How to Fill Out the CARD Form (Course Assessment Reporting Data Form)

Enter Your Course Information Fill in the following information in column B : Semester/Year: Spring/2008 Course Alpha and Number: Bowling 101 Total # of Students in Class: 17 Make sure to press after entering your information. Remember that places to enter text in Excel are called “cells” and are located using a grid system. So, for example, the space in which you need to type the Semester/Year is cell B3.

Here’s what it will look like once you’ve put in your Basic Course Information.

REMEMBER!! It is essential that you put only a NUMERICAL VALUE in Cell B5 (total # of students in class). This value is used in many of the calculations in this spreadsheet, and the formulae will only work if a number is provided here.

Next, you’ll need to add your course Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs). As an example, cell B8 is highlighted in this picture with a black box around it. This is the first cell underneath the SLO #1 heading. Type in the first SLO for your course, preferably in the same language used in the CAF and your course syllabus.

Dealing with Lengthy SLOs Sometimes, SLOs as they appear on the CAF and on syllabi can be very lengthy and unwieldy—like the one in this example (top illustration). If you have some SLOs like this, you probably already have a way of referring to them in a “shorthand” sort of way. To make this CARD form a little more friendly, you can input your “Short SLO Version” just below the long-winded one. Or, if you prefer, just delete the text in there and leave the cell (in this case B9) empty.

Identify the Assessment Task Next, you’ll need to identify the specific task you are using to assess the particular SLO you just entered. Type a very brief description of the task in the cell below the short SLO version (which may or may not be blank). This description can be very simple—like “course portfolio” or “observed student performance” or “embedded question on final exam.” Or, it can be as specific as you like—”Essay Assignment #1” or “Chapter 6 Group Project,” or Question 24 on Chapter 9 Quiz.”

So you might have something that looks like this:

And, then, add the benchmark. In the cell below the assessment task for your SLO, specify what you have established as the minimum “acceptable” score for students to achieve on this particular assessment task.

REMEMBER!! It is essential that you put only a NUMERICAL VALUE in the “Benchmark” cell. Do not use a letter grade, a range of acceptable scores, or include a % sign. This value is used in many of the calculations in this spreadsheet, and the formulae will only work if a number is provided here.

Now, repeat as needed! You’ve now finished inputting your information for your first SLO. Now, you’ll need to repeat the same process for each of your remaining course-level SLOs. The CARD form provides space for up to 9 SLOs. If you need more space for additional SLOs, please contact the Assessment Coordinator for an adjusted template that will fit your needs.

It’s a very good idea to save frequently while doing this. Save your file by using the “Save As” function, and rename your file in an easy-to-understand format like this: CARD for Bowling 101—Spring 2008

Once you’ve finished inputting all of your course-level SLOs, you can start adding data, like student names and scores.

Identifying Your Students You’ll notice that down the left- hand side of the form there is a large section of blank spaces titled “Student Names.” Since most of us know our students by name rather than by ID number or other format, and since most of us record our grades and other data using student names, this is the easiest way to organize your list in the CARD form too. The form provides you with sufficient space for 35 students.

Once you put in student names, you might have something that looks like this. Don’t worry if you have blank spaces in this section. The template is set up to ignore any blank spaces, so you don’t need to delete any unused rows. If you need space for more than 35 students, please contact the Assessment Coordinator for an adjusted template that will fit your needs.

Inputting Student Scores Once you have your student names in, you can start entering each student’s scores for each SLO Assessment Task. Make sure you enter only numbers here—not letter grades. In the example here, it looks like most students did fairly well, although poor Bert really messed up! If Bert had not shown up for the lab, I might have chosen to leave the space blank. Either way, Bert’s score will be calculated into the averages as a zero.

Bang! Presto! The nicest thing about this form is that it will do all of your assessment number- crunching for you. Below the place where you input student names and scores is a data output section. When you have no data in the cells, it looks like this. But, this is what automatically happens when you input the data from the previous slide.

Guess What? You’re Almost Done! Once you input data for each of your SLOs, you will have completed assembling a tool that will give you a clear perspective on exactly how your students are doing on each of the outcomes you have identified as being most important in your course. When you have finished inputting all of your data, you should delete all of the student names. This will help to keep the data anonymous and protect student confidentiality.

The End Is Just a Click Away! Now that you’ve finished inputting all of your data, and have deleted the student names, make sure you save the file. For your own purposes, you might want to save the final version separately from the version with the student names. To do this, use the “Save As” function, and rename your file, perhaps something like this: CARD for Bowling 101—Spring 2008_NoNames

Now, Send Your CARD Off On Its Way When the “No Name” version is saved, you should it to the Assessment Coordinator as an attachment. You will receive an confirming that your CARD form for that course has been received.

What Information Will Be Kept By Whom? The completed CARD forms will be stored electronically in the same place as the completed assessment plan forms. The Assessment Coordinator will have access to them, and you may have access to the forms you have completed for your own courses at any time. (The specifics are currently under discussion with the Faculty Senate.)

Will Anyone Else See My Students’ Individual Scores? The second sheet of the CARD form is designed to serve as a report printout. It shows only the SLO information (SLO, assessment task, and benchmark), the average student score, and the number and percentage of students who reached the benchmark. However, because the second sheet depends upon the data from the first sheet, we cannot simply delete the first sheet. This report printout will be used for accreditation reports and to provide data for decision making.

This is what the second sheet report looks like:

This Concludes the CARD Form Tutorial If you have questions or need additional assistance, contact the Assessment Coordinator or any member of the Assessment Committee.