Assessing Student Learning in Higher Education

 Section 1
Introduction

Section 2
  Background Survey
What is Assessment?
Why Assessment?
Accountability
Accreditation
Educational Improvement
Bloom's
Formative Feedback
Learning Paradigm
Prompting Learning
  Assessment for Learning Quiz
Answers

Section 3

Section 4
Assessment Tools and Data

Section 5
Course Assessment

Section 6
Program Assessment

Section 7
Closing the Loop
 

Section 8
Implementing Assessment Training on Campus

Section 9
References & Resources

Definitions

Workbook

Using Materials from this Website

Section Quiz

This was only an introduction to Assessment. The resources and links will provide much more depth, but you should be able to explain the basic rationale for learning about and doing assessment.

Check and see if you can recall the important points regarding in the quiz below. Select all the answers that apply, there may be none, one, or more.

1) Which of the following represent a major purpose for assessment?

a. improving student learning
b. increasing faculty workload
c. using assessment as a tool for learning
d. controlling and inhibiting academic freedom
e. providing accountability

2) Select any of the following that are important processes in assessment.

 a. identifying valid and appropriate student learning outcomes
 b. measuring success in meeting those outcomes
 c. using data to improve both teaching and learning
 d. reporting the data
 e. continually modifying and improving both the outcomes and the assessment

3) Which of the following are methods that have been used to address educational quality?

 a. mass standardized test
 b. performance-based funding linked to statistical measures
 c. outcomes and assessment linked to accreditation standards
 d. public report cards on educational performance
 e. ranking by criteria (such as Princeton Review, Peterson's, Time, and U.S. News & World Report

4) Which of the following have successfully improved and increased effective learning in higher education?

 a. mass standardized test
 b. performance-based funding linked to statistical measures
 c. outcomes and assessment linked to accreditation standards
 d. public report cards on educational performance
 e. ranking by criteria (such as Princeton Review, Peterson's, Time, and U.S. News & World Report

5) Which of the following factors have provided evidence that assessment contributes to improving education?

a. increased student engagement due to standardized testing
b. increased student learning linked to increased numbers of degrees and certificates
c. improved learning as a result of public report cards or other rating practices
d. improved learning associated with stricter government controls
e. data from research showing improved learning gains equal to 30%, two letter grades, 100 SAT points, diagnostic feedback from faculty-student interactions

6) Assessment is only going to improve education if

a. external agencies exert more power.
b. accreditation begins to use tougher measures.
c. funding is linked more specifically to educational needs.
d. faculty close the loop at the classroom and program levels.
e. institutions generate better statistical data.

Check out the answers

Resources and Links

Answers Community College faculty concerning motivation for doing SLOs and assessment.

 Assessing Assessment
Steen  (1999)

 

Why Assessment?
A valuable web article by Doug Eder of SIU
 

Download Section 2 as a printable
Word Document
(24 pages)

U.S. News and World Report college ranking methodology