Assessment for Academic Areas, Using WEAVEonline

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Assessment for Academic Areas, Using WEAVEonline

• Dr. Timothy C. Gilbert
• Jean M. Yerian
• June 27 28, 2007

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Introductions

• Jean M. Yerian
• Director of Assessment Management for WEAVEonline
• Former Director of Assessment for Virginia
  Commonwealth University
• One of the original WEAVEonline developers
• Former community college and junior college staff
  member

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Introductions

• Dr. Timothy C. Gilbert
• Regional Director of Assessment Management for
  WEAVEonline
• Former Assistant Professor at LSU Health Sciences
  Center
• WEAVEonline user

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Lets Get Started

• Once upon a time, in a land not so far away

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WEAVEonline overview

• What do we want Assessment to be?

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WEAVEonline overview

• Cycle of assessment
• Planning (becoming more intentional)
• Establishing performance criteria
• Analyzing actual performance
• Planning based on results

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How It All Looks in WEAVEonline

• Program Hierarchy
• Program Assessment
• Mission
• Outcomes/Objectives
• Measures
• Findings
• Analysis
• Planning

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Before we get into Outcomes/Objectives, what is
your programs mission?

• Put another way, what does Del Mar count on your
  program to do or deliver?
• Effective program mission statements should be
  written in language that can be understood by
  potential students and their families.
• Allen, pg. 29

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Standards-Based Assessment

• This is all about mission effectiveness to
  support student learning and development.
• Complying with national standards is one of the
  means by which educators can assure high-quality
  educational practices and subsequently student
  learning.
• Jan Arminio, President, CAS (Council for the
  Advancement of Standards in Higher Education)
• CAS Professional Standards for Higher Education
  6th edition of the CAS Blue Book (2006)

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Outcomes/Objectives

• With gratitude to
• College Student Educators International (ACPA)
  ASK Standards
• Council for the Advancement of Standards in
  Higher Education (CAS) Frameworks for Assessing
  Learning and Development Outcomes (FALDOs)
• Mary J. Allen of California State University
  Institute for Teaching and Learning Assessing
  Academic Programs in Higher Education

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ASK standards

• Assessment Skills and Knowledge Content Standards
  for Student Affairs Practitioners and Scholars
• Content Standard 2 Articulating Learning and
  Development Outcomes
• Ability to articulate intentional student
  learning and development goals and their related
  outcomes.

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Did someone mention Goals?

• Program goals are broad statements concerning
  knowledge, skills, or values faculty expect
  graduating students to achieve. They describe
  general expectations for students, and they
  should be consistent with the program mission.
• Allen, pg. 29
• WEAVEonline doesnt require goals.

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Current VCU General Education curricular element
- Communicating

• Goal Students should demonstrate effective oral
  and written communication skills.
• Outcome Beyond the general basic knowledge of
  composition and rhetoric, the student should
  learn the standards of communication within the
  students own discipline.

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Key to Outcomes Active Verbs!(a bit on
Blooms Taxonomy)
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CAS General Standards, Part 2

• Programs and services must identify relevant and
  desirable student learning and development
  outcomes and provide programs and services that
  encourage the achievement of those outcomes.
• Each program and service must provide evidence
  of its impact on the achievement of student
  learning and development outcomes.

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Desirable Student Learning and Development
Outcomes FALDOs

• Intellectual growth
• Effective communication
• Leadership development
• Independence
• Collaboration
• Social responsibility
• Appreciating diversity
• Personal and educational goals

• Enhanced self-esteem
• Realistic self-appraisal
• Clarified values
• Healthy behavior
• Meaningful personal relationships
• Satisfying and productive lifestyles
• Spiritual awareness

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Warning no standard language

• An objective is a statement of intention,
  describing a task to be accomplished or a goal to
  be met. A well-formulated objective is SMART
  specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and
  time-bound.
• You can enter an objective in WEAVEonline for a
  single year (e.g., establish an online course
  evaluation survey) or enter one that will be
  continuing (e.g., deliver reliable and secure
  university-wide technology resources).

• An outcome is a specific kind of objective that
  describes a desired end result related to your
  mission. An outcome statement defines what you
  expect to happen as a result of your activities
  (e.g., through orientation and training sessions,
  faculty will gain sufficient Blackboard skills to
  implement Blackboard in their courses).
• You make Outcomes/ Objectives entries at the
  start of an assessment cycle.

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One Special Kind of Outcome

• A Student Learning Outcome is a statement
  regarding knowledge, skills, and abilities (or
  values) students should gain or enhance as a
  result of their engagement in an academic program
  or other structured learning experience.
• Student Learning Outcomes are the most important
  outcomes/objectives for an academic program, but
  other types of programs can have them as well.
• If you are writing a Student Learning Outcome
  statement, you may find it helpful to start out
  with Students or program graduates will be
  able to.

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• While classroom assessment examines learning in
  the day-to-day classroom, program assessment
  systematically examines student attainment in the
  entire curriculum.
• Allen, pg. 1

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Alert danger or opportunity?

• Knowledge is expanding so rapidly that thorough
  content coverage is not feasible in most
  disciplines.
• New expectations for student learning lead
  faculty to focus more on process than on content,
  to consider new ways to assess learning, and to
  examine the effects of changes in curricular
  focus.
• Allen, pp. 3-4

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Understanding Student Learning Outcomes

• Lets practice writing outcomes using
  WEAVEonline.

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Good assessment what does it look like?

• How can assessment quality be determined and
  documented?
• How can you prove accurate assessment?
• Measures should be
• Accurate
• Fair
• Cost Effective

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Good assessment what does it look like?

• Lets practice in WEAVEonline.
• (group will write measures and findings)

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Selecting Appropriate Measures

• With thanks to
• Florida Atlantic University Presentation at the
  2000 Annual Meeting, Commission on Colleges of
  the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
  Finding the Start Line with an Institutional
  Effectiveness Inventory

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QA to End the Day
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Assessment for Academic Areas, Using WEAVEonline

• Dr. Timothy C. Gilbert
• Jean M. Yerian
• June 27 28, 2007

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QA to Begin the Day

• Understanding the purpose, range, and depth of
  WEAVEonline
• General Education
• Reports
• Mapping
• Guided practice

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The Role of General Education

• Within the past year, two key reports A Test of
  Leadership Charting the Future of U.S. Higher
  Education and College Learning for the New Global
  Century have placed general education core
  competencies at the heart of the current
  discussion regarding student learning. Both
  reports cite critical thinking, writing, problem
  solving, and math/science skills as essential to
  our countrys continuing success in a global
  economy.

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Del Mars Core Curriculum

• The Core Curriculum is designed to provide the
  skills and knowledge necessary for an educated
  person to read, write and speak effectively to
  use mathematics competently to exercise critical
  thinking skills and to promote a lifestyle of
  sound well being. It equips students with the
  ability to listen and respond to differing views
  and to work with others to seek, analyze and use
  information in completing tasks and solving
  problems.

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General Education Lenses

• General education (core curriculum) as an
  institutional program
• General education as a set of core competencies
  within degree programs

• General education as a mapping element, used in
  designing a program curriculum for better core
  learning

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Mapping

• What is Mapping
• Take a look at a map in WEAVEonline.
• (use Jeans handout)

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Thank You for Your Participation!

• Jean M. Yerian
• Director of Assessment Management
• JYerian_at_weaveonline.com
• [phone] work
• [phone] cell
• Tim Gilbert
• Regional Director of Assessment Management
• tgilbert_at_weaveonline.com
• 225-663-2098 work
• 318-469-1444 cell
• WEAVEonline/Centrieva
• Richmond, Virginia