The principal resource for this on line manual is:
The Departmental
Guide and Record Book for Students Outcomes, Assessment, and Institutional
Effectiveness, Third Edition, James O. Nichols and Karen W. Nichols,
Agathon Press, New York, 2000.
What is Assessment?
Assessment is a means for focusing our collective attention,
examining our assumptions, and creating a shared culture dedicated
to continuously improving the quality of higher learning. Assessment
requires making expectations and standards for quality explicit
and public; systematically gathering evidence on how well performance
matches those expectations and standards; analyzing and interpreting
the evidence; and using the resulting information to document,
explain, and improve performance (Thomas A. Angelo, AAHE Bulletin,
April 1995, p.11).
 Purposes
of Programmatic Assessment
Steps
of Assessment Planning
Useful
Assessment Links
WKU Campus Contacts
Purposes
of Academic Program Assessment
To answer the question “How
well are our students learning?”
- Focus on intended results (students), not process (professor)
- Shift in focus to what students learn rather than what we
teach.
- Assessment of educational intentions
- Have we made a difference?
- How will we know?
- How can we use assessment results for improvement?
To meet SACS Comprehensive Standards
for Institutional Effectiveness
The institution
- identifies expected outcomes for
its educational programs and its administrative and educational
support services;
- assesses whether it achieves those
outcomes;
- provides evidence of improvement
based on analysis of those results.
To implement WKU Strategic Goals
- Goal 1. Increasing Student Learning:
Promote learning that fully develops individual potential and
produces nationally and globally competitive graduates for the
workforce.
- Performance Indicator 1c: Ensure
that assessment mechanisms in each academic major are documented,
designed to measure student achievement with respect to stated
program learning outcomes, and used for program improvement.
Steps
of Assessment Planning Top
Step 1.
Specify intended educational outcomes
Step 2. Identify
means of assessment and criteria for success
Step 3. Obtain
assessment results
Step 4. “Close
the Loop” (i.e. use results to improve program)
Step 5. Report
Assessment Results
Step
1. Specify Intended Educational Outcomes
Definition of Intended Educational
Outcomes
Preparing Statements of Educational Outcomes
Example of Educational Outcomes –
Undergraduate English
Example of Educational Outcomes
– Undergraduate Accounting
Definition
of Intended Educational Outcome Top
Intended Educational Outcome - What
the program faculty intend students to be able to:
– know
– do
– think (attitudinal)
when they have completed a given educational program.
Educational Outcomes are NOT
– individual course outcomes or course learning objectives.
– individual student assessment within the context of
a given course (i.e. individual student grades).
Educational Outcomes ARE
– over-arching “end results” of the entire
academic program.
– faculty’s view of the most important attributes
of the “finished product”
– determined and owned by programmatic faculty.
Preparing
Statements of Educational Outcomes Top
- Identify between three and five outcomes for each program
– These are overarching concepts spanning several courses,
not individual course objectives taken from each syllabus
– Faculty has relative freedom to develop, i.e. not
meeting any externally determined student performance standards
- Describe what your students should think, know and be able
to do by the time they finish the program
- Use measurable verbs to describe the outcomes (see Bloom’s
Taxonomy) http://faculty.washington.edu/krumme/guides/bloom.html)
Example
of Educational Outcomes Top
Undergraduate English
- Students completing the baccalaureate program in English
compare favorably in their knowledge of literature with those
students completing similar programs nationally.
- Graduates are able to critique a brief draft essay, pointing
out the grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors.
- Students completing the baccalaureate program are capable
of writing an acceptable journal article.
Example
of Educational Outcomes Top
Undergraduate Accounting
- Students completing the baccalaureate program in accounting
are prepared for their first position in the field.
- Baccalaureate graduates of the accounting program find ready
employment in the field.
- Graduates are experienced in the use of personal computers
for accounting procedures.
Step 2. Identify Means of Assessment
and Criteria for Success Top
Definition of Means of Assessment and
Criteria for Success
Examples of Assessment Tools
Assessment Tools Already in Use at
WKU
Examples of Means of Assessment and
Criteria for Success – Undergraduate English
Examples of Means of Assessment
and Criteria for Success – Undergraduate Accounting
Definition of
Means of Assessment and Criteria for Success Top
The accomplishment of most statements of intended Educational
Outcomes should be
- ascertainable
- observable
- measurable
In other words, we should be able to discern when a student
has achieved the outcome and to what extent by establishing
Criteria for Success.
Criteria for Success - The benchmarks that
the program sets for the outcome and against which the outcomes’
performance is judged by the faculty within the department.
These criteria are most often stated in terms of percentages,
percentiles, averages, or other quantitative measures.
Means of Assessment - the method, tool,
or instrument used to determine whether (and/or the extent
to which) the outcomes’ criteria for success have been
achieved.
Examples of Assessment Tools Top
- Commercial, norm-referenced, standard examinations
- Locally developed examinations
- Oral examinations
- Performance appraisals
- Simulations
- Portfolios
- Written surveys and questionnaires
- Exit and other interviews
- Focus groups
- External examiner
- Behavioral Observations
- Archival Records
Click here for a discussion
of the above methods
Assessment Tools Already in Use at WKU Top
- Surveys/Interviews
- WKUSES
- Departmental (Exit, Satisfaction, Self-assessment)
- Exit interviews
- Tests (norm-referenced/locally developed)
- Praxis, NLNs, MFATs
- Senior Exams
- Capstone Courses (papers, projects, performances)
- Gather samples and score with a rubric
- Internship supervisor reports
- Statistics (Retention/Placement)
- Portfolios
- Gather samples and score with a rubric
Examples of Means of Assessment/Criteria for Success
Undergraduate English Top
- Program Outcome:
1. Students completing the baccalaureate program in English
will compare very favorably in their knowledge of literature
with those students completing similar programs nationally.
- Means of Assessment and Criteria for Success
- The average score of the graduates of the BA program
in English on the MFAT Literature in English
will be at or near the 50th percentile compared to national
results and no subscale score will be below the 30th percentile.
On the graduation questionnaire,
90% of program graduates will “agree” or “strongly
agree” with the statement “In the field of literature,
I feel as well prepared as the majority of individuals nationwide
who have completed a similar program during the past year”.
- Program Outcome:
- Graduates will be able to critique a brief draft essay,
pointing out the grammatical, spelling, and punctuation
errors.
- Means of Assessment and Criteria for Success
- As part of a capstone course
during the final semester, students will critique a short
draft essay; identifying grammatical, spelling
and punctuation errors. 80% of the program’s graduates
will identify 90% of the errors in the draft essay. Additionally,
none of the 14 rubrics utilized
to evaluate the student’s critique will appear to
be consistently unmet.
- Students completing the baccalaureate program will be
capable of writing an acceptable journal article.
- Means of Assessment and Criteria for Success
- A jury of English Department faculty from
an institution comparable to WKU will judge
80% of those journal articles submitted acceptable for
publication.
- 20% of journal articles submitted will be published
in student or other publications.
Examples of Means of Assessment/Criteria for Success
Undergraduate Accounting Top
- Program Outcome:
- Students completing the baccalaureate program in Accounting
will be well prepared for their first position in the
field.
- Means of Assessment and Criteria for Success
- 80% of accounting majors taking the CPA exam will pass
at least three of four parts on the exam. Further, the
rate of passage on any single part will not be less than
80%.
- Employers of accounting program graduates hired through
WKU Career Services will indicate on a survey forwarded
to them by Career Services one year after employment of
the graduate no less than a 7.5 overall average (on a
scale of 1 - 10) on their evaluation of the ten critical
accounting skills exhibited by the graduate. No individual
skill rating will be less than an average rating of 5.0.
- Program Outcome:
- Baccalaureate graduates of the Accounting Program will
find ready employment in the field
- Means of Assessment and Criteria for Success
- Career Services will report 50% of accounting graduates
registered each fall received a job offer by the close
of spring semester.
- 75% of students completing the accounting degree program
will indicate that they are currently employed or have
accepted a job offer in response to the WKU Graduate Survey.
- Program Outcome:
- Graduates will be experienced in the use of personal
computers for accounting procedures.
- Means of Assessment and Criteria for Success
Step 3. Obtain Assessment Results Top
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