Getting Started
The Quick-Start Guide
Assurance of Learning is an ongoing process aimed at understanding and improving student learning. It is not about faculty evaluation. Rather, it seeks to discover whether our students are developing the knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate for a Bentley graduate; which aspects of the learning environment (student characteristics, physical facilities, program design, etc.) most affect students’ learning; and how we might modify the academic and nonacademic environment to improve learning outcomes.
This quick guide provides an overview of the assessment process. For greater detail and guidance, refer to the Program Level Assessment Guide (available through ALC).
- What do we want students to learn?
- What are we already doing to understand and improve student learning?
- What other approaches might we adopt?
- What can we do to systematically gather data and to study learning outcomes?
- How can we discuss and act on the results?
Overview
How do we measure the effectiveness of the education we provide to our students? How do we assure ourselves that students leave with the “right stuff”?
We require students to take certain courses designed to impart the “right stuff”; we offer them additional courses and activities to engage in. We put qualified faculty in the classroom to aid the learning process and provide evaluation of outcomes through grades. Is this enough?
The Assurance of Learning Initiative seeks data about student learning outcomes from a variety of sources to fuel discussions among faculty about what and how well students are actually learning. Focusing on learning outcomes, in partnership with pedagogical design, enriches our ability to understand what students are learning and to continuously improve the education we provide.
In short, the process consists of:
- Defining the goals and learning objectives of the program
- Determining where in the program students are obtaining the knowledge, skills and perspectives outlined in the goals and objectives (“mapping”)
- Designing a measurement system
- Collecting data about achievement of the goals and objectives
- Interpreting the results
- Discussing the results with the faculty.
The final step often leads to redefinition of program goals and objectives.
