Assessing Student Learning: What Do IDEA Results Tell Us? Mike Fry February, 2012

Individual instructors: Diagnostic & Short Form Reports How do your students feel about the course? How did you do? Progress toward which learning objective(s) need improvement? What can you do about it? (Diagnostic) – What method(s) ought to be adopted or strengthened (relevant to improving the progress toward objective(s) above)

From objective to action 1. Identify objective… 2. Find related teaching method… 3. Follow link:

Program or Department: Group Summary Reports Are faculty going after the right objectives?* Important* objectives with weak student ratings? What can we do about it? Do students feel they’re working hard? Are they motivated? Faculty self-report of context, emphasis, approaches, circumstances affecting instruction. Additional questions (if consistent across group) *... First, find which IDEA objectives align with department goals.

Program or Department: Group Summary Reports Are faculty going after the right objectives?* Important* objectives with weak student ratings? What can we do about it? Do students feel they’re working hard? Are they motivated? Faculty self-report of context, emphasis, approaches, circumstances affecting instruction. Additional questions (if consistent across group) *... First, find which IDEA objectives align with department goals.

Individual or Program or Department: What can we do about it? PODNotes on learning objectives Or... Find associated teaching methodsteaching methods – Methods can be controlled by instructor – Better POD Notes on them – Diagnostic form gives student feedback on them – Known correlations betw methods and objectives Known correlations betw methods and objectives

What can we do about it? LVC Example: Ethical Reasoning Objective 10Objective 10: “Developing a clearer understanding of, and commitment to, personal values.” LVC’s Gen Ed struc doesn’t require or encourage Chosen as important: LVC: 17%, IDEA: 23% Worst-performing objective at LVC (Fall ’12)

What can we do about it? LVC Example: Ethical Reasoning Objective #10 (aka #30) From Table 7 of "Technical Report No. 12: BasicTable 7Technical Report No. 12: Basic Data for the Revised IDEA SystemData for the Revised IDEA System”.

What can we do about it? LVC Example: Ethical Reasoning #13: Introduced stimulating ideas about the subject #13: Introduced stimulating ideas about the subject #16: Asked students to share ideas and experiences with others whose backgrounds and viewpoints differ from their own #16: Asked students to share ideas and experiences with others whose backgrounds and viewpoints differ from their own #2: Found ways to help students answer their own questions #2: Found ways to help students answer their own questions #15: Inspired students to set and achieve goals which really challenged them #15: Inspired students to set and achieve goals which really challenged them #11: Related course material to real-life situations

Resources at PODNotes on learning objectives: PODNotes on learning objectives – /podidea/PODNotesLearning.html /podidea/PODNotesLearning.html PODNotes on methods – /research-and-papers/pod-idea-center-notes-instruction /research-and-papers/pod-idea-center-notes-instruction Technical Report No. 12 (see Table 7) Technical Report No. 12Table 7 – /sites/default/files/techreport-12.pdf /sites/default/files/techreport-12.pdf Info on IDEA at LVC, with lots of links, and these slides... Info on IDEA at LVChttp://