University of Akron ABJ 31703

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An Assessment Reporting System Focused on
Improvement as Common Ground Paulette
Popovich Professor of Family and Consumer
Science, Associate Dean of Instruction Tim
Vierheller Professor of Physics Patsy
Malavite Associate Professor of Business and
Office Technology
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• Effective assessment requires a culture in which
  teaching and learning are the subject of
  sustained, public attention and inquiry, and
  where members of the academic community take
  seriously their shared responsibility for
  ensuring and improving the quality of educational
  experience.
• Hutchings, P. (1996). Building a New Culture of
  Teaching and Learning. About Campus, Nov-Dec., 4.

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Purpose and Scope

• Model for developing and evaluating an assessment
  reporting and archive system
• Focuses on data and improvement
• Makes assessment work and results more public,
  and establishes continuous improvement as
  common ground for instruction
• Meaningful use of data to improve learning

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Background

• Branch campus of The University of Akron
  separately accredited
• Established a system of course and program
  assessment in 1998
• Embedded outcomes model, linking course-level
  student learning outcomes to program outcomes
• These program learning outcomes were then linked
  to college-level (institutional) learning
  outcomes

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Original Assessment Forms Illustrating Linkages
Angelo T. Cross, P. (1993).Classroom Assessment
Techniques. (p. 208). San Francisco Jossey-Bass.
Diamond, R. M. (1998). Designing Assessing
Courses Curricula. (p. 49). San Francisco
Jossey-Bass.
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Original Assessment Forms Illustrating Linkages
Ratcliff, Lubinescu,Gaffney. (2001). How
Accreditation Influences Assessment. (p. 90). San
Francisco Jossey-Bass. Glassick, Huber,
Maeroff. (1997).Scholarship Assessed. (p. 33).
San Francisco Jossey-Bass.
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Second Generation of Reporting Fall 2006
http//www.wayne.uakron.edu/assessmentlinks.htm
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• The challenge for assessment specialists,
  faculty, and administrators, then, is not
  collecting data, but connecting themassessment
  makes a difference when meaningful data are
  collected, connected, and applied creatively to
  illuminate questions and provide a basis for
  decision-making. Only then can data guide
  continuous improvement.
• Banta, T., Lund, J., Black, K. and Oblander, F.
  (1996). Assessment in Practice. (p. 44). San
  Francisco Jossey-Bass.

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• For departments, being required to do an
  assessment report in a vacuum can produce
  resentment, mere compliance, and waste of
  resources.
• Walvoord, B. E. (2004). Assessment Clear and
  Simple. (p. 12). San Francisco Jossey-Bass.

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Issues in Reporting Assessment Results

• Massive output of paper
• Data and their meaning to course and program
  improvements were often lost within the other
  details of the report
• Obstacles to faculty, committees, administrators
  and others who needed to retrieve the information

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Introduced Web-based Submission System

• Improved the process in the desired ways
• Helped establish common ground by encouraging
  dialog and collaboration within and across
  disciplines
• Created a more open and public description of
  assessment and student learning at Wayne College

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Assessment Information Reported

• Program and course learning outcomes
• Course learning outcome(s) being assessed by
  semester
• Instructional techniques used to achieve the
  course learning outcomes
• When appropriate, instructional changes based on
  previous assessment results

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Assessment Information Reported (cont)

• Assessment activity(ies) to measure student
  learning (pre- post-tests, quizzes, exams,
  projects, assignments, self-assessment, in-class
  exercises)
• Results/observations (including statistical data)
  for each learning outcome being assessed. In
  most cases, these are data captured during the
  current term
• Suggestions for changes/improvements based on
  assessment results/observations from the current
  semester

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Web-based Submission System
http//www.wayne.uakron.edu/assessment/
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Inputting Data
http//www.wayne.uakron.edu/assessment/
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Creating Reports
http//www.wayne.uakron.edu/assessment/
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Creating Reports
http//www.wayne.uakron.edu/assessment/
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• Can you improve the data-gathering process so as
  to yield information about why certain weaknesses
  in student learning are occurring and what
  actions most effectively address the problems?
• Walvoord, B. E. (2004). Assessment Clear and
  Simple. (p. 62). San Francisco Jossey-Bass.

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Important Results

• Establishment of common course learning outcomes
  across multiple sections
• An important improvement in the colleges
  assessment efforts and a good example of the
  shift in focus from reporting to using data
  and information the new system provides

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Important Results (cont)

• Incorporate assessment data results and
  improvements into our institutional program
  review process for all of our associate degree
  programs
• Provide data to main campus departments regarding
  student learning in general education courses
• Results are more public

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Future Goals

• Use data and system for focused campus
  conversations centered on student learning and
  assessment
• Continuous improvement of the system with the
  context of the Colleges mission and strategic
  plan

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• These activities serve as a reminder of
  institutional values and help in examining how
  well overall goals are being met.
• Palumba, C.A. and Banta, T.W. (1999). Assessment
  Essentials. (p. 342).San Francisco Wiley Sons.

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Thank You

• This presentation can be accessed at
• http//www.wayne.uakron.edu/assessmentlinks.htm