ALIGNING OUTCOMES FACULTY CENTER SUMMER 2016 WORKSHOP Drs. Summer DeProw and Topeka Small June 6, 2016

OUTCOMES FOR THE WORKSHOP- PARTICIPANTS WILL BE ABLE TO ALIGN: Program-level Learning Outcomes Curriculum Map Course-level Learning Outcomes Inspiration from Bloom’s Taxonomy Unit/Chapter Learning Outcomes Learning Activities/Assignments Time to assess and collect data!

ALIGNMENT  What is alignment?  Alignment is the connection between learning outcomes, learning activities/assignments and assessment. An aligned course means that your learning outcomes, learning activities/assignments and assessments match up so students learn what you intend and you accurately assess what students are learning.  Why is alignment important? Proper alignment keeps you going in the right direction.  When learning activities relate directly to learning outcomes and assessments accurately measure what students are learning, it is easier to hit your targets. If outcomes, activities and assessments are not in alignment:  the course may be fragmented and ineffective  students receive mixed messages about what they should learn  students spend time on activities that do not lead to intended goals  you may overestimate or underestimate the effectiveness of instruction Copyright 2007 University of Colorado-The Center for Faculty Development

ALIGNMENT 1—FROM THE PROGRAM TO THE COURSE Program-level Learning Outcomes Curriculum Map Course-level Learning Outcomes

PROGRAM-LEVEL OUTCOMES  Program-level Student Learning Outcomes-Expectations for student performance; what you want students to know or be able to do at the completion of a program (BA, BSE, MA, EdD, etc.) Focus on the most important “take-aways” of the program. Best practices suggest that 4-7 program-level student learning outcomes is sufficient for a program.  Sometimes they are originally written by the program’s faculty  Sometimes they are originally written by a committee  Sometimes PLOs are the same as accreditation standards  Always inspired by Bloom’s Taxonomy  Examples: outcomes/ outcomes/

THREE MAJOR CHARACTERISTICS OF LEARNING OUTCOMES  Specify an action by the students/learners that is observable  Specify an action by the students/learners that is measureable  Specify an action that is done by the students/learners (rather than the faculty members) (Suskie, 2004)

HOW TO WRITE AN OUTCOME  Parts of a student learning outcome  Introductory phrase  Action verb (driven by Bloom’s taxonomy)  Explicitly stated and observable skills and/or knowledge  Examples:  Students will construct lesson plans for the learning patterns of middle-school students.  Students will be able to explain the scientific method.  Students who complete ACCT 2043 will be able to apply “Generally Accepted Accounting Principle” double-entry, accounting theory to a service business.  Graduates of the MA in Higher Education will be able to analyze intended and unintended effects of policies in higher education.

CURRICULUM MAPS  Curriculum map-a tool used to align program-level student learning outcomes, the courses in which the content is taught, and level at which the content is taught.  Multiple courses support or contribute to the program-level student learning outcomes.  Examples from A-State Taskstream:  BA Political Science  BFA Studio Art  BS Animal Science—Pre-Vet  BS Strategic Communications—Public Relations  EdS Education Leadership—Superintendency

COURSE-LEVEL LEARNING OUTCOMES  Course-level Student Learning Outcomes-Expectations for student performance; what you want students to know and be able to do at the completion of a course (ENGL 2203, EDU 4567, ART 1560, etc.) Focus on the most important “take-aways” of the course.  Should connect with the purpose of course  Course description  Curriculum map  How many outcomes are sufficient for a course?  Literature suggests 5-10 for the entire course (more detailed outcomes can be developed for individual units, assignments, and/or chapters)

STOP! YOUR TIME TO TALK AND WORK…  We asked you to bring syllabi for two courses  Are the stated program-level outcomes aligned with your curriculum map?  Is there a connection to the course-level outcomes?

ALIGNMENT 2—FROM THE COURSE TO THE UNIT/CHAPTER OUTCOME Course-level Learning Outcomes Inspiration from Bloom’s Taxonomy Unit/Chapter Learning Outcomes

BLOOM’S TAXONOMY  Three domains: Cognitive, Affective, and Psychomotor (see handout)  Cognitive domain has six levels of cognition  Remembering  Understanding  Applying  Analyzing  Evaluating  Creating  How will you get the end point for your course?  What do students need to know to make it to your stated course-level outcomes?  Interactive model—Knowledge and cognitive process dimensions: taxonomy taxonomy

UNIT/CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES  How many units or chapters should your course (or book) have?  How is your course organized?  Time?  Phenomenon?  Complexity of theory application?  Medium?  Genre?  Body system?  What are the learning outcomes per unit or chapter?

STOP! WORK SESSION  We asked you to bring a list of units or chapter outlines  Can you align course-level learning outcomes to a unit or chapter within your course?

ALIGNMENT 3—FROM THE COURSE TO THE ASSIGNMENTS TO THE ASSESSMENT DATA Unit/Chapter Learning Objectives Learning Activities/Assignments Time to assess and collect data!

HOW WILL THEY LEARN?  The assignments and questions you ask your students should align with the Bloom’s levels of cognition  Video on aligning your questions (assignments) to the Bloom’s levels of cognition: strategies/teaching-methods/course-development-tools/blooms- taxonomy.htmlhttp://humber.ca/centreforteachingandlearning/instructional- strategies/teaching-methods/course-development-tools/blooms- taxonomy.html

TYPES OF ASSIGNMENTS Cognitive ProcessPotential Learning Activity RememberingList the main events of a story UnderstandingClassify types of processes or events ApplyingConstruct a model to demonstrate how something works EvaluatingDesign a questionnaire to gather info CreatingConduct a debate See handout for more ideas

TYPES OF ASSIGNMENTS USING BLOOM’S DIGITAL TAXONOMY  From Educational Origami:  resources/ resources/

ASSESSMENT—FORMATIVE VS. SUMMATIVE  Formative Assessment—used to monitor student learning to provide feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning  Helps students ID strengths and weaknesses  Helps faculty recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately  Generally low stakes, such as quizzes, one-minute papers, rough draft of papers but can lead to better learning at the summative assessment  Example: Diane Gilmore, April 2016 Professor of the Month,  Summative Assessment—used to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit, such as a course or program  Compared to some standard or benchmark  High stakes, such as licensure exam pass rates, capstone projects, ETS MFT, senior recitals, comprehensive exams, term papers  Example: Amanda Wheeler, March 2016 Professor of the Month,

ALIGNING ASSESSMENT TO BLOOM’S TAXONOMY  University of Central Florida’s Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning:  loomsTaxonomy/ loomsTaxonomy/  Match the assignment, activity, and assessment measure to the verb and the Bloom’s level of cognition to give you strong student-learning assessment data  Quiz (from University of Colorado at Denver) to see if you can do this: development/Documents/Tutorials/Assessment/module5/index.htm development/Documents/Tutorials/Assessment/module5/index.htm

STOP! HOW ARE YOUR ALIGNMENTS NOW?  We asked you to bring a list of learning assignments or activities.  Are your unit or chapter learning assignments/activities aligned to your outcomes?

THANK YOU!  Thank you for coming.  Please call or us if you need further help  Extension 2989  