Strategies for Effective Assessment Practices in Higher Education

1. 1
Effective Assessment Practices
Debra Johnson
Consultant
Kaplan University
10/25/2011

2. 2
How Assessment Can
Benefit the Institution
 Used As a basis to inform action
 Make decisions that affect student learning
 budgeting and planning
 Making changes to the overall curriculum or academic
programs, policy changes that support learning
 Revising individual courses
 Adding new services to address students’ needs
 Reveal trends or patterns in how faculty and staff are using
assessment results to make enhancements.
 Faculty Development
 Improve Student Learning

3. 3
The Importance of
Assessment
Measure goals, objectives, learning
outcomes
Inform decision-making
Improve student learning
Gauge progress of student learning
Improve teaching
Improve institutional effectiveness

4. 4
Accreditation Standards Northwest
Association of Schools and Colleges
Assessment of Student Learning
 Engage in on-going
systematic collection and
analysis of meaningful,
assessable, verifiable—
quantitative and /or qualitative
indicators of achievement
 Engage in an effective system
of evaluation of its programs
and services wherever offered
and however delivered to
evaluate achievement, of
clearly identified program
goals or intended outcomes.
 Communicate academic
intentions, programs and
services to students and
to the public and
demonstrates its
academic programs can
be completed in a timely
fashion.
 Operates with the highest
academic and ethical
standards in the awarding
of its degrees.

5. 5
Build a Culture of Evidence
 Institutional leaders
must demonstrate
genuine care about
student learning
outcomes
 Create trust and
integrity through
consistent actions that
demonstrate
commitment to ethical
and evidence-based
decision-making
 Establish connections
between formative and
summative assessment and
between assessment for
improvement and
assessment for
accountability
 Connect curriculum design,
pedagogy, and faculty
development to delivery and
evaluation of student
learning.
 Connect faculty research and
teaching so they complement
each other in practice and in
the campus reward structure.

6. 6
Assessment Practices of
Northeastern Illinois University,
Chicago (peer Institution)
 Embedded assessment; locally
developed instruments (rubrics)
to examine student writing and
critical thinking
 Standardized testing (Annually)
 Item analysis from NSSE
(National Survey Student
Engagement) (Annually)
 Alumni Surveys to discover
trends in response related to
general education.

7. 7
Strategies for Institution-Wide
Assessment
 Establish a campus-wide vision
 Plan short, mid- and long-range goals
for the institution.
 Tie assessment to resources and
processes that count such as program
review, budget requests, general
education review, or reform.
 Identify who needs to know what, for
what, and this should guide
assessment planning.
 Create a well-represented committee;
Articulate expectations for outcomes-
based assessments
 Organize committee roles and
responsibilities
 Ensure that the goals live; place on
institution website to be used as a
guide for lower-level programs.
 Relate institutional goals to the
mission; gather institutional
documents, self studies.
 Identify existing resources and
processes and new processes
 Establish a communication
plan
 Discuss implementation
barriers and strategies to
overcome them
 Move forward with flexibility
 Plan Strategically for the future

8. 8
Strategies for Institutional Assessment- System
Diagram
Provost Strategic
Planning Council
VPS
Deans Faculty Senate
Digestion: Institutional Research, Gen Ed Director and Committee, Curriculum Committee
Assessment Director and Committee, Associate/Assistant Provost
-Approve new courses/programs, including how those courses/programs will be assessed
-Support assessment measures; fund and/or conduct come measures
-Monitor how well the assessment system is working and recommend improvements
Aggregate/analyze assessment data from all sources and ensure it is properly distributed
-Recommend actions to enhance student learning, based on data
-Keep records and generate reports.
.
Digestion and
Decision:
Departments or gen ed
Units digest and act on
Their data
Data: Students
Surveys and classroom
Work, gathered by faculty
Used by them for
Improvement
Data: Studies conducted
Within gen ed units, e.g.
Composition, first-year
Studies.
Used by them for
improvement
Data: Portfolios.
Student portfolios
Read by faculty
readers
Data: Collected
Institutionally:
-Surveys, e.g.,
NSSE
-Tests, e.g. CLA
-Retention, etc.
-Alumni Surveys
Data: Studies con-
ducted within
Academic support
And co-curricular
Units,e.g., library,
IT, student affairs,
Athletics.
Used by them for
Improvement.
Diagram Read from the Bottom Up

9. 9
Strategies for Program Level Assessment-The Basic No-
Frills Departmental Assessment System
 Incorporate the history of the unit, its
current status, and its aspirations for the
future.
 Conduct extensive evaluation of the
assessment, departmental, and program
review purposes, policies, and report
systems.
 Use a scoring rubric for gauging the
effectiveness of the assessment plan).
 Consolidate all former university-wide
reviews into a single review (annual
department reports, annual assessment
reports, and program review reports).
 Examine Personnel and resources
 Arrange a forum to discuss data and
identify action items
 Gather two measures of how well students are
achieving the goals; one direct measure e.g., a
sample of students’ work completed at the end
of their course of study analyzed by faculty to
find the strengths and weaknesses of the
students as a group; one indirect measure. e.g.,
student surveys and/or focus groups asking
questions.
 Involve adjuncts; ask them to submit, along
with grades, a report of students’ strengths and
weaknesses measured against departmental or
general education learning goals.
 Follow-up actions: action on one item may take
several years; focus on one or two of them
each year.
 Encourage multicampus systems to use a peer
review process to share effective practices and
provide feedback that would facilitate future
action at the campus and system levels.

10. 10
Important (Major) Components of an
Institutional Assessment Plan
 Establish Vision, Audience, Purpose, Goals
 Analyze Your Overall Assessment System
 Make Improvements to the Assessment system
 Documenting Assessment for Accreditors and Others
 Budgeting for Assessment
 Follow-up and Strategic Planning

11. 11
Web-based Resources to Use As
Guidelines in Assessment Planning
 AAC&U –The Association of American Colleges and Universities' LEAP (Liberal
Education and America’s Promise) Project http://www.aacu.org/leap/vision.cfm
 Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Student Learning:
http://www.assessment.tcu.edu/assessment/aahe.pdf.
 Northwest Commission on Colleges and Schools (NWCCU):
http://www.nwccu.org/
 Assessment Plan of Northwestern Illinois University:
http://www.neiu.edu/neasses/pdf/GenEd_Assessment_Plan_FINAL_
 APPROVED.pdf
 League for Innovation in the Community College: www.league.org