Evaluators Conference, 2024
Topics Covered: College/University Administrative Work, Credential Evaluations, Federal and Local Standards, Higher Education, Student Focus, Technical Queries, College Credit Trends
Conference Overall Ratings: Venue (4/5) - Food (5/5) - Speaker Content (4/5) - Networking Opportunity (5/5) - Likeliness to Return (2/5)
Initial Conference Overview: This event popped up online. I wasn’t sure what “Evaluators” referred to, but a quick search with Ai said it would be related to schools/education administration. That sounded useful, relating to a number of goals I have, and on top of that, at a location I’d never seen. Actually, it was at a local University I’ve been curious to check out (even attend some of their classes perhaps)
It’s a cool time, attending events that are related to something I know, but in a way I’ve never heard of. You’ll quickly realize what’s going on, and start to learn. That was just the case for this event. I had no clue what “evaluators” were to begin, but by the end, I can probably give a good definition… Evaluator evaluate/look over credentials and see if students are qualified to… transfer, graduate, receive credits for prior experience/tests/relevant courses, and the struggles that go along with it. This was a well organized event and I actually learned a lot about the process/reality of college/credentials from this event.
I saw a lot of problems in this industry that rhyme with other industries’ problems. It was interesting to see the parallels and hear how another industry has a lot of chaos and lack of standardized systems. I believe that we have a lot of room for improvement as a society/world to make paperwork more formalized and take up less of everyone’s time, too. We may even say that Ai can help with this in the future, if you dare to go there :).
On top of that, one moment in this event I was most impressed by was how breakout roundtables were used. Everyone got into groups discussing an initial topic, then they could talk about over 10 other topics… the goal was to see what problems everyone agreed existed, then they’d send this information over to the board, to the state/federal level, on behalf of everyone here. And there were like 60 people here from dozens of colleges. I thought this was a fantastic idea and use of everyone’s time. I’ve never seen something like that be done before: having everyone work together to send some messages to upper-level, among a conference/gathering. It was so smart.
Photo Collage & Commentary
Bullet Point Notes from Conference :
Evaluator: credentials evaluator
transfers, graduation credentials, evaluations, selective admissions, enrollment evaluations, degree evaluations, credential evaluations, test credits, degree credentials, diplomas, graduation applicants.
College Representatives from: Shoreline College, Clark College, Kitsap Penninsula College, Edmonds College, Clover Park Tech, Wenatchee Valley College, Spokane Falls Community College, Lake Washington Institute of Technology, Spokane Falls Community College, Blue Mountain Community College, Highland College, North Seattle College, Skaggit Valley, Olympic College, Columbia Mason College, Renton Tech College, Central Washington University, Cascade College
Attendees ranged from 30 years to 1 week of experience. About 10-20% were brand new to the job.
Evaluators are a lucrative business. Their work is very hard. Transferring all of the credits and content.
The goal of the university leadership is guided pathways:
GUIDE them on the path, KEEP them on the path, GET them the credentials. The credentials help them get the job.
Evaluators play an integral roll in every college person’s life.
Evaluators need a network to figure out how to interpret events and credentials. Over the years the board/leaders add more documentation requirements and restrictions to get things done. For safety/security/legitimacy, but it also complicates things.
Many people crawl their way to the top, starting off in a career working for free, step by step rising to success as they progress.
Masters degrees can be taken one class at time
PLA: Prior Learning Assessments
College credits awarded by showing a level of competency comparable to a student in a regular course. This may be a course challenge, work experience, specific classes, special projects
Shows your level of competency
Course Challenge: “Your’er going to take a test administered by faculty. $425. If you pass, you don’t need to do the class. If not, you’re out $425.
You can award up to 26 credits in evaluation for prior experience. Students transfer but want credit for something else. They can take a certification class and then get 5 credits if they pass.
This is especially popular in the Nursing + Radiation Colleges. Other college, not so much.
At Bellevue College, they award up to 50 credits for students in radiology so they don’t need to retake all of the basic courses.
“We’re not trying to keep students from getting credits, if they have the knowledge, why shoudl they have to sit though these classes. They know it all.” Though they may need a brush.
“Nurses don’t need to attend anatomy 101 twice”. Transfer special topic credits.
If they were a nurse in another country and moving here, they can use some of that experience to count as college credits.
The program has exceptions, each must be decided on case-by-case
ACE (American Council of Eduction) Workforce, not just ACE military refits, more colleges may start being more willing to accept ACE work ordered.
they are sometimes awarded as nontransferable credit
many colleges don’t accept ACE workforce
Could “Basic Training” count for P.E.?
Could working on a submarine count for for physics?
many take “Sophia Learning” modules to get credits
“Crosswalks” are the strategies and typical ways to make one institution’s class count for the new institutions’ equivalent. Typically, the colleges/institutions keep their crossroads secret, but everyone agrees these crossroads would be really helpful to share.
Evaluators are gatekeepers, balancing the need to uphold academic standards while ensuring students receive the credits they’ve earned.
they can’t give away the farm, but they do need to give students what they need to get through their degree
see what students already know
“We are not diploma mills just giving out credits for doing things”
“When in doubt, leave it out.”
The next section of time was really interesting. It was for people to share ideas, discuss problems, issues, topics, then decide what to push forward to the higher ups.
Gather topics and issues that everyone is having. Forward everything to the state/federal level
TOPICS: allied health programs/selective admissions, course substitutions/equivalency tables, ACPL processing, document storage/handling/digital transcription, accesible/ada friendly applications, TES-strategies to get facuily onboard w/ approved workflow, restricted electives, specific of ICRC, CLEP, High School Completion Process, Military Credits, Archived Credit Conversion Workflow
Some schools have a lot of familiarity with each other so transfers and conversions are easy to make. In other cases, it’s extremely smart to be as detailed as possible, showing the course description and accreditations.
This is difficult with international students. When international schools don’t provide this information in English, or its too hard to find, students may miss out on opportunites to receive credits they’d otherwise receive.
Ai may be helpful with this.
A lot of this is driven by politics, too. How easy it is to work with international schools/clients. Many schools have limited information that evaluators can access.
It can be very hard to retrieve course descriptions and proof of accreditation. It can be confusing to make equivalents.
Some experience ends up being unusable, sometimes as legitimate as running your own company overseas, or taking classes - but the translation is not clear enough.
Students can switch colleges and hack the system to get credits for a class but try to double dip it with course credits by transferring. Students try to do this when they can, but it shoudl be prevented.
Many policies are local. It would be nice if schools shared crosswalks
Military credit crosswalks should be in a shared document for consistency.
more standardized crosswalks approved for all woudl be really nice. Crosswalk creation is a big endeavor. This find is just everyone trying to get on the same page for the easy of transfers and easy of work.
Not everyone has the same pool of courses, we know that, but still a reference and more transparency would be helpful
So far elective credit from military experience isn’t transferable
GRE awards max credit possible to help w/ career benefits.
Benefits can often help people get promotions and bonuses from their employer.
Graduation: students or supporting staff submit applications
students are contacted about the necessities for completion or missing courses. Currently the system for this isn’t so great. They need to create a new process
They reach out to kids with about 2 quarters to go, before graduation to see if any last minute things need to be done.
some students want more than one degree, if so, they need to redo the paperwork every time.
Within your own university, as a evaluator, you can join the “curriculum and academic standards committee” - this is for people who want to make a change in the degree, they need to stand up snd say what changes they want for the classes. Then you can talk to them and make sure it’s worded in the most efficient way possible, not simply just what the teacher assume is best. you can include the correct lingo and prevent the problems in the future, by being there in the creation of these new policies and classes.
Have say in the process
Evaluators are the launch pad for so much on campus. Any way you can work to be heard more in spaces that make things easier for students, you must go for it. Make your voice heard.
Try and get your voice heard if you are an expert.
Evaluators hold the line: if they don’t, the degrees don’t mean anything.
Building a relationship with other faculty in your University will help. Befriend them and use each other to make connections and make things easier at work. People need to know the campus laws, policies, state and federal laws, guidelines.
Hold firm to what you believe. Being a strict gatekeeper maintains the value of your degree
Graduate people and help them get gainfully employed. Did the degree help them w/ the necessary skills to get a job? Did they spend 60k to not be able to know how to get a job?
As experts of what you do, learn the regulations that go with achieving your goals. Follow the guidelines.
As you speak up and recognize the errors, your voice will be valued. “We can’t make that work in the degree audit”.
It is important to continue to say, “I know what i’m talking about” and reference the parts that show you know what you’re saying.
If you know your stuff, you’re being supportive to recognize what’s going on.
Make friends with the people that work together.
Committess give your office a voice and it is useful. It’s how you can form relationships and ask who to talk to about issues. It will make your job easier and things easier for students.
“It is been so nice to be in a group of people who know the struggles/pressure/workload we go through”
Some schools print documentation in hour (degrees, certificates, transcripts)
Conference “Overall Rating” Further Elaboration:
VENUE - 4/5
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT: I was cold almost the entire time with a 3/4 length shirt and two jackets! But it was a good size room for this event and I loved the campus tour. The zoom-attending people had a hard time with the sound and audio, so I think this room could have been a little better adapted for online streaming, though they did a pretty good job and everyone said the second half was better.
FOOD - 5/5
ALLOW ME TO ELABORATE: As I said, this event was $10 and there was more than enough food. I was blown away
SPEAKER CONTENT - 4/5
Room for Improvement: Ahead of time, the people attending the event let them know what they wanted to learn about. So, this event was completely tailored to these people. At the same time, each topic (lasting one hour minimum) only had about one slide per topic. It was almost a 100% conversation based conference. So, I think it could have been interesting to have a little more of a presentation to break it up - but at the same time, that wasn’t the goal of this event.
NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES - 5/5
ALLOW ME TO ELABORATE: Everyone seemed to love this event. There was great feedback before, during, and after. What I noticed is that this is a very niche, very specialized field. It was particularly valuable to have this opportunity to “talk shop” for attendees This was a group from all over the region, many had traveled a few hours to get there for the one day event. I was impressed.
LIKELINESS TO RETURN - 2/5
ALLOW ME TO ELABORATE: This was extremely interesting, but it was very technical as well. I do not see a reason that I would attend this series again anytime soon, unless I had a certain purpose. They were very welcoming and kind. I enjoyed learning more about the details of university, transferring schools, graduation qualifications… and hearing about how something like this could be so complicated. The systems could use help - and they were really encouraged to speak up for themselves. One of the leaders of the school gave a nice shoutout towards the beginning for attending, as well. She said with an entrepreneur mindset, learning new things helps you see opportunity to help.
Until next time, I wish you the motivation and success to search for opportunities around your area. Search and explore: Who is out there giving talks? There are new things happening all of the time
Find relatable or interesting topics you like and check them out! Maybe even something hosted at a cool venue, if there’s no other reason to go. Let’s see what you can learn and discover not too far from home. 😊
