Assessment for Curriculum Improvement
Overview and Purpose
In the most basic terms assessment is the practice of determining what students should know and be able to do at the end of a lesson, course or program and then making sure they know it and can do it. It can also highlight areas where the desired learning is not happening so that improvements can be made to the instruction. Unfortunately, many faculty do not see assessment in this way. They see it as a compliance “thing”, that is, as something they have to do to maintain accreditation. Because of this common misconception, assessment is often inadequately done or not done at all. The purpose of this lesson is to show faculty the benefits of assessment, specifically that transformative assessment can provide valuable data and information to help improve curriculum. It will also provide instruction on how to conduct transformative assessment so that leads to the valuable data, information and analysis require to inform curriculum revisions.
Needs Assessment
Educating college faculty on how program-level assessment can help them improve instruction and the overall educational experience can increase faculty motivation to engage in authentic program assessment.
Program level assessment in higher education is designed to determine the effectiveness of a degree or certificate program in achieving the desired educational objectives. Put more simply, assessment determines whether the degree/certificate program taught students what it promised to teach them. Program level assessment is used for several purposes, some of which include: 1) to provide evidence to accrediting bodies of program effectiveness, 2) to improve curriculum and teaching methods,3) to improve institutional effectiveness and 4) to further scholarly research on how well a field of study is understood by others and how that understanding develops. (Wang & Hurley, 2012)
One of the key best practices for effective and usable assessment is that it is faculty-led. However, it has been cited by many institutions, that faculty are often reticent to engage in assessment. Two main reasons faculty do not want to participate in assessment for the following reasons:
1) They view it as a compliance issue that administrators are “making them do” for accreditation purposes and that it takes them away from teaching and research
2)They are concerned that assessment may identify weakness in their teaching or program and as a result have negative consequences, such as budget cuts, loss of position, or program discontinuation (Ewell 2002; Nichols and Nichols 2000 as cited in Andrade, 2010).
Fortunately, research has shown that professors are willing to engage in assessment if they perceive a positive benefit to teaching and learning. “Perceived benefit to teaching and learning has a significant, positive relationship to the willingness of faculty to engage in assessment” (Wang and Hurley, 2012).
Educating faculty on best practices in assessment can facilitate more meaningful assessment results and analysis of the results which can be used to inform effective curriculum improvement plans and reinforce motivation for faculty engagement because the assessment results drove improved curriculum that increased student learning.
Another important best practice in effective assessment is that all faculty members understand assessment and are involved in the assessment process. Faculty drive curriculum development. Therefore, faculty need to understand what parts of their program are working in achieving the student learning outcomes, and what parts are not working so they can make improvements. A well-structured assessment will give faculty the crucial data they need to flag curricular issues that require revision.
Performance Objectives
For college faculty, this course will provide instruction on how assessment can help faculty improve their curriculum. It will also provide detail on how to develop an assessment plan. The main lessons are as follows;
- Explain what transformative program-level assessment is and how it can help improve program curriculum to result in increased student learning.
- Develop program-level, student-centric student learning outcomes (SLOs) that are meaningful, realistic and actionable.
- Develop rubrics to effectively assess program-level student learning outcomes.
- Develop effective success benchmarks to analyze student data against
- Develop and effective assessment plan that will provide useful and useable data to improve program curriculum.
Pre-requisite Knowledge & Skills
Before taking this course, the participant should:
- Be able to use computer skills to navigate online directions
- Understand how to create program curriculum to meet learning objectives
- Be familiar with the concept of assessment at their institution
Course Units
Unit 1: What is Transformative Assessment
After this unit students should be able to:
· Explain the concept of transformative program-level assessment for curriculum improvement and why it is important
· Explain how program level assessment can help with curriculum improvement
· Explain the assessment process and the steps to building an effective assessment plan
Unit 1 Lessons
Lesson 1: What is Transformative Assessment?
Unit 2: Creating Student Learning Outcomes
After this unit students should be able to:
· Explain the concept of student learning outcomes
· Explain the difference between learning objectives and student learning outcomes
· Create student learning outcomes that are meaningful, realistic and actionable
Unit 2 Lessons
Lesson 1: What are Student Learning Outcomes?
Lesson 2: How do you create meaningful Student Learning Outcomes?
Unit 3: What, Where and How to Assess Student Learning Outcomes
After this unit students should be able to:
· Explain how to determine what work-product will be assessed, where in the program it will be assessed and how it will be assessed
· Create effective program-level rubrics to assess student learning
Unit 3 Lessons
Lesson 1: Creating Assessment Rubrics
Lesson 2: Determining the student assignment that will be assessed
Unit 4: Developing Effective Success Benchmarks
After this unit students should be able to:
· Explain what success benchmarks are and why they are important in assessment
· Explain the different methods for choosing comparison benchmarks
· Explain the difference between benchmarks for essential learning goals and aspirational goals
· Create useful and useable program-level benchmark
Unit 4 Lessons
Lesson 1: What are success benchmarks?
Lesson 2: What are the types of comparison benchmarks?
After this unit students will be able to:
· Develop an effective assessment plan that will provide useful and useable data to improve program curriculum
Unit 5 Lessons
Lesson 1: Developing an Assessment Plan Schedule
Lesson 2: Developing a Communications Plan
References
Andrade, M. S. (2010). Managing change—engaging faculty in assessment opportunities. Innovative Higher Education, 36(4), 217–233. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-010-9169-1
Boyle, K. (2024). Assessment Survey. (Primary Research Survey).
Homepage. AAC&U. (n.d.). https://www.aacu.org/
Fletcher, R., Meyer, L., Anderson, H., Johnson, P., & Rees, M. (2012). Faculty and student conception of assessment in higher education. Higher Education, 64, 119–133.
Suskie, L. (2018). Assessing Student Learning: A Common Sense Guide: 3rd Edition. John Wiley & Sons.
Wang, X., & Hurley, S. (2012). Assessment as a scholarly activity? The Journal of General Education, 61(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.5325/jgeneeduc.61.1.0001