1. What you assess makes a statement about what you value
What statement
do you want
to make?

2. Assessment 101 Today’s topic: Assessment in courses What is it?
Why do we do it?
How do we do it well?

3. What is it?
Classroom-based assessment is anything that we do to measure student progress toward our desired outcomes for our courses

4. Two categories of assessment
Formative Assessment- informal measures used during learning experiences that are used to shape teaching and learning
Summative Assessment- formal tasks that students complete at the end of learning experiences that are used to generate grades

5. Match assessments and objectives
Objective: Analyze primary sources to determine the impacts of economic factors on political events
Formative assessments:
Minute paper at end of class – What was the most important thing you learned during class? What questions remain unanswered?
Thumbs up/down confidence check
Summative assessments:
2 page policy brief for the President
Timeline of economic trends and political events

6. Why do we do it?
Assessments document students’ level of mastery of learning objectives, providing information about whether they are ready to progress.

7. Why we do it?
Assessments enable students to make informed decisions in order to improve their learning and performance.

8. Why we do it?
Assessments provide critical information that can be used to shape instruction in order to maximize student learning.

9. What do these three purposes of assessment have in common?

10. FEEDBACK

12. How do we do it well?
Learning objectives should be tied to instructional activities.
Write a medical history based upon an interview with a patient.
WHAT DID YOU DO TO HELP STUDENTS LEARN AND BE ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH THIS OUTCOME?
Now how do you measure the outcome?
A course should have 5-7 objectives.

13. ALL OBJECTIVES ARE NOT BORN EQUAL!

14. Bloom’s Taxonomy
A hierarchy of behavior that should be used to create learning objectives and assessments
Learning objectives should include a range of lower level and upper level goals.
Thus, assessments must be done at different cognitive, affective or psychomotor levels that are matched to the learning objectives.

15. Bloom’s Taxonomy Knowledge = being able to state facts
State, Count, Define, Describe, Draw, Find, Identify, Label, List, Match, Name, Quote, Recall, Recite, Sequence, Tell
Comprehension = being able to explain facts
Conclude, Demonstrate, Discuss, Explain, Generalize, Identify, Illustrate, Interpret, Paraphrase, Predict, Report, Restate, Review, Summarize

16. Bloom’s Taxonomy Application = using facts to solve problems
Apply, Change, Choose, Compute, Dramatize, Interview, Prepare, Produce, Role-play, Select, Show, Transfer, Use
Analysis = breaking down information
Analyze, Characterize, Classify, Compare, Contrast, Debate, Deduce, Diagram, Differentiate, Discriminate, Distinguish, Examine, Outline, Relate, Research, Separate

17. Bloom’s Taxonomy
Synthesis = putting together multiple concepts to create something new
Compose, Construct, Create, Design, Develop, Integrate, Invent, Make, Organize, Perform, Plan, Produce, Propose, Rewrite
Evaluation = making judgments
Appraise, Argue, Assess, Choose, Conclude, Critic, Decide, Evaluate, Judge, Justify, Predict, Prioritize, Prove, Rank, Rate, Select

18. Planning assessment for your course
Review your learning objectives
Are they the ones originally approved by the Curriculum Committee?
Do they accurately reflect the course description?
Are they written as observable outcomes?
Do they include a range of levels?
Are they aligned with instructional activities?
Does your department need to consider revising the learning objectives?

19. Contact Dr. Leslie Keiler
Want to Learn More?
Day of Assessment
April 8, 2010
12 to 6pm
@ Faculty Dining Room
Contact Dr. Leslie Keiler
For more information