Outcomes Assessment Reports

a newsletter and Web log by Frank Vozzo   Director of Student Learning Outcomes Assessment

 

January 2, 2006

In this report:

• Middle States Commission publications.
• They're coming: Departmental Academic Plans.
• Some best practices at Sage.

The Middle States Commission on Higher Education has published a couple of on-line documents on assessment of learning outcomes that every faculty member should download and read:

Advancing Student Learning—Highlights and Summary of Student Learning Assessment: Options and Resources.

Faculty leaders and administrators at Sage will be developing Departmental Academic Plans during the coming semester.  These faculty-generated plans, informed by institutional and departmental mission statements as well as the Agenda for Excellence (see CampusCruiser/My Cruiser/Dashboard/My Committees/TSC Faculty Staff and Administrators/Shared Files/Institutional Research and Planning/AGENDA FOR EXCELLENCE 8-15-05.doc), will articulate departmental goals and objectives for academic program growth and improvement over a multiyear period, and will involve the use of outcomes assessment.  For examples of what such plans can look like, see the plans developed by School at IUPUI:

http://www.imir.iupui.edu/annualplan2002/report_screen/text_display2003.asp?RTID=2

The first page you come to via the link is an annual report for IUPUI’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences.  By using the drop-down menu at the top left hand corner of the page, you can view 22 different reports.  You will note that the reports contain a mixture of information: some of the goals and objectives are common to all of the reports and originate with the institution’s overall “plan” (such as “civic engagement”), while other goals and objectives are specific to a program (such as improvement in enrollments, generation of needed funds, or modernization of curriculum).  You will also see that budgetary information is included, displayed in conjunction with outcomes assessment information.  When a program, department or school has established and documented its needs through mission, goal and objective, and can show via learning outcomes assessment and institutional research that its needs are not being met, it can more easily make the case for additional operating funds or faculty lines.  IUPUI believes that all of these reports should be public— as we all know, departments or schools in all institutions of higher education constantly have to compete with each other for larger portions of a budgetary pie that seldom increases in overall size, and public disclosure of the information and arguments used to secure such larger portions promotes fairness (or at least a perception of fairness).

Whatever form our Academic Plans take, the process of writing them will be our best opportunity yet to understand, promote and improve the teaching and learning in our programs.  That’s what we’re all about.

When it comes to written outcomes assessment plans, what are some best practices at Sage?

The Department of Mathematics and Computing Sciences arguably has the most advanced outcomes assessment plan at Sage.  Their plan includes departmental as well as program-specific mission statements, and explanations of how each mission is connected to that of the institution.  Goals and objectives are stated, types of data to acquire are named, and plans for use of data to improve programs are articulated.  I’ll mention just two of the outcomes assessment techniques used: a national examination for graduates called the Mathematics Field Test, and “an annual retreat in May to review quantitative data and information gained from portfolios and seminar, as well as SOS forms.”  Many other programs at Sage have annual retreats where outcomes assessment information is shared amongst faculty; when these retreats are guided by a written document, they can be made more productive.

For another example, see the School of Education’s Conceptual Framework.  The document is mostly geared towards what graduates will be able to do—an important emphasis in outcomes assessment.  A link from the Home page displays graduate job placement information, and another link shows New York State certification requirements.

The two sets of documents are written for different audiences: the first was intended for an internal audience of faculty members (semi-public), and the second for viewing by prospective students (entirely public).  What they have in common is the fact that the authors are publicly making promises to themselves in writing—to do their work in ways that will produce good learning outcomes, and to stay constantly informed about how well or not well they are doing that work.  A promise made in public is a promise that is more likely to be kept.

In next week's OARs: Syllabusology.

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