The
big picture
Valencia seeks to develop an
institutional assessment process for gathering
qualitative evidence of student learning and using this
evidence to improve learning. The primary purpose of
assessment is to inform and improve learning. Assessment
must be part a feedback loop that informs students about
their own learning and guides educators in efforts to
improve student learning.
An emerging design
In our work on TVCA Integration
during 2001-2003, we've come to believe that Valencia can
assess student learning at four levels: the classroom,
the course, the program, and the core competencies. The
TVCA Initiative has supported preliminary work by
faculty, deans, and other leaders in shaping the key
elements, but an infrastructure for assessing student
learning outcomes remains to be designed as of Summer
2003. As the current two-year initiative comes to a
close, we believe such an infrastructure at Valencia
should enable collaborative assessment at three levels of
review and improvement.
Course Review and Improvement
Course review focuses on assessment
of student learning at the course level, especially in
the high-enrollment, front-door courses that are decisive
in student progress toward graduation. Course review
rests on four elements that are led and designed by
faculty educators and deans:
- Course outcomes--what students
will be able to do in real life with what they
learn in the course; outcomes involve students'
core competency (think, value, communicate, and
act) because these core competencies are woven
into the academic disciplines.
- Course-embedded assessment
tasks (small scale or
"thin-slice")--small-scale
course-embedded assignments that document
students' mastery of course outcomes and can be
sampled to assess learning in the course.
- Course or discipline
assessment teams--faculty teams who assess
samples of student work course assessment tasks;
discipline assessment teams need to include
inter-disciplinary members (i.e., faculty from
outside the discipline).
- Feedback that improves
learning--assessment results that inform and
facilitate conversations about improving student
learning in our courses (this is the Holy Grail
of assessment).
Program Review and Improvement
Program review assesses student
learning across a program or sequence of courses (e.g.,
A.S. programs and course sequences in math and writing).
Program review enables students themselves and
departments to assess students' growing mastery in
specific programs. Program review rests on five elements:
- Program outcomes--what
students will be able to do in real life with
what they learn in the program; outcomes involve
students' core competency (think, value,
communicate, and act) because these core
competencies are woven into the academic
disciplines.
- Course-embedded assessment
tasks that produce large scale or
"thick-slice" documentation of student
learning. May be used to assess program
effectiveness as well as individual student
achievement.
- The student portfolio--a
mechanism for publishing large-scale student work
for the purpose of the student's own
self-assessment and the college's assessment of
program effectiveness.
- Departmental or program
assessment team--a team of the faculty and deans
that designs and assesses student portfolio work
for its mastery of program outcomes.
- Feedback that improves
learning--assessment results that inform and
facilitate conversations about improving student
learning in our programs (the Holy Grail again).
General Education (Core
Competency--TVCA) Review and Improvement
A Core Competency (General
Education) review and improvement process would document
and assess student achievement of the student achievement
of the lifelong competencies of Think, Value,
Communicate, and Act. TVCA review enables students
themselves and the college to assess students' growing
mastery of the core competencies (TVCA) as documented by
work they do in courses. TVCA review rests on five
elements:
- The core competencies--the
fundamental competencies of an educated person
essential to success in the world beyond college.
- Course outcomes linked to the
Core Competencies, so that course assignments
articulate students' mastery in a discipline to
enduring, life-essential skills.
- Work published in MyPortfolio
that documents students' improvement across their
degree program.
- The student portfolio--a
mechanism for publishing large-scale student work
for the purpose of the student's own
self-assessment and the college's assessment of
program effectiveness.
- Inter-disciplinary assessment
team-- a team of the faculty and deans that
assesses student portfolio work for its mastery
of TVCA;
- Feedback that improves
learning--assessment results that inform and
facilitate conversations about improving student
learning in our courses (the Holy Grail again).
Some strategic principles for
discussion
From two years of research and
application, we propose for discussion these principles
of assessment and improvement at Valencia:
- Improving teaching and
learning is the best starting point for every
discussion of assessment. Good design of teaching
and learning necessarily involves good
assessment.
- The best assessment must, by
design, improve teaching and learning (closing
the loop).
- The best assessment
incorporates student self-assessment (assessment
as learning, learning as assessment).
- The best assessments are
embedded in a course or learning program. Good
assignments are good assessment (assessment as
learning, learning as assessment).
- The best assessments are
direct (under our control), qualitative
(consisting of actual student work or
performance), and authentic (resembling what
students will need to do in the real world) .
- The best assessments are those
where design, implementation, interpretation, and
improvement are in the hands of the teaching
practitioners (faculty educators, advisors, and
other teaching professionals).
Philip E. Bishop
Patrick Nellis
July 2003
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