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Susan Albertine

The College of New Jersey

Nevin Brown

Education Trust

Ron Henry

Georgia State University

Quality in Undergraduate Education QUE

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Roles

• Communication specialist – Nevin Brown• Project director – Susan Albertine• Standards process experts – Education Trust

– Ruth Mitchell– Patte Barth

• Funders– Pew Charitable Trusts – Ellen Wert– ExxonMobil Foundation – Truman Bell

• Project evaluators - PSA

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Roles

• Critical friends – disciplinary consultants– Spencer Benson – biology – U.Maryland– Jay Labov – biology – NRC– Gordon Uno – biology – U. Oklahoma - AIBS– Lendol Calder – history – Augustana College– Noralee Frankel – history – AHA– Mills Kelly – history – George Mason– Kathleen Blake Yancey – English – Clemson– Bernie Madison – mathematics – MAA– Jerry Sarquis – chemistry – Miami Univ. Ohio - ACS

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Language

[NPEC]‘Learning outcome’ - the knowledge (facts,

concepts, principles) and skills (processes, strategies, methods) to be learned

‘Standard’ - a predetermined criterion of a level of student performance

‘Assessment’ - the process of collecting data/evidence about student learning outcomes

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Context of our work

• Taxonomy of learning outcomes includes the following objectives:Outcomes for a courseOutcomes for a program

• General Education

• Discipline

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Context of assessment work Taxonomy of assessment includes the following

activities: • Assessment for student in a course• Assessment for student in a program• Assessment of a course• Assessment of faculty instruction in course • Assessment of a program• Assessment of a department• Assessment of an institution

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Context of our work Taxonomy of assessment includes the following

activities: Assessment for student in a course

• Formative • Summative

Assessment for student in a program• Developmental• Summative

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Why we are here - Objectives

• Assessment – the heart of the matter – Standards in practice – Scoring guide development

• To develop teaching strategies for assisting students in achieving standards

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Agenda Cluster Groups: Friday after dinner Discussion of successes, barriers; faculty/department

buy-in; two-year/four-year collaborationDisciplinary Groups: Saturday 8:30-10:30 am; Saturday

1:00-3:30 pm; 3:45-5:00 pm; Sunday 9:00-11:00 am How are we accomplishing valid and reliable

assessments? How do you know they work? Designing rubrics; Using Understanding by Design Practicing, modeling, using rubrics to score student

work Discussion of successes, barriers; faculty/department

buy-in

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Agenda

• Plenary Session: Saturday 10:45-noon

Kathleen Blake YanceyOn Evaluating Student Work

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Some items to ponder The essential purpose of professional development should be the

improvement of student learning, not just the improvement of the instructor who is involved in the professional development activity.

Professional development should be designed to develop the capacity of instructors to work collectively on problems of practice, within their own institutions and with practitioners from other institutions, as much as to support the knowledge and skill development of individual educators.

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Some items to ponder Other assessment initiatives:

• CUSE – evidence-based learning in intro science courses; indicators for assessment of program; evaluation of instruction

• ECS – How do institutions move towards a competency-based system that ensures that all students acquire AKS?

• NGA – How to develop online data bases that measure course-level quality?

• Psychology

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QUE Deliverables

• Department and campus draft learning outcomes, performance descriptions, collections of student work, and assessments of student learning

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QUE Milestones

• Stage 1: Learning outcomes: What should students know, understand, and be able to do?– Learning outcomes for level 14– Learning outcomes for level 16 – Disciplinary contributions to General

Education learning outcomes

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QUE Milestones

• Stage 2: Assessment: What is acceptable evidence that students have attained desirable understandings and proficiencies?– Aligning assignments with standards– Developing scoring guides or rubrics – analytical

and holistic– Constructing performance standards for a learning

outcome– Scoring student work

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QUE Milestones

• Stage 3: Practical ideas for learning experiences and instruction– Coping with large numbers of students– Using electronic portfolios

• Moving to program level– Gap analysis or Super-matrix

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Super-matrix or gap analysis 

  Course 1 Course 2 Course 3 Course 4 Course 5 Total

Outcome 1 1 4 4 0 4 13

Outcome 2 2 1 2 0 2 7

Outcome 3 1 2 0 2 0 5

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Super-matrix or gap analysis Major (4): Outcome is fully introduced, developed and

reinforced throughout the course. Students demonstrate an “application knowledge” or “understanding.”

Moderate (2): Outcome is introduced and further developed and reinforced in course. Students demonstrate a “working knowledge” of the outcome.

Minor (1): Outcome is introduced in course. Students have a “talking knowledge” or “awareness” of the outcome.

Not at all (0)

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Super-matrix or gap analysis For the matrix of courses within program,

comparing program outcomes:

Does the course add significantly to the learning of the program outcome?

Does the course add significantly to the assessment of the program outcome?

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QUE Objectives • Development and use of standards for lower

division to facilitate the transition to upper division within 4-year institutions and for transfer from 2-year to 4-year institutions

• Development and use of standards for graduation from college

• Levels 14 and 16 represent performance-bound learning [not the time it takes to get there]

• Learner-centered learning, not time-specific or place-specific learning

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Next meetings Bi-coastal meetings in February/March 2003

Spring breaksMajor association meetings

Focus on design and student workPotential speaker – Grant Wiggins

National meetings in fall 2003 and spring 2004

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QUE web site

• QUE Web site is at Http://www.gsu.edu/que

• private section– user name standards– password standards

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Susan Albertine

The College of New Jersey

Nevin Brown

Education Trust

Ron Henry

Georgia State University

Quality in Undergraduate Education QUE