Annual Program Assessment
Select Outcomes to Assess: A program can choose all or a subset of outcomes to assess each year. All learning outcomes should be assessed at least once every three years.
Create or Update Measures
If assessment measures have not been added to the curriculum mapping process, you can add measures to an outcome in the plan. If the measures added during the curriculum mapping process are no longer valid or accurate, you can revise or remove measures at this point.
Identifying Measures: Programs can use a variety of methods to measure learning outcome attainment:
- Assignment
- Capstone
- Exam (Certification/Licensure)
- Exam (Course)
- Field Assessment
- Performance
- Portfolio
- Presentation
- Project
- Quiz (Course)
- Completion rates
- Course evaluation
- Focus group
- Interview
- Overall course grade
- Survey
- Other
If your program has a learning outcome assessed by a non-course activity (i.e., comprehensive exams), you can enter the measure in the annual assessment plan and mark it as not related to a course. All outcome measures will be available in future annual plans with needing to be recreated.
Add Results to Measures
Enter results, findings, and actions - Learning outcomes allow for a full range of data collection options in Assessment Plans to identify how many students Exceeded, Met, or Not Met the measurement. Once measure results are entered, you can also identify findings based on that data and next actions as a result of the findings.
Collection of measure results may be done by:
- Attaching files
- Entering counts directly
- Pulling data from rubrics attached to a Pilot Dropbox
- Pulling data from Student Learning & Licensure
Please note that, while you cannot change the Results method without deleting the data that has already been collected, the Results that were entered for the chosen method can be edited at a later point. In other words, if the option to enter Counts is selected, the actual Counts themselves can be edited later on.
Analyze Measure Results
In the Measure Analysis, consider the question, “Is this a good measurement of the expected student learning?” It may be helpful to follow that up with a five-why exercise.
Data: 85% of students met the expectations for this measure
Course Faculty: Why did 85% meet the expectations, what contributed to that success? Why did 15% not achieve the learning measure, what were some of their struggles with this measurement?
Data: The course design was solid and appropriately scaffolded, contributing to student success. Students not achieving the benchmark missed a lot of class or stopped attending.
Course Faculty: Why did students stop attending the course? Did they stop at or near the same point in the term? Why, what content were we covering when they stopped attending?
Data: Most students stopped attending between weeks 4 and 5 near the time of the first exam.
Course Instructor: Why is there a connection between the timing of the students stopping attending class and the first exam? Did they take the exam and perform poorly or not take the exam at all? Did I have any communication from the student?
Data: Students who stopped attending did so after performing poorly on the first exam.
Course Instructor: Why did students do poorly on this exam? Are there concepts within the exam on which more students had trouble? What were those areas?
Data: Students struggled throughout the exam, especially with the foundational concepts that we quickly reviewed in week one.
Course Instructor: Why are students struggling with this foundation concept? Is it covered elsewhere in the program’s curriculum? Can I do a knowledge check at the beginning of the course and a learning check (quiz) before moving beyond this concept at the end of week one?
Record Measure Actions
Finally, when assessing learning measurements, Leads will have several Action options to choose from to identify actions resulting from the measure or outcome analysis:
- Revise curriculum (like adding a knowledge check in week one from the above example)
- Restructure outcome statement
- Revise measurement/assessment
- Gather additional data
- Revise benchmark/target
- Implement new program or services
- Community partnership
- Modify position/personnel
- Modify policies/procedures
- Adopt or expand technologies
- Additional training
- Collaborate with another department/unit/program
- Modify physical environment
- Maintain assessment strategy
- Other
Analyze the Outcome
After reviewing each measure for the outcome, answer the question “Are students achieving the expected knowledge identified in this outcome?” Write your conclusions, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative data from the measure results. Guiding questions to assess the outcome include:
- Learning Outcomes
- Are the learning outcomes clear and focused?
- Are the learning outcomes measurable?
- Do the course learning outcomes make sense within the academic program?
- Curriculum
- Is the course mapped appropriately within the program curriculum? Do instructors know where the course is mapped within the curriculum?
- Should courses have more uniformity across sections (assessment measures, topic schedule, etc.)?
- Are the outcomes being met across all locations/modalities?
- Course Design
- Is the amount of content and assessments appropriate for the course level?
- Is there appropriate alignment from outcomes to objectives to learning experiences to assessments?
- Do instructional materials and tools contribute to students achieving the stated outcomes?
- Are the learning activities and pedagogy focused on supporting students in achieving the stated course learning outcomes?
- Do assessments align with and measure the learning outcomes at the appropriate level?
Record Outcome Actions
After analyzing students’ achievement of the learning outcome, you may identify additional actions needed to increase student success and the quality of the program. Those can be recorded as a program action item.
Throughout the year, you can then track actions and add updates as you complete the actions in your assessment plan.
