Assessment

GE Assessment Process

Assessment in the LOPERs General Education Program is meant to be formative, to help instructors identify strengths and weaknesses in their courses. The assessment data also helps the General Education Council to identify strengths and weakness in the LOPERs General Education Program and identify courses that are exceptional or courses that need improvement.

Starting in spring 2022, every section of every course in the LOPERs General Education Program will be assessed every semester. The purpose of this assessment schedule is to rapidly develop normative numerical data for the assessment of the learning outcomes in the LOPERs General Education Program. Courses that are two standard deviations above or below the mean will be considered exceptional or in need of improvement, respectively.

In addition to quantitative assessment of the General Education learning outcomes, instructors are also asked to complete a qualitative assessment of each class section.

A general example of the assessment rubric is shown below.  Assessment rubrics are available to each instructor as an Excel file (specific to the LOPER category for their course) on Canvas in the Org General Education for Faulty.

Instructions:

All activities and assignments used for assessment must be consistent with the syllabus of record that the General Education Council reviewed and approved.                                                       

• Each outcome assessment can be based on a different assignment
• As each outcome may be developed over the course of many assignments, using assignments from later in the semester for assessment gives more information on whether students are developing the necessary academic skills

It is not necessary to submit any more information than what is requested on this spreadsheet.  DO NOT submit any information that can be identified with an individual student.                        

Use the following scale                                                                                                         

0 – Student did not complete assignment (For example, student received a grade of 0)

1 – Student completed assignment and did not meet learning objective (For example, student received a grade of F)

2 – Student completed assignment and performance was below average.  (For example, student received a grade of D)           

3 – Student completed assignment and demonstrated average mastery of the learning objective.  Student met expectations. (For example, student received a grade of C)

4 – Student completed assignment and demonstrated above average mastery of the learning objective (For example, student received grade of B)        

5 – Student completed and demonstrated exceptional mastery of the learning objective and could be used as an example for others (For example, student received grade of A)                                                                                                                                                      

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS

1. Briefly discuss how your students performed relative to these learning outcomes. What went well, what didn’t go as well as you might have liked? 

2. What improvements do you plan to make to this course to improve student learning?

Assessment rubrics are available to each instructor as an Excel file (specific to the LOPER category for their course) on Canvas in the Org General Education for Faulty. The completed spreadsheet is to be returned to the Director of General Education via e-mail (general.studies@tidybio.net) within 2 weeks of the end of semester / term. If a course meets two LOPER Program Requirements, the instructor must complete an assessment rubric spreadsheet for each LOPER for their course.

The assessment procedure allows the instructor to select the assignment(s) from their course that are used to assess student performance on each learning objective. The same assignment may be used for multiple objectives. The Council requires the instructor to identify which assignment from their syllabus was used to assess each objective and to submit along with the data a copy of their syllabus. The Council further requires that the assignments used for assessment are consistent with the Syllabus of Record that the Council reviewed and approved when authorizing the course to meet that LOPER category in the program.

Frequently asked questions:

Q: Why assess every class every semester?

A:  By assessing every class every semester, we will

• rapidly obtain a useful amount of information to be used in the assessment process
• avoid any possible sampling errors or sampling bias
• develop a culture of assessment in which faculty will continually reflect on the General Education learning outcomes and how they are being met in their class
• when faculty are asked to assess their class only once every few semesters or every few years, they are not familiar with the assessment rubrics and may be unfamiliar with how to complete the assessment.  By assessing every semester this problem should be eliminated

Q: I use a holistic grading scheme; how do I assess my class?

A:  that depends, but a goal is that GE assessment is not excessively burdensome

• If your final grade for the class represents a holistic evaluation of student performance on all of the learning outcomes, then you can use the final grade for the assessment rubric for each learning outcome (e.g. a student who earns a final grade of C would be considered as a 3 for the assessment rubric fort each learning outcome)
  • On the Excel spreadsheet, for each learning outcome there a place to briefly explain the assignment or activity used for the assessment.  Please briefly explain something like “over the course of 5 written assignments and an in-class presentation, learning outcome 4 was taught and evaluated and these scores represent a holistic assessment of the students’ performance”
• If you think that a single assignment or class activity best represents the students’ performance on the learning outcome, you can use that single assignment or class activity

Q: I have an assignment that meets 2 (or more) learning outcomes; can I use that for assessment?

A: Yes!  On the Excel spreadsheet, for each learning outcome there a place to briefly explain the assignment or activity used for the assessment.  It’s OK to list the same learning activity more than once if the learning activity is a good way to assess the students’ performance on the learning outcome.

Q: Can I change which learning activity I use for assessment from one semester to the next?

A: Yes!  Part of the assessment process is to continually improve how we assess our classes.  Please keep in mind that the Syllabus of Record that was submitted to the General Education Council when the course was approved connects specific learning outcomes to specific course activities, so try to adhere to the Syllabus of Record.  However, it is also understood that courses evolve as instructors identify new teaching activities, so please be sure to reflect any changes in learning activities that impact LOPERs learning outcome is the course syllabus each semester (which is then submitted along with the Assessment Rubric spreadsheet).

• For example, if in spring 2022 LOPERs learning outcome 3 is assessed with a reflection paper and the instructor decides that a formal research paper would be a better activity to assess LOPERs learning outcome 3, please feel free to adjust the class, syllabus, and assessment information in the future as necessary.