This Assessment Spotlight is an interactive presentation
that engages participants in thinking critically about departmental programs and how students
develop competencies by participating in these programs. Since mapping our programs to the
competencies represents a critical task for every Student Affairs department, it would be ideal if one or two
members from each department participated in the presentation.
5. Activity: Part I
If
you can, get in groups based on your
department or unit.
On your handout, in the left-hand column,
write down some of the major programs
offered by your department.
Put an “X” in the column of the
competency a student would develop by
participating in this program
Use the definitions to guide your response
6. Activity: Part II
What
skill(s) will students develop, at
depth, as a result of participating in this
program?
Limit X’s to 3 per program
7. Activity: Part III
Now,
the final step in our mapping
process is to rank the top three (or less!)
competencies.
1 = competency the student will develop
the strongest as a result of participating in
your program
2 = next most developed competency
Etc.
8. What now?
Continue
the conversation
Department/Unit
Program partners
Students
Revisit/redraft
outcomes
Focus your assessment/measurement
9. Conclusion & Coming Up
Wrap
Up
Survey
Learning Outcomes
December 16th
Direct
and Indirect Assessment Measures
December 16th
Rubrics
January
Editor's Notes
Presenters (BOTH)Ciji Heiser & Kate KryderAssessment certificate (KATE)Please sign in Connection to the assessment cycle (CIJI)Phase II: Designing, Facilitating, and Implementing programs & services Program outline: We are going to answer 4 key questions in today’s presentation: (CIJI)What are outcomes?What is outcome mapping? Why are we doing it?How do we do it? Conclusion & Questions
(HANDOUT COMPETENCIES DEFINITION SHEET) Before we can start linking your programs to the competencies, we have to first define the competencies and have a common understanding of what these words mean. This is important because when we start measuring for competency development, we want to be measuring the same thing for each program over time. Keeling used a “bricks in the wall” metaphor. Essentially, we want our bricks to be made of the same material. When RHA and Leadershape talk about critical thinking – we want them to be talking about the same thing. The skill or competency of critical thinking may be developed differently in each of these programs; however, both programs are still working towards the same skill. This is vital to the success of Excellence in Action because if we all mean something different, there will be no way to understand the collective impact of Departments and all of Student Affairs on student development and learning. Mapping is an important step in the Excellence in Action initiative because through mapping we build inventories of “institution- and program-level knowledge and provide the foundation on which to design and develop the ‘bigger picture’ assessment methods…” (Maki, 2010, p. 62).Walk through elements, competencies, and outcomes handout. Programs are simply the individual opportunities you provide for students to learn and develop. Mapping, simply put, is the process of linking your programs to the competencies. Mapping: Maps, “provide a shared context for authoring outcome statements, methods to assess outcome statements, and criteria and standards by which to judge student work…” (Maki, 2010, p. 61).Maps, “also identify gaps in student learning opportunities or identify concentrations of learning outcomes” (Maki, 2010, p. 61).Maps, “help us see whether the learning priorities we collectively articulate translate into underlying coherence among our efforts” (Maki, 2010, p. 61).
Why do we do it? At the Student Affairs level “Maps provide an overview of students’ learning journey – a place to locate where educational opportunities are specifically designed to address institutional and program-level expectations” (Maki, 2010, p. 62).“A way to visualize the range of interdependent relationships that foster student learning through multiple learning opportunities is to develop curricular and co-curricular maps and inventories of educational practices” (Maki, 2010, p. 61).At a programmatic level, “More important, these representations provide a rich context for writing learning outcome statements, sentences that describe what students should be able to demonstrate, represent, or produce based on how and what they have learned…” (Maki, 2010, p. 61).“Without this preparatory work leading to the development of outcome statements, disjunctures may exist between shared expectations for student learning and actual opportunities for students to achieve these expectations along their chronologies of learning” (Maki, 2010, p. 61).How do we do it?
Activity I: In the left hand column, write down some of the major programs offered by your department. As you think about the purpose of your program, and what your program offers to students, which competencies will students have the opportunity to develop? (10 minutes)Use the definitions to guide your responsePut an X in the column of the competency developed Discussion:Okay! Take a break for a moment and let’s come back together. How many of you have more than 10 Xs for a program? How about 7? 5? Anyone just have 3?Three is the magic number because as Dr. Keeling said at his presentation and the Steering Committee has maintained, all programs are not meant to teach students all competencies. Students may gain more than one, two, or even three competencies (skills) by participating in a program, but the key is to focus on students obtaining a depth of development by participating in a given program. Students develop a breadth of experiences and skills by participating in multiple activities throughout their time at college. The next step in this activity is to help us zoom in and focus on what students gain from participating in your programs.
Activity II: For this next part, you want to answer the question: “What skill(s) will students develop, at depth, as a result of participating in this program?” For each of your programs, narrow our Xs from whatever you may currently have, to just 3 X’s. You are focusing on the top 3 competencies for each program.
Now, you need to rank, 1-3 the top competency a student will develop, the second most likely competency developed, the third most likely competency developed. As you look at where your programs, and how they map to the different competencies – what do you notice? Are there any trends?“Given that learning is a complex process, that students learn as a result of different pedagogies, and that they face different obstacles based on misunderstanding or long-held beliefs, exploring the design of our collective work enables us to identify underlying connections and avenues for learning. Additionally, exploring the design of our collective work positions us to identify how we may strengthen connections or build additional avenues for learning” (Maki, 2010, p. 65).
Take this back your departments or units and continue the conversationLook critically at what students gain from your programs Confirm with stakeholders (partners on the programs and students) Start writing outcomes around these competencies Measure Focus on the competencies for direct measuresYou can always still measure for other competencies but we are looking at depth (direct measures of student development)
“Maps of the curriculum and co-curriculum serve four main purposes in building a collective institutional commitment to assessment:They stimulate discussion about and critical reflection on collective learning priorities.They illustrate how well collective expectations align with educational practices that foster those priorities.They provide a visual representation of students’ contexts for learning that may assist faculty and staff later on when they interpret assessment results.If made available to students, they focus them on program-, department-, and institution-level expectations for learning, holding them accountable for their learning and encouraging them to develop their own learning map as they progress through their undergraduate or graduate studies. Sharing and discussing a curricular and a co-curricular map with students upon matriculation is also a way to acculturate them to learning as a building process, not a credit-counting exercise” (Maki, 2010, p. 61).