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STEP 3 - Using Results

HOW WILL YOU USE ASSESSMENT RESULTS TO IMPROVE YOUR PROGRAM'S EFFECTIVENESS?

This step is the payoff! Accumulating assessment data is of little value in itself, the value is:

  1. In using it as a mirror to reflect back how effectively your students are achieving the stated outcomes; and
  2. To make program changes to improve their performance.

This is a two-part process:

  1. Summarizing assessment data so that results can be clearly portrayed for faculty to review;
  2. Evaluating assessment results and recommending program modifications as indicated.

Strategies for how to proceed

  1. Describe how you will organize, summarize and analyze the current set of data
    The first way to organize assessment results is by student learning outcome, more precisely, by each performance indicator for each outcome. Group all of the student performance data for each indicator. You may want to analyze student performance on the outcomes by other kinds of variables as well, e.g., performance by transfer vs. non-transfer students, course sequences taken, GPA, etc. This will require creating additional subgroups that may be easier by using a database and/or spreadsheet program. Some of the data required for such analyses may come from the Student Information System (SIS), your program’s records, standardized exams or elsewhere. After the first year of assessment results, you also may want to start looking at changes over time.
  2. Portray the data and analyses in a clearly understandable format
    Because the assessment results will probably be presented to colleagues at a faculty meeting or retreat, the use of tables, graphs or other easily read formats is very helpful. Whoever will present the summary data to the faculty should be involved in how the results are analyzed and portrayed.
  3. Discuss results with the faculty
    This is critical. The program Assessment Coordinator my prepare assessment data for this discussion, but consideration of what it means and what implications it has for program improvement is a conversation that needs to occur collectively with the program faculty. This discussion can happen at the end of each term, once a year or as the faculty deem most useful. A tool that can contribute significantly to the discussion, particularly in connecting assessment results to the curriculum, is a curriculum map.

ALIGN your curriculum

An effective curriculum is one in which the various elements are aligned. Your program’s mission (in addition to being aligned with the missions of the college and the university) should align with your student learning outcomes and their associated performance indicators and assessment methods, the curriculum (content and courses) and course objectives, instruction and course-based assessments. A curriculum map will help you:

What is a curriculum map and how is it created?

A curriculum map is a graphic representation of how the courses in your curriculum interface with the Student Learning Outcomes for your program. More specifically, the map shows where and how Student Learning Outcomes are addressed by each course in the curriculum, and what courses include assessments that pertain to those outcomes. Curriculum Alignment Workshop Power Point - 11/18/04

A curriculum map cannot be developed until the 3-5 Student Learning Outcomes for the program have been established. As the first step in creating a map requires listing course objectives, the process assumes each course in your program has stated learning objectives. If this is not the case, there are two options.

  1. The better option is to formally create objectives for the course;
  2. The second is for the instructor to use his or her experience with the course to infer the objectives.

In either case, guidance for developing course goals and objectives, along with a discussion of course design in general, can be located on the Web, such as:

Look for your discipline at other institutions' web sites (NC State Meta Site)!

There are many examples of course objectives, learning outcomes, and program Assessment Plans in your discipline.

Curriculum Alignment - Creating a Visual MAP

  1. Working from the list of courses in your program, including required course and (at least) the more frequently taken elective courses, ask each instructor to use the worksheet – Course Objectives to Program Learning Outcomes to identify if and how specific course objectives connect with each of the 3-5 program outcomes.
    Use a separate worksheet for each program outcome:
    The worksheet asks the instructor to briefly indicate how the course objective (one course objective per worksheet) addresses the particular Student Learning Outcome and also how that course objective is assessed in the course. (It is common to not have any course that addresses all Student Learning Outcomes in the program, but it would be unusual for a course not to address any of them.) Instructors should be able to complete the worksheet relatively easily.
  2. Each instuctor should then review the information in the step above in order to summarize how the course connects, overall, to each Student Learning Outcome. The instructor should enter summary course information from the first step into the Curriculum Map Worksheet.
  3. The next step is for the Assessment Coordinator to collect all the Curriculum Map worksheets each instructor completed in second step, and transfer information from them to a new (separate) Curriculum Map Worksheet.
    The new worksheet will summarize how every course is addressing each of the program's Student Learning Outcomes. This Worksheet is a matrix with each cell representing the intersection of a Student Learning Outcome and a course. The information added to the content of each cell should indicate the input from each course for each outcome. You can design your own terminology for this, or use what is already suggested on the worksheet. (See the Curriculum Map Example)

You now have the Map (a visual representation) of the entire program curriculum. This concise Curriculum Map will provide, at a glance, an overview of where, (i.e., what courses) and how, (e.g., introduced, reinforced) each Student Learning Outcome is addressed in the curriculum. It will show you:

The curriculum map is a TOOL that can help you at both ends of the assessment cycle. It can help you identify assessments currently used in courses that may become part of your program-level assessments in your assessment plan, and can help you understand curriculum factors that may be influencing your assessment results and whether program modifications are indicated. It is, however, only a tool for program faculty to use in the assessment and program improvement process

How will you implement your Assessment Plan?

You are now ready for Step 4