Helping Your Department Advance and Implement Effective Assessment Plans Presented by: Karen Froslid Jones Director, Institutional Research and Assessment And Woubet Kassa Graduate Assistant Co-sponsored by the Committee on Learning Assessment (COLA)

Our Expected Outcomes Today As a result of participating in this workshop participants will be able to: O Describe the assessment process and identify why it is so important to AU’s success. O Read their department’s assessment plans and know how to identify actions that the department needs to take this spring in order to implement the plan. O Gain insights into how staff can help with the assessment process, including how to organize data collection, report findings, and upload supporting documents. O Learn the basics of how to use “TracDat”, AU’s Assessment Software

What is Assessment? “Assessment is an ongoing process aimed at understanding and improving student learning.”

What is Assessment? It involves: O making our expectations explicit and public; O setting high standards for learning quality; O systematically gathering, analyzing, and interpreting evidence to determine how well performance matches those standards; O using the resulting information to document, explain, and improve performance. “…Assessment can help us focus our collective attention, examine our assumptions, and create a shared academic culture dedicated to assuring and improving the quality of higher education.” AAHE Bulletin, November 1995, p. 7.

The Program Assessment Process Faculty set student learning outcomes (SLOs) Ensure that students have opportunities to learn Develop and implement ways to assess whether student learning outcomes are being met. Review results to determine strengths and where action is needed Use results to make changes to program/ curriculum Document Process/ Results FACULTY The “Assessment Plan”

Why Assess? O Create a shared vision for the goals of the major; O Know whether students are learning what we want them to learn; O Identify ‘best practices’ in instruction; O Focus efforts on curriculum issues that are most important to us; O Provide evidence for why additional resources are needed; O Demonstrate to students, perspective students and others the value of majoring in our discipline; O Meet accreditation requirements, which focus on accountability; and O Ensure that decisions about programs are in the hands of the faculty. IMPROVE STUDENT SUCCESS

What Assessment is Not O Used to evaluate faculty or the program O Something only done for accreditation purposes O Something ‘extra’ or outside the regular processes used to develop and improve curriculum

Assessment puts the focus on Learning!

Setting Learning Outcomes O Faculty have identified the learning outcomes students should gain as a result of graduating in each of your department’s majors. O Accreditors also expect learning outcomes to be articulated at the course level. These expected outcomes should be on syllabi.

“Mapping” program outcomes to individual courses O Where are students getting the opportunity to learn what we want them to learn? O This is not something that departments have been asked to do but it is considered “best practice”. O TracDat enables departments to do this should they like to do so.

Ways to Assess O Direct vs. Indirect Measures of Assessment O Direct – Tangible, visible evidence of learning, often reflected in examples of student work. O Indirect – Proxies of student learning. This might include evidence that is less clear than an evaluation of student work. For example, methods that solicit student opinion on whether they learned. O Qualitative vs. Quantitative Measures O Quantitative – Measures that can be put into numbers and analyzed. O Qualitative – Measures that can be reflective and usually non-numeric. Used to look for themes and for identifying the “why” behind quantitative results (so usually helpful in identifying recommendations for improvement.)

What are some specific ways that programs assess student learning? O Indirect O Surveys O Focus groups O Direct O Review of Student Papers O Quizzes or Exams O Student Presentations

Overall: When done right assessment… O Engages the entire faculty O Engages students O Is tied to other curriculum improvement processes already in place O Is planned and organized O Is useful

What does an assessment plan look like? O The case of underwater basket weaving! O Your department’s assessment plans. O Reporting: O Departments submit updates to the Senate Committee on Learning Assessment each October.

Six Suggestions for How Department Staff Can Help Contribute to Successful Assessment

1. Communicating Learning Outcomes and Assessment Plan O Can you help ensure that all faculty and students know what the learning outcomes are for their program? O Is the website a good spot? Do you have an listserv/news letter? O Can you help track whether or not course learning outcomes are on the syllabi? (A Middle States Accreditation Requirement) O Does your department have an interest in mapping how your courses link to the overall program outcomes?

2. Keeping Track of Assessment Schedule O What activities are planned for this spring? O How can you help remind faculty about the assessment schedule? O Does schedule need to be clarified in TracDat?

3. Organizing for Assessment O What faculty need to get together to plan the assessment? O Can you help plan a faculty meeting? O Direct Measures: How can you help collect, store and distribute examples of student work?

Nuts & Bolts of Collecting Student Work O Sampling O What a “representative” sample means O Make sampling easy for faculty. (A certain number from each section then every other student by id, every third student, etc.) O Make submission of examples easy O Find out if faculty require (or could require) electronic submission of papers O Can you run over and pick up the examples, copy them, then return them right away? O Removing identifying information

Nuts & Bolts of Surveys O Can you help identify who should get the survey? O Typically seniors O Can you help distribute survey? O Zoomerang.com and surveymonkey.com O Can be used for distribution and for data entry!

4. Summarizing Results O Can you help make copies of the evaluation sheet or rubric that faculty will use to review student work? O Can you help summarize the results of a rubric or survey? Add up the responses and put it in one report? O The importance of linking questions with specific learning outcomes.

5. Reporting Results O Can you help share the findings with the department? Can you add findings into TracDat? O Is it appropriate to print out the latest report for faculty once the results are in TracDat? O Can you help ensure that the supporting documentation is added to TracDat? O Can you collect these examples?

6. Keeping Track of ‘Best Practices’ in the Field O Can you help you department find examples of assessment plans from other institutions? O Does the disciplinary association provide guidance? O Can you help find resources in the library or elsewhere to help with the assessment efforts?

Resources O Assessment website: O Library reference material O CTRL – training on learning outcomes on syllabi O OIRA (Office of Institutional Research and Assessment) O Discipline/professional organizations

Staff in Action! O Basket weaving example: O What would you put on the ‘to do’ list to help your department organize for assessment this spring? In what ways might you be able to help? O What are some other things you might be able to do to help?

The Nuts and Bolts of ‘TracDat’ O TracDat is the system AU uses to report its assessment plans, organize documents related to assessments, and document results. O Plans are organized around the major. O You have been given access to TracDat but ask your department chair for permission before entering or changing anything in your plans.

Next Steps O Have a conversation with your department chair: O Review the six suggestions. How do you think you can contribute? O What role does your department chair want you to play? O What are your short term (before end of semester), medium term (before October) and longer term goals?

QUESTIONS? Karen Froslid Jones X6155 Woubet Kassa