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CASSL Center for the Advancement of Staff and Student Learning. Inquiry - Research – Development - Student Success. Outcomes Assessment: Context and Practice. How does the assessment of student learning outcomes fit into the larger picture? The broad context of teaching and learning
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CASSLCenter for the Advancement of Staff and Student Learning Inquiry - Research – Development - Student Success
Outcomes Assessment: Context and Practice • How does the assessment of student learning outcomes fit into the larger picture? • The broad context of teaching and learning • What professors do in the classroom • Activities outside of the classroom • Accreditation • The work of CASSL
“Assessment” • Assessment of student knowledge in order to place students into specific courses. Diagnostic placement assessment • Evaluating student learning in order to arrive at grades for individual students. Summative grading assessment • Evaluating student success on specific outcomes across the class as a whole. Student outcomes assessment
The Teaching and Learning Context At core, SLOs are about: • Furthering dialogue about what is most important for out students to learn. • Developing information about what students are learning. • Sharing best practices for helping students learn.
The Classroom context • Professors already formally measure the success of individual students in order to arrive at grades. • Professors already informally measure student success on individual outcomes. • Professors decide how to assess course outcomes in their classes. There are many tools for outcomes assessment.
Assessing for a grade versus assessing outcomes We already do outcomes assessment in our classes in a relatively informal and intuitive way. We will be doing it more formally.
Why take a more formal approach to outcomes assessment in the classroom? • Opportunities for dialogue • Clearer expectations by students • Development of both qualitative and quantitative data is useful • Chance to show the need for resources • Another tool set to help increase student success in the classroom
Activities outside of the classroom • Program activities may be courses, but may also be other things. • Students have many learning experiences that occur outside of the classroom. • Counseling • Matriculation • Health Services • Library Services • MESA, Puente, DIOPS, etc. • RWC, Math Lab, Tutoring, etc.
How does CASSL fit in? • Overall purpose of CASSL: To support the scholarship of teaching and learning at CRC. • Supporting inquiry and professional development. • Disseminating information from scholarly work. • Highlighting best practices. • Facilitating dialogue about teaching and learning. • Helping CRC staff with outcomes development is part of the work of CASSL.
CASSL will… • Host outcomes dialogue opportunities. • Provide consultations with programs. • Develop documents that provide information about processes (e.g. SLO handbook). • Support the assessment task force. • Work to keep the focus on teaching and learning.
The Accreditation Context The new accreditation standards emphasize: • Use of SLOs across the college: Course outcomes/objectives are on the course outlines; use these in your classes. • Evidence of our dialogue about student learning and outcomes: Help us help you join the dialogue. • Documentation of outcomes assessment: Every year some professors will be asked to document their assessment of student success on the course outcomes. We will be asked to do our outcomes assessment in a much more formal way than we have been doing.
Sampling and evidence • We will not need to report on the assessment of all outcomes every semester every year. We will develop processes for reporting assessments. • An assessment reporting cycle can be developed that is aligned with the curriculum and PrOF cycles. • Both direct and indirect assessment of skills can be used in the assessment process. • Both qualitative and quantitative evidence can be provided as samples of our work on assessment.
WASC: Looking for evidence of the dialogue, assessment and change • Records of college processes. • Documentation of the dialogue involved. • Reports of the results of outcomes assessment. • Evidence of what we have done in response to info from outcomes assessment. • We have some ways of capturing this info already (e.g. Course Outlines, PrOF, Unit Plans). • We have to develop ways to capture other aspects of our outcomes dialogue, assessment, and response.
What’s next? • Everyone will be encouraged to use the tools of outcomes assessment on a regular basis. • Each year some programs will be asked to provide results of their assessments. • A college-wide task force will work to: • find a simple way for us to gather a summary of our assessment results on an ongoing basis. • develop a cycle by which we take “snapshots” of our ongoing assessment for reporting and broad analysis purposes.
What will you be asked to do? Develop ways to assess outcomes and use the information from that assessment. Participate in the dialogue with colleagues. Remember that you may be asked to document the dialogue and report your outcomes assessment. Ask CASSL for help whenever you need it. Help us all keep the focus of this work on teaching, learning, and student success.
