. For me, this left me with a deep sense that SAAL could be a professional and deeply values congruent professional home.
From afar, I watched the course grow and thrive under Joe’s leadership for years. My own involvement with SAAL evolved from lurking, to joining the professional development committee, serving as the member-elect, then the chair. For years, as a board member, I heard the updates about how the course was progressing, the number of people signed up, and how our completion rates were higher than the average MOOC. As the chair of SAAL, I was focused on supporting the planning efforts, co-creating a sustainable organizational structure, and considering the viability of the future of the organization post-COVID.
Shortly after chairing SAAL, towards the end of the pandemic, I left higher education and worked as an independent contractor in multiple sectors conducting research, planning, evaluation, and assessment work. After three years of independent contracting and generally taking a break from higher education to rest and restore, I missed the community. I missed the values-congruent atmosphere of collaborating with colleagues, co-presenting, co-authoring, engaging with the SAAL board.
After almost two decades working in assessment, becoming a course instructor last year, especially alongside Kevin and Joe, has felt like coming home in many ways. The course is such a meaningful avenue to connect to other professionals, hear from so many perspectives, and gain access to a wealth of resources. My favorite part is watching individuals from across the country and different skill levels explore different ideas related to assessment, planning, and sharing data in ways that are meaningful for them. I’m excited this year to teach and learn from so many colleagues.
If you find yourself lurking on the SAAL course, attending webinars, and getting curious about the course, I strongly encourage you to take the leap to get involved. Join a committee, sign up for the course, write your own blog - join us - we will only be better for your presence.
Cheers, see you in 2026.
Last but not least, Kevin Wright!
We don’t need to get into age details, but I (Kevin) will share a fun fact: all of us on the SAAL Course faculty are Capricorns! Do what you wish with that information, and just know that as much as we could talk about astrological symbolism and the alignment/disalignment of the stars, we could talk your ear off more when it comes to assessment. Before the nerding out starts and eventually gets out of hand, it’s important to reflect on what 10 years of impact from the SAAL course has brought to me both personally and professionally.
In April of 2017 while I was serving as a Residence Hall Director at the University of Cincinnati, I was also an enrolled participant in the SAAL Course. I had the privilege of learning under the guidance of Joe Levy, Ben Andrews, and Emily Langdon. On June 7th, 2017, I received my statement of accomplishment for completing the course, and in that moment, I felt relieved because I no longer felt underresourced when navigating conversations and obstacles that centered on addressing the needs of students or advancing institutional change. Due to what I learned in the SAAL course, I developed a foundational understanding of how to execute strategic assessment processes. Learning the fundamentals of assessment helped me become more fluent in speaking about campus politics, defending the impact of campus resources and programmatic offerings, and advocating for campus initiatives that contributed to increased retention and graduation rates. Essentially, taking a deeper dive into assessment helped me better navigate the business side of higher education and improve my skill set to serve as a champion for students, staff, and faculty with identities from historically marginalized backgrounds.
From 2016-2018, I worked in residence life, so everything we did was assessed in some capacity, yet many of my experiences only involved distributing a survey while other colleagues had fun with analyzing and synthesizing the data. The SAAL course helped me advocate for deeper involvement in departmental assessment processes. Additionally, the course helped me understand different ways to conduct assessment processes, as there are several other ways to obtain data outside of a survey. From 2018-2021, I worked in multicultural affairs, and that experience created an opportunity for me to appreciate assessment in a different way. Specifically, assessment became a tool that I used to engage in deepened institutional advocacy, such as policy reform, scholarship and grant program development, and asset reallocation. Based on what I learned in the course, I made sure my approach was rooted in principles of equity, inclusion, and intersectionality, complemented by assessment frameworks that fostered a growth-oriented mindset.
As an undergraduate and graduate student, I advocated for institutional change in the ways I knew, which was through protesting, writing excessive amounts of extensive e-mails, and speaking up and speaking out at every open forum if I was allowed in the room (the gag is I still found a way into the room even if I wasn’t invited, but that’s a story for a different blog post). When I became a full-time professional, those varied advocacy efforts didn’t go away; I never hesitated to challenge policies, practices, and protocols in student affairs that perpetuated the exclusion of students with historically marginalized identities. While my efforts were effective, many of my actions were met with resistance and hesitation from those in leadership roles, and eventually, a narrative was created by people in leadership who said I was radical, difficult to work with, or just simply too much. Then one day, I had a supervisor tell me explicitly that when it comes to institutional advocacy as a full-time professional, it’s not that I was wrong in what I was advocating for; however, it was important for me to understand how there are different ways to be right, hence my extensive use of assessment.
Sharpening my assessment skills helped me avoid minimizing or compromising parts of who I am as a first-generation higher education professional of color. While navigating through a system that was not initially designed to benefit or serve someone like me, I still have the privilege to be a scholar-practitioner-activist who has the audacity to bring positive change while in collaboration with others. These experiences are several of the many reasons why I now get to have a full circle moment and go from being a student of the course to being a faculty member of the course. It has been an honor to be a part of SAAL’s journey in this capacity, and it is my goal that all future learners of the course take something of value from the course and apply it to their work in transformational ways.
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These are our collective voices and experiences from being involved in the course. We invite you to be part of the magic this year for our 10th (!!) course run. You can learn more about the course and sign up here. And for those of you who have participated in the course in the past, we’re always happy to hear about your experience and the impact the course has had on you or your work. Comment here, email SAAL, or get in contact with any of us to share (email, LinkedIn, etc.) - we’d love to hear from you!