Assessing Learning: Creating Outcomes Student Affairs Winter Divisional Meeting January 26, 2010 Mary Ann Barham Director Undergraduate Advising & Support Center

PSU Learning Outcomes Disciplinary and/or Professional Expertise: Students will gain mastery at a baccalaureate level in a defined body of knowledge through attainment of their program’s objectives and completion of their major. Creative and Critical Thinking: Students will develop the disposition and skills to strategize, gather, organize, create, refine, analyze, and evaluate the credibility of relevant information and ideas. Communication: Students will communicate effectively in a range of social, academic, and professional contexts using a variety of means, including written, oral, numeric/quantitative, graphic, and visual modes of communication using appropriate technologies. Diversity: Students will recognize and understand the rich and complex ways that group and individual inequalities and interactions impact self and society.

Ethics and Social Responsibility: Students will develop ethical and social responsibility to others, will understand issues from a variety of cultural perspectives, will collaborate with others to address ethical and social issues in a sustainable manner, and will increase self-awareness. Internationalization: Students will understand the richness and challenge of world cultures and the effects of globalization, and will develop the skills and attitudes to function as “global citizens.” Engagement: Students will engage in learning that is based on reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationships, and through this engagement will apply theory and skills in diverse venues, linking the conceptual to the practical. Sustainability: Students will identify, act on, and evaluate their professional and personal actions with the knowledge and appreciation of interconnections among economic, environmental, and social perspectives in order to create a more sustainable future.

Process/Delivery Outcomes Statements about the programs, events or activities being provided. What is to be provided, by whom is it provided, when will it be provided, and how will it be provided? Examines what a program or process should do, achieve or accomplish for its own improvement or in support of unit goals).

Learning Outcomes Statements which indicate what a participant (student) will know, think, be able to do or appreciate (values) as a result of an event, activity or program. What are students expected to demonstrate in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes as a result of participation in programs, events or activities? Examines thoughts, values, or behaviors/skills students develop through program interactions. Three types of learning: Cognitive: mental skills (knowledge) Affective: growth in emotional areas (attitude) Psychomotor: manual/physical skills (skill)

Cognitive Learning: Bloom’s Taxonomy A hierarchy of learning from simplest to most complex; the first must be mastered before the next can take place.

Knowledge: recall data or information (define, list, identify, reproduce, articulate) Comprehension: understand the meaning (describe, discuss, classify, explain) Application: use a concept in a new situation (employ, apply, demonstrate)

Analysis: separate concepts so organizational structure can be understood (appraise, diagram, contrast, criticize) Synthesis: build a structure/pattern from diverse elements (compose, propose, formulate) Evaluation: make judgments about value of ideas/materials (assess, justify, predict)

Affective Learning Receiving phenomena (being aware, willingness to hear) Responding to phenomena (actively participating; attending & reacting to phenomena) Valuing (attaching worth to an object, behavior or phenomenon) Organizing (prioritizing contrasting values) Internalizing values (having a value system which controls behavior)

Psychomotor Learning Includes physical movement, coordination and use of motor skills. Development of these skills requires practice.

Writing Learning Outcomes A = Audience – who are the learners B = Behavior – what should they know, think, appreciate or be able to do C = Condition – how should they do it; under what circumstances D = Degree – how much should they do; to what extent

Thank you for coming!