What is Assessment?
Assurance of Learning is about continuously reflecting on and improving the delivery and outcomes of knowledge, skills and perspectives appropriate for a Bentley University graduate. It is an ongoing process aimed at understanding and improving student learning. It is not about faculty evaluation. Rather, it is about understanding what our students are actually learning and what aspects of the learning environment, from student characteristics, to physical facilities, to program design, affect our students’ learning outcomes. Discussions among stakeholders consider modifications to the academic and non-academic environment to improve outcomes.
Guiding Principles
- Assessment confirms what is working and provides data on what could be improved.
- Faculty will not buy into the process and improvements if they are not involved.
- Assessment aims to get a better (not perfect) picture of learning outcomes.
- Assessment is mission driven.
- Assessment is not about faculty evaluation.
What is Assessment?
Assessment is about continuously reflecting on and improving the delivery and outcomes of knowledge, skills and perspectives appropriate for a Bentley graduate. It is about asking the questions:
- 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 systematically to gather data and to study learning outcomes? How can we discuss and act on the results?
Assessment is mission driven. Each discipline decides what its appropriate learning outcomes are based on its fit within the overall institution and the strategic direction it is taking. For example, at Bentley University, the Arts and Sciences curriculum is embedded in the business environment, and both are imbued with the perspectives of technology, ethics and social responsibility, and the global world. While each discipline may define learning outcomes specific to its own mission, the most important learning outcomes must fit within the institution’s mission as well.
Program level assessment looks at each academic degree in terms of its unique contribution to the overall education of a Bentley student. Program level assessment asks the questions:
- What unique contribution does this program make to our student’s education?
- If we were successful in making that unique contribution what would our students know?
On aggregate, how can we determine whether these outcomes are being achieved to a level we are satisfied with? - Given the outcomes we have identified, should/will we change our curriculum and/or its delivery to improve those outcomes?
Thomas Angelo provides the following definitions for assessment:
Assessment is an ongoing process aimed at understanding and improving student learning. It involves making our expectations explicit and public; setting appropriate criteria and high standards for learning quality; systematically gathering, analyzing, and interpreting evidence to determine how well performance matches those expectations and standards; and using the resulting information to document, explain, and improve performance. When it is embedded effectively with larger institutional systems, assessment can help us focus our collective attention, examine our assumptions, and create a shared academic culture dedicated to assuring and improving the quality of higher education. [1]
Classroom Assessment is a simple method faculty can use to collect feedback, early and often, on how well their students are learning what they are being taught. The purpose of classroom assessment is to provide faculty and students with information and insights needed to improve teaching effectiveness and learning quality. University instructors use feedback gleaned through Classroom Assessment to inform adjustments in their teaching. Faculty also share feedback with students, using it to help them improve their learning strategies and study habits in order to become more independent, successful learners. [2]
What Assessment is Not.
Assessment is not about evaluation. Evaluation, in particular faculty evaluation, is a periodic judgment of teaching, scholarly and service performance against expectations. Assessment is a process of considering student learning outcomes and deciding whether we are comfortable with those outcomes given who we are as a department and institution. At no time should assessment data be used to make a judgment on an individual faculty. However, assessment data can be used to have the conversation “are we happy with these outcomes and if not, what might we do differently?” And, “if the outcomes for this group of students are more satisfactory than for that group, what are the factors that might explain those differences?”
Assessment is not about grading. Grades may be used as assessment data if they are directly related to the learning outcome being measured, and only measure that outcome. However, assignment grades often assess students on a number of outcomes — knowledge, writing skills, critical thinking, etc. If it is possible to identify which part of the grade applies to the specific learning outcome, for example writing, then the assessment data can be pulled out of the grading system. There is also a difference in the number of students being graded versus being assessed. Assessment might be done on a random sample of students whereas grades are provided to each individual student.
Who does assessment?
Assessment of learning outcomes can be conducted by those directly involved with teaching or those responsible for academic degree programs. Those directly involved with teaching are faculty and typically they would assess the learning outcomes of their own students in their own courses. Those responsible for academic degree programs are department chairs and program directors and they would be interested in the aggregate learning outcomes of students taking their degree programs as majors or minors.
The people responsible — faculty or department chairs/program directors — would design the assessment program but they are not necessarily the ones to collect the data. For example, it is possible for a department chair to identify placement as an indicator of a learning outcome and have the Office of Career Services or Institutional Research collect the data for them.
ALC carries the responsibility for assessing institutional level learning objectives. These are outcomes specifically related to the Institution's mission. For example, Bentley has defined four strategic domains - Business and IT. Business, Arts and Sciences, Ethics and Social Responsibility, and Global Perspectives. Assessment of the related learning outcomes — complexity, integrity, and global perspectives — would arguably be carried out by ALC with support from faculty.
The interpretation of the data and the reflection on curriculum based on the level of outcomes should be a community conversation starting in the department or program, but also aggregated with conversations in the wider academic community — for example, among the joint chairs or the graduate school council.
Where does assessment occur?
It is useful to differentiate between institution-level, program-level and course-level assessment. Each may be used to assess students' progress towards effectively meeting the institution's expectations for a graduate but they have different designs and intentions.
Institution-level learning objectives are those sets of knowledge, skills, and perspectives that are mission specific and are expected of every graduate, regardless of discipline or degree. Program-level learning objectives are those specific sets of knowledge, skills, and perspectives that are specifically related to that degree program. These do not necessarily exclude nor include the institutional-level learning objectives. Couse-level learning objectives are those specific sets of knowledge, skills, and perspectives that define successful completion of the course.
Another useful distinction is between learner-centered and program-focused assessment strategies. Learner-centered strategies focus on individual skill development, with students managing the process of tracking their fulfillment of college defined requirements. Feedback from course-embedded assessment is provided to the student through assignments and behavioral evaluations. Students use electronic portfolios to track and provide evidence of their own development. The result is a student who understands the importance of their own development, who operates within a structure supportive of continued self development even after graduation, and is committed to lifelong learning and employability.
Program-focused strategies aggregate random measures (direct and indirect) to assess the degree to which students in a program, as a whole, are achieving desired outcomes and where program level improvements can be made. Assessments can be accumulated within programs or by a non-academic assessment group. The results are fed back to the faculty in the spirit of open dialogue about where and to what effect certain goals are being addressed within the curriculum.
The combination of learner-centered and program-focused strategies ensures that students and programs are meeting expectations of the college. This combined approach creates a culture of commitment from administration, faculty and students to continuous quality improvement at an individual and organization level.
[1] Angelo, T.A. A Teacher’s Dozen’: Fourteen General, Research-based Principles for Improving Higher Learning in Our Classrooms. The AAHE Bulletin, 45(8), April 1993, pp. 3 to 7 and 13.
[2]Angela, T.A. Ten Easy Pieces: Assessing Higher Learning in Four Dimensions. In T.A. Angela (ed) Classroom Research: Early Lessons from Success.
