What Are You Doing and How Do You Know You Are Doing It?

1. What Are You Doing and How Do You Know You Are Doing It? Presented by Dr. Kathleen Fenton August 19, 2010 Portions adapted from a presentation by Dr. Sharon Yarbrough Pellissippi State August 2007

2. The purpose of this interactive session is for participants to enhance planning and assessment skills.

3. Understand how to • Develop and write objectives • Write outcomes • Write action plans • Measure and report outcomes • Use outcomes for improvement Review best practices for planning and assessment

4. Overview • Discuss planning • Review the College’s Integrated Planning Model • Define assessment /evaluation • Clarify • Objectives • Outcomes • Action Plans • Use of Outcomes

5. At the end of this session • Defined objectives and outcomes • Defined assessment and evaluation • Applied a rubric • Identified measurable outcomes • Compared outcomes of assessments for identifying what you do

6. Design Backward • Identify Institutional Outcomes (General Education) • Identify Program Outcomes • Identify Course Outcomes • IdentifyUnit Outcomes • Implement Forward

7. SACS Principles of Accreditation • 3.3 Institutional Effectiveness • 3.3.1 The institution identifies expected outcomes for its educational programs (including student learning outcomes for educational programs) and its administrative and educational support services; assesses whether it achieves these outcomes; and provides evidence of improvement based on analysis of those results.

8. Summary: Planning is a process of • Writing objectives to bring about a change • Designing learning activities to achieve the objectives • Implementing the activities • Evaluating the outcome of the activities tied to the objective • Using all of the above to produce a new actioin plan to improve the learning outcomes

9. Planning Template

10. Defining Assessment • An assessment is a systematic collection, review, and use of information • Use mapping to identify where the opportunities for assessment are in your program curriculum

11. Writing Educational Objectives and Learning Outcomes • What are Learning Objectives? • Objectives are broad, generalized statements about what is to be learned. Think of them as a target to be reached, or "hit." (an arrow) • What are Learning Outcomes? • Outcomes are specific, measurable, short-term, observable behaviors.

12. Similarities in Objectives and Outcomes ● Both used to describe intended results of activities ● Both provide direction for assessment

13. Differences in Objectives and Outcomes • Level of precision • Objectives express intended results in general terms • Examples: clear communication, problem solving, ethical awareness • Outcomes express intended results in precise terms • Examples: effectively document clinical data, use communication technology,

14. Classification of Outcomes • Cognitive Domain • Relates to information/knowledge • Bloom’s Taxonomy • Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, Creating • Psychomotor • Basic motor skills/physical movement • Construct, kick, ski • Affective • Attitudes, appreciations, values, emotions

15. Why Classify Outcomes • Dictates the selection of instructional methods, media and evaluation used • Ensures college-level learning

16. Use Your ABCD’s to Write Outcomes • Audience - Who? Who is this aimed at? • Behavior - What? What do you expect them to be able to do? This should be an overt, observable behavior, even if the actual behavior is covert or mental in nature. If you can't see it, hear it, touch it, taste it, or smell it, you can't be sure your audience really learned it. • Condition - How? Under what circumstances will the learning occur? What will the student be given or already be expected to know to accomplish the learning? • Degree - How much? Must a specific set of criteria be met? Do you want total mastery (100%), do you want them to respond correctly 80% of the time, etc. A common (and totally non-scientific) setting is 80% of the time.

17. Examples of Well-Written Objectives Audience - Green Behavior - Gray Condition - Blue Degree - Pink • Cognitive (application level) - "Given a sentence written in the past or present tense, the studentwill be able to re-write the sentence in future tensewith no errors in tense or tense contradiction (i.e., I will see her yesterday.)."

18. Examples of Well-Written Outcomes Audience - Green Behavior - Gray Condition - Blue Degree - Pink • Psychomotor - Given a standard balance beam raised to a standard height,the student(dressed in athletic clothing)will be able to walk the entire length of the balance beam (from one end to the other)steadily, without falling off, and within a six second time span.

19. Examples of Well-Written Outcomes Audience - Green Behavior - Gray Condition - Blue Degree - Pink • Affective - "Given the opportunity to work in a team with several people of different cultures, the studentwill express positive attitudes in his/her interaction with team members, as measured by attaining 7 or more points on a checklist completed by non-team members."

20. Cookie Objective Audience or subject - Green Behavior - Gray Condition - Blue Standard - Pink Students will bake a chocolate chip cookie that receives a score of 16 or higher by 80% of the tastersusing the Chocolate Chip Cookie Rubric

21. The chocolate chip cookie assessment • Objective: To bake an aesthetic, nutritious and tasty dessert. • Outcome: Students will bake a chocolate chip cookie that receives a score of 16 or higher by 80% of the tasters using the Chocolate Chip Cookie Rubric. • Action Plan: • Teach units on chemistry of ingredients, proportional measurement; use of mixer, oven, baking sheets & thermometers • Design an evaluation plan using a rubric; share it with the students • Present the results of this assessment at the Departmental meeting and submit paper to Monte Carlo Conference for Cookie Kooks

22. Rubric for Chocolate Chip Cookie Source: Adapted from Lakeland Community College (http://www.lakelandcc.edu/gened/pdf/cookie.pdf)

23. Evaluate the Cookie (exercise) • Objectives and Outcomes provide direction for assessment choices • Purpose of rubric • Outcomes inform instruction

24. The chocolate chip cookie assessment Measure and Report Outcomes • Determine the criteria: nutritional values, color, number of chips, texture, flavor • Develop the evaluation plan, such as a rubric • The cookies were evaluated on the basis of appearance and taste. 80% of the participants thought the cookie could choke a horse.

25. The chocolate chip cookie assessment • Use outcomes for improvement • Recipe needs to be tweaked (more chips, less burnt, better flavor, etc.) • Try a different recipe. • No improvements needed. The students made great chocolate chip cookies.

26. General Education Objectives:Technological Literacy • The goal of the Technological Literacy requirement is to develop in the student an understanding of the role of technology in society and the skills necessary to adapt to changing technology. • Students will also learn to gather and disseminate current and historical information in their field of specialization to aid them in making informed decisions.

27. Learner Outcomes (example) To achieve this outcome, students will demonstrate the ability to: • Perform routine personal computer operations (e.g. use word processor to generate a document, communicate effectively using the Internet, etc.). • Send and receive communication using the Internet. • Identify information resources appropriate to a given situation. • Access information using manual and electronic systems. • Evaluate retrieved information to determine its relevance to intended use. • Use retrieved information to support a decision, given a problem- solving scenario.

28. How Will You Know They Learned • What you teach should determine how you assess learning. You should tie your objectives with your assessment to achieve the expected outcomes (Dwyer, 1991).

29. In The Name of Assessment "Assessment is the process of defining, selecting, designing, collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and using information to increase students' learning and development. It includes discussions about what should be assessed and how information will be used, not just hands on testing of students” (Erwin, 1991. p. 15).

30. Review Plan Assess “…an institution is expected “to identify expected outcomes for its educational programs and its administrative and educational support services; assess whether it achieves these outcomes; and provide evidence of improvement based on analysis of those results.” SACS 3.3.1

31. Review • Pay attention to • Objectives • Expected outcomes • Performance measures • Using results to design action • Evidence of improvement

32. A thought… Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

33. Conclusion • If you do care where you are going, then it does matter which way you go. • Our office is here to help you assess what you’ve done. • Enjoy the adventure!