1. Assessing Learning

2. Expected Outcomes Write measurable learning outcomes
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Write measurable learning outcomes
Design assessments that align with learning outcomes

3. Maps and Assessments
If you have ever taken a road trip, you recognize the utility of maps. We can hardly expect to get to our destination without knowing where we started from. Maps allow us make our journey from point A to point B in the most efficient way possible.
Assessment is a lot like using a map. It allows us to: know where our students are conceptually before we begin a learning activity.
decide the most efficient way for them to meet the learning objectives we set.
measure their progress and/or achievement of the learning objectives.

4. Maps and Assessments
Just as knowing that different colored lines on the map represent the difference between a major highway and a dirt road can help a map user plan an easier journey, there are a few "eternal truths" concerning assessment. Your students will value and focus on material that will impact their grade.
Their motivation to learn will increase if you tell them "up front" what skills and content will be assessed with clearly stated learning objectives.
Always align your assessment to the learning objectives of the activity

5. Warmup 1: Outcome-to-Assessment
Write an assessment for the following learning outcome:
Students will be able to compare and contrast the atmospheres of Venus, Earth, and Mars
How could you tell if your students are able to do this? What would you ask them to do to demonstrate their ability? This could be any type of assessment, from very simple to quite involved.

6. Warmup 2: Assessment-to-Outcome
Here’s an example assessment. What do you think the instructor wanted students to be able to do? What was the learning outcome?
The figure below shows a map of atmospheric pressure for somewhere in the NORTHERN HEMISPHERE. The labeled lines are isobars (lines of equal pressure). Assuming that the airflow
here is GEOSTROPHIC,*
what direction will the
winds blow?
*Geostrophic means that the Coriolis force balances the horizontal pressure gradient force

7. Why write learning outcomes?
Clarify your expectations for students.
Communicate what students will be able to do as a result of learning opportunities
Help students focus their efforts on what’s important
Clarify your expectations for yourself.
Guide your course design (assessments, activities)
Focus instruction on what you think is important
Help communicate with other faculty about your course
Help define cohesive departmental curriculum
Design for what you value
Reflect what you value in student learning
Be explicit about student learning
Helps keep the focus on students and their learning

8. Intro to Bloom’s Taxonomy (useful tool)
Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001

9. Practice w/ Bloom’s Taxonomy
A course about The Three Little Pigs:
A wolf looking for food finds three pigs, each one
having their own home made of straw, sticks and finally, bricks. The wolf knocks on each door, threatening to blow their house down. The pigs with the straw and sticks fall victim to the wolf’s threat. The homeless pigs take refuge in the third pig’s house and the wolf is not able to blow the brick house down. The wolf comes down the chimney, and is caught in a pot of boiling water placed there by the third little pig.
Summary adapted by Jenny Knight
Image public domain from Wikipedia article
Illustration from J. Jacobs, English Fairy Tales (New York, 1895)
illustration from a book of fairy tales, This media file is in the public domain in the United States. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1923
Credit: Jenny Knight & Stephanie Chasteen

10. Practice w/ Bloom’s Taxonomy
Rate the cognitive level of these learning outcomes:
Compare and contrast the motivations of the wolf and the pigs
Predict which of the three pigs would rate highest on an IQ test (if you had been able to give it at the beginning of the story).
Describe the main characters in the story, and their roles.
Justify why the third little pig should not be prosecuted for boiling the wolf.
Credit: Jenny Knight & Stephanie Chasteen

11. Remembering Understanding Applying Analyzing Evaluating
Clicker: What Bloom’s level did you rate: Describe the main characters in the story, and their roles.
Remembering
Understanding
Applying
Analyzing
Evaluating

12. Remembering Understanding Applying Analyzing Evaluating
Clicker: What Bloom’s level did you rate: Predict which of the three pigs would rate highest on an IQ test (if you had been able to give it at the beginning of the story).
Remembering
Understanding
Applying
Analyzing
Evaluating

13. Activity: Write Learning Outcomes
For your context
That align with your enduring concepts and larger-scale goals
Write two outcomes that you think are at different Bloom’s levels. Then…
Swap with another participant
Independently, categorize each others’ outcomes by Bloom’s level
Discuss

14. Checklist for Learning Outcomes
Does the learning outcome identify what students will be able to do after the learning experience?
Is it clear how you would measure achievement of the learning outcome?
Do chosen verbs have a clear meaning?
Is the level of cognitive understanding appropriate? Is it aligned with your actual expectations and with student ability? Do your outcomes cover a range of levels?
Is the terminology familiar/common? If not, is knowing the terminology a goal?
Is the outcome relevant and useful to students (e.g. connected to their everyday life, or does it represent a useful application of the ideas)?
Does the outcome align with your course-scale goals?

15. Example Learning Outcome? ... Bloom’s level?D. E.

16. Activity: Assessment Types
Stakes? Low  High
Formative? Summative?
What will students do?
Make a choice?
Generate something?
Write? Draw? Speak?
Examples (handout)

17. Activity: Assessment Types
Pair up with someone in a similar content area
Trade 1-2 learning outcomes (previously written)
Individually, write down ways your partner could assess his/her learning outcome (brainstorm)
Discuss with your partner
Debrief with large group

18. Activity: Write Assessments
For your context
That align with learning outcomes
That align with the Bloom’s level you expect

19. Reflection & Planning
What do you plan to do in order to align your learning outcomes with your assessments in your course?
What do you see as your main challenges in achieving alignment of learning outcomes and assessments in your course?