INTRODUCTION: Department Assessment Planning Guide
Outcomes assessment is a process in which faculty identify
the most appropriate learning objectives for specific programs. Effective
assessment processes use a wide variety of measurements to discover
as accurately as possible whether the department and the institution are
achieving the declared objectives.
Most importantly, the purpose of assessment is to
provide meaningful data to departments/programs for purposes of improving
student learning. The process should provide the department/programs
with feedback on its curriculum and delivery model. It is not
an evaluation of individual students or of individual faculty or staff.
When used as a tool for making improvement, assessment becomes a
natural part of the teaching/learning process.
The goal of this document is to assist departments
in developing assessment plans at the departmental level. . An outline
of useful steps for developing a departmental assessment plan that can
be used by those involved in the assessment process is also provided in
this document.
" When developing and implementing outcomes assessment strategies,
academic units should have at least one of three purposes in mind: to
improve, to inform, and/or to prove. The results from an assessment process
should provide information which can be used to determine whether or not
intended outcomes are being achieved and how the programs can be improved.
An assessment process should also be designed to inform departmental faculty
and other decision-makers about relevant issues that can impact the project
and student learning." (Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison Assessment Planning
Document)
Developing a program-specific plan to meet assessment objectives
is not an easy process. The following six step approach has enabled
many academic units to develop effective plans for assessing student
learning in the major.
STEP 1: Define educational/programmatic goals and objectives
for the major or program.
A department's instructional goals and objectives serve
as the foundation for assessment planning. Program assessment is intended
to provide information on how well students are performing relative
to the educational goals and objectives established by the department.
The defined goals and objectives should be far-reaching and describe
a variety of skills and knowledge-based areas. In most instances, not
all of the goals and objectives can be adequately assessed for student
achievement. However, assessment plans should be devised to assist faculty
in determining whether students are acquiring some of the prescribed goals.
Clearly, departmental goals for the major must ultimately be integrated
with those of the school/college, which in turn, must be aligned with the
institutional mission statement.
STEP 2: Identify and describe instruments or methods for assessing
student achievement at important stages in the program.
Once educational goals and objectives have been identified,
assessment methods for collecting student data can be chosen. These methods
should be consistent with the programmatic objectives defined in the first
step. Because departments often define a variety of educational goals
and objectives, comprehensive assessment strategies frequently require the
use of more than one assessment instrument to determine program effectiveness.
STEP 3: Determine how the results will be disseminated and used
for program improvement.
Assessment results and information should be used in a timely
fashion to facilitate continuous programmatic improvements. Designing
a feedback process is essential in all assessment plans because it gives
faculty the opportunity to use recent findings to incorporate curricular
changes necessary to prepare students with the skills and knowledge to
advance in their respective majors. For example, when assessment results
are used in a timely manner, faculty may determine that it is necessary
to provide curricular changes to enhance programmatic weaknesses. When
results indicate that students are performing consistently with established
objectives, faculty may focus assessment initiatives in other areas or
extend current practices to impact additional students.
STEP 4: Develop a timetable for accomplishing the previous
three steps. Each academic unit will need to establish a schedule for
selecting, implementing, and using the results of assessment strategies.
In order to meet external demands for assessment implementation
and to incorporate assessment into ongoing curricular planning, departments
should devise appropriate timetables for development and execution of
assessment programs. The timetables should indicate when departments
foresee developing each of the previous three assessment planning steps.
STEP 5: Submit assessment objectives, methods, and timetable
to Augustana Assessment Committee.
The Assessment Committee is the process of developing this process.
STEP 6: Implement assessment plans and revise as needed.
Once approved by the Assessment Committee, departments should
implement assessment strategies. When initial program feedback from assessment
practices becomes available, departments should use the results for programmatic
improvement or to revise objectives or plans, if necessary.
By following this six step process, the complexities associated
with developing effective and efficient assessment plans, especially
for those devising assessment strategies for the first time, can be made
less arduous and time consuming.
Currently departments throughout campus are in the process of
reviewing and/or determining the most appropriate educational goals and
objectives for each major, devising ways to measure whether students are
achieving the prescribed objectives, and designing processes to employ
gathered assessment data and information into curricular planning. As departments
progress in the implementation of their assessment strategies, it will
be important to learn from their successes and failures as they attempt
to discover useful methods of measuring student achievement.
|
