The Basics of

 The ACCJC requires it for accreditation  To report it on program review  To make course outlines more relevant (SLOs, assignments, reading, etc.)  To refine assignments, tests, and explanations

To improve student learning!

 Assessment of student learning can be defined as the systematic collection of information about student learning, using the time, knowledge, enterprise, and resources available, in order to inform decisions about how to improve learning (Walvoord 2004).  Assessment is a kind of "action research," intended to inform local action.

 Educational situations contain too many variables to make "proof" possible. Therefore, assessment gathers indicators that will be useful for decision making.  Assessment does not limit itself only to learning that can be objectively tested. Rather, a department can state its highest goals, including goals such as students' ethical development, understanding of diversity, and the like. Then it can seek the best available indicators about whether those goals are being met.  Assessment means basing decisions about curriculum, pedagogy, staffing, advising, and student support upon the best possible data about student learning and the factors that affect it.  A great deal of assessment is already occurring in responsible classrooms, departments, and institutions, though we have not always called it that.

 Can be course or program level  Three basic steps:  Articulate your goals  Gather evidence about how well students are meeting these goals  Use the information for improvement

 Basic principles of assessment (AAHE)  The assessment of student learning begins with educational values. Assessment is not an end in itself but a vehicle for educational improvement.  Assessment is most effective when it reflects an understanding of learning as multidimensional, integrated, and revealed in performance over time.  Assessment works best when the programs it seeks to improve have clear, explicitly stated purposes.  Assessment requires attention to outcomes but also and equally to the experiences that lead to those outcomes

 Basic principles (continued)  Assessment works best when it is ongoing not episodic. Assessment is a process whose power is cumulative.  Assessment fosters wider improvement when representatives from across the educational community are involved.  Assessment makes a difference when it begins with issues of use and illuminates questions that people really care about.

 Basic principles (continued)  Assessment is most likely to lead to improvement when it is part of a larger set of conditions that promote change. Assessment alone changes little. Its greatest contribution comes on campuses where the quality of teaching and learning is visibly valued and worked at.  Through assessment, educators meet responsibilities to students and to the public.

 It’s critical that assessment remain in the hands of faculty (for assessment of courses and academic programs) and student services staff (for assessment of student services)  Not everything needs to be assessed at once  Pick something and just get started  Once you’ve gotten started, formulate a basic plan on how/ when other classes/ programs will be assessed

 Communicate with/ meet with faculty in the discipline district-wide  Select a course(s) to target  Select an SLO(s) to target  Design/ select a means to assess the SLO(s)  Gather artifacts  Design a rubric and practice norming  Score/ evaluate artifacts  Record and report  Internal vs. external reporting of data  Make adjustments based upon findings  Continue the cycle

 Need to define programs  GE outcomes  Liberal Arts AA degree outcomes  Certificates  Occupational

SLO1SLO2SLO3SLO4SLO5 CRS 1X XX CRS 2 XX X CRS 3 XXX CRS 4X X CRS 5XXXX SLO1SLO2SLO3SLO4SLO5 CRS 1B BB CRS 2 BI B CRS 3 BII CRS 4I I CRS 5IIMM

 Assessment coordinator  Assessment committee being formed  Curriculum Committee – SLO advice  Assessment books  Convocation workshop

 Just start somewhere  Collaborate with colleagues  Make it your own  Make it relevant/ useful  Apply the results  Remember that it’s a continuous cycle Many thanks to Susan Nordlof and the other members of the original A-Team for getting CR started with assessment and compiling much of the material used in this presentation.