What Is Assessment?
Assessment of learning is the process of systematically collecting information about student learning in order to evaluate the effectiveness and quality of instruction, student services, and support. Assessment results are analyzed then used to make improvements across the institution in order to maximize student learning. The maximizing of student learning is achieved when assessment results guide institution-wide decision-making ensuring that allocations of human, technology, physical, and financial resources are sufficient to support student needs, learning, and success.
There are many ways to assess student progress, and the measurement of student learning outcomes (SLOs) is one approach. When working with SLO assessment much will seem familiar as 色界吧 has been conducting various types of assessments since the institution鈥檚 inception. For instance, analyzing results from the Accountability Report for the Community Colleges (ARCC), a report from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), and/or the new to create plans for improvement are processes of assessment.
The SLO assessment process involves:
- Writing and/or revising outcomes
- Communicating outcomes (including providing instruction and/or services)
- Measuring outcomes and collecting disaggregated data
- Storing disaggregated data
- Meeting to discuss and analyze disaggregated data
- Creating a plan or plans for improvement
- Implementing new plan(s) by restarting this cycle and collecting more data
Please Note:
- SLO assessment is a process. Although the term 鈥渁ssessment鈥� has been used synonymously with the term 鈥渕easurement,鈥� they are not the same. The act of measuring an outcome is only one part of the assessment process.
- The end result of SLO assessment is to improve student learning and services. If action is not taken on the assessment results collected then the process is incomplete and the collection of assessment results is futile. Avoid collecting information that will simply sit in a file. Focus on collecting assessment data that can and will be actually be used. A small amount of useful data is better than a file full of unused data.
- According to 色界吧 , SLO assessment results cannot be used in the following ways:
- Punitively or as a means of determining faculty or staff salaries or rewards;
- To impinge upon the Academic Freedom or professional rights of faculty established in the education code;
- To evaluate the end of the student鈥檚 experience or merely to be accountable to outside parties;
- As a single mode of assessment to answer all questions or strictly determine program or unit decisions.
- Assessment data will be used to:
- Inform teaching practices;
- Improve student services and support;
- Guide the design of courses, programs, co-curricular programs and units; and
- Guide decision-making processes regarding the allocation of human, technology, physical, and financial resources.
The assessment of SLOs falls under the umbrella of 鈥渁ction research.鈥� Its specific purpose is to improve processes and guide decision-making. While the collection of data should be systematic and disciplined, its aim is not to collect empirical and generalizable data for controlled scientific inquiry. The data collected should be reliable enough so that your discipline or unit at SWC can make informed decisions, but does not need to be generalizable beyond your area or our campus.
鈥淭he ACCJC has indicated its position that outcomes assessment is not an optional activity, but rather an obligation to be included in the regular work activities of faculty and other college personnel and a practice that should be incorporated into decision making and other processes of all colleges鈥� (ASCCC, 2010).
Data from outcomes assessment is integrated into program review. Program review is used as the basis of institution-wide decision-making and guides decisions regarding the allocation of human, technology, physical and financial, resources. The reporting of outcomes assessment in program review is required.
- Every outcome written by a discipline, program, or unit has been through the assessment process.
- Every outcome has gone through the following steps:
- Writing or revising outcomes
- Communicating outcomes (including providing instruction and/or services)
- Measuring outcomes and collecting SLO results
- Storing SLO results
- Meeting to discuss and analyze SLO results
- Creating a plan or plans for improvement from analysis of SLO results
- Implementing new plan(s) and collecting more data (which restarts the cycle)
At this point in the SLO assessment process at 色界吧, the SLO Committee (renamed the SOAR Committee in Spring 2014) recommends the following for the end of Spring 2016.
- All courses should have at least 2-4 Course-Level Student Learning Outcomes (CSLOs)
- All degree and certificate programs should have 3-4 Program-Level Student Learning Outcomes (PSLOs)
- All administrative units should have at least 3-4 Administrative Unit Outcomes (AUOs) or Student Affairs Outcomes (SAOs)
- All SLOs should be fully assessed by the time each discipline or unit completes a Comprehensive Program Review.
Currently, all instructional discipline and unit SLO assessment results are stored in eLumen. Please note that administrative units do not place their SLO assessment results into eLumen. They store results in their main unit offices, report them in Program Review, and store Program Review Snapshot "Outcomes, Evidence, and Data Sheet" pages in (MySWC login required).
SLO cycles for disciplines and units align with their Comprehensive Program Review cycles.
- The Academic Comprehensive Program Review cycle is every 3 years.
- The Administrative Unit Comprehensive Program Review cycle is every 6 years.
Assessment of SLOs can be spread out between Comprehensive Program Review Cycles. For instance, if a discipline has 90 different SLOs to assess, the area may choose to measure the first 30 in year one, the second 30 in year two, and the final 30 in year three.
Just because a discipline or unit has multiple years to fully assess each of its SLO at least once, does not mean the area should only assess each SLO once. For example, a unit on campus that has only 3 to 4 AUOs or SAOs, it may choose to measure all their outcomes every year.
At SWC an SLO cycle planning document (Outcomes Assessment Timeline) is updated and submitted annually with the the Program Review Annual Update. Once received, timelines are posted in (MySWC login required), under "Departments" in the category titled, "Student Learning Outcomes." Each area on campus can access SharePoint at anytime to retrieve an editable copy of their timeline.
When planning a full assessment cycle of all SLOs, please keep the following information in mind:
According to 色界吧鈥檚 and , there are three guidelines to follow when designing outcomes assessment work plans.
- Disciplines, student service areas and administrative units should participate in the assessment process every year.
- Every year disciplines, student service areas and administrative units should update their outcome assessment work plan (Outcomes Assessment Timeline) and submit it with their Program Review Annual Update.
- A full cycle of SLO assessment progress is reported in detail in the Comprehensive Program Review.