UCATT Assessment Conference explores the power of storytelling in higher education assessment
The University Center for Assessment, Teaching and Technology (UCATT) hosted the 2026 Assessment Conference, “Stories of Impact: The Art and Practice of Storytelling,” bringing together faculty, staff, and assessment professionals from across the University of Arizona to explore how assessment data can illuminate student learning, support institutional improvement, and strengthen storytelling in higher education. Throughout the day-long event, presenters highlighted how assessment practices can move beyond compliance-focused reporting to create more meaningful, student-centered narratives about teaching, learning, and institutional impact.
Opening the conference, Lisa Elfring, vice provost for assessment, teaching, and technology, encouraged attendees to view assessment as a “meaning-making process” that helps educators better understand students’ learning journeys. “Assessment is often seen by many of our colleagues as a hurdle,” Elfring said. “But I think the fact that you're here today means that you believe that assessment is a meaning-making process that lets us analyze evidence of student work to understand students’ learning journeys within their degree programs.” Her remarks reinforced the conference theme by emphasizing the importance of focusing not only on data collection, but also on the human stories behind the numbers.
Exploring assessment through storytelling and practice
The conference sessions explored a wide range of assessment topics, including instructional practices, civic learning, equity, artificial intelligence, curriculum redesign, and program evaluation. Opening the presentations, Tricia Lauer, associate vice president of learning assessment and curricular affairs, and Kaitlyn Sproat, assessment specialist, from the University of Arizona Global Campus, examined how storytelling and instructional practices intersect to shape student learning in online environments. Their session emphasized how assessment data can support more meaningful conversations about faculty engagement, multimedia use, and student success.
Several presentations focused on how more intentional and detailed assessment practices can reveal a clearer picture of student learning. Marcela Kepič, a professor of practice in the College of Education, discussed how criterion-level analysis helped her counseling program move beyond generalized averages to better identify students' strengths and areas for improvement. “Averages tell a summary,” Kepič noted. “But it doesn’t give you the full story. Criterion-based data is promoting insight, and that insight leads into action."
Jennifer Church-Duran, assessment and analytics librarian, shared findings from a study examining how embedded library research tools improved student outcomes and reduced equity gaps in an asynchronous general education course. By integrating short interactive tutorials and course-specific research guides into a scaffolded assignment, the redesigned course helped students better navigate the research process and increased academic success across student groups. “Building in the scaffolded library learning bridges that gap without labeling it as a deficit,” Church-Duran explained.
Ronnie Mullins, professor of practice and Quality Matters Fellow from the School of Nutrition Sciences and Wellness, shared reflections on developing an assessment strategy for the Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Human Performance program. Mullins discussed lessons learned through faculty collaboration, curriculum revisions, and continuous refinement of assessment practices. “I was hoping that you would benefit from seeing the process, the mistakes that I made, and then the strategy that my team and I went about making it better,” she said.
Artificial Intelligence and the future of assessment
Artificial intelligence emerged as a recurring theme throughout the conference. In “AI and Assessment: To Be Determined,” David Herring, UCATT learning and curriculum designer, explored how generative AI is reshaping higher education and challenging traditional approaches to assessment. “The product by itself is no longer an effective measure of student thinking like it used to be,” Herring explained, encouraging attendees to reconsider how learning is evaluated in an era where AI-generated content is increasingly accessible.
Later in the day, Paul Gignac, associate professor and director of Physician Assistant Anatomy, and Haley O’Brien, associate professor and associate head for education, from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, demonstrated how large language models can support Academic Program Review processes by organizing documents, identifying gaps in reporting, and streamlining administrative tasks while preserving the human-centered storytelling central to institutional assessment. “If you use a robot friend to help you check those boxes, you can get to the human bits in the middle so much faster,” O’Brien said.
Civic learning and institutional impact
Other sessions explored the university’s ongoing civic learning assessment initiatives. Elaine Marchello, UCATT director of learning assessment, shared updates on the institution’s work aligning civic learning assessment with Arizona Board of Regents requirements, while Yvonne Zhang from the Office of General Education presented qualitative research examining how students engage with civic dialogue, policy issues, and democratic participation through coursework and reflective writing.
The conference keynote, delivered by Glenn Philips, senior insights consultant for Watermark Insights, connected assessment storytelling to memorable moments from Olympic history. Through stories about athletes including Cathy Freeman, Derek Redmond, Kerri Strug, Michael Phelps, and Simone Biles, Philips illustrated how context and human experience transform raw outcomes into narratives that resonate with audiences. “Assessment rarely has a quality problem,” Philips told attendees. “It has a storytelling problem.”
Looking ahead
The conference concluded with reflections on collaboration, continuous improvement, and the future of assessment at the university. One of the many conference organizers, Elaine Marchello, announced plans to expand the event in 2027 through a partnership with Assess Arizona, a statewide higher education assessment collaborative. “Hopefully next year will be bigger and better,” she said, encouraging attendees to continue building community around assessment practices and bring new ideas back to their departments and programs.
