911爆料 Community College Assessment
Assessment of Student Learning Overview
Assessment of student learning is the systematic collection, review, and use of information about student learning undertaken for the purpose of improving student outcomes (adapted from: It is an iterative, reflective process that uses student-generated materials (e.g., papers, presentations, exams) to answer these two questions:
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- What do we want students to know and be able to do as a result of their participation in a course/activity/program?
- How do we know if our students know and can do these things?
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At 911爆料 we primarily assess student learning through direct assessment: that is, through collecting student work (often referred to as artifacts) and analyzing their performance in aggregate to draw conclusions about how successful the curriculum is at supporting students in acquiring Learning Outcomes. Artifacts may include work such as: papers, presentations, in-class or online discussions, performances, performance on a test or quiz, etc.
Student Learning Outcomes are clear, measurable statements that describe what a student will know and be able to do as a result of participating in a course, program, or activity (e.g., 鈥淪tudents will be able to describe the role of the three branches of government鈥�). We can compare this to Learning Objectives, which are what students will do during a particular course, program, or activity (e.g., 鈥淪tudents will read texts/engage in discussions/have the opportunity to learn鈥�/view performances/perform a piece/create a portfolio鈥�)
At 911爆料 you may hear about a lot of different levels of learning outcomes, but they are all related to each other. The table below gives an overview of the different types of learning outcomes, where they come from, how they are developed, and how they are assessed.
Type of Learning Outcome
Where do they come from?
How many are there?
Who Is Expected to Meet These LOs?
How are they assessed?
CUNY
Lots
Every CUNY Student
Gen Ed Assessment
911爆料鈥檚 Assessment Council
6
Every 911爆料 Student
Gen Ed Assessment, Civic Engagement Assessment
The Academic Programs
Ideally 3-7
Every student graduating with a degree in that program
Course and Program Assessment/APRs
Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs)
The course designer/lead instructor
Ideally 3-7
Every student taking that course
Course, Gen Ed, or Program assessment
Pathways Learning Outcomes are developed by CUNY and lay out what every student, regardless of their major or what school they attend, should know and be able to do by the time they graduate from a CUNY school. The 911爆料 Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs) were developed from the Pathways LOs and were rolled up into six fundamental skills that are crucial for all 911爆料 students to acquire.
From there, the Learning Outcomes get more specific. Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs) in many cases are a program-specific interpretation of the Institutional Learning Outcomes and demonstrate what fundamental concepts and skills students in an academic program will know and be able to do, regardless of the path they took through their program. Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) are the most specific of the Learning Outcomes and describe what students will know and be able to do by the time they finish the course.
When developing Program or Course Learning Outcomes, here are a few things to keep in mind (adapted from Linda Suskie (2004) in ):
- Aim for goals that are neither too broad nor too specific. Program Learning Outcomes will be broader than Course Learning Outcomes and will focus more on big-picture concepts and skills, but even Course Learning Outcomes need to be broad enough to provide some flexibility.
- Write them with your students as the intended audience. The Learning Outcomes are best when you can use them to help students understand the overall purpose of your course or program and know what they can expect to get out of it. Avoid jargon or any challenging language.
- Focus on the core concepts and skills students will actively learn in the program or course. If you aren鈥檛 sure what to include or not include as a Learning Outcome, ask yourself: Where in your course or program are students taught this knowledge or skill? Where do they have the opportunity to practice it?
- Make them clear and measurable. Will you be able to see if a student has met the Learning Outcome? Using concrete, actionable verbs like 鈥淎nalyze鈥� or 鈥淚dentify鈥� or 鈥淐ompare and contrast鈥� and avoiding more abstract verbs like 鈥淯nderstand鈥� will help. (See Bloom鈥檚 Taxonomy of Verbs for ideas)
- Think about assessment. When we create a Learning Outcome, we then need to be able to assess whether our students are achieving them. Think about assignments or activities you already do in your class (or would like to do) that let students demonstrate what they鈥檝e learned.
Once we know what we want to assess, we then need to identify where and how to assess it.
Programs can use their to identify courses where student learning is most likely to be occurring.
From there, instructors of the course can identify the artifact (a piece of student work that can demonstrate learning) that is appropriate for assessing the learning outcome you wish to assess.
Examples of student learning artifacts include: Exams, quizzes, written essays, research reports, reflections, portfolios, performances, in-class or online discussions, oral presentations, etc.
When selecting an artifact, it is important to find something that:
- Is embedded into the class
- Allows students to demonstrate their learning of the specific learning outcome you wish to assess
- Is relatively high-stakes within the context of the class, so that students take it seriously
Though any type of assignment may be appropriate, some assignments work better for some types of learning than others. For example, multiple choice exams may work well for assessing learning of specific facts (e.g., learning outcomes that ask students to 鈥渋dentify鈥�, 鈥渄escribe鈥�, or 鈥渆xplain鈥� but may work less well for assessing learning of higher-level skills (e.g., 鈥渃ompare and contrast鈥�, 鈥渁nalyze鈥� or 鈥渁pply鈥�).
Rubrics are a common scoring tool in assessment of student learning that lays out performance expectations for a piece of work. It divides the assignment into component parts and provides clear descriptions of the characteristics of the work associated with each component, at various levels of mastery. (Adapted from the ).
Rubrics can be used for assessing student learning by aligning them with the Student Learning Outcome you want to assess. They can be used as a powerful tool to assign grades and organize feedback or they can be used alongside other grading practices to also record information about the student鈥檚 learning.
Faculty use evidence of their student鈥檚 learning every day to provide individualized feedback and support to their students. But student learning outcomes evidence is also powerful when used in aggregate to identify trends and patterns in student performance and see where to spend more attention or provide more support. For example:
A professor has 30 students in their class and gives them an assignment that targets two Course Learning Outcomes. After evaluating the student鈥檚 work, the professor compiles the data and finds:
- 25 students Met or Exceeded expectations on CLO1.
- 15 students Met or Exceeded expectations on CLO2.
The professor could conclude that students are struggling more with CLO2, and decide that next semester they will add an in-class activity to let students get more practice with CLO2 before they do the independent assignment.
The most common question faculty have when starting on Student Learning Outcomes Assessment is: Why can鈥檛 I just use grades? There are a few reasons why student grades aren鈥檛 an appropriate form of assessment of student learning.
- Grades often include aspects that have nothing to do with what a student has learned (e.g., whether they turned an assignment in on time, whether they answered all the questions, etc.)
- Grades don鈥檛 let you isolate a specific skill or piece of knowledge, but rather give a holistic representation of student performance. With student learning assessment, we want to be able to identify strengths and trouble areas.
- Though different faculty may have different ideas of how to grade the same assignment, with student learning outcomes we want to be able to come to a consensus about the level of a student鈥檚 performance. Even if faculty have slightly different assignments and different methods of grading student work, a common rubric with clearly-defined expectations for students at each level of performance will help faculty evaluate student learning in a similar way.