Dear SWEAP Listserv:
Happy Summer! The SWEAP Team hopes that everyone made it through the 2016-17 assessment season in good shape. We had our annual summer work meeting last week, and a lot was accomplished. We’d like to make sure our users and the larger social work education community are aware of some important developments:
- SWEAP Makes EPAS 2015 Assessment Easy
As usual, we attended every EPAS session we could at the 2016 APM and 2017 BPD conferences this year, as well as participated in discussions at NADD. Thus, the SWEAP team is confident that the recommended combination of our instruments will provide any undergraduate or graduate program with the requisite multidimensional assessment of all 9 Competencies.
- SWEAP will be at the 2017 APM
The SWEAP team will have a booth in the exhibit hall at 2017 APM. Please stop by for some SWEAP swag, booth #216. There will be SWEAP members available for consultation during most of the open exhibit hours. Dan Freedman, SWEAP Secretary, is also coordinating consultations for those who wish to schedule meetings. Contact him at daniel.freedman@sc.edu to schedule a meeting. Further, SWEAP will facilitate the 3 sessions below at the conference:
- Building onto the Conceptual Understanding of the Implicit Curriculum
- Use of Standardized Instruments to Assess Educational Outcomes in Social Work Education
- Using the Curriculum Assessment Instrument to Meet the Challenges of Program Assessment
- Instrument Updates
a) Instrument Reports. We have updated the FCAI and FPPAI reports to make it easier to report assessment as per CSWE EPAS 2015 requirements.
b) Individualized Assessment. In response to user requests, for an additional fee, programs can purchase individual reports of online FCAIs (Curriculum Instruments) that show scale scores (not individual item scores) for individual students. If taken at the beginning and end of a program, these individual scale scores can show how the social work program helped students improve their knowledge across the 9 Core Competencies.
c) Online Instruments. We have improved our website for easier administration of on-line instruments. Administer your online instruments through the SWEAP Website! Its quick and easy. Also, receive reports right after instruments are submitted by students. No need to wait for paper processing. As such, we will be phasing out paper instruments by 07/01/2019. To help programs better prepare for the transition, SWEAP will be creating tutorials as a resource for users, and of course, a SWEAP team member is always available for consultations at APM or BPD conferences or by email or phone.
d) Customized Assessment. SWEAP can customize any online instrument to include additional assessment questions tailored to a specific graduate or undergraduate program’s needs. We cannot alter our own instruments, but we can add items to online instruments based on your needs. We can also help you create your own customized instrument. Customized instruments were created for six different programs this past year, for MSW second year with great success. A base customization fee of $250 includes a first run of up to 50 instruments. After that initial run, you just pay the regular per instrument fee of $1.00. We also process and provide a report just as we would with our own instruments.
e) Additional resources. Check out our updated website. New resources are being added all the time. We are in the process on developing tutorials and webinars on a variety of topics related to using SWEAP instruments. Also, check out our model letter to include with our Alumni and Employer surveys, and/or contact a SWEAP team member for tips on how to increase return rates for these instruments.
f) Rate Changes. SWEAP is a non-profit, 501©3 organization. Our team members volunteer their time as a way to give back to the social work profession. Due to the nature of the organization and the cost of sending and processing paper instruments, effective immediately paper instruments will cost $2.00 each, while on-line instruments will remain $1.00 each. Also, there will be a $5.00 charge the first time a program returns paper instruments that have been stapled, and subsequent submissions of stapled instruments will be returned to the program to remove the staples.
- Contact SWEAP
As always, if you have any questions, or suggestions, please do not hesitate to reach out to SWEAP, or any specific team member.
SWEAP Address:
SWEAP C/O Department of Social Work
Metropolitan State University of Denver
PO Box 173362 CB 70
Denver, Colorado 80217-3362
Board Members:
- Tobi Delong-Hamilton (President)
Brandman University
- Kathryn Krase (Vice-President)
Long Island University, Brooklyn
- Dan Freedman (Secretary)
University of South Carolina
- Dorothy Farrel (Treasurer)
Brandman University
- Brian Christenson
Capella University
- Kristin Danhoff
Metropolitan State University of Denver
- Ruth Gerristen-McKane
University of Utah
Ruth.Gerristen-McKane@socwk.utah.edu
- Tameca Harris-Jackson
University of Central Florida
- Dana Sullivan
Western Kentucky University
IT Specialist
- Phil Ng
University of Rochester Medical Center