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Faculty regularly utilize a variety of assessment instruments when teaching courses including exams, papers, speeches, performances, and laboratory experiences. These instruments are typically used in computing student course grades and are taken seriously by students. Use of these assessment results is beneficial for many reasons. Faculty will find they can use assessment tools and data that are already being collected within their courses. Secondly, faculty may find that the data being collected is a more accurate representation of student performance than data collected using assessments that are not part of the students’ grade.
Assessment Logic™ can be used to report student performance on in-class assessment instruments as well as out-of-class assessment instruments as desired by the institution. For the purpose of academic program assessment, it is certainly not practical and probably not desirable to document the use of every such assessment instrument. Subject Areas (Departments) must determine which Assessment Points (specifically chosen assessment instruments from among the instruments they are already using) to use for program assessment. To enable an institution to compare assessment results from various academic years, Subject Areas must choose Assessment Points that are used consistently when the course is taught. If the Assessment Point is a term paper, for example, the Subject Area needs to agree on the indicators of student performance to be used on a grading rubric. Doing so means that regardless of the subject of the term paper, which may change from one semester or course section to the next, the paper can be used to assess the desired objective.
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If the Assessment Point is a music performance then, again, the Subject Area needs to determine the indicators of student performance that are independent of the piece being performed. In the case of a Comprehensive Final Exam in Calculus consisting of objective questions, the Subject Area should determine the topics addressed (integration, differentiation, etc.) rather than the specific questions. A faculty member teaching a course, in which an Assessment Point is administered however, is still free to teach the course, as the faculty deems appropriate.
Assessment Logic™ promotes use of a college-wide standard for evaluating student performance yet allows for differences inherent between different types of assessment activities. When students are evaluated on a performance indicator they are evaluated using one of four ratings: Distinguished, Proficient, Basic, or Unsatisfactory. Institutions must decide in general what each rating means. Assessment Logic™ allows Director of Assessment to enter and edit the definitions of the standard ratings and displays the definitions to users each time data is entered. When defining an Assessment Point, Subject Areas, may add an additional explanation of each rating and may choose to not use all four ratings for that particular assessment point. Assessment Logic™ simplifies data entry requiring faculty to enter only aggregate data corresponding to each indicator rather than requiring faculty to enter individual student data. Each assessment point has a corresponding set of indicators and when faculty enter data for a specific Assessment Point they are prompted to indicate how many students received each rating for a particular indicator rather than individual student results. Each time data is entered for a particular administration of an Assessment Point faculty are also required to enter their personal reflections about how well students performed and on what changes, if any, the faculty member plans to make in response to student performance. Faculty may offer additional clarification of their rating system by associating a rubric or samples of student work with the Assessment Point.
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Assessment Logic™ facilitates storage of student and department samples of assessment artifacts. Assessment Logic can be used to store and view documents providing additional evidence that Subject Areas are assessing students. Subject Area Faculty should decide on what artifacts to associate with a particular Assessment Point. For example, Subject Areas may decide that for each Assessment Point a set of documents will be collected which includes: a grading rubric or representative original such as a test; and for each rating a sample of student work that received that rating. Subject areas should include in their assessment plans the number and types of artifacts to include in the system and the frequency with which the sample should be updated. Assessment Logic™ is designed to accept any number of documents that a Subject Area deems appropriate limited only by the server administrator. The system can accept a large variety of file formats.
Assessment Logic™ is useful in documenting Subject Area responses to data. Assessment Logic™ allows Subject Areas to document observations and corresponding responses to student performance related to each Subject Area Objective and for each Subject Area Program. As Program changes are made, Assessment Logic™ allows Subject Areas to add, edit, or archive Goals, Objectives, Indicators, and Assessment Points. New Assessment Points can be defined as needed and Assessment Points can be archived when they are no longer needed or when they need significant change. Archived Assessment Points and corresponding data continue to appear in reports spanning the time period in which the Assessment Points were active. Subject Areas can determine the schedule for reviewing data related to each objective or program and document those reviews using Assessment Logic™.
Assessment Logic™ provides a centralized system of documentation. The Assessment Logic data is able to be monitored at any time and because the data is in a centralized system it is easy to transition the materials to new faculty. The responsibility for entering Subject Area Goals, Objectives, Indicators, and Assessment Points lies with the corresponding Subject Area Chair and Subject Area Faculty not with the Director of Assessment. Because Subject Areas report data and reflections to a centralized system on an on-going basis, Director of Assessment does not have to wait for a Program’s annual report to monitor the Assessment Process. For example, at the request of the Director of Assessment (one button click) Assessment Logic will query the database and determine the courses in which Assessment Point data needs to be collected and send a reminder email to corresponding Subject Area Chairs.
Assessment Logic™ makes it easy for Department faculty to view data and corresponding department actions over time. Assessment Logic™ was designed to facilitate regular data collection and reflection and simplify report generation. Assessment Logic™ enables Subject Area chairs to obtain a variety of reports. There are three basic types of reports one based on data, one based on reflections, and one based on Programs. For example, Assessment Point Data can be viewed showing a summary of all the data collected for that Assessment Point, or showing an annual progression of data for Assessment Points associated with a particular Objective. Additionally, a report can be generated showing the progression of reflections on a specific objective. Further, program reports list each Program Objective. And, for each Objective lists a number of things including the corresponding Indicators, Assessment Points, and most recent Subject Area reflection about the objective.
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