Office of Institutional Research and Assessment
Contents
2006-07 One Question/One Answer (Questions due November 15th)
Formal Presentation:
Assessment: Making It Meaningful,
Manageable and Sustainable
Informal Discussion:
Course Embedded Assessments and Using the Capstone
Informal Discussion:
Qualitative Arts & Humanities Assessment and Articulating the Results
New pages
Archives )
Resources and
Revised pages
Assessment Tools
Program Assessment Documents
One Question/One Answer
Thanks to those who have already submitted their “One Question” for this year!
As the Provost briefly mentioned at the first Academic
Leaders meeting on September 6th, and reiterated on October 4th,
the student learning outcomes program assessment method of “One Question” will
again be followed this 2006-07 academic year.
You may use the form at: https://delphi.tcnj.edu:81/cgi-bin/formgenie/formgenie.pl?form=12816
to submit your question by the deadline of
As questions are submitted I will once again be organizing
them topically on the website. Resource
materials and background readings will be available as links under each
topic. In this way the assessment
contact for each program will be able to reach out to others pursuing answers
to similar questions and resources will be available with the click of a
mouse. Of course, as always, if you’d
like additional feedback, support or materials, please do not hesitate to
contact me by phone at 609-771-2143, or by email at either maas@tcnj.edu or assess@tcnj.edu.
Dr. Peter Gray, Director of Assessment at the
In the afternoon, Dr. Gray led two informal round table discussions. The first centered on Course Embedded Assessments and Using the Capstone Experience as a program assessment tool. One simple method he shared is allowing all faculty who teach a section of the capstone to present to, and discuss with, the full department the “results” of the capstone experience annually. In this way, if there is an indication that many students seem to be “missing” one of the learning goals of the program, the full faculty can determine the best method of addressing that goal within the curriculum. He also touched on the use of grades as an assessment technique, and stressed that while grades alone are a normative measure (not useful for program assessment in terms of student learning outcomes), but if they are clearly criterion referenced, they can become a method of assessing the achievement of course. He also discussed using formative assessment throughout a course for continual improvement – a shift from “How do I teach?” to, “What did my students learn?” From this perspective an instructor can define in concrete terms what type of student work is best, good, fair or poor for each course learning goal and examine student assignments not just for grading purposes, but also with an eye toward assessment of the course.
The topic of the second informal round table discussion was Assessment in the Arts and Humanities and Articulating the Results. Dr. Gray suggested that in these areas the focus of student outcomes assessment must be “the story” – the process of learning, growth and development and articulating this, through the use of examples, to those outside your discipline. Students should be involved in discussing (orally or in writing) their progress toward clearly articulated learning outcomes, reflecting on their learning throughout all four years, and their answers should get more complex and complete each year. Faculty can ask themselves, “Where is my course in relation to foundation courses that ‘prepare’ students for mine? Are they arriving in my course prepared? Where is my course in relation to those that build on mine? Are they arriving in those next courses prepared?” and the answers to these questions can be discussed and evaluated by the full department, which is program assessment.
Two new pages have been added to the assessment website (http://www.tcnj.edu/~assess):
· Archives (http://www.tcnj.edu/~assess/archives.html)
Links to past Assessment Updates and events/workshops
sponsored by the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment
·
Resources
and
Categorized references and reading, in PDF format, which will be updated regularly. The “resources and reading page is also a link from the already existing “Assessment Tools” page (more on that below).
These pages have been revised:
· Assessment Tools (http://www.tcnj.edu/~assess/tools.html)
The addition of
o Links to the Writing Program and rubrics and critical thinking therein
o Link to Assessment Planning with Gloria Rogers on the ABET website
o Link
to “Resources and
· Program Assessment Documents (http://www.tcnj.edu/~assess/docs_amm.html) - use tabs at top to navigate to documents for each School
Has been continually revised all summer with links to answers and supporting documents to the 2005-06 “One Question” in pdf format.
· One Question/One Answer (http://www.tcnj.edu/~assess/onequestion.html )
Has been updated with the link to the 2006-07 “One Question” submission form and details on what should be included. Past information on the page has not been deleted, just moved down under “Academic Year 2005-06”
Contact Information
Dr. Paula A.Y. Maas
Director of Assessment
Office of Institutional Research and Assessment
Green Hall Room 218
Phone: 609-771-2143
Fax: 609-637-5136
Email: maas@tcnj.edu
Web: www.tcnj.edu/~assess