A Tutorial Institutional Research and Effectiveness

The example provided follows the objective template in SPOL’s Planning section. If you would like to provide an example of a learning objective from your program, we will gladly incorporate it into this presentation.

Make goals and carry them over IE cycles.  Planning Unit goals are long lasting and broad.  Example: ◦ To provide quality education to students seeking degrees in the field of Biology.

Establish objectives at the start of the IE cycle. Objectives will support the over-arching learning goal.  Students will be able to describe each level of Bloom’s taxonomy: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation.

List proposed tasks at the start of the IE cycle. Tasks are the actual items that must be done to accomplish an objective.  Introduce Bloom’s taxonomy to students in [list courses] ◦ What the taxonomy is ◦ The theory behind the taxonomy ◦ What each level of the taxonomy means  Reinforce learning in [list courses] ◦ Have students provide examples of each level

 The status reports can be found about half way down the Objective page.  You do not have to use them.  However, you might find them useful as a communication tool within your department.  To track task completion, you might find using them to be quicker and easier than changing dates in the Task section.

Establish the measure(s) and expected outcome(s) at the beginning of the IE cycle. Do the actual assessment during the IE cycle.  The measure itself: ◦ Embedded assessment of six items [list items] from the final exam in [list courses]  Expected outcome: ◦ 90% of students will achieve 85% proficiency

Enter the results at the end of the IE cycle. Upload any rubrics or other applicable documents.  Embedded items were graded by a common rubric (uploaded) for all courses; 87% of students gained 90% proficiency.

At the end of the IE cycle, make sure that results are used to improve the program. Either make needed changes and document them or carry the objective forward to the next cycle.  Student proficiency level was a bit higher than expected; however, not as many students were proficient as need to be. In light of this, the curriculum was reviewed. Too many courses introduced the concept, but too few reinforced it. This has been changed for the next time the courses are offered.

 Unit goals are broad and over-arching and may change little if at all from year to year.  Objectives are items for the current cycle which support the unit goals.  Tasks are things that must be done in order to complete an objective.  Status reports can help keep track of progress.  Assessment measures must be assigned to explain how you will determine whether or not an objective is successful.  Results must be reported to explain whether or not an assessment measure was met.  Use of results explains the “now what” of how your findings enabled you to improve your program.

 After you have finished entering information and data and have uploaded any supporting documents, APPROVE your objectives by checking the green √ in the upper right corner so the person to whom you report knows s/he can review them.  Even after approving, you can still edit anything that is not in a year that has been archived.  Multiple years remain open simultaneously.  Change planning years in the upper left corner.

 When your unit managers release objectives to you, you will receive notification.  On the planning tab, choose View My Objectives. Planning units that report to you will be visible.  An arrow to the left of a unit indicates that one or more entries have been made.  Even if the entry is a draft, you still can view it.  Read the entries and either approve (green √) or reject them ( ) and send them back for changes.  Change planning years in the upper left corner. x