Update from the UNC General Education Council [presented to the UNC Board of Governors’ Educational Planning, Programs, and Policies Committee on February 21, 2014]

Nearly all [employers] surveyed (93%) agree, “a [job] candidate’s demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems is more important than their undergraduate major.” From: It Takes More than a Major: Employer Priorities for College Learning and Student Success Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities and Hart Research Associates.

Competencies and Curricula Employers and faculty agree that students must have these key skills and also be flexible or nimble in applying them to new and changing situations. This requires practicing these skills over multiple courses in multiple disciplines.

What we do now

Where we want to go

Our Time Our Future (2013) “There are major challenges to effectively using student learning outcome data as a tool to improve the effectiveness of the curriculum and the quality of our higher education programs. There is no national consensus about a single methodology, sampling design, or test that can provide the types of robust and granular student learning outcome data necessary to inform institutional or program improvement strategies.”

Guiding Questions How do we assure that our students are learning the skills necessary for success in today’s dynamic and demanding workplaces and in life? How do we assure that our curricula are robust and helping students develop those skills?

Goals Review and identify competencies Identify and address assessment challenges – Pilot assessment approaches – Recommend assessment strategy Examine connection of competencies to curricula

Identifying Competencies Critical Thinking Written Communication

Existing Assessment at UNC

Goals of Assessment

Principles of Good Assessment Must be reliable, valid, fair, and authentic Provide useful information about student learning Provide useful information about how to improve teaching & the curriculum

GEC Recommendation

Creating a System-wide Assessment of General Education Curriculum Learning Outcomes

To create a system-wide assessment of learning outcomes is an exciting challenge that we can clearly achieve in a timely fashion. We need to follow a systematic approach using recognized principles of good assessment, chief of which is that assessment should improve teaching and learning.

1) Identify the purpose and uses of the assessment - Who will use the test results and for what purposes? - How do we effectively make this a collaborative, system-wide effort with buy-in and vested energy shared by students, faculty, administration - What are the costs in terms of financial and temporal investments?

I. 2) Test construction -Who will design and develop the test specifications? -Who will develop the items? -How will the items be piloted? -Who will develop the score scale? -What claims do we wish to make about what is being measured? -Will benchmark levels of proficiency (standards) be established?

I. 3) Test Administration - Who would be tested? - How would they be tested? - When would they be tested? - Who is responsible for overseeing the administration of the assessments at each university? - How do we insure a secure, valid administration?

I. 4) Scoring and analyzing the assessments - Who will score the assessments? - Who will conduct the psychometric analyses (item/test analyses, reliability, test fairness for groups of students, etc.) - What is the format for reporting the results that will optimize utility?

5) Test Results - How will the test results be disseminated to users? - How do results inform instruction and improve pedagogical effectiveness? - How do we insure that the results are used in a valid manner? - How do we sustain this assessment over time? - How we evaluate the return on our investment?

Next steps for the GEC Develop and pilot the competency-based instrument Identify how competencies are developed through curricula

Returning to the Goal GEC’s focus is to assist the Board in its goal to – Monitor system-level data regarding students’ achievement of competencies – Provide faculty and academic leaders with information that helps them evaluate and improve the curriculum – Produce graduates with the skills and flexibility to meet the needs of the 21 st -century workforce