Assessing Student Learning:What Do IDEA Results Tell Us?

Mike FryFebruary, 2012

Individual instructors:Diagnostic & Short Form Reports

• How do your students feel about the course?• How did you do?• Progress toward which learning objective(s)

need improvement?• What can you do about it? (Diagnostic)– What method(s) ought to be adopted or

strengthened (relevant to improving the progress toward objective(s) above)

From objective to action1. Identify objective…

2. Find related teaching method…

3. Follow link: www.theideacenter.org/podidea

Program or Department:Group Summary Reports

• Are faculty going after the right objectives?*• Important* objectives with weak student ratings?

What can we do about it?• Do students feel they’re working hard? Are they

motivated?• Faculty self-report of context, emphasis, approaches,

circumstances affecting instruction.• Additional questions (if consistent across group)

*... First, find which IDEA objectives align with department goals.

Program or Department:Group Summary Reports

• Are faculty going after the right objectives?*• Important* objectives with weak student ratings?

What can we do about it?• Do students feel they’re working hard? Are they

motivated?• Faculty self-report of context, emphasis, approaches,

circumstances affecting instruction.• Additional questions (if consistent across group)

*... First, find which IDEA objectives align with department goals.

Individual or Program or Department:What can we do about it?

• PODNotes on learning objectivesOr...• Find associated teaching methods– Methods can be controlled by instructor– Better POD Notes on them– Diagnostic form gives student feedback on them– Known correlations betw methods and objectives

What can we do about it?

LVC Example: Ethical ReasoningObjective 10: “Developing a clearer understanding of, and commitment to, personal values.”LVC’s Gen Ed struc doesn’t require or encourageChosen as important: LVC: 17%, IDEA: 23%Worst-performing objective at LVC (Fall ’12)

What can we do about it?

LVC Example: Ethical ReasoningObjective #10 (aka #30)

From Table 7 of "Technical Report No. 12: BasicData for the Revised IDEA System”.

What can we do about it?

LVC Example: Ethical Reasoning• #13: Introduced stimulating ideas about the s

ubject• #16: Asked students to share ideas and experi

ences with others whose backgrounds and viewpoints differ from their own

• #2: Found ways to help students answer their own questions

• #15: Inspired students to set and achieve goals which really challenged them

• #11: Related course material to real-life situations

Resources athttp://www.theideacenter.org ...

• PODNotes on learning objectives:– /podidea/PODNotesLearning.html

• PODNotes on methods– /research-and-papers/pod-idea-center-notes-instruction

• Technical Report No. 12 (see Table 7)– /sites/default/files/techreport-12.pdf

• Info on IDEA at LVC, with lots of links, and these slides... http://www.lvc.edu/idea