Student Learning Outcomes and SACSCOC

1. Student Learning Outcomes and SACSCOC

2. Levels of Assessment (Slide from Convocation 2012) • Classroom assessment • Grades • Student evaluation of class/course • Course assessment –???? • Academic program assessment • CS 3.3.1.1(Institutional Effectiveness) • Institutional assessment • CS 3.5.1 (General Education) • FR 4.1(Student Achievement)

3. Course Assessment • Common course assessment and student learning outcomes in all classes, across all modalities, locations, and faculty status • Data? • Common course student learning outcomes and “related” SACSCOC policies • CR 2.5 (Institutional effectiveness) • CR 2.12 (Quality enhancement plan) • CS 3.3.1.1 (Institutional Effectiveness: Educational Programs) • CS 3.4.10 (Responsibility of curriculum) • CS 3.7.1 (Faculty competence)

4. Course Student Learning Outcomes • What faculty members want students to know and do at the end of a course • In developing course SLO’s specify actions by the students that are: • Observable • Measureable • Performed by the student • Well written course SLO’s can be easily assessed

5. Good Action Words to Use… • Compile • Identify • Create • Plan • Revise • Analyze • Design • Select • Utilize • Apply • Demonstrate • Prepare • Use • Compute • Discuss • Explain • Predict • Assess • Compare • Rate • Critique • Outline • Evaluate

6. Examples of Course SLO’s • Not so good • Students will understand basic human development theory. • Students will appreciate music from other cultures. • Problem • How do you observe someone “understanding” a theory or “appreciating” other cultures? • How would you measure “understanding” or “appreciation”? • Observable, measurable, student focused • Students will be able to identify and describe major theories of human development. • Students will be able to identify characteristics of music from other cultures.

7. Direct vs. Indirect Measures of Student Learning • Direct measure is based on a sample of actual student work • Strength –what students can actually do • Weakness – not everything can be measured directly • Indirect measure is based upon a report of perceived student learning and can come from many perspectives • Strength – implicit qualities related to learning, such as satisfaction, perception, feels, etc. • Weakness- assumptions must be made about how well perceptions match the reality of actual learning • What to do…? Ideally both • Providing a triangulation or convergence on course student learning both actual and perceived, from student and others.

8. Direct Measures of Student Learning • Samples of individual student work • Pre-test and post-test evaluations • Standardized tests • Performance on licensure exams • Blind scored essay tests • Internal or external juried review of student work • Case study/problems • Capstone papers, projects or presentations • Project or course imbedded assessment • Documented observation and analysis of student behavior/performance • Collections of work (portfolios) of individual students • Activity logs • Performances • Interviews (including videotaped)

9. Indirect Measures of Student Learning • Questionnaires and Surveys • Students • Graduating Seniors • Alumni • Employers • Syllabi and curriculum analysis • Grades • Course Evaluations

10. Next …. • Fall 2013 to document our process • Document process to show course level student learning across all modalities, locations, and faculty status • Gary Randolph and Peter Dorman • Assessment of course level student learning in ENG 111 and ENG 112