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)
Slide 3
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 AUs
success. O Read their departments 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, AUs Assessment
Software
Slide 4
What is Assessment? Assessment is an ongoing process aimed at
understanding and improving student learning.
Slide 5
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.
Slide 6
The Program Assessment Process Faculty set student learning
outcomes (SLOs) Ensure that students have opportunities to learn
Develop and implement ways to assess whether student learning
outcomes are being met. Review results to determine strengths and
where action is needed Use results to make changes to program/
curriculum Document Process/ Results FACULTY The Assessment
Plan
Slide 7
Why Assess? O Create a shared vision for the goals of the
major; O Know whether students are learning what we want them to
learn; O Identify best practices in instruction; O Focus efforts on
curriculum issues that are most important to us; O Provide evidence
for why additional resources are needed; O 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. IMPROVE STUDENT SUCCESS
Slide 8
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
Slide 9
Assessment puts the focus on Learning!
Slide 10
Setting Learning Outcomes O Faculty have identified the
learning outcomes students should gain as a result of graduating in
each of your departments majors. O Accreditors also expect learning
outcomes to be articulated at the course level. These expected
outcomes should be on syllabi.
Slide 11
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.
Slide 12
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 O
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.)
Slide 13
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
Slide 14
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
Slide 15
What does an assessment plan look like? O The case of
underwater basket weaving! O Your departments assessment plans. O
Reporting: O Departments submit updates to the Senate Committee on
Learning Assessment each October.
Slide 16
Six Suggestions for How Department Staff Can Help Contribute to
Successful Assessment
Slide 17
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?
Slide 18
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?
Slide 19
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?
Slide 20
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
Slide 21
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!
Slide 22
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.
Slide 23
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?
Slide 24
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?
Slide 25
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
Slide 26
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?
Slide 27
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.
Slide 28
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?