Connecting Program and Institutional Assessment to Student Assessment

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Innovation and Inquiry for Student Learning in
Two-Year Colleges
William Rickards, Educational Research and
Evaluation Alverno College Mary Anne
Grabarek Durham Technical Community
College Presentation at Innovations Conference
of the League for Innovation in the Community
College Reno, 2009
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But first A word about learning outcomes
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Innovation and Inquiry for Student Learning in
Two-Year Colleges

• Session Outline
• Introductions
• The IISL Consortium
• Key findings from our questionnaire and
  collaborative deliberations
• Possible steps and persistent challenges in
  implementing student learning outcomes
• A study in practice Durham Technical Community
  College
• A group process Challenges and Strategies

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Innovation and Inquiry for Student Learning

• A Community and Technical College Consortium
  focused on two-year degree students and their
  learning
• Funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education
• 24 founding community and technical colleges in
  2006
• 18 additional community and technical colleges
  joined this year
• Coordinating Institution Alverno College

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Innovation and Inquiry for Student LearningA
Community and Technical College Consortium
24 Founding Two-Year Institutions

• Gateway Technical College, WI
• Heartland Community College, IL
• Isothermal Community College, NC
• Madison Area Technical College, WI
• McHenry County College, IL
• Milwaukee Area Technical College, WI
• Mt. San Antonio College, CA
• Olympic Community College, WA
• Peninsula College, WA
• Pierce College, WA
• Tunxis Community College, CT
• Waukesha County Technical College, WI
• Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College, WI

• Anne Arundel Community College, MD
• Bellevue Community College, WA
• Cascadia Community College, WA
• Chippewa Valley Technical College, WI
• Clark College, WA
• College of the Menominee Nation, WI
• Columbus State Community College, OH
• Dallas County Community College District, TX
• Durham Technical Community College, NC
• Edmonds Community College, WA
• Flathead Valley Community College, MT

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IISL Consortium Topics

• Learning from each other about
• fostering, improving, and optimizing student
  learning
• inquiry that leads to innovation and sustains it
• outcomes-based teaching, learning, and assessment
  
• fostering, improving, and optimizing team and
  institutional learning

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Consortium Institutional Teams

• First, A Three-part Questionnaire
• Institutional teams worked at their campuses to
  articulate how they were attempting to optimize
  student learning outcomes and learning-centered
  institutional inquiry

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Questionnaire Finding Faculty Have Defined
Institutional Outcomes and Have Used Them For
Some Educational Purposes

• In defining institution-wide student learning
  outcomes
• Faculty have contributed considerably or
  greatly (90)
• More so than administrators (57)
• And faculty have used outcomes frequently
• To articulate learning goals (86)
• To organize learning experiences (68)

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Questionnaire Finding Students Infrequently Use
These Institution-Wide Student Learning Outcomes

• Students were said to be generally aware of
  institutional outcomes at 3/4 of the campuses.
  But, at these campuses, teams estimated that
  only about 10 of students frequently or
  always used them to
• Self assess performance
• Guide approach to completing assignments
• Develop a sense of competence as performer in a
  discipline or profession

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Questionnaire Finding Conversation as Inquiry
was a Powerful Way for Sharing Practice

• The participants articulated one specific example
  of a conversation at their institutions that
  functioned as a questioning process and improved
  learning for their degree students
• Who was involved? What led up to the
  conversation/inquiry? How did it proceed and over
  what period of time? What were salient sources of
  observations about student learning that focused
  the conversation

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Questionnaire Finding Possible Steps in
Implementing Student Learning Outcomes

• Faculty articulate institution-wide student
  learning outcomes
• Faculty use outcomes to communicate to students
  how their learning is connected to what they will
  do after graduation
• Faculty reorganize student learning experiences
  to achieve institution-wide outcomes
• Faculty develop strategies for students to self
  assess their progress in relation to
  institution-wide student learning outcomes
• Faculty give students formative feedback in
  relation to making progress toward achieving
  toward institution-wide learning outcomes

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Consortium RepresentativesProcess

• Second, a Workshop
• In three-day consortium meeting, participants
  communicated and analyzed educational values,
  beliefs, and assumptions about education,
  learning, and inquiry (e.g., table discussions,
  posters).
• Engaged in free and frank discussion about
  student learning and assessment of student
  learning outcomes.
• Participated in an extended process of
  workshop-campus practice-workshop

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IISL Process Public Dialogue Around
Implementing and Using Student Learning Outcomes

• Written reports
• Poster presentations
• Panel discussions
• Small group discussions
• Video-supported presentations
• PowerPoint presentations
• Large group discussions
• Writing Project

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What EmergedState of the Art

• Two-year Colleges are
• Giving concentrated attention to student learning
  and related teaching practice
• Articulating learning outcomes and applications
  across disciplines
• Developing cultures of assessment
• Working with the roles and relationships which
  their institutions develop in the surrounding
  community, in general, and the workforce in
  particular

Alverno College Educational Research and
Evaluation. (2006, September). Articulating next
steps for community and technical colleges with
identified student learning outcomes. Handout
prepared for the Innovation and Inquiry for
Student Learning consortium. Milwaukee, WI
Alverno College.
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Whats effective work for institutions?

• Strengthening the relationship among learning
  outcomes at different levels
  institution program course
  assignment
• Making assessment integral to teaching and
  learning
• Taking collective responsibility for student
  learning
• Having conversations about student learning

IISL Consortium, June 20, 2006Synthesis by Ron
Henry/Tim Riordan
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Whats effective work for institutions?
(continued)

• Developing a common language
• Addressing the critical role of adjunct faculty
• Designing a developmental curriculum (but a
  challenge when many degree students take
  unpredictable paths)
• Analyzing the cost/benefit of requirements vs.
  appealing options

IISL Consortium, June 20, 2006Synthesis by Ron
Henry/Tim Riordan
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Whats effective work for institutions?1
(continued)

• Sustaining focused efforts over time on
  identified priorities
• Using technology in the service of student
  learning
• Finding and allocating resources in ways that
  optimize student learning

1 Riordan, T., Iyengar, S. (2007, March).
Presentation at Innovations Conference of the
League for Innovation in the Community College,
New Orleans.
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Findings Barriers, implications, and effective
practices

• Shared Understanding of How Faculty Mediate
  Effective Implementation
• Accountability is in Tension with Effective
  Educational Use of Assessment
• Established Language of Assessment Persists as
  Barrier

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Persistent Challenges and Barriers

• Articulating institution-wide student learning
  outcomes
• Implementing program outcomes
• Building institution-wide learning outcomes into
  curriculum
• Implementing assessment of institution-wide
  student learning outcomes FOR individual student
  learning
• Sustaining Learning-Centered Assessment
• Meeting external accountability demands while
  making assessment integral to how faculty think
  about teaching at all levels individual student,
  program, institutional

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http//iisl.alverno.edu
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Persistent Challenges and Barriers

• Articulating institution-wide student learning
  outcomes
• Implementing program outcomes
• Building institution-wide learning outcomes into
  curriculum
• Implementing assessment of institution-wide
  student learning outcomes FOR individual student
  learning
• Sustaining Learning-Centered Assessment
• Meeting external accountability demands while
  making assessment integral to how faculty think
  about teaching at all levels individual student,
  program, institutional

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Persistent Challenges and Barriers

• Articulating institution-wide student learning
  outcomes
• Implementing program outcomes
• Building institution-wide learning outcomes into
  curriculum
• Implementing assessment of institution-wide
  student learning outcomes FOR individual student
  learning
• Sustaining Learning-Centered Assessment
• Meeting external accountability demands while
  making assessment integral to how faculty think
  about teaching at all levels individual student,
  program, institutional