Using Embedded Assessment to Collect Evidence of Student Learning Using Embedded Assessment to Collect Evidence of Student Learning

Presentation Overview  What is Embedded Assessment?  Advantages of Embedded Assessment  Disadvantages of Embedded Assessment  Types of Course-Embedded Assessment  Process of Embedding Assessment  Creating and Designing Course- Embedded Assessments

What is Embedded Assessment?  Take place in a class or a group of classes  Take place in a class or a group of classes  Determines whether students are learning pre-established learning outcomes  Take advantage of pre-existing student motivation to perform well  Assess what is actually taught

Advantages of Embedded Assessment  Student motivation is high because the assessment activity is part of a course activity  Costs are reduced because incentives are unnecessary  It usually does not require additional student time as it is part of the curriculum  It is faculty-driven and thus, more likely, to be used for improvement  Because it’s linked to the curriculum, it’s more likely to identify specific curricular needs/deficiencies  Feedback to faculty is usually quick

Disadvantages of Embedded Assessment  Faculty commitment is absolutely essential, but can be hard to get  Faculty resistance to the process may be substantial  Achieving agreement among faculty on an assessment approach across courses is a challenge  Usually there are no comparable data

Types of Course-Embedded Assessment  Exams  Quizzes  Research Papers  Projects  Field Experiences  Lab Reports  Internships  Pre/Post Comparisons  Student Portfolios  Capstone Evaluations

Process of Embedding Assessment  All faculty involved must identify specific learning goals for course(s)  The goals should be succinct and central to the overall objectives of the course  For multiple sections, all faculty must agree to the goals and commit to teaching to the goals  Assessment methods must be agreed upon, including when and what will be used, e.g. pre/post, final exam, etc. Rubrics, exam questions, prompts, etc.  Standards must be agreed upon  Results must be analyzed and then interpreted  Information must be shared with all relevant faculty  Where appropriate, the course should be improved or the assessment technique modified

Creating and Designing Course-Embedded Assessments  Select the course SLO to be assessed; or select some aspect of that existing assignment that aligns with the course SLO  Evaluate and review course assignments which could be used for assessment;  Decide which course elements would best serve as assessment tools and which elements will need to be modified to be modified to meet the needs of assessing course objectives;  Integrate the embedded assessments elements into the course;

Creating and Designing Course-Embedded Assessments  Collect the results of the assessment tools; Analyze that aspect, across all students, to see how successfully achieved it was by all students.  Determine the level of student achievement as a result of the assessment tools and evaluate the achievement of course SLO;  Make appropriate changes to the course content or curriculum if this is indicated by the assessment results.  Using the example below, let’s say you wanted to analyze punctuation across the entire class; you would see that punctuation fared pretty well…while spelling seemed to miss the mark.  You can make this process as straightforward, or as rigorous as you want!

SLOs Assessment vs. Grades Identified Learning Outcomes Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Student 5 LearningOutcomeAverage Spelling Grammar Punctuation Structure TOTAL Individual Student Grade: CADCB Assessment isn’t the same as assigning grades. Grading standards might be vague, while assessment information is very specific. Grades do not provide: Specific information about students’ performance on discrete tasks Meaningful data across sections Objective student data which can be used for improvement of student learning or recognition of student achievement Grades alone do not give enough information on specific strengths and weaknesses of students.

Considerations for Using Embedded Assessment  Political considerations if selecting samples, e.g. Why me or my class?  Incentives for faculty to be involved?  Incentives for students?  Course-embedded assessment can be labor intensive  It is the most likely to produce real improvement in the classroom.

Lets go and Embedded Some Assessment