ASSESSMENT OF CORE SKILLS/GENERAL EDUCATION OUTCOMESAngelina Hill, PhD

Associate Director, Office of Academic Assessment

Levels of Assessment

University-level Outcome Statements

Program level Outcome Statements

Course/Educational Experience Outcome Statements

Activity

Identify the level of assessment that applies to your project

Roughly state the core skills that you aim to assess Be as specific as you think is necessary

Activity

Program assessment: What courses address these outcomes, and

at what level (introduce, reinforce, enhance/master)?

Course assessment: Where in the course is the outcome

addressed (e.g., activities, assignments, tests), and at what level?

Assessment Instruments

Design assessment instruments around the type of learning emphasized in the course. What do you want your students to learn?

Direct Methods of Assessment:

Course-embedded assessment (e.g., homework assignment; essays, locally developed tests)

Grading with criteria or rubrics Comprehensive exams Senior thesis or major project Portfolio evaluation Pre and posttests Reflective journals Capstone projects Internal/external juried review of performances and exhibitions Internship and clinical evaluation National Major Field Achievement Tests GRE subject exams Certification exams, licensure exams

Indirect Methods of Assessment:

Survey of perceived outcome attainment by course (survey students or faculty)

Departmental survey Exit interviews Alumni survey Employer survey Focus groups Job placement statistics Graduation and retention rates Percentage of students who study abroad

Assessment Instruments

Some combination of indirect and direct measures is best (in an ideal world)

Allows for converging evidence

Example: students have low confidence in their ability to

formulate a hypothesis students perform below expectations on an

embedded assignment asking them to formulate a hypothesis

Assessment Instruments

What measures do you use already? What additional measure(s) do you think

would be useful?

Assessing Large Classes

Challenges include: Giving rich individual feedback Managing the quantity of grading (yourself,

and coordinating assistants) Avoiding testing that fosters shallow

learning Assessing a diverse mix of students Avoiding plagiarism

Assessing Large Classes

Some strategies: Scoring rubrics

Complex products or behaviors can be examined efficiently Identify characteristics of what you are assessing Describe the best work you could expect based on

these (top category), and the worst (lowest category) Develop descriptions of intermediate-level products

that are meaningful to you 1 to 3 (novice, competent, exemplary), or 1 to 5

(unacceptable, marginal, competent, very competent, outstanding)

Assessing Large Classes

Some strategies: Using samples of student work

Random or performance based Technology

Clickers, web-campus quizzes & surveys, on-line discussion boards

Automating the analysis process Setting up excel templates Structuring exams to easily capture info

Assessing Large Classes

Group projects Peer & self evaluations Evaluations by grad assistants, faculty

committees, etc. Ensure that grading material are understood by

all staff Run training sessions where they evaluate

various levels of student artifacts

Assessing Large Classes

Assess background knowledge early in semester

Use cumulative tasks with more formative feedback that guides efforts on next task

Ask students to consider how topics relate to their discipline area

Assessing Multiple Sections

Direct Measures Imbed common questions in exam for all

sections Create common writing assignment for all

sections Create a multiple choice test to give to all

students at end of semester

Assessing Multiple Sections

Direct Measures cont. Create a pre and post test to give to all

students Compare different modes of delivery!

Indirect Measures Survey of student’s perceived learning

(SALG) Survey faculty

Assessing Multiple Sections

How to get agreement in your department??

Assessing On-line Courses

Formative assessment in on-line classes is key

Assessment processes in on-line classes should: Enable students to self-monitor their

progress Stop lecture after certain time, ask students to

reflect, write down insights, submit feedback as short notes

Assessing On-line Courses

Gather regular feedback from students Pose a question via e-mail about teaching and

invite students to respond Students can respond with personal email

Give regular feedback to students One sentence summaries, minute papers Paper or project prospectus (brief structured

first draft plan)

Developing a Timeline

How frequently can you feasibly measure each outcome?

Or, how frequently can you feasibly use a specific instrument to measure an outcome?

Establishing Criteria

Criteria help you make sense of your results. May not be “right” the first time Expectations that are very low or very high

yield less meaningful results

Closing the Loop

Using results to make improvements is the ultimate goal! Can you do anything about met or unmet

expectations? If not, why see if their met?