RUSH TO ASSESSMENT:

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RUSH TO ASSESSMENT

• Designing Assessment to Produce Failure
• Roberta Madison, Gloria Melara
• and Robert Lingard

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Session Overview

• An example of a recent assessment project at CSUN
• A group activity designed to gain insight into
  effective approaches to assessment
• Summary and review of group results

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Session Objectives

• At the end of the session participants should be
  able to
• Identify potential problems in designing outcomes
  assessment
• Select/create appropriate assessment measures and
  tools
• Identify the steps in designing a productive
  assessment project

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Common Problems in Assessment

• Assessment results are often needed quickly
• Insufficient resources (people, tools, etc.) are
  usually applied
• Assessment is sometimes viewed as an end in
  itself (e.g., an accreditation team must be
  convinced that assessment is being done)

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An Assessment Example

• Examine an approach taken toward assessing
  Computer Literacy at CSUN
• Look at the difficulties and problems encountered
• Suggest some recommendations for improving the
  assessment process

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Why Was Computer Literacy Chosen for Assessment?

• Ensuring the Computer Literacy of students was
  viewed as an important University goal
• The effectiveness of CSUNs general education
  course in Computer Literacy was unknown

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The Approach Taken

• To get results quickly, an existing instrument,
  TekXam, was selected to measure students
  computer skills
• Students taking the General Education course in
  Computer Literacy and a control group not taking
  this course were given pre tests and post tests
• The results were analyzed

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Study Results
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TekXam Passing Rates
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Completion Rates
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Problems Encountered

• The TekXam instrument did not test what our
  Computer Literacy course covered
• TekXam was difficult for students to use
• Administration of TekXam was tedious and rigid
• Student participation rate was low

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Conclusions and Recommendations

• A clear definition of Computer Literacy is needed
  before it can be assessed
• Clear (measurable) objectives need to be
  established for the assessment
• Incentives are needed to increase student
  participation
• Better assessment tools are needed

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A Sample Problem

• Assume you are given the task of assessing the
  effectiveness of online instruction for a
  particular program
• What needs to be done?

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First Group Task(Risk Analysis)

• Identify potential problems or obstacles that
  might be encountered in trying to do this
  assessment
• List them in order of importance (high
  probability high impact)

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Problems/Obstacles Identified

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Second Group Task

• For one of the problems identified suggest
  possible solutions
• List the advantages and disadvantages of each
  solution

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How Can We Ensure a Successful Assessment?

• Make sure the goal of the assessment is clearly
  understood
• Establish measurable objectives toward achieving
  the goal
• Determine how to measure each objective (in
  multiple ways)

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GOAL
Obstacles
CHANGES?
MEASURE
MEASURE
MEASURE
MEASURE
MEASURE
MEASURE
MEASURE
MEASURE
MEASURE
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Final Group Task

• Suppose your task was to assess the effectiveness
  of online instruction in teaching written
  composition
• Specify one measurable objective and identify two
  or more ways to measure it.

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Measurable Objective Example

• Students will be able to write a grammatically
  correct English sentence with a subject and a
  verb.

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Conclusions

• A successful assessment project must be carefully
  planned with sufficient resources allocated (we
  must avoid rushing to assessment)
• The goal or goals of the assessment must be
  clearly understood
• Specific measurable objectives must be
  established
• Appropriate tools must be found/created to
  measure each objective in multiple ways

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References

• A short class feedback/assessment. It assesses
  students perception of the classroom
  environment. http//www.cod.edu/outcomes/SoaClsDs/
  StopStartCont_Assessment.PDF
• http//www.cod.edu/outcomes/SoaClsDs/feedback.PDF
  
• This assessment activity clarifies expectations
  and mutual responsibilities for student learning
  and success.
• http//home.att.net/p.klassen/SuccessAttribution
  .htm
• An extensive list of many college assessment
  sites from North Carolina State University
  http//www2.acs.ncsu.edu/UPA/assmt/resource.htm
• Nine Principles of Good Practice for Assessing
  Student Learning from AAHE, Alexander W. Astin,
  et.al http//www.aahe.org/assessment/principl.htm
• A good resource with information from classroom
  to institutional assessment
• http//www.cod.edu/Dept/Outcomes/AssessmentBook.p
  df http//www.cod.edu/Outcomes/

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Contact Information

• Roberta Madison
• - roberta.madison_at_csun.edu
• Gloria Melara
• - gem_at_ecs.csun.edu
• Robert Lingard
• - rlingard_at_ecs.csun.edu