& YOUR PROGRAM How to Get Started Thinking About it All…

What is   Chalk & Wire  An electronic portfolio for students  An assessment tool  A tool for reporting results

What isn’t:  Grading Software  Course Management Software  A Cure for the Common Cold

What can do? For Students…  Archive work (‘artifacts’) over time  Submit artifacts to faculty/staff to be assessed  Access archived artifacts later to use in a Portfolio (Program, Core, Personal Portfolio)  Track their own learning  Compile their work and demonstrate knowledge and skills for job applications

What can do? For Faculty/Staff…  Provides common interface for faculty and staff to assess student work against program SLOs, core rubrics, and professional criteria  Track student learning over time  By Particular Student Learning Outcome  By Individual Student  In Aggregate Form  Summative Program Portfolios/Capstone Experiences  Reports for Assessment/Program Review

A Brief Aside: What is an artifact?  A performance video  Professional demonstrations  Oral histories  Graphic representations  Multimedia  Documents  Spreadsheets  Programs  Apps  Etc.

What are the benefits?  Program Portfolios a breeze  Ease of Reporting on Program’s Student Learning Outcomes to Others  Coordinating SLO Data across the College  Show Nazareth College’s ‘Value Added’ for all programs (Liberal and Professional, Graduate and Undergraduate) and the core

Before We Get into the Nitty-Gritties... Assumptions:  Your program has a working ‘Assessment Plan’  You have a comprehensive and complete set of SLOs for your program  Your SLOs are measureable  You have established levels of proficiency  You use your results to improve your program  Your Assessment Plan has been judged ‘Established’  Your program’s faculty agree about your Plan

Where Do We start? The Two Big Questions:  What do we want our students to get out of a Portfolio?  What do we want to know about our students’ learning?

Overview…  Choosing a Portfolio Model  Reviewing and Finalizing Your Program’s SLOs  Creating a Curriculum Map  Matching Rubrics to SLOs & Artifacts  Designing your Portfolio’s Table of Contents  Deciding on a Pilot

Your Program’s Portfolio Lots of Models—Which one is right for you? Chronological Model:  Students upload artifacts in various courses (either assessed or not in each course)  Students reflect on these artifacts in a Capstone Experience Benefits?  Value-Added data if students assessed along the way…

More Models.. Competency-Based Approach:  Students upload artifacts to demonstrate competencies Benefits?  External Accrediting Organizations ‘Portfolio Course’ Model:  Students create & upload artifacts in Milestone/Capstone course Benefits?  With two course in program, ‘value-added’

Choosing a Model  What does your program want to get out of the Portfolio?  Brainstorm with us to develop a model that is appropriate for you to pilot

On to Your SLOs The next questions to ask:  What are the Student Learning Outcomes of our Program?  Do our SLOs really match what we want our students to learn?  Do we want to measure our SLOs just at the end, or at beginning & end to get ‘value-added’ data?

Curriculum Mapping And then ask:  In which courses/activities do students produce artifacts that are relevant to our SLOs?  When we map this out, are we forgetting any SLOs that are important to us, or to external bodies?

Example of a Curriculum Map Courses Intended Student Learning Outcomes Apply the scientific method Develop laboratory techniques Diagram and explain major cellular processes Awareness of careers and job opportunities in biological sciences BIOL 101II I BIOL 202RRI BIOL 303RM, AR BIOL 404M, A R Other: Exit interview A

Matching Rubrics to SLOs More questions to ask:  Do we have rubrics for each of our Program’s SLOs? Have we decided what is ‘proficient’ (i.e., wouldn’t be embarrassed to see them graduate at this level)?  For Undergrad Programs: Do any of our SLOs match up with the Core SLOs? Could we use the Core Rubrics?

Check List So Far…  Clear idea of how students will benefit  Clear idea of what program wants out of it (e.g., what kind of data regarding student learning would be useful?)  Choose Portfolio Model  Program SLOs AOK  Curriculum Map created which states which courses will assess particular student SLOs  Rubrics created for each SLO which is appropriate for artifact in courses in Curriculum Map  SLOs & Rubrics coordinated with others (External, Core)

Now to Your Table of Contents…  The T of C is the framework of your Program’s Portfolio that you create  You create it; we’ll load it into for you  This is what students see—you give them ‘Sections’ in which to place their artifacts  In each Section, you give them detailed instructions  You can have one or more summative Sections where they reflect on their artifacts and ‘put it all together’

An Example of a T of C: Social Work

Another Example of a T of C: PFL

The Core in

A Second Check-List…  Design your T of C Sections, thinking about what will be uploaded in each, and from which course or activity  Keep you eye on your Curriculum Map for this  Assign a rubric for each artifact in each Section or Subsection  Create instructions for students in each Section and Subsection Remember: Put yourselves in the shoes of your students. Is it fun and interesting? Is valuable and worthwhile?

Your Overall Time Line Semester 1 – ‘Think Work’:  Portfolio Model  SLOs, Curriculum Map, Rubrics  Table of Contents Semester 2 – ‘Paper First’:  Pilot Table of Contents & Rubrics on paper. Evaluate & Revise  Revised T of C and Rubrics to Technical Support; Testing in  Determine plan for Semester 3 (i.e., which courses, which students) Semester 3 – ‘Go Live’:  Use Table of Contents & Rubrics in

Still to do…  Departmental discussion about what a ‘1’, ‘2’, ‘3’ and ‘4’ means—examine student work together  Inter-Rater Reliability  Look at your Results!  Use Results to Improve your Program and/or Show Off

What we Learned from our Pilots:  Students pick it up in seconds  Assessment in is quick and easy for faculty  Hard part is designing it all to get answer to the right questions  The rubric is critically important  Confusion between ‘course grade’ & ‘longer-term assessment’  Do I need to predict where a student will be in 4 years? (No!)  Can a student score a 1 on the rubric, but still get a 95% in the course? (Yes!)  Program MUST know what it hopes to learn from the portfolios BEFOREHAND  Focus needs to be on the conceptual side, not the technological  Name can be confusing

Current Initiatives  Dedicated Space in Library  Student Team of Helpers  Workshops  The ‘Queue’  Communication  Faculty Year-End Data Sheets

Questions?