General Education: Implementing A CourseEmbedded Assessment Model

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General Education Implementing A
Course-Embedded Assessment Model

• Sandra Flake
• Phil Klein
• Emily Golson
• Vicki Downey

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General Education Assessment at UNC

• What we had
• Standardized test
• (ACT CAAP)
• Course review

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Why did we change?

• Meaning and use of current data
• Distance between assessment and instruction
• Student attitudes about the CAAP Test
• Feedback loopimproving the program

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Deans Role

• Responsible for the General Education Program
• Administrative member, General Education Council
• Advocate for faculty developed model
• Facilitator for implementation, through the
  Program Review Process

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Deans Goals for Assessment

• Meaningful assessment, leading to program
  improvement
• Faculty-driven assessment, developed and
  supported by the General Education Council
• Manageable assessment, both for faculty and
  administration

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Course Embedded Assessment

• Learning outcomes identified
• Assessed in each course
• Using assessment measures already in place in the
  course

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Key Advantages of Course-Embedded Assessment

• Design of instruments controlled by faculty
• Yields data on student achievement that can be
  used to improve instruction
• Could ultimately replace standardized testing as
  an assessment method in General Education

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Designing Course-Embedded Assessment

• Step 1. Incorporate General Education outcomes
  into course objectives
• Step 2. Identify assignments used to assess
  General Education outcomes and align tasks to
  each outcome
• Step 3. Create a scoring rubric to measure
  student performance on outcomes
• Step 4. Evaluate results and modify assessment
  or instruction accordingly

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Step 1. Incorporate General Education outcomes
into course objectives
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General Education social science outcomes

• Understand the framework, world view, or
  philosophical assumptions of the discipline.
• Understand the methods and research skills used
  by the discipline.
• Understand the principal theories of the
  discipline.

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Corresponding course objectives in World
Geography

• Perspective or Worldview Apply a spatial
  perspective to understand world regions and
  issues.
• Methods and Skills Construct and use maps and
  other geographic tools.
• Concepts and Theories Introduction to
  standards-based concepts in physical and human
  geography.

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Step 2. Identify assignments used to assess
General Education outcomes and align tasks to
each outcome
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Initial Model Used Geographic Issue
Investigation research-writing assignment (20
of course grade)

• Perspective or worldview Students write 3 good
  geographic questions about a current world
  geographic issue
• Skills and methods Students include and
  interpret a map depicting spatial data relevant
  to understanding the issue
• Concepts and theories Students explain the
  issue (answer their questions) by applying
  general geographic concepts to specific case
  studies

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Alternate Model

• Specific sets of multiple-choice exam questions
  to assess
• Students abilities to interpret maps
• Students abilities to apply concepts
• Issue Investigation paper to assess
• Students ability to recognize and apply a
  geographic perspective

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 Step 3. Create a scoring rubric to measure
student performance on outcomes

• Determine whether a 3- or 4-point scoring rubric
  will be used
• Design a rubric to be shared with students to let
  them know expectations 
• Evaluate student work according to specified
  criteria

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Step 4. Evaluate results and modify assessment
or instruction accordingly

• Determine how evaluation of General Education
  assessment measure aligns with grading and other
  course objectives

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General Education Writing Skills Objectives

• Students will demonstrate critical and creative
  thinking skills (including cognition,
  comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis,
  and evaluation in producing unified, coherent
  papers).
• Students will demonstrate their ability to vary
  rhetorical strategies in conjunction with varying
  purposes, audiences and content.
• Students will demonstrate their ability to
  incorporate source material into their writing.
• Students will demonstrate their ability to
  structure their essays coherently.
• Students will demonstrate their knowledge and
  understanding of standard English usage with
  respect to grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

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Composition Pilot Results
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Composition Pilot Results (continued)
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Questions from Instructors

• Instructor Performance
• What are the performance strengths?
• What are the performance weaknesses?
• Which outcomes can I improve and how?

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Questions from Instructors

• Assessment Instruments
• Should we modify General Education Objectives,
  Course Objectives or both? 
• Should we modify rubric?
• Should we modify report form?

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Assessment Exercise

• Three scenarios
• Role-play
• Three questions to guide your discussion
• What do you do in your class that meets these
  outcomes? Or, what could you do?  
• What are you doing to measure it? Or, what could
  you do?
• How do you evaluate (i.e., what are your
  criteria) student performance on these
  measurements?

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Benefits to students?

• Common information on General Education outcomes
  in each area
• Common guide to competencies to master
• More clearly defined performance expectations
• Consistency of expectations across the program
• Assessment linked to grades

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Benefits to faculty?

• Guide for faculty from different fields teaching
  in a common area
• Faculty control of assessment design at the
  course level
• Immediacy of results
• Integrated evaluation for assessment and student
  performance in course

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Benefits to the General Education Program?

• Greater coherencysince outcomes are assessed in
  each course
• Means for course and program change based on
  outcomes assessment
• Context for program growth resulting from
  experience assessing stated outcomes
• Complementary to other assessment measures

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Program Review Process

• Analysis
• Goal setting
• Resource identification
• Participation
• Student assessment
• Annual updates
• Implementation

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Enhancement of Program Review Process

• Report on assessment data
• External consultant/reviewer
• Program review team
• College deans

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Current Status?

• Adopted by General Education Council
• Plan for implementation developed by faculty
• Faculty across all 7 General Education areas
  completed pilot
• Training for next stage in August
• Full implementation integrated into course review
  process

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Questions? Suggestions?