Preparing Future Faculty/FaCET Assessment Session 13 September 2017

What is assessment? What do think about when you think about assessment?

Why We Assess Assessment helps us to make sure we are fulfilling the promises we make to our students and to society (Suskie, 2010; Finley, 2014) Institutional mission and values statements General Education Core mission, goals, and student learning outcomes (SLOs) Department / program mission statement, educational goals, and SLOs Course SLOs

Assessment helps to ensure we are delivering on what we care about: that students get the best possible education, and that the learning is of appropriate scope, depth, and rigor. Assessment answers the questions you care about concerning teaching and learning.

Three fundamental questions that we want to answer through assessment: What have our students learned? Are we satisfied with what they’ve learned? If not, what are we going to do about it? (Eder, 2010)

What is assessment? Assessment is a process that converts data into information that is used to improve student learning. The ultimate purpose of assessment is to make programmatic alterations that result in enhanced student learning. The assessment process is not complete until the results are used to make improvements. Assessment allows us to identify and preserve good practice in supporting student learning.

Assessment and Accountability To students and parents To tax payers To donors To society in general – education as a public good Regulatory/Oversight State Accreditors – regional, program ****If we engage effectively in assessment to support student learning, we will meet external demands for accountability.***

Three Levels of Assessment Institutional – General Education Program Program (degree, minor, certificate) Classroom

What Assessment Isn’t Assessment – in the context of institutional or program level – is not about individual faculty performance. Assessment is not about individual student performance. Assessment is about using aggregate student learning achievement data to make decisions concerning areas for programmatic improvement to enhance teaching and learning.

Institutional Level - General Education Program All faculty should be familiar with the goals and student learning outcomes of the General Education Core http://www.umkc.edu/core/ Information concerning assessment of the Gen Ed Core is available on the Assessment web site http://www.umkc.edu/assessment Data collection occurs primarily through double-blind reviews of samples of student artifacts by trained faculty panels. If you teach in the Gen Ed program, you will receive detailed information concerning data collection 2017-18 = Anchor 100, Discourse 100, and Focus C courses

Program Assessment Become familiar with your program’s student learning outcomes (SLOs). Talk with your chair and curriculum committee to ensure that your course SLOs contribute to the achievement of the program’s SLOs. Engage in discussions with colleagues concerning the program’s assessment process. Collaborate with colleagues to collect data, analyze results, and make programmatic alterations to enhance student learning. Annual program assessment reports are due October 15.

Classroom-Level Assessment Methods range from informal data collection to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) SoTL is, fundamentally, research on teaching and learning that takes place in your classroom and is shared publically. Course Assessment Techniques (CATs) (Angelo and Cross [1993]) quick and simple ways to get immediate feedback from students to help to evaluate what they are learning and where they may be experiencing difficulties A few examples of CATs

Resources Office of Assessment University Assessment Committee FaCET Faculty Fellow for Assessment – Caitlin Horsmon Colleagues across UMKC National organizations: AAC&U (American Association of College and Universities) NILOA (National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment) AALHE( Association for Assessment of Learning in Higher Ed) Linda Suskie, Assessing Student Learning