Departmental or program student learning assessment is an ongoing
and systematic process aimed at describing, understanding, and
enhancing student learning. When departments and programs assess
student learning, faculty collaborate
- to articulate goals for student learning;
- to develop standards and criteria for determining whether students have achieved those desired goals;
- to collect data using direct and indirect measures of student learning;
- to analyze data in order to document and improve student learning.
Assessing student learning benefits faculty, students, and the university in several ways:
- Faculty, who have both the academic expertise and the
responsibility, can determine and describe what students in their
departments or programs should learn;
- Faculty can use assessment results to request resources and make program changes that would enhance student learning;
- Students can often improve their learning when they understand
course goals and the ways in which assignments support their achieving
those course goals. Students also benefit from understanding
academic expectations and the characteristics of strong academic work,
which good assessment plans make explicit for students.
- Niagara University can demonstrate to accrediting bodies, to
parents, to prospective employers, and to other stakeholders that it
has developed a plan for ensuring its graduates possess the knowledge,
skills, and values consistent with Niagara’s academic mission and
goals.
Some sources on outcomes assessment distinguish between learning goals and objectives. Other authors and publications conflate the terms. In those instances where sources distinguish between the two, goals describe what faculty members want their students to be
by the time the students complete a course or a major program of
study. An example of a goal would be, “Students will be
inspired by Niagara’s Vincentian mission to work for social
justice.” An objective, on the other hand, describes what students will or should do
to indicate they have met a particular goal. An example of an
objective would be, “Students will complete three hours of
service at a local non-profit institution.” Whatever
language your department or program uses, your assessment plan must
include clear statements about expected student learning
outcomes—statements that are clear and specific and coherent
within the framework of the departmental and institutional
missions. Think of these statements as descriptions of visible
and measurable student behaviors, products, or performances.
Faculty develop these statements to define operationally what students
would need to do to demonstrate they have achieved a desired learning
outcome.
When departments frame meaningful and specific goals as explicit
descriptions of what students will need to do to demonstrate desired
knowledge, skills, or values, departments will likely find that
students better understand what is expected of them; also, they will
likely find that assessing whether students have achieved particular
learning outcomes is easier to accomplish. To illustrate this
point, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education publication, Student Learning Assessment: Options and Resources,
offers a good example of how to make a goal “students will
exhibit proficiency in conducting research” more explicit:
“Students will learn the statistical, organizational, writing,
and analytical skills necessary to conduct meaningful and valid
scientific research” (p. 19).
An assessment plan describes departmental or program desired student
learning outcomes, the ways in which the department or program will
determine whether students have achieved those desired outcomes, and
the process the department or program will use to report and use its
findings.
Assessment plans need not be lengthy or complicated. Using the
sample grid provided through the “Sample Forms” link on
this site is one way—but certainly not the only way—to
begin to develop an assessment plan for your program. Whatever
method you use to design your plan, keep these points in mind:
- Faculty should collaborate to develop the plan, and the collaborative process should be described briefly in the plan;
- The plan should make clear the department or program’s
mission and goals and their relationship to the university’s
mission and goals;
- The plan should detail the assessment method(s) faculty will use to
assess desired student learning outcomes and the faculty’s
reason(s) for choosing those assessment methods;
- The plan should describe the process and procedures the department will use to communicate and act upon its assessment results;
- The plan should include a timeline and a list of those responsible
for enacting the plan, as well as a list of resources and personnel
needed to implement the plan.
Departments can use a variety of direct and indirect methods for
assessing student learning, which could yield both qualitative and
quantitative data about outcomes. In fact, departments can use
many of the tools and strategies faculty already employ to determine
how well students are performing in their classes. OAC advises
departments to look first at what direct and indirect assessment tools
and strategies are already in place in their programs.
Direct measures, such as exams, standardized tests, evaluations of
students’ performances (e.g. writing samples, student teaching or
internships, research or honors projects) provide useful data which
departments can interpret to determine whether students have achieved
particular learning outcomes.
Indirect methods, such as students’ responses to course
evaluations, surveys, or questionnaires that ask students to
report how well they are learning, can provide useful information
related to learning. While not sufficient by themselves, indirect
methods can help faculty understand students’ perceptions,
learning processes, and their experience of the classroom environment,
all of which can affect students’ learning.
In Student Learning Assessment: Options and Resources, the
Middle States Commission on Higher Learning offers these examples of
course-embedded direct measures of student learning: homework
assignments and quizzes, essays and case study analyses, observation
reports from internship supervisors, rubric or primary trait scores for
class presentations, and art or research projects (p. 29).
Indirect course-embedded methods could include course evaluations or
the number of hours spent engaged in service learning activities.
At the program level, direct measures of student learning could
include cooperating teachers’ assessments of student
teachers’ work, senior theses, or students’ performance on
standardized tests or licensure exams. Indirect measures at the
program level could include student satisfaction surveys, graduate
school or job placement data, and alumni surveys (p. 29).
A rubric is a kind of rating scale that lists criteria faculty use
for evaluating student work. Rubrics can be useful assessment
tools; you can find several sample rubrics by clicking the
“Sample Rubrics” link on this site.
The answer is, “It depends.” Departments can use grades
for program assessment if grades correspond directly to specific
program outcomes and if grading methods are consistent across faculty
and courses. Program assessment process based on these grading methods
requires a lot of work and coordination across courses.
In Student Learning Assessment: Options and Resources, the
Middle States Commission on Higher Education states that grades alone
do not serve as direct evidence of student learning because letter or
number grades do not describe “the content of what students have
learned” (p. 37).
Consider these complications:
- Grades can indicate many things about students besides how well
they have achieved desired learning outcomes. Grades often also
indicate that students attended class regularly, that they put forth
good effort, that they completed extra credit projects, and that they
participated often in class discussions.
- Grades in one section of a course may be based upon different standards or criteria from those used in another section.
However, grades can serve as appropriate measures when faculty have
taken steps to ensure that a particular course assignment clearly
corresponds with an intended objective. More specifically, grades on
tests or papers (as opposed to course grades or overall GPA) can be
used if they are designed to assess a particular competency in a
program. When grades are linked appropriately and directly to desired
learning goals, and when grades across sections of the same course are
informed by the same standards and criteria, grades could provide
strong evidence of student learning.
OAC recommends Walvoord & Johnson's Effective Grading
for information about this approach to grading. The approach the
authors recommend is very different from compiling course grades from
selected courses across the program, or counting the number of courses
in which students received passing grades.
