WHEN AND HOW TO ASSESS 

All departments are expected to assess in the Fall, then analyze the data and file an assessment plan report with the Office of Research and Planning in the Spring. Below are steps to assess for instruction as well as student services.  (All of the downloadable worksheets and templates below also can be downloaded from the Framework page.)  Contact Karen if you'd like SLOAC Steering Committee members to assist in any capacity. 

You're also encouraged to read the Fall 2009 SLOAC Newsletter for the bigger roll-out picture.

Instruction: Steps to Assess

Diagram with an Overview of the Process

1) Created SLOs for all courses by Fall 2010.

2) Identified core courses to assess, and planned a six-year timeline.

It's worthwhile to discuss with your colleagues how much you'd like to assess each academic year. The point of assessment is to improve student learning and development, so focus your energies on core courses in your program whose assessment is likely to have the most widespread impact (ie., courses in a prerequisite sequence, heavily enrolled courses, GE courses, etc.), or courses that you're interested in troubleshooting. Satisfy your intellectual curiosity and your desire to better promote learning and student success.

Why do we recommend a six-year cycle? Presently our Program Review is on a six-year cycle, so it makes sense to align the two processes. You have many options: assess a core course per year, or assess one SLO from multiple courses per year, or substitute a course level assessment with a program level assessment. 

If possible, should you make any revisions to curriculum, instructional delivery, and the like, you should assess that course again so as to determine if the revisions had any palpable impact.

3) Written assessment plans for core courses.

4) Collected, analyzed, and reported assessment findings.

5) Matched core courses to ISLOs, Institutional SLOs.

  • Chart to map core courses to ISLOs, which you're encouraged to complete with your colleagues. Eventually this chart will be replaced with TracDat entry.
  • TracDat entry (consult with your department representative)
  • ISLO Rubrics for you to assess student work in your course(s), and supplement with other criteria if necessary
    • If your department is using TracDat to document your assessment efforts, be sure to "map" the assessed course level SLOs up to the relevant ISLO(s), and to tabulate your rubric data in a spreadsheet or table. Your data will be used to evaluate student achievement of said ISLOs, aggregated with other course level data when available, and all efforts will be made to maintain your anonymity. Contact Karen if you have any questions, or if you'd like a word file of the rubric(s).
    • Rubrics

6) Created PSLOs, Program SLOs. (2010/2011)

 

7) Matched core courses to PSLOs. (2010/2011)

 

 Student Services: Steps to Assess

Diagram with an Overview of the Process

1) Created PSLOs, Program SLOs for your program or department by Fall 2010.  

2) Identified core SS activities, and planned a six-year timeline.

It's worthwhile to discuss with your colleagues how much you'd like to assess each academic year. The point of assessment is to improve student learning and development, so focus your energies where needed or which will have the most widespread impact. Satisfy your intellectual curiosity and your desire to better promote learning and student success.

Why do we recommend a six-year cycle? Presently our Program Review is on a six-year cycle, so it makes sense to align the two processes. You have many options: assess a core course per year, or assess one SLO from multiple courses per year, or substitute a course level assessment with a program level assessment. 

If possible, should you make any revisions to curriculum, instructional delivery, and the like, you should assess that course again so as to determine if the revisions had any palpable impact.

3) Written assessment plan for PSLOs.

4) Collected, analyzed, and reported assessment findings.

5) Matched PSLOs to ISLOs, Institutional SLOs.

  • Chart to map PSLOs to ISLOs, which you're encouraged to complete with your colleagues. Eventually this chart will be replaced with TracDat entry.
  • TracDat entry (consult with your department representative)
  • ISLO Rubrics for you to assess students work in your program, and supplement with other criteria if necessary
    • If your department is using TracDat to document your assessment efforts, be sure to "map" the assessed PSLO(s) to the relevant ISLO(s), and to tabulate your rubric data in a spreadsheet or table. Your data will be used to evaluate student achievement of said ISLOs, aggregated with other data when available, and all efforts will be made to maintain your anonymity. Contact Karen if you have any questions, or if you'd like a word file of the rubric(s).
    • Rubrics

 

 

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