Better Together: How Learning Outcomes Assessment and

Better Together: How Student Learning Outcomes Assessment

and Faculty Development Can Partner to Strengthen Student Success

Pat Hutchings and Jillian KinzieNational Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA)

******2020 Assessment Institute

Leading Improvement in Higher Education

October 25-28, 2020

Why did you choose this session?

Chat please….

But keep your social distance

Why are we focusing on the relationship between assessment & faculty development/teaching & learning?

Better Together: Assessment faculty development/teaching & learning

The Plan

1. Your campus context‐‐and what brings you to this session2. Trends in student learning outcomes assessment 3. Trends in faculty/prof development related to assessment4. Better together: campus examples of how assessment & FD

can collaborate 5. Trends and Issues 6. Take‐aways for your setting7. Resources for further work

What is the relationship between assessment and faculty/teaching development on your campus?

a. BFFs b. Friends c. Acquaintances d. Distant cousins e. Estranged

Chat the letter that corresponds to your response

Survey of Assessment Practice 2018:

3 Trends Relevant to “Better Together”

• Assessment activities focused closer to the classroom, teaching & learning

• Shift in faculty role• Greater support from CTLs and faculty‐led assessment committees

NILOA Report 2018 Institution Level Assessment Tools

RubricsClassroom-based Performance Assessments

Capstone Projects

NILOA Report 2018 Institution Level Assessment Tools

RubricsClassroom Based Assessments

Alumni Feedback

General Knowledge Measures

What’s Changed Over Time?RubricsClassroom-based Perf..Assessmt

Capstone Projects

Assessment Activity Trend•Colleges & Universities turning to more authentic measures of student learning•Capstones•Classroom assignments •Rubrics

•Most valuable for IMPROVING student learning and success: classroom‐based work

Supports for Assessment

Efforts

Uptick in extent to which assessment activities are supported by professional development for assessment and in particular, faculty‐led assessment committees and Centers for Teaching and Learning.

Punchlines Reliance on Embedded Assessment – assignments, rubrics, classroom‐based workNeed for Faculty Support for Data UseRecognition of assessment support from Centers for Teaching & Learning

How do these trends fit with assessment developments on your campus?

Please take a moment

to comment in chat

Large Scale Studies of Faculty Development: 2006 and 2016

Special thanks to Mary Deane Sorcinelli

Centers for Teaching and Learning and Assessment“Assessment of student learning outcomes“ plays an increasingly prominent role in priorities of FD and CTLs

• One of five key issues FD is addressing through services (3.21 in 2016, up from 2.57 in 2006)

• The top issue FD should address in next five years• The top issue in terms of directions in which faculty developers believe field should move

1 = Not at all; 2 = To a slight extent; 3 = To a moderate extent; 4 = To a great extent(Beach, Sorcinelli, Austin & Rivard, 2016; Sorcinelli, Austin, Eddy & Beach, 2006)

CTLs Support for Faculty Engagement with Assessment

•Reflecting on and improving teaching practice

• Investigating impact on student learning (e.g., SoTL) •Engaging in institutional conversations/decisions (e.g., evaluation of teaching performance)

(Beach, Sorcinelli, Austin & Rivard, 2016)

Assessment & FD Integrate Best When

• Guided by learning goals of faculty/departments

• Opportunities to discuss and reflect on goals, findings with others

• Use‐oriented—generating evidence helpful for faculty/admin to improve courses, curricula, student learning

Beach, et al., 2016; CRLT, U Michigan Nov. 2018

Faculty Development for Teaching & Learning

Assessment

Improving learning

and successfor all students

Campus Examples

As we go through these campus examples:

• Think about a challenge in your setting – what approaches might help you re‐think this challenge?

• Which features of the examples are especially promising – how can they help make assessment a stronger force for improvement?

Established, shared relationship collaborative activities structurally connected

California State University Monterey Bay• Founded 1994, with a Center for Teaching, Learning and Assessment

• Shared leadership with Faculty Senate, faculty associates for assessment in each college, faculty coordinators for each undergraduate learning outcome

• Faculty Development for assessment at different levels: course, program, institution

• Culture of reflection and conversation: “Learning outcomes are only as good as the conversations they generate.”

• Distinction between assessment and faculty development difficult to discern


University of Kansas• Assessment located in the Center for Teaching Excellence

• Leadership from the CTE’s “Documenting Learning Specialist”• Working with programs to shape assessment plans, processes (via dir of undergraduate studies, chair, interested faculty leader)

• Working with individual faculty to document student learning in general education courses

• CTE’s ongoing programs and activities support faculty in developing classroom approaches and assignments that support student learning and success.

• Accreditation/accountability/reporting handled at a different level, not by CTE.


Valencia College• Large, multi‐campus community college ‐‐ Office of Analytics & Reporting, Office of Institutional Research, Office of Institutional Effectiveness & Planning, Learning Assessment Office, and Faculty Development

• Faculty Development framed around seven Essential Competencies –including, Assessment as a Tool for Learning The faculty member will:


https://valenciacollege.edu/faculty/development/courses‐resources/

McKendree University (IL)• Student Learning, Assessment, and Teaching Effectiveness (SLATE) Committee ‐ 6 faculty, Director of IR, Asst Dean for Student Success, and 2 students ‐ oversee assessment and professional development for McKendree’s learning outcomes and SLO subcommittees

• Office of Institutional Research responsive to what faculty find salient to student learning

• Systematic assessment training for faculty and staff coordinated by Teaching for Excellence

• Teaching for Excellence (T4E) professional development culminates each year in “Closing the Loop” workshop to share assessment data and recommend changes based on data


(2,500 students; Master’s/L)

Center for Teaching Effectiveness + Office of Educational Assessment = Center for Teaching and Assessment of Learning (CTAL)

Example of New Position…Educational Assessment Specialist works in the Center for Teaching & Assessment of Learning (CTAL)…scaling online and hybrid learning innovations across the university and positioning UD as a leader in learning outcomes assessment…assist in and provide support for designing, conducting, and reporting on strategic research projects examining the impact of program educational goal assessment… consult with faculty and administrators to create, revise, and assess program‐level educational goals

Recap of “Better Together” Approaches:•Collaborations around shared agendas•New (or merged) structures•Reporting structures, roles, that promote integration•New language (documenting learning, scholarship of t&l)• Focusing on course design, assignment design, classroom assessment

• Focus on clear, aligned outcomes

What else did you hear?

Issues, Challenges• Tension between faculty‐focused, reflective, inquiry driven work and attention to accountability, reporting, accreditation

• Aggregating up: how to amplify good work at the course level to respond to issues of compliance

• Focus on the ”converted,” pockets of excellence, but how to get to broader participation

• Code switching: when to use which language (inquiry vs assessment vs accreditation….); mixed messages

• Reporting lines, new structures….• Navigating all of this in a pandemic

Ideas/questions from this session that can improve student learning and success in your setting?

Please use chat to share ideas and pose questions.

Looking Ahead… •Keep an eye on forces pushing assessment toward CTLs/Faculty Development (and vice versa) and what may keep them separate

•How might the equity agenda for student learning & success influence a tighter connection between assessment and teaching and learning?

• ?

Better Together• Change magazine, September/October 2019

• Jillian Kinzie, Kathleen Landy, Mary Deane Sorcinelli & Pat Hutchings

Resources• Beach, A.L., Sorcinelli, M. D., Austin, A. E., Rivard, J. K. (2016). Faculty Development in the Age of Evidence: Current Practices, Future Imperatives. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.

• Driscoll, A., & Wood, S. (2007). Developing outcomes‐based assessment for learner‐centered education: A faculty introduction. Sterling, VA: Stylus.

• Hutchings, P. (2010, April). Opening doors to faculty involvement in assessment. (NILOA Occasional Paper No. 4). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois and Indiana University, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment. Retrieved from http://www.learningoutcomeassessment.org/documents/PatHutchings_000.pdf

• Hutchings, P., Natasha A. Jankowski & Gianina Baker (2018) Fertile Ground: The Movement to Build More Effective Assignments, Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 50:6, 13‐19, DOI: 10.1080/00091383.2018.1540816

• Jankowski, N. A., Timmer, J. D., Kinzie, J., & Kuh, G. D. (2018). Assessment that Matters: Trending toward Practices that Document Authentic Student Learning. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois and Indiana University, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA).

• Kinzie, J., Landy, K., Sorcinelll, M. D., Hutchings, P. (2019, Sept/October). Better Together: How Faculty Development and Assessment Can Join Forces to Improve Student Learning. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 51:5, 46‐54., https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.2019.1652076

• Reder, M., & Crimmins, C. (2018). Why assessment and faculty development need each other: Notes on using evidence to improve student learning. Research & Practice in Assessment, 13, 15–19.

• Schroeder, C. M. & Associates. (2011). Coming in from the margins: Faculty development’s emerging organizational development role in institutional change. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.

Thank you for joining us.

Change magazine, September/October 2019• Jillian Kinzie, Kathleen Landy, Mary Deane

Sorcinelli & Pat Hutchings

Documents

Better Together: How Learning Outcomes Assessment and