Step One:
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Step Two:
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How can you gather and evaluate evidence that your students are achieving the program’s goals? |
Step Four:
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The process begins with the department’s faculty articulating the educational values that underlie their academic program. These values are informed by several constituencies and contexts, including:
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The educational values of each program are, in effect, the desired characteristics of graduates of the program, which translate directly into learning goals. If desired, this session can be facilitated by an ACT member. We use an organizational development perspective to bring a strategic planning orientation to the specific departmental program involved. The department faculty are led through a discussion centering on development of a mission statement. Click here for more information on the values clarification session.
Once these learning goals have been identified, the faculty evaluate the existing curriculum to determine how well it matches and where changes or additions need to be made. The ACT can provide a matrix and guidelines to be used to determine where in the curriculum the core programmatic values appear (or should appear) – in other words, in which courses. This process will uncover gaps and inconsistencies as well as identify focuses for initial assessment. Click here for a pdf of the curriculum mapping matrix (or here to see a sample).
The next stage involves the identification of specific learning outcomes and associated student learning experiences, along with identification or creation of appropriate methods for gathering evidence of student achievement. This may be done in consultation with the ACT, which works with programs to research assessment tools, adapt the tools, analyze and implement the findings, and evaluate the tools. The ACT will also help programs identify priorities for assessment and develop an implementation plan that will produce useable results in a reasonable and timely fashion.
Finally, the department faculty interpret the results of their assessments and establish a feedback loop to modify curriculum and assessment practices and improve student learning. The ACT is available through this stage to guide programs as the process is fine-tuned.
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