Refining Your Assessment Plan: Session 1

1. Refining Your Assessment Plan: Session 1 Goals and Learning Outcomes Ryan Smith and Derek Herrmann University Assessment Services (UAS)

2. Introductions • Ryan Smith, Director, UAS • Derek Herrmann, Coordinator, UAS • Assessment Advisory Council (AAC) • Assessment Academy Team

3. Introductions • Who you are • In what Department/School you work • Why you are here

4. Refining Your Assessment Plan: Session 1 Overview of PRAAP

5. Overview of PRAAP • Process for the Review of Academic Assessment Plans • Two years before Program Review (and one year before Self-Study) • AAC members and UAS staff • Use an established rubric

6. Overview of PRAAP

7. Refining Your Assessment Plan: Session 1 Goals and Learning Outcomes

8. Goals and Learning Outcomes • Goals: broad statements concerning knowledge, skills, or values that faculty expect graduating students to achieve • Learning outcomes: describe the kinds of things that students know or can do after instruction that they did not know or could not do before

9. Goals and Learning Outcomes • Benefits of formulating goals and learning outcomes • Form the basis of assessment at the course, program, and institutional levels • Provide direction for all instructional activity • Inform students about the intentions of the faculty

10. Goals and Learning Outcomes • Identifying potential goals and learning outcomes • Research • Reflection • Collaboration • Consensus

11. Goals and Learning Outcomes • Depth of processing • Knowledge – to know specific facts, terms, concepts, principles, or theories • Comprehension– to understand, interpret, compare and contrast, explain • Application – to apply knowledge to new situations, to solve problems

12. Goals and Learning Outcomes • Depth of processing (cont’d) • Analysis – to identify the organizational structure of something; to identify parts, relationships, and organizing principles • Synthesis – to create something, to integrate ideas into a solution, to propose an action plan, to formulate a new classification scheme • Evaluation – to judge the quality of something based on it adequacy, value, logic, or use

13. Goals and Learning Outcomes • Effective learning outcomes should: • Focus on the learner, not the teacher – on what students will learn, not on what faculty will teach • Explain how students can demonstrate mastery of program goals • Comprehensively define each goal • Use active verbs that specify definite, observable behaviors • Identify the depth of processing that faculty expect • Distinguish between absolute and value-added expectations

14. Refining Your Assessment Plan: Session 1 Curriculum Mapping (Part 1)

15. Curriculum Mapping • Alignment • Involves clarifying the relationship between what students do in their courses and what faculty expect them to learn • Identify gaps when the alignment between their curriculum and learning objectives is analyzed

16. Curriculum Mapping • Alignment • Often curricular changes made to improve student learning opportunities beforeprogram assessment data are collected

17. Curriculum Mapping • Cohesive curriculum • Systematically provides students opportunities to synthesize, practice, and develop increasingly complex ideas, skills, and values • Focusing on learning objectives allows faculty to evaluate and improve curricula and can lead to the development of new policies and procedures

18. Curriculum Mapping

19. Curriculum Mapping

20. Curriculum Mapping

21. Curriculum Mapping

22. Refining Your Assessment Plan: Session 1 Questions, Comments, and Discussion