1. Creating a Culture of Assessment Arkansas State University – Jonesboro Institutional Priority “Develop a culture of learning to enhance institutional outcomes”

2. History of Assessment of Higher Education • National Commission on the Future of Higher Education- 2005 call to improve access, affordability, accountability, and quality • Governor Beebe – double college degree production by 2025

3. Good Professors: Then and Now • Know it all • Teach the motivated • Extend the scepter • Have their reasons • Know it when see it • Profess knowledge for the sake of knowledge • Earned the right to teach via a rite of passage (mentor, research, financial sacrifice) • Can explain it all • Motivate the flaccid • Receive high rankings • Explain their reasons • Follow the rubric • Produce products who function well in a global economy and technical society • Must provide education that is cheaper, faster, and more accessible Teacher Credentials Student Learning

4. Assessment Cycle

5. Prompts for Articulating Learning Outcomes of a Degree Program

6. Best Practice or Waste of Time? • Faculty-driven • Mission-driven • Realistic • Embedded • Ongoing • Enhanced by Scholarly Research • Implemented for Improvement • Administration-driven • Fad-driven • Idealistic • Additional • Episodic • Corrupted by High Stakes • Tolerated for Accountability PEDAGOGY PAPERWORK

7. What are the priorities? • Use of Data • Submit syllabi with general education or major-field goals listed along with specific SLOs for your course to the repository designated by your department chair • Degree Programs • Find out what the degree-program level goals and student learning outcomes are for the degree programs you advise • Connect SLOs from your course to these goals

8. General Education Goals - SLOs • Communicating effectively • Students should be able to construct and deliver a well-organized, logical, and informative oral or written presentation, accurately documented, that demonstrates proficiency in standard American English. • Students will demonstrate the ability to • *Produce writing that demonstrates proficiency in standard edited American English to make reasoned, well-organized arguments that are accurately documented; • *Construct and deliver a well-organized, logical, and informative presentation. • Using mathematics • Students should be able to use, understand and apply basic • mathematical skills in practical applications. • Students will demonstrate the ability to • *Interpret and analyze quantitative/mathematical information (such as formulas, graphs, and tables); • *Apply mathematical methods to solve problems.

9. General Education Goals - SLOs • Developing a life-long appreciation of the arts and humanities. • Students should develop an appreciation for the arts and humanities. They should be aware of the role • of art and literature in human civilization and contemporary culture. • Students will demonstrate the ability to • *Recognize works of literature or fine art and place them in their historical, cultural, and social contexts; • *Interpret works of fine art or literature. • Developing a strong foundation in the social sciences. • Students should be aware of the diverse systems developed by humans to manage and structure our relationships with one another. Students should prepare for the full range of public and private roles • they are expected to fulfill as citizens, decision-makers and human beings in a democratic America and in a global society. • Students will demonstrate the ability to • *Explain the processes and effects of individual and group behavior; • *Analyze events in terms of the concepts and relational propositions generated by the social science tradition.

10. General Education Goals - SLOs • Using science to accomplish common goals • Students should understand how science is conducted and the criteria for scientific evidence so that they will be able to make informed decisions about the health and well-being of their communities and the natural environment. They should be aware of the ethical and political issues raised by science. • Students will be able to • *Understand basic concepts of science as they apply to contemporary issues. • Responsible party for Assessment = General Education Committee (shared governance committee)

11. University-Level Goals and SLOs • Thinking Critically: students will be able to • Interpret and analyze the relevance and quality of information • Make judgments and draw conclusions based on credible evidence • Integrate ideas into a coherent argument • Global Issues: students will be able to • Demonstrate an understanding of the major patterns of interactions (such as, social, political, environmental, and economic) among nations, regions, and ethnic groups • Demonstrate an understanding of the historical background and the current and future implications of the use of resources globally • Using Technology: students will be able to • Use appropriate ethical and legal methods to retrieve, generate, interpret, and distribute information • (Responsible Party for Assessment = Learning Outcomes Advisory Council)

12. Personal Applications • Ask your Department Chair for a copy of the program goals and learning outcomes for your degree-program – assessment.astate.edu/tracdat • Include relevant goals on your syllabus • Identify non-negotiables • If general education, connect with GEC liaison • Embedded assessment • Pre-post testing • Major Field Testing • Reflective Writing/Portfolios • Evidence-based practices for reading/writing • Register for Assessment Institute - ITTC

13. THE ABCD Model • A = Audience (specify the learner) • B = Behavior (specify the measurable student behavior) • C = Condition or Circumstance (specify the situation within which the expected behavior must occur e.g. (e.g., in an oral presentation, in a written report, on a written quiz, with a prototype model, with a CAD drawing) • D = Degree (or Criterion) (specify the minimum acceptable performance standard in terms of quality, quantity or time ) • http://www.umuc.edu/mdfaconline/Presentations/ABCDmodel.doc

14. Assessment – Office ofStudent Learning Outcomes Dr. Josie Welsh - Director jwelsh@astate.edu 972-2989