Transcript Document

ASSESSMENT@AU
Helping Your
Department Advance
and Implement
Effective Assessment
Plans
Presented by:
Karen Froslid Jones
Director, Institutional Research and Assessment
And
Woubet Kassa
Graduate Assistant
Co-sponsored by the Committee on Learning Assessment (COLA)
Our Expected Outcomes Today
As a result of participating in this workshop participants
will be able to:
O Describe the assessment process and identify why it
is so important to AU’s success.
O Read their department’s assessment plans and know
how to identify actions that the department needs to
take this spring in order to implement the plan.
O Gain insights into how staff can help with the
assessment process, including how to organize data
collection, report findings, and upload supporting
documents.
O Learn the basics of how to use “TracDat”, AU’s
Assessment Software
What is Assessment?
“Assessment is an ongoing process aimed at
understanding and improving student
learning.”
What is Assessment?
It involves:
O making our expectations explicit and public;
O setting high standards for learning quality;
O systematically gathering, analyzing, and interpreting
evidence to determine how well performance
matches those standards;
O using the resulting information to document, explain,
and improve performance.
“…Assessment can help us focus our collective attention, examine our
assumptions, and create a shared academic culture dedicated to assuring
and improving the quality of higher education.”
AAHE Bulletin, November 1995, p. 7.
The Program Assessment
Process
Document
Process/
Results
Use results to make
changes to
program/
curriculum
Faculty
set
student
learning
outcomes
(SLOs)
FACULTY
Review
results to
determine
strengths
and where
action is
needed
Ensure that
students have
opportunities to
learn
Develop and
implement ways
to assess whether
student learning
outcomes are
being met.
The
“Assessment
Plan”
Why Assess?
Create a shared vision for the goals of the major;
Know whether students are learning what we want them to learn;
Identify ‘best practices’ in instruction;
Focus efforts on curriculum issues that are most important to us;
Provide evidence for why additional resources are needed;
Demonstrate to students, perspective students and others the value of
majoring in our discipline;
O Meet accreditation requirements, which focus on accountability; and
O Ensure that decisions about programs are in the hands of the faculty.
O
O
O
O
O
O
IMPROVE STUDENT SUCCESS
What Assessment is Not
O Used to evaluate faculty or the program
O Something only done for accreditation purposes
O Something ‘extra’ or outside the regular processes used to
develop and improve curriculum
Assessment puts the focus on
Learning!
Setting Learning Outcomes
O Faculty have identified the learning
outcomes students should gain as a result
of graduating in each of your department’s
majors.
O Accreditors also expect learning outcomes to
be articulated at the course level. These
expected outcomes should be on syllabi.
“Mapping” program outcomes
to individual courses
O Where are students getting the opportunity
to learn what we want them to learn?
O This is not something that departments have
been asked to do but it is considered “best
practice”.
O TracDat enables departments to do this
should they like to do so.
Ways to Assess
O Direct vs. Indirect Measures of Assessment
O Direct – Tangible, visible evidence of learning, often reflected in
examples of student work.
O Indirect – Proxies of student learning. This might include evidence that is
less clear than an evaluation of student work. For example, methods that
solicit student opinion on whether they learned.
O Qualitative vs. Quantitative Measures
Quantitative – Measures that can be put into numbers and analyzed.
O Qualitative – Measures that can be reflective and usually non-numeric. Used
to look for themes and for identifying the “why” behind quantitative results
(so usually helpful in identifying recommendations for improvement.)
O
What are some specific ways that
programs assess student learning?
O Indirect
O Surveys
O Focus groups
O Direct
O Review of Student Papers
O Quizzes or Exams
O Student Presentations
Overall:
When done right assessment…
O Engages the entire faculty
O Engages students
O Is tied to other curriculum improvement
processes already in place
O Is planned and organized
O Is useful
What does an assessment plan
look like?
O The case of underwater basket weaving!
O Your department’s assessment plans.
O Reporting:
O Departments submit updates to the Senate
Committee on Learning Assessment each
October.
Six Suggestions for How Department
Staff Can Help Contribute to
Successful Assessment
1. Communicating Learning
Outcomes and Assessment Plan
O Can you help ensure that all faculty and
students know what the learning outcomes are
for their program?
O Is the website a good spot? Do you have an email
listserv/news letter?
O Can you help track whether or not course
learning outcomes are on the syllabi? (A Middle States
Accreditation Requirement)
O Does your department have an interest in
mapping how your courses link to the overall
program outcomes?
2. Keeping Track of Assessment
Schedule
O What activities are planned for this spring?
O How can you help remind faculty about the
assessment schedule?
O Does schedule need to be clarified in
TracDat?
3. Organizing for Assessment
O What faculty need to get together to plan the
assessment?
O Can you help plan a faculty meeting?
O Direct Measures: How can you help collect,
store and distribute examples of student
work?
Nuts & Bolts of Collecting
Student Work
O Sampling
O What a “representative” sample means
O Make sampling easy for faculty. (A certain number
from each section then every other student by id,
every third student, etc.)
O Make submission of examples easy
O Find out if faculty require (or could require)
electronic submission of papers
O Can you run over and pick up the examples, copy
them, then return them right away?
O Removing identifying information
Nuts & Bolts of Surveys
O Can you help identify who should get the
survey?
O Typically seniors
O Can you help distribute survey?
O Zoomerang.com and surveymonkey.com
O Can be used for distribution and for data
entry!
4. Summarizing Results
O Can you help make copies of the evaluation
sheet or rubric that faculty will use to review
student work?
O Can you help summarize the results of a
rubric or survey? Add up the responses and
put it in one report?
O The importance of linking questions with
specific learning outcomes.
5. Reporting Results
O Can you help share the findings with the
department? Can you add findings into
TracDat?
O Is it appropriate to print out the latest report
for faculty once the results are in TracDat?
O Can you help ensure that the supporting
documentation is added to TracDat?
O Can you collect these examples?
6. Keeping Track of ‘Best
Practices’ in the Field
O Can you help you department find examples of
assessment plans from other institutions?
O Does the disciplinary association provide
guidance?
O Can you help find resources in the library or
elsewhere to help with the assessment efforts?
Resources
O Assessment website:
http://www.american.edu/provost/oira/assessment
O Library reference material
O CTRL – training on learning outcomes on
syllabi
O OIRA (Office of Institutional Research and Assessment)
O Discipline/professional organizations
Staff in Action!
O Basket weaving example:
O What would you put on the ‘to do’ list to help
your department organize for assessment
this spring? In what ways might you be able
to help?
O What are some other things you might be
able to do to help?
The Nuts and Bolts of
‘TracDat’
O TracDat is the system AU uses to report its
assessment plans, organize documents
related to assessments, and document
results.
O Plans are organized around the major.
O You have been given access to TracDat but
ask your department chair for permission
before entering or changing anything in your
plans.
Next Steps
O Have a conversation with your department
chair:
O Review the six suggestions. How do you think
you can contribute?
O What role does your department chair want
you to play?
O What are your short term (before end of
semester), medium term (before October)
and longer term goals?
QUESTIONS?
Karen Froslid Jones
[email protected]
X6155
Woubet Kassa
[email protected]>