What Are Your Students Learning Keys to Effectively Assessing Your Graduate Program

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What Are Your Students Learning?Keys to
Effectively Assessing Your Graduate Program

• Kenneth G. Ruit, Ph.D.
• Associate Professor, Anatomy Cell Biology
• Assistant Provost, Office of VPAA Provost
• Program Assessment Resource Team
• Office of Instructional Development

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Goals for the Workshop Series

• 1. Understand principles of effective assessment
  of student learning.
• 2. Understand how assessment activities
  communicate what we value as educators.
• 3. Articulate a campus definition of assessment.
• 4. Learn the essential elements of an effective
  assessment plan.
• 5. Construct an assessment plan for your
  graduate program(s).

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Session 1 Communicating Your Graduate Programs
Mission and Goals for Student Learning
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Todays objectives

• 1. Identify key principles for assessment that
  will guide you in your work.
• 2. Introduce and discuss a campus definition of
  assessment of student learning.
• 3. See what an effective assessment plan looks
  like.
• 4. Assess the degree to which your programs
  goals, as currently stated, reflect its mission
  and focus on student learning.

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Principles of Assessment

• assessment of student academic achievement is
  an essential component of every institutions
  effort to evaluate overall effectiveness.it is
  the key to improving student learning.
  Assessment of student academic achievement is
  fundamental for all institutions that place
  student learning at the center of their
  educational endeavors.
• Higher Learning Commission, 2003

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How do we know that our students are learning
what we have said we want them to learn?

• Implicit in this key question are the following
  principles

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Principles of Learner Centered Assessment

• 1. Assessment is a faculty activity.
• 2. Assessment is driven by a program mission and
  mission-based student learning goals that are
  clear, concise and stated at the outset of the
  educational experience.
• 3. Assessment is research focused directly on
  our teaching. It employs methods appropriate to
  our stated goals and teaching methods and is
  designed to tell us things we didnt know before
  about what our students are learning.
• 4. Like all research, assessment requires
  documentation and dissemination.

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What we as educators value

• 1. Intentionality about how we engage in
  teaching and learning.
• 2. Student learning at the center of our
  educational endeavors.
• 3. Sound, evidence-based decision-making about
  our classroom teaching, program curricula,
  strategic planning and allocation of resources.
• 4. Sharing what we learn through assessment with
  others.

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Definition of Assessment of Student Learning

• Assessment is a process by which information from
  multiple sources is gathered and critically
  examined to better understand what our students
  are learning in relation to stated learning
  goals. Effective assessment results in informed
  decision-making documenting assessment
  activities with clarity and in a way that
  demonstrates continuity and consistency, and
  using the results of assessment to improve
  student learning.
• Program Assessment Resource Team, 2003

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Essential Elements of a Well-Constructed
Assessment Plan

• Introductory narrative portion
• A statement of the mission of the program
• A statement of the desired student learning goals
  
• A statement of the specific student learning
  objectives, the documentable outcomes of which
  contribute to achievement of the goal

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Essential Elements of a Well-Constructed
Assessment Plan

• Matrix portion
• A statement of the desired student learning goals
  objectives
• Educational experiences in which goals are to be
  attained
• Descriptions of the specific assessment methods
  to be used to assess each goal
• A statement of the timeline for which assessment
  data will be collected, analyzed, interpreted and
  documented
• Identification of who will be responsible for
  collecting, analyzing, interpreting and
  documenting the results of assessment
• A description of the process that will be
  implemented to document and communicate that the
  results of assessment have been used to inform
  instructional and curricular improvement

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UND Assessment Plan Template

• Narrative
• Matrix
• An Example

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Part 1 of the Assessment Plan

• Your mission, student learning goals, and
  objectives

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Your Programs Mission

• Should tell those who read it
• Who you are
• What you do
• For whom you do it
• How you will get it done
• In essence, your mission statement states the
  purpose of your program why you exist.

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Your Programs Mission

• Should be
• Understandable
• Brief, clear and concise
• Realistic and feasible
• Reflective of your values and beliefs
• Action-oriented
• Each word of your mission statement should be
  specific and purposefully chosen

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Example

• Who you are
• Department of Anatomy Cell Biology doctoral
  program
• What you do
• Provide preparation for careers in the biomedical
  sciences
• Focused on teaching and research
• For whom we do it
• Our students
• How we will get it done
• Provide a quality academic curriculum
• Emphasize training and experience in teaching and
  state-of-the-art research
• The Department of Anatomy Cell Biology doctoral
  program exists to prepare students for careers in
  teaching and research in the biomedical sciences
  by providing a quality academic curriculum that
  includes specific emphases in training and
  experience in teaching and state-of-the-art
  research.

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Your Programs Goals

• Should describe what your students should know or
  be able to do after the educational experience
  that they didnt know or werent able to do
  before. They are statements of broad, long-range
  intended outcomes.
• They should
• Establish the roadmap for all educational
  activities
• Establish the roadmap for assessment
• Inform students of your intentions and your
  expectations of them

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Your Programs Goals

• Are effectively stated when they
• Are student-focused rather than faculty-focused
• Focus on learning resulting from an educational
  experience rather than on the experience itself
• Reflect your programs mission and values
• Align with department, school and institutional
  goals
• Focus on important, not trivial, aspects of
  learning
• Focus on knowledge, skills and attitudes central
  to the discipline that are based on professional
  standards of excellence.
• Are general enough to capture important elements
  of teaching and learning but specific enough to
  be assessable and documentable now and in the
  future

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From Huba Freed, 2000
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Your Programs Goals

• Are effectively stated when they
• Are student-focused rather than faculty-focused
• Focus on learning resulting from an educational
  experience rather than on the experience itself
• Reflect your programs mission and values
• Align with department, school and institutional
  goals
• Focus on important, not trivial, aspects of
  learning
• Focus on knowledge, skills and attitudes central
  to the discipline that are based on professional
  standards of excellence.
• Are general enough to capture important elements
  of teaching and learning but specific enough to
  be assessable and documentable now and in the
  future

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Example

• The Department of Anatomy Cell Biologys
  mission is carried out with emphasis on the
  following goals
• 1. To provide a strong foundation in the
  anatomical and cell biological sciences.
• 2. To foster in students an attitude of inquiry
  that leads naturally to the scientific method of
  investigation.
• 3. To train students in state-of-the-art methods
  of biological research.
• 4. To engender in students a spirit of
  cooperation for the mutual benefit of all
  colleagues.

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Your Programs Goal-Related Objectives

• Objectives are statements of specific,
  obtainable, and documentable outcomes that
  contribute specifically to the achievement of a
  goal. They should be written using action words
  that specify observable and documentable
  behaviors.

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From Departmental Guidelines for Student Learning
Assessment Plan Building a Culture of Evidence,
San Diego State University http//dus.sdsu.edu/as
sessment/
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Repaired Anatomy Cell Biology Goal and
Goal-Related Objectives

• GOAL Students will acquire skills in
  experimental design, using modern methods in
  biomedical research, and communicating the
  results of research.
• OBJECTIVE Students will apply their knowledge of
  a topic to the construction of an experimental
  hypothesis and research questions that address
  the hypothesis.
• OBJECTIVE Students will formulate and execute an
  experimental protocol.
• OBJECTIVE Students will analyze and interpret
  data and communicate their work-in-progress
  annually in a departmental seminar.

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Great references

• M.E Huba and J.E. Freed, Learner-Centered
  Assessment on College Campuses Shifting the
  Focus From Teaching to Learning, 2000, Allyn and
  Bacon.
• B.E. Walvoord, Assessment Clear and Simple, 2004,
  Jossey-Bass.
• N.E. Gronlund, How to Write and Use Instructional
  Objectives, 4th edition, 1991, Macmillan
  Publishing.