1. Feedback & Assessment
Dr. Jennifer Sparrow EDUCAUSE 2012
Dr. Teggin Summers November 6, 2012
Dr. Marc Zaldivar Denver, CO
2. Overview
• Feedback as a mode of learning
• Assessment as form of feedback
• Outcomes-based assessment of learning
• Programmatic Assessment
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3. Feedback enhances learning
• Provides a process-centered framework for
learning rather than an object-centered
• Makes learning shared and contextual.
Feedback could come from…
• Fellow students
• Instructors and Advisors
• Mentors, peers and other students
• Working Professionals
• Structured feedback (e.g., via
rubrics)provides meaningful, contextual
information to the learner.
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4. Assessment as feedback
• Assessment, in this way, can be seen as
formal feedback. Its goals can be many and
layered:
• Self-assessment: the learner better understanding
his/her own learning process through systematic
feedback on the learning process.
• Course-based assessment: the learner better
understanding particular content/curricular
information through assessment of learning
activities
• Programmatic-based assessment: the program
better understanding the curricular environment
and seeking to improve the educational
4 experience.
5. Programmatic Assessment at
Virginia Tech
• Federal Government
• Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA)
• Southern Association of Colleges and
Schools (SACS)
• Professional Accrediting Agencies
• State Council of Higher Education for Virginia
(SCHEV)
• VT Strategic Plan
6. But why do we do this?
• What is the best indicator of the effectiveness of an
educational program?
• Could it be (should it be) what students have learned while
being enrolled in the program?
• The process of student learning outcomes assessment
helps us to be sure students are learning what we expect
them to learn.
• “Assessment is a systematic way of paying attention to our
curriculum.” – Metz
7. What is The Process for Assessing
Student Learning Outcomes?
1. Identify 2. Gather and Analyze
And Articulate Information About
Student Student
Learning Achievement
Outcomes Of Outcomes
3. Use Information
Gathered
To Improve
Student Learning
8. What is The Process for Assessing
Student Learning Outcomes?
Example:
Example: Upload a critical
Ability to analysis from
read critically English 2604
and compose 1. Identify Introduction to
an effective And Articulate 2. Gather and Analyze Critical Reading
analysis of a SLOs Information to your ePortfolio.
literary text
3. Use Information
Example: The assessment team rated 33 randomly selected critical essays pulled from the
required ePortfolios. 88% of the papers were given an overall rating of Competent or better, thus
exceeding the Achievement Target. Even so, a handful of papers were given lower ratings than
we would like. The teachers met to discuss the unsatisfactory essays and made changes to the
subsequent assignment for the coming year.
9. Hallmarks of the “new
assessment”
• Before:
• Externally mandated
• Delegated to the unfortunate few
• Read?
• Shelved
• Students essentially not involved or impacted
• After:
• Substantial, broad-based effort and engagement
• Reflection, conflict, compromise, consensus
• Students as partners
10. Conclusions and Take-aways
• Feedback is a critical part of ePortfolio-based
activities, because it
• Enhances reflection
• Foregrounds educational process
• Shares learning, up and down the scale
• Assessment is a systematic way of providing
feedback on specific learning outcomes.
• Again, this assessment is an extension of learning
for, and about, our students.
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