Posts Tagged ‘higher education assessment’
January 18 - The Assessment Movement: Revisiting Faculty Resistance
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Educational Assessment
“We ought to be up to the task of figuring out what it is that our students know by the end of four years at college that they did not know at the beginning.” That’s how Stanley Katz begins a well-written essay that explores the assessment movement in higher education.
July 19 - Sustaining Assessment Efforts
By: Rob Kelly in Educational Assessment
Requirements from accreditors and the Higher Education Opportunities Act (HEOA) have made assessment more important than ever. The key to doing it well is adopting sustainable assessment practices, says Linda Suskie, author of Assessing Student Learning: A Common Sense Guide.
July 17 - Using a Capstone Course to Assess Learning
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Educational Assessment
“In this article, we describe an easily adoptable and adaptable model for a one-credit capstone course that we designed to assess goals at the programmatic and institutional levels.” (p. 523) That’s what the authors claim in the article referenced below, and that’s what they deliver. The capstone course they write about is the culmination of a degree in political science at a public university.
June 15 - Students as Formative Assessment Partners
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Educational Assessment
“Creating a climate that maximizes student accomplishment in any discipline focuses on student learning instead of assigning grades. This requires students to be involved as partners in the assessment of learning and to use assessment results to change their own learning tactics.” (p. 136) The authors of this comment continue by pointing out that this assessment involves the use of formative feedback and that feedback has the greatest benefit when it addresses multiple aspects of learning. This kind of assessment should contain feedback on the product (the completed task) and feedback on progress (the extent to which the student is improving over time). The article then describes a number of formative feedback activities that illustrate how students can be involved as partners in the assessment process. Their involvement means that formative feedback can be given more frequently.
August 8 - To Make Assessment Manageable Keep it Simple and Be Flexible
By: Mary Bart in Educational Assessment
Anyone with a 3-year-old knows one of their favorite words is “Why.” As it turns out, asking “why” is a good way to examine your assessment goals and how they align with your institution’s core values.
“My favorite assessment question is ‘Why’ and I ask it over and over again,” said Linda Suskie, president at the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
July 11 - Creating a Campus Culture That Values Assessment
By: Mary Bart in Educational Assessment
It is only a slight exaggeration to say that resistance to educational assessment comes from almost as many different sources as there are assessment tools, but in the end the reasons usually all boil down to three main issues:
- Lack of understanding of the value and importance of assessment
- Lack of resources to engage in assessment
- Fear of change and risk taking
June 21 - Educational Assessment: Designing a System for More Meaningful Results
By: Mary Bart in Educational Assessment, Free Reports
Making Sense of Higher Education Assessment Educational Assessment: Designing a System for More Meaningful Results Assessing institutional effectiveness is a noble pursuit, but measuring student learning is not always easy. As with so many things we try to quantify, there’s much more to learning than a number in a datasheet. When it comes to assessment.
May 5 - Summarizing and Using Assessment Results
By: Mary Bart in Online Seminars
You put a lot of hard work into creating student assessments. And then what? With all the time spent developing and administering assessments, it’s a shame not to reap the benefits of your efforts. This seminar will teach you how to summarize and use your assessment results.
May 4 - Keys to a Culture of Assessment: Value and Respect
By: Mary Bart in Online Seminars
We have long moved past the question of whether or even how to assess. Now the issue is how to analyze and apply the data. This seminar will provide concrete ideas and proven strategies for creating a healthy, collaborative, and respectful culture of assessment, success, and constant improvement on your campus.
November 2 - Alternative Grading Methods for the College Classroom
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Educational Assessment
Students are very motivated by grades—we all know that. For that reason, it’s useful to consider alternative approaches that might affect not just the motivation to get the grade, but the motivation to learn and develop important skills. Here are highlights from two articles that propose these kinds of intriguing alternatives.
