In addition to supporting campus-wide goals and initiatives, Planning and Institutional Improvement colleagues also make important intellectual contributions to the higher education community regionally, nationally, and globally through external engagements organized under the umbrella of the Center for Leading Improvements in Higher Education.

Center for Leading Improvement in Higher Education
Assessment Institute in Indianapolis
Assessment Update Periodical
The Assessment Institute Book Series
Leading Improvements in Higher Education Podcast

Center for Leading Improvements in Higher Education

The mission of the Center for Leading Improvements in Higher Education is to advance IUPUI’s reputation as a national leader in higher education assessment and improvement through the provision of professional development opportunities, scholarly dissemination, grant activities, and consulting and technical assistance. The Center fulfills its mission through the following activities:

• The annual Assessment Institute in Indianapolis and periodic international conferences benefiting the higher education community.
• The dissemination of scholarship, including Assessment Update, an award-winning bimonthly periodical from Wiley;Trends in Assessment, an edited volume from Stylus; and the Leading Improvements in Higher Education podcast.
• Providing consulting and technical assistance to higher education institutions and affiliated organizations and engaging in related grant activities.

Assessment Institute in Indianapolis

The Assessment Institute, hosted by IUPUI, is the oldest and largest higher education event in the United States focused on assessment and improvement. The Assessment Institute is designed to provide opportunities for (1) individuals and campus teams new to higher education assessment and improvement to acquire fundamental knowledge about the field; (2) individuals who have worked as leaders in assessment and improvement to share and extend their knowledge and skills; and (3) those interested in assessment and improvement at any level or in any collegiate context to establish networks that serve as sources of support and expertise beyond the dates of the Institute.

Assessment Update Periodical

For more than 30 years, Assessment Update, an award-winning bi-monthly publication from Wiley, has kept the field abreast of the latest trends and best practices in assessing higher education. Assessment Update is dedicated to covering the latest developments in the rapidly evolving area of higher education assessment. Assessment Update offers assessment leaders up-to-date information and practical advice on conducting assessments in a range of areas, including student learning and outcomes, faculty instruction, academic programs and curricula, student affairs and co-curricular services, and overall institutional functioning.

Editorial Board

• Executive Editor: Stephen P. Hundley, IUPUI
• Associate Editor: Caleb J. Keith, IUPUI
• Assistant Editors: A. Katherine Busby, The University of Mississippi, and Shirley Yorger, IUPUI
• Consulting Editors: Assessment experts representing various fields
• Founding Editor: Trudy W. Banta, IUPUI

The Assessment Institute Book Series

The Assessment Institute Book Series offers the higher education community a consistent, high quality dissemination system of thought leadership capitalizing on the Assessment Institute’s unique position as assessment and improvement content curators and producers. A signature product of the Book Series is Trends in Assessment, a volume updated on a periodic basis, for which complimentary Special Institute Editions are provided to Assessment Institute attendees in the years in which the Trends book is released.

The Book Series is motivated by the following philosophical foundations:

• Assessment and improvement continue to play a significant role on college and university campuses—especially as it relates to promoting student learning and success and demonstrating institutional effectiveness. Thus, there is an ongoing need to equip higher education colleagues with up-to-date information and guidance on contemporary issues to inform their professional practice.
• Our institutions are increasingly serving diverse students and communities, each of whom bring unique voices, perspectives, expectations, needs, and lived experiences to our campuses. Such collaborations take place across the institution; between the institution and its community partners, no matter how or where “community” is defined; and through inter-institutional initiatives aimed at advancing assessment and improvement capabilities across the entire higher education sector.
• Developing holistic graduates from our institutions requires increasing collaborations among and between stakeholders. Such collaborations take place across the institution; between the institution and its community partners, no matter how or where “community” is defined; and through inter-institutional initiatives aimed at advancing assessment and improvement capabilities across the entire higher education sector.
• Our synergistic and overlapping activities offer built-in opportunities to identify, procure, foster, and promote new ideas related to assessment and improvement. . In addition to showcasing and aggregating content, we also advance the work of higher education assessment and improvement by generatingnew content to meet the sector’s needs.

Leading Improvements in Higher Education Podcast

• Leading Improvements in Higher Education with Stephen Hundley from IUPUI is a service of the Assessment Institute in Indianapolis, the oldest and largest higher education assessment and improvement event in the U.S. The podcast profiles people, initiatives, institutions, and organizations improving conditions in higher education. Join thought leaders for engaging discussions of enduring and emerging topics, themes, and trends affecting colleges and universities.
• Leading Improvements in Higher Education is honored to be a recipient of the 2021 APEX Award. This award recognized the twelve inaugural episodes of the podcast, debuted during the 2020 Assessment Institute, information from which is encapsulated in a Viewpoint from the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment entitled Collective Wisdom: Themes from the Inaugural Episodes of the Leading Improvements in Higher Education Podcast. This publication was co-authored by Stephen P. Hundley and Caleb J. Keith, podcast producers, and summarizes crosscutting themes from the podcasts’ twelve inaugural episodes.
• Listen to the Podcast Here - https://assessmentinstitute.iupui.edu/overview/podcast-episodes.html