How To: Steps in the Assessment Process

Student learning outcomes (SLOs) are brief statements of what successful students should know or be able to do by the end of a course of study. Well-formed learning outcomes are written in terms of skills or actions, as that formulation creates measurable and useful SLOs.

Why are SLOs important?

At their best, SLOs provide definition and scope for a course or program. They guide instructors in making instructional and assessment choices, they direct student attention to targeted learning goals while setting clear expectations, and help colleagues understand how courses fit together within a curriculum.

Additional Resource:

• The Educational Value of Course-Level Learning Outcomes (PDF)

How to Write Strong SLOs

Watch this short video for a quick (3-minute) primer on writing well-formed SLOs.

Additional Resources:

• Bloom’s Taxonomy (PDF)
• Guide for Creating SLOs (PDF)

Evaluating your SLOs

Strong SLOs are clearly defined, measurable, and address the context or criteria under which students will demonstrate learning. Use this checklist to identify ways in which your SLOs for a course or program might need revision:

• Number: There are 3-5 SLOs defined for the application (without using excessive conjunctions!).
• Action-Oriented: Each SLO is action oriented – most likely through use of an action verb at the beginning of each SLO.
• Measurable: Each SLO is directly measurable/assessable and avoids use of less measurable terms like “understand”, “know” and “gain an appreciation for”.
• Time Bound: SLOs are articulated within a time-bound context (e.g., “By the end of this course…”, “Upon successful completion of this degree…”).
• Learner-Centered: SLOs focus on what students will know or be able to do by the end of the lesson/course/degree.
• Jargon-Free: SLOs are free of discipline-specific terms and abbreviations that students in the course or major are not likely to understand (or those terms are provided with further explanation or definition).
• Provides Scope: Each SLO is articulated in a way that specifies the limits (or “scope”) of expected application of the skill.
• Alignment with Level: Verbs used in SLOs trend toward lower-level cognitive skills (e.g., remember and understand categories of Bloom’s taxonomy) for courses that are introductory in nature, and trend toward higher-level cognitive skills for more advanced courses.

Thinking Programmatically

If you are developing SLOs for a larger curriculum or program, it is important to also consider the ways in which the courses embedded in this curriculum or program serve to support the bigger-picture SLOs. In reviewing your curriculum, consider the following questions:

• Are all SLOs both introduced and reinforced through the curriculum?
• Do students have sufficient opportunities to attain SLOs through coursework or other opportunities?
• Can some SLOs be “skipped?”
• Are SLOs addressed at appropriate times in the curriculum? The curriculum should not expect students to demonstrate high-level SLOs too early or low-level SLOs too late in the program.

Additional Resources:

• Quick Guide to Program Curriculum Mapping (PDF) (University of Northern Colorado)
• Curriculum Mapping/Curriculum Matrix (University of Hawai’i at Manoa)

There are many ways to assess student learning. Choosing the best measures for your course or program depends on the purpose of your assessment and, most importantly, on the SLOs that you have defined. Your SLOs should direct your choice of assessment measures. What are the specific skills or abilities that your students should demonstrate? In what context or condition should students demonstrate them? The choice of measure should consider all of these factors.

Broad Approaches to Assessment

There are several broad approaches to assessment that might direct your choice of assessment measures, to be described in the pages that follow.

• Direct and Indirect Assessment
• Formative and Summative Assessment
• Embedded and Add-on Assessment
• Qualitative and Quantitative Assessment

Direct and Indirect Assessment

Direct measures require students to demonstrate and yield tangible, visible, self-explanatory evidence of learning. Examples include:

• Cumulative experiences such as research projects, presentations, theses, dissertations, oral defenses, exhibitions, and performances
• Other significant course work (written work, performances, presentations, etc.)
• Portfolios of student work
• Scores and pass rates on appropriate licensure or certification exams
• Scores on locally designed multiple-choice or essay tests such as final examinations in key courses, qualifying examinations, and comprehensive examinations
• Score gains between entry and exit on published or local tests or writing samples
• Ratings of student skills by their field experience supervisors or employers
• Observations of student behavior, undertaken systematically
• Student reflections on their values, attitudes, and beliefs

Indirect measures capture the attitude, perception, or opinion of a students’ learning and yield signs that students are probably learning. Examples include:

• Student ratings of their knowledge and skills and reflections on what they have learned in the course or program
• Questions on end-of-course student evaluations that ask about the course rather than the instructor or learning outcomes
• Placement rates of graduates (employment or graduate programs)
• Course grades and grade distributions
• Quality and reputation of program (rankings)
• Student, alumni, and employer satisfaction with learning, collected through surveys, exit interviews, or focus groups
• Honors, awards, and scholarships earned by students and alumni
• Student participation rates in faculty research, publications, and conference presentations

Formative and Summative Assessment

Formative measures focus on the learning processes taking place while a student is learning. Information from formative assessment can be used for immediate changes to curricular activities. Examples include:

• Clicker quizzes on material studied for class
• Midterm surveys about what is going well or poorly in the class
• Journals or logs maintained by students
• Counts of meetings between students or between students and faculty
• Count of time spent studying or preparing for class

Summative measures focus on learning outcomes, or the knowledge, skills, or attitudes students take with them after a course or program of study is complete. Examples include:

• Completed student work (paper, project, homework, etc.)
• Final grades on exams grades that are linked to learning outcomes
• Course or program portfolio
• Course or program evaluation

Embedded and Add-on Assessment

Embedded measures are those that are already in use as or course or program work but also provide information for program or institutional goals. Examples include:

• Course presentations
• Research papers and projects in key courses
• Student work from an experiential learning opportunity (internship, service-learning, study abroad)
• Student performance on key assignments
• End-of-course student evaluations tied to course outcomes rather than instructor qualities

Add-on measures go beyond course requirements and perhaps beyond program requirements and may seek information not easily elicited by embedded measures. Examples include:

• Program portfolio
• Published test (standardized or other)
• Licensure exam

Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment

Quantitative measures are counts of occurrences or structured, predetermined response options that can be summarized into meaningful numbers and analyzed statistically. Examples include:

• Test scores
• Rubric scores
• Average response on scaled survey items
• Job placement rates
• Counts of student presentations and publications

Qualitative measures are flexible, naturalistic methods and are usually analyzed by looking for recurring patterns and themes. Examples include:

• Reflective writing
• Patterns observed in student behaviors
• Notes from interviews or focus groups
• Class discussion threads

The Benefits of a Multiple Methods Approach

The use of multiple methods in academic program level assessment is encouraged, since a single method can restrict the interpretation of student learning. The limitations of one method may prompt the selection of other methods. Altogether, multiple methods provide a more accurate frame for assessing student learning. More so, a combination of quantitative and qualitative assessment methods adds reliability and a more comprehensive approach to assessment. Using a multiple methods approach to academic program level assessment has several advantages:

• Minimizes potential limitations of data collection and analysis inherent in a single method
• Provides alternative methods for students to demonstrate learning outcomes that may not have been possible in other methods
• Provides a more complete understanding and interpretation of student achievement
• Values the diversity of different learning methods

Tips for a Balanced Approach to Assessment

• Study the course or curriculum for existing, embedded assessments. Which ones might be used for program assessment data?
• Use direct measures! No assessment of knowledge or skills should consist of indirect evidence alone.
• Use both formative and summative assessment. Look for multiple points throughout a program to collect data on student learning that can be used for immediate improvements.

Why Not Use Grades?

Course grades are usually insufficient measures of program student learning outcomes for several reasons.  While final grades offer one source of information about student achievement, cumulative grades can include factors such as class participation and general education outcomes (e.g., writing) that are not directly related to a program’s learning outcomes.  Additionally, course grades are approached differently by individual faculty members and result from widely varying grading policies and practices.  Finally, program learning outcomes often span multiple courses within a major, and individual course syllabi do not always align precisely with the program’s learning goals.

Determining a Timeline for Assessment

It is not necessary to assess every SLO every year. While some SLOs may be easily assessed each year (e.g. indirect evidence collected through program satisfaction survey), others may be more suited to intermittent assessment (e.g. paper from research methods course offered every other year).

The table below provides an example of how a program might manage the administration of its assessment measures. This example demonstrates a three-year cycle of assessment:

The primary goal of student learning outcomes assessment is to improve student learning. Once evidence is collected the faculty should analyze it to determine if students are attaining the defined SLOs. Questions to consider:

What does the evidence collected from your assessment measures tell you?

• Does evidence gathered accurately answer the questions implied by the SLOs?
• What are students learning? What aren’t they learning?
• What changes to course or curriculum design might the assessment evidence suggest?
• Does assessment evidence highlight a need to revise the assessment plan, outcomes, or measures for future assessment practice?

The purpose of assessing student learning is to use the information for continued improvement of student learning. Thinking critically about the data collected and what it means is an important step in this process.

The primary goal of student learning outcomes assessment is to improve student learning. Once evidence is collected and the faculty have analyzed it to determine if students are attaining the defined SLOs, it is important to take the appropriate steps in response to that information.

If student learning meets expectations?

• Consider it a program strength
• Consider raising expectations
• Move on to assess the next SLO

If student learning does not meet expectations?

• Consider program changes:
  • Adjust teaching & learning methods
  • Reinforce specific course content
  • Change pre-requisites
  • Revise course sequencing
  • Enhance advising

Assessment results are meant to improve teaching and learning as well as inform planning and decision making. Results can highlight successes such as these:

• Better alignment of the curriculum with desired outcomes;
• Creation of useful rubrics;
• Development of explicit standards and corresponding samples of student work;
• Evidence that students are meeting or exceeding learning expectations.

Closing the Loop & Sharing the Findings

The act of “closing the loop” and making improvement based on the collection and analysis of student learning data allows us to make claims about the strength of our courses, programs, and institution and therefore ultimately benefits not only students but faculty and the institution as well.

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