Jeanne M. Clerc, Ed.D. Western Illinois University (WIU) October 14, 2011

 Describe the context of how health courses fit into general education requirements at Western Illinois University (WIU).  Define and differentiate among the terms: goals, objectives, and student learning outcomes.  Describe at least three reasons why a teacher would find developing student learning objectives useful.

 Describe the three types of student learning outcomes and current Bloom’s taxonomic classification of cognitive objectives.  Describe the three major components of a student learning objective.  Given a student learning objective, analyze the objective for its components and appropriateness to a health course.

 Discuss how student learning objectives are critical to university and course assessment initiatives.  Provided with a case study of WIU faculty developing common student learning objectives, describe what parts of the group process were done well, and what suggestions/ recommendations there are for future refinement.

 As part of the general education curriculum requirement, students must take three semester hours (s.h.) in Human Health and Well Being.  This requirement may be partially met by taking at least one of the following 2 s.h. health classes: ◦ HE 120: Personal Health Promotion ◦ HE 121: Human Sexuality ◦ HE 123: Drug Use and Abuse

 A desired future state or condition; a broad statement that is not directly measurable. ◦ Example: The goal of the course HE 120, Personal Health Promotion, is to enhance students’ physical, intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual health to pursue their college and life goals more effectively.

 Objectives ◦ Leads to partial accomplishment of a goal ◦ Short-term, measurable specific activity  Describe the conditions. These may include parameters, timelines, and resources provided. The conditions of an objective are usually indicated by a “Given” phrase at the beginning of the objective.  Use an action verb to describe the level of knowledge, performance, or behavior desired.  Must describe the expected result or outcome in measurable and specific terms

 Often used synonymously with course objectives  Differences from course objectives  Course objectives are often written in the format of a student learning outcome.

 Focus on what students should know (cognitive), be able to do (skills, performance) or behaviors to exhibit at the end of the course.  Includes an expected standard of performance such as 80 percent accuracy.

 SLOs ◦ Provide the framework for developing the assessment process of student learning ◦ Clarify the expectations, standards, and level of performance expected for students.  SLOs should minimize surprises for students when it comes to assessment ◦ Are used in formative and summative assessment processes related to course and program improvement. ◦ Can help address accountability concerns in higher education with data collection, analysis, and reporting results.

 SLOs- particularly helpful in courses where: ◦ Multiple faculty with different perspectives teach to assure consistency in outcomes ◦ Courses are sequenced, such as two semesters of Anatomy and Physiology ◦ Students have a diverse background in experiences, foundation knowledge, interest, and abilities

 Helps to focus on the critical knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) from the nice to know.  Minimizes confusion and conflict between faculty and students if a transparent assessment process is described based on the SLOs.  Helps the faculty member determine best methods of instruction, class activities, appropriate assignments, and valid and reliable methods of assessment based on the objectives.

 Cognitive  Psychomotor (skill)  Affective (affect, feelings, behavior)

 Knowledge  Comprehension  Application  Analysis  Synthesis  Evaluation

 Remember  Understand (Bloom’s original comprehension)  Apply  Analyze  Evaluate  Create (Bloom’s original synthesis)

 Apply practical and essential knowledge and skills as well as utilize appropriate resources to make personal health-promoting behavior changes. ◦ Methods of instruction: Lecture, case study, class discussion, group discussion. ◦ Outcome: Desired change in a student behavior leading to a healthier lifestyle.  Activity: Students choose a target behavior for the semester and write two reflective papers (mid-term and final) describing a personal health behavior chosen for the semester, the results, and their reflections  Assessment: Rubrics for written reflective paper

 Mid-term paper is both summative and formative, but focuses on formative.  Final paper is summative but also comments meant to encourage continual positive behavior change.

 Diversity can be a strength, but challenging with different abilities and interests ◦ Students complete a profile at the beginning of the semester.  Addressing student and college transition issues ◦ Used as an opportunity to introduce students to university resources ◦ Used as an opportunity to help students learn to study and manage time  Keeping the students engaged ◦ Debates on current controversial issues or ambiguous research ◦ Relates to the course objective on their ability to analyze, research, work in teams, and effectively communicate in teams and in a classroom presentation situation.

 45 students in a class section ◦ Larger class size  May drive the type of assessments you use and number of writing assignments you require  May drive the type of activities you do ◦ Online classes of 45 students- even more challenging

 Most textbooks devised for a 3 s.h. course ◦ Too much content and not enough time

 The Good News: ◦ Taking the time to craft, evaluate, and revise SLOs can help you overcome some of the challenges of teaching!

 Our department offers at least fifteen to twenty sections of our general education courses each semester.  The Problem: Each faculty member developed their own student learning objectives and we were unable to document comparable exit learning outcomes that occurred among the different instructors and modalities of instruction.

 Develop common student learning outcomes for each of the health science general education courses. ◦ Some courses were easier than others ◦ Personal Health Promotion was the most challenging  Many more faculty involved  Consensus difficult to achieve

 Common course objectives were developed with opportunity for input and review by all faculty teaching Personal Health Promotion  Continuing the SOSO was NOT an option  Why we were able to reach consensus -total conformity was not expected. ◦ Faculty were given opportunity to add more objectives to their course if they desired. ◦ Faculty retained freedom to emphasize certain topics as long as the core objectives were covered ◦ At the same time, we agreed to limit textbook selection to three books. We could not agree on one.

 The Group Process facilitated: ◦ facilitated dialogue on pedagogy and sharing of teaching ideas and activities. ◦ shared responsibility and accountability for student outcomes in all Personal Health courses.  The Outcomes ◦ More consistent approaches and focus on agreed upon core objectives

 Currently: ◦ Assessment measures for the general education courses is driven primarily by individual faculty ◦ Reports of assessment measures to the General Education Council  are based on faculty selected course objectives (not all need to be reported) and their chosen method(s) of assessment for that objective

 Report of assessment of all student learning objectives  Use of common, valid and reliable assessment instruments  Analysis of results would lead to faculty group dialogue on the results, interpretation of the results, and how the results will be used for future course improvement

 Mail: Dr. Jeanne Clerc Department of Health Sciences, 402 Stipes Western Illinois University 1 University Circle Macomb, IL  Phone: 