The Big Picture

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The Big Picture
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• Active Learning
• research/theory/pedagogy
• Learning Outcomes
• clarifying expectations
• Assessment
• measuring student learning

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Assessment and Accreditation
1B
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(No Transcript)
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• What needs to be assessed?
• Whats assessment?
• Arent we already doing it?
• Is this just one more initiative?

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To say the purpose of college is to provide
instruction is like saying

• The purpose of GM is to create assembly lines.
• The purpose of a hospital is to fill beds.

John Tagg Palomar College, 2000
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The Centrality of Assessmentto Knowing What
Students Learn

• Assessment IS a strategy, in part, for
  organizational accountability, distinctiveness,
  accreditation, and effectiveness.
• MORE IMPORTANTLY,assessment is a strategy for
  affirming and improving student learning and
  educational quality.

HLC 2006
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Assessment is Fundamental

• Essential to improving learning (curricular
  co-curricular)
• Essential to improving teaching and to improving
  learning environments
• Essential to providing evidence of the quality of
  educational experiences, courses, and programs
  and to improve them
• Essential to enhancing perception of the value of
  higher education

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Position on General Education
Regardless of how a higher learning organization
frames the general education necessary to fulfill
its mission and goals, it clearly and publicly
articulates the purposes, content, and intended
learning outcomes of the general education it
provides for its studentsshows its commitment
togeneral education.
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Position on General Education

• Effective general education can be shaped to fit
  unique organizational contexts. General
  education must be valued and ownedwhether
• Courses created, purchased, shared
• Faculty full- or part-time or employed by partner
  organization
• Organization creates general education through
  curriculum or experiential and off-campus
  opportunities

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Student Learning Effective Teaching
The organization provides evidence of student
learning and teaching effectiveness that
demonstrates it is fulfilling its educational
mission.
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Basic Messages

• Focused beyond assessment i.e., on making a
  difference in student learning
• Focused on creating an institutional culture
  around student learning
• Focused LESS on resources/inputs, MORE on
  processes, and EVEN MORE on experiences,
  outcomes, results (actual evidence of improved
  student learning attainment)

HLC 2006
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Basic Messages cont.

• Learning goals, educational offerings,
  assessment strategies are informed by and aligned
  with the mission and vision
• Explicit public statements exist on learning
  goals, objectives, and outcomes
• Responsibility is shared and includes collective
  involvement (appropriately) and commitment to
  learning experiences results

HLC 2006
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Basic Messages cont.

• No dogma there are a myriad of ways, forms,
  processes BUT effective assessment is done in
  multiple ways and at multiple levels
• Assessment/learning results impact institutional
  systems (budgeting, planning, program review,
  effectiveness)
• Documented evidence expected of assessment
  results used to improve learning not actual
  review of learning

HLC 2006
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Principles Adopted

• What an accrediting agency should expect of an
  institution
• Centrality of student learning in its mission,
  institution defines quality by how well it
  achieves mission
• Documentation of student learning, (clear goals,
  evidence, interpretation of data making
  judgments, using evidence to effect
  improvements)
• Compilation of evidence, multiple means, levels,
  curricula, co-curricular, intentional
  unintentional learning
• Stakeholder involvement, collection,
  interpretation, use of evidence is a collective
  endeavor
• Capacity Building, broad participation and
  commitment to improvement

HLC 2006
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Five Fundamental Questionsas Prompts to
Conversation

• How are your stated student learning outcomes
  appropriate to your mission, programs, degrees,
  and students?
• What evidence do you have that students achieve
  your stated learning outcomes?
• In what ways do you analyze and use evidence of
  student learning?
• How do you ensure shared responsibility for
  student learning assessment of student
  learning?
• How do you evaluate and improve the effectiveness
  of your efforts to assess and improve student
  learning?

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Emerging Question

• In what ways do you inform the public about what
  students learn and how well?

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Position on Assessment of Student Learning
FOCUS IS ON LEARNING
Assessment of student academic achievement is
fundamental for all organizations that place
student learning at the center of their
educational endeavors.
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Position on Assessment of Student Learning
FOCUS IS ON LEARNING
Commitment to and capacity for effective
assessment and improved learning figure more
prominently than ever in are more fundamentally
linked to all accreditation standards.
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As a Strategy of Inquiry
ASSESSMENT of STUDENT LEARNING is a
participatory, iterative process that

• Provides data/information you need on your
  students learning,
• Engages you and others in analyzing and using
  this data/information to confirm and improve
  teaching and learning,

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As a Strategy of Inquiry
ASSESSMENT of STUDENT LEARNING is a
participatory, iterative process that

• Produces evidence that students are learning the
  outcomes you intended,
• Guides you in making educational and
  institutional improvements,
• Evaluates whether changes made improve/impact
  student learning, AND DOCUMENTS THE LEARNING AND
  YOUR EFFORTS.

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Evidence More Fundamental
Evidence via assessment is more fundamental than
ever to knowing students are learning what they
need to learn, to ensuring student learning is
central at our institutions, and to
demonstrating higher educations effectiveness
to the public and others.
Why document?
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Commitment to Student Learning
Effective assessment becomes a matter of
commitment, not a matter of compliance
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Institutions Took Action

• Early 90s
• Developed plans submitted for approval to HLC
  began implementation

Mid-90s Built awareness pursued professional
development
Mid-90s Tapped into research, scholarship on
teaching, learning, assessment
Late-90s Evaluated, revised approaches
improved processes, curricula, pedagogy
Late-90s Established resources, roles,
infrastructure launched IR, data-gathering
processes
HLC 2006
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Institutions Took Action

• Early Millennium
• Used Assessment Culture Matrix to self-evaluate
  progress, make adjustments, adopt good practices

Early Millennium Began closing feedback loops,
documenting changes responded to Commission
follow-up
2003 2004 Learned about new Criteria raised
questions about student learning, assessment, and
accreditation given the new Criteria
HLC 2006
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Commission Defined Focus

• PURPOSE STATEMENT
• The primary purpose of an assessment program is
  to contribute to the continuous improvement of
  student learning by documenting the extent to
  which
• Students are achieving the learning that the
  institution as a whole and the faculty intend
  and
• Students are meeting or exceeding the published
  goals and measurable objectives for general
  education and disciplinary learning that are a
  reflection of those broader institutional goals.

HLC 2000
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Commission Defined Focus

• EFFECTIVE ASSESSMENT
• The degree to which the college and its academic
  programs
• demonstrate that they are actively using the
  results of assessment to discover where students
  could be learning more and better, and
• from discussion of those findings, recommend and
  make changes that result in documented
  improvements in student learning.

HLC 2006
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Assessment (AAHE Forum 1992)

• The assessment of student learning begins with
  educational values.
• Assessment is most effective when it reflects an
  understanding of learning as multidimensional,
  integrated, and revealed in performance over
  time.
• Assessment works best when the programs it seeks
  to improve have clear, explicitly stated
  purposes.
• Assessment requires attention to outcomes but
  also and equally to the experiences that lead to
  those outcomes.

• Assessment works best when it is ongoing, not
  episodic.
• Assessment fosters wider improvement when
  representatives from across the educational
  community are involved.
• Assessment makes a difference when it begins with
  issues of use and illuminates questions that
  people really care about.
• Assessment is most likely to lead to improvement
  when it is part of a larger set of conditions
  that promote change.
• Through assessment, educators meet
  responsibilities to students and to the public.

Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Student
Learning (developed under the auspices of the
AAHE Assessment Forum, December 1992.
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Assessment is Essential

• To improving learning as defined by institution
  (curricular co-curricular)
• To improving teaching and to improving learning
  environments
• To providing evidence of the quality of
  educational experiences, courses, programs and
  to improving them

HLC 2006
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People do not resist change, they resist being
changed. Peter
Scholtes
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Student Learning Principles

• Principle 1 The role of student
• learning in accreditation.
• The institution defines educational quality
  one of its core purposes by how well it
  fulfills its declared mission on student learning.

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Student Learning Principles

• Principle 2 Documentation of student
• learning.
• The institution demonstrates that student
  learning is appropriate for the certificate or
  degree awarded and is consistent with the
  institutions own standards of academic
  performance.

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Student Learning Principles

• Principle 3 Compilation of evidence.
• The institution derives evidence of student
  learning from multiple sources, such as courses,
  curricula, and co-curricular programming, and
  includes effects of both intentional and
  unintentional learning experiences. Evidence
  collected from these sources is complementary and
  demonstrates the impact of the institution as a
  whole on the student.

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Student Learning Principles

• Principle 4 Stakeholder involvement.
• The collection, interpretation, and use of the
  student learning evidence is a collective
  endeavor, and is not viewed as the sole
  responsibility of a single office or position.
  Those in the institution with a stake in
  decisions of educational quality participate in
  the process.

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Student Learning Principles

• Principle 5 Capacity building.
• The institution uses broad participation in
  reflecting about student learning outcomes as a
  means of building a commitment to educational
  improvement.