As we come to the end of another year, it’s time to assess what we have accomplished and how we have met our goals. \u00a0What have we done well, and what can we do better? What are areas that need some attention and improvement? When we think about assessment at an academic institution, our first thoughts might be of student assessment, course evaluations, and program assessment. \u00a0Of course, the data from these types of assessment are crucial in order to prove and guarantee the quality of our educational offerings, but did you know that assessment is equally important in all other areas of our institution? \u00a0In this first of a series of posts on Assessment, I will focus on undergraduate curricular assessment. Future posts will address staff assessment, co-curricular assessment, and graduate assessment.<\/p>\n
Annual program assessment has been an ongoing task of every academic department since our last reaffirmation of accreditation in 2006-07. \u00a0Every program objective in every major is evaluated by two assessment measures: an entry level assignment and\u00a0an upper level assignment. These are identified in an annual Assessment Plan prepared at the beginning of each academic year. The results are evaluated and reported in the Assessment Report, completed at the end of each academic year. \u00a0A\u00a0summary\u00a0report contains an analysis of the data with noted differences between entry and upper level student achievement,\u00a0identifying\u00a0areas that fall below given benchmarks and those that reach or exceed them. \u00a0The report closes the feedback loop by suggesting ways in which the program can make improvements based on this data.\u00a0The goal is to improve student success and assure the adequate academic support for retention, persistence, and completion. Faculty members work together to use the Plans and Reports to improve the quality of programs.<\/p>\n
Three specific tools for measurement are the Effective Written Communication Assessment Rubric, the Public Speaking Assessment Rubric, and the Critical Thinking Assessment Rubric. \u00a0Although rubrics for all for undergraduate levels have been developed, \u00a0the Office of Accreditation and Assessment Services has selected the third year, or junior level, rubric to provide a standard by which to show improvement over time. \u00a0These three rubrics connect assignments in the classroom with course objectives, program objectives, and the University Portrait Statements.<\/p>\n
Effective Written Communication\u00a0and Public Speaking assess\u00a0the Portrait Statement “Communicate Effectively.” These skills\u00a0are assessed in General Education\u00a0writing (ENG 1400 Composition) and speech (COM 1100 Fundamentals of Speech)\u00a0courses and in Senior Capstone project presentations. \u00a0Critical Thinking assess the Portrait Statement “Think Broadly and Deeply,” and is assessed in the first Bible minor course (BEGE 1720 Spiritual Formation) and\u00a0in Senior Capstone project presentations.<\/p>\n
In 2013 an online tool was developed for capturing and analyzing the data from each of these three rubrics. \u00a0Using the Assessment Capture Tool (ACT), each instructor with students who are being assessed with these rubrics, enters data in this tool at the end of every semester.\u00a0The ACT is able to compile data from previous years, and by means of this data analysis, we are able to measure the effectiveness across the academic programs in supporting two of our Portrait Statements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As we come to the end of another year, it’s time to assess what we have accomplished and how we have met our goals. \u00a0What have we done well, and what can we do better? What are areas that need some attention and improvement? When we think about assessment at an academic institution, our first… View Article<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/accreditation-update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/accreditation-update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/accreditation-update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/accreditation-update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/accreditation-update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/accreditation-update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/accreditation-update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions\/76"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/accreditation-update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/accreditation-update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/accreditation-update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}