2016 Summer Greetings and Important News from SWEAP!

Dear SWEAP Users:

Happy Summer! The SWEAP Team hopes that everyone made it through the 2015-16 assessment season in good shape. We had our annual summer work meeting at the University of Utah this past June, 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:

• WELCOMING DANA SULLIVAN TO SWEAP TEAM! We are proud to announce that Dana Sullivan, Ph.D., M.SW., the BSW Director from Western Kentucky University, has joined the SWEAP team. With 9 current members, the SWEAP team has representation from undergraduate and graduate social work programs from all across the country.

• We are ready for EPAS 2015. After attending every EPAS 2015 session we could at APM and BPD this year, as well as participating in discussions at NADD, the SWEAP team is confident that the proper combination of our instruments will provide any undergraduate or graduate program with the requisite multidimensional assessment of all 9 Core Competencies.  We believe our Field Placement/Practicum Assessment Instrument (FPPAI) and our Foundation Curriculum Assessment Instrument (FCAI) are sufficient to provide a direct measure (FPPAI) and additional measure (FCAI) of multiple dimensions of each EPAS 2015 competency. Add our Exit Instrument, and your program can also assess multiple aspects of your Implicit Curriculum. We’re updating our reports for these instruments to assist programs in clearly identifying measures by dimension (Knowledge, Values, Skills and, Cognitive and Effective Processes).

• Improving Our Website for Easier Administration of Online Instruments. Many programs don’t realize that you’ve always been able to administer your online instruments through the SWEAP Website. Simply cut and paste email addresses, and send the instrument directly to the student using our interface. We’re currently making upgrades to this system to streamline this process. You’ll be able to easily purchase instruments online and simply send multiple online instruments to students, track when they’ve completed them, and send quick reminders as needed.

• Customized Assessment. SWEAP can customize our online instruments 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. Customized FPPAIs, that include Specialized Practice competencies for graduate programs, have been piloted for four (4) different programs 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.

• 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 students how the social work program helped them improve their knowledge across the 9 Core Competencies. Since the FCAI questions are populated by a test bank, individual students will not necessarily take the same test as their peers. Therefore, SWEAP does not recommend using the FCAI scale scores for grading purposes.

• New Prices. Since there was significant person-power used to update our instruments, reports and website, we will be increasing our instrument prices this September. Online instruments will cost $1 each. Paper instruments will cost $1.50 each. However, we are also reducing some fees: In addition to offering the online Entrance Instruments for free, programs can now order one online Employer Instrument for FREE with the purchase of each Alumni Instrument. You heard that right, FREE! If you use all SWEAP Instruments, the entire package only costs $5-7 per student!!!

 

FISCAL YEAR ENDING SOON BUT YOU HAVE MONEY LEFT OVER???

ORDER YOUR SWEAP INSTRUMENTS ANYTIME BEFORE SEPTEMBER 1, 2016

& GET THE OLD PRICES.

USE THEM WHENEVER YOU NEED THEM!!!

Please note: The FCAI is currently being updated and piloted this summer. Any FCAIs purchased now will be delivered electronically by September 1.

 

 

• Additional resources. Check out our updated website. New resources are being added all the time. Check out our model letter to include with our Alumni and Employer surveys. Contact a SWEAP Team Member for tips on how to increase return rates for these instruments.

As always, if you have any questions, or suggestions, don’t hesitate to reach out to any SWEAP team member.

 

Sincerely,

The SWEAP Team

Tobi DeLong-Hamilton (President), Tobi.Hamilton@socwk.utah.edu

Kathryn Krase (Vice President), kathryn.krase@liu.edu

Dorothy Farrel (Treasurer), farrel.dorothy@gmail.com

Dan Freedman (Secretary), daniel.freedman@sc.edu

Brian Christenson, brian.christenson@capella.edu

Ruth Gerritsen-McKane, ruth.gerritsen-mckane@socwk.utah.edu

Tameca Harris-Jackson, Tameca.Harris-Jackson@ucf.edu

Phil Ng, phillip_ng@urmc.rochester.edu

Patrick Panos, patrickpanos@gmail.com

Dana Sullivan, dana.sullivan@wku.edu