We’ve heard a lot about
assessment these days. If you are part of a program
that is separately accredited, your accrediting
body is likely focusing not only on resources
to deliver the program but your employment of
appropriate assessment measures that generate
data on program effectiveness. UND’s accrediting
body, the Higher Learning Commission of the North
Central Association of Colleges and Schools,
states that “[A university’s] commitment
to and capacity for effective assessment…will
figure more prominently than ever in the accreditation
relationship established between the Commission
and that [university].” Statements like
this are, of course, not trivial; they promote
conversation and action that become an important
part of the fabric of our campus community. But
what do they mean when they use the term “assessment”?
We’re told this is an important part of
what we should be doing, even that we should
want to be doing it, but many of us are having
a difficult time perceiving a concrete contextual
relevance with regard to how we should be thinking
about this. How should we be defining “assessment” so
that we all know what it is we are talking about?
The Higher Learning Commission consistently uses
the term “assessment” in the context
of student learning or student academic achievement
and rightly so. Very simply, assessment activities
are those that we as faculty design to answer
this question: How do we know that our students
are learning what we have stated we would like
them to learn?
Implicit in this key question are the following
elements:
• Assessment is a faculty activity.
• Assessment is driven by student learning goals
that are clear, concise and stated at the
outset of the educational experience.
•
Assessment employs a method appropriate to
our stated goals and teaching methods by which
we learn something about what our student’s
are learning that we didn’t know before – it
is research based directly on our teaching.
•
The principle of “knowing” as
an outcome of our research based on our
teaching
requires documentation and dissemination.
The natural follow-up question is: What should
be the result of answering the question “How
do we know that our students are learning what
we have stated we would like them to learn?” – in
essence, why ask the question in the first
place? What’s our ultimate goal? The
Higher Learning Commission is right to focus
on assessment in the context of student learning
because any campus that places student learning
at the center of its educational endeavors
must understand that the answer to that question
provides the key to improving student learning.
Employing methods to answer the “student
learning question” has the power to affirm
achievement of our student learning goals and
also show us where opportunities exist for
improvement or change.
Take a moment to think about it. After all,
as a faculty member, teaching students comprises
a significant, if not major, part of your responsibility
on this campus. At the end of a semester we
are always thinking about how to improve our
course because of how things went during the
semester. Much of our thinking and planning
is on the basis of perceptions we have, but
also on meaningful data we have collected – much
of it directly related to student learning.
So, to a degree, we’re engaged in these
activities already – in the context of
our individual classrooms or more broadly in
our academic programs. Formalizing our assessment
activities, i.e., writing and submitting assessment
plans, including information about our assessment
activities in annual reports, program reviews,
course revalidations, etc., makes important
statements about us, such as:
• As educators, we are intentional
about how we engage in teaching and learning.
• We place student learning at the center of
our educational endeavors.
• We desire to make sound, evidence-based decisions
about our classroom teaching, program curricula,
strategic planning and allocation of resources.
• We have a responsibility to share our successes
and also what we have learned from opportunities
to improve with our UND colleagues as well
as peers at other institutions.
The Program Assessment Resource Team, a group
of 10 faculty supported by the Bush Grant in
OID and trained to conduct faculty development
in assessment on UND’s campus, discussed
what they considered to be important elements
of assessment and constructed the following
working definition of assessment for UND:
Assessment is a process by which information
from multiple sources is gathered and critically
examined to better understand what our students
are learning in relation to stated learning
goals. Effective assessment results in “informed
decision-making” – documenting
assessment activities with clarity and in
a way that demonstrates continuity and consistency,
and using the results of assessment to improve
student learning.
An up-to-date program assessment plan is
a “roadmap” that guides the alignment
of your program’s mission, your student
learning goals, assessment methods, and decision-making
about program improvement, all with the intent
of helping us come to a common understanding
of assessment and move toward a “culture
of practice” that reflects that, on
UND’s campus, assessment is a natural
outgrowth of our teaching.
|
