Assessment Plans
At CSU Fort Collins, all undergraduate and graduate degree programs as well as graduate certificate programs are expected to create and carry out plans to assess student achievement of program-level learning outcomes. A Program Learning Outcomes Assessment Plan aims to evaluate the extent to which students in an academic program are achieving the intended learning outcomes.
An assessment plan can be thought of as the roadmap to understanding how well the program is achieving the outcomes. An assessment plan lays out three important aspects: which PLO(s) you will assess each academic year, who (which students/courses) will be assessed, and how you will assess them.
Assessment plans should be meaningful, focusing on the most pressing questions about student learning in the program. Time should be scheduled for collecting evidence, carrying out the evaluation of student work, analyzing the data, and making meaning of the results. Assessment plans should also be sustainable, laying out a process that integrates assessment activities into normal departmental cycles and manages the workload for faculty and staff.
There is sometimes confusion about the distinction between student learning outcomes and student success measures. Student learning outcomes assessment and student success measures are both ways to evaluate the effectiveness of education, but they focus on different aspects of the student experience and educational impact. Student learning outcomes assessments evaluate what students have learned, while student success measures track how well students are progressing and thriving in their educational journey.
Align Assessment Methods to Learning Outcomes
Programs and courses already produce evidence of learning. The most sustainable assessment plans use embedded assessment strategies by collecting and evaluating student work already being produced. Program faculty can select student work in a way that allows it to be aggregated for program assessment purposes. Direct assessment evidence should be appropriate for what is being assessed. Conclusions can be strengthened by using both direct and indirect assessments of the same outcome.
The program’s curriculum map should guide decisions about the student work (the “evidence”) to be used. Ideally, it is best to select assignments for which students have had ample practice with the learning outcomes and are being asked to demonstrate their proficiency. Senior seminar papers or capstone projects are often a good place to start for program-level learning outcomes assessment.
Assessment methods should address the learning outcomes as directly as possible. For instance, if the program identifies written communication as a learning outcome, the assessments should include the reading and evaluation of student written work. Alignment of assessment methods to learning outcomes is crucial to understanding whether students are actually learning what we intend them to learn. Alignment also provides clear paths to success for both students and faculty by matching expectations with evaluation. Some things to consider:
- Does the method align with the outcome? Does the assessment method provide meaningful and detailed evidence of student learning?
- Does the assessment method represent a significant learning experience that all students will be exposed to?
- Program-level learning outcomes often use broad language to represent what students should know and be able to do upon degree completion. Break down the outcome into measurable parts, questions, or sub-outcomes appropriate to the course level or experience.
- You may need to create, adopt, or adapt tools to turn the source into a method. For instance, an analytic rubric defines the specific skills that should be demonstrated in the student work and can be mapped to the learning outcomes.
Multiple Voices
The most comprehensive and reliable assessment of program learning outcomes includes the integration of multiple voices. A multiple voices approach incorporates relevant perspectives on student achievement, recognizing that students, faculty, and other educators may have varying but equally valid interpretations of success.
In the multiple voices approach, a student’s academic performance on assignments or in work-based experiences allows them to demonstrate what they know and can do. Collecting information at points over time can show growth.
Student voice ask students to reflect on their learning or performance. Metacognition—our ability to think about our own thinking—guides students to increased self-awareness, problem-solving, intellectual independence, and transfer of knowledge and skills to new situations. Self-reflection and feedback opportunities can encourage metacognition and the use of student voice in assessment.
Educator voice goes beyond the grading of student work to include productive feedback about classroom or workplace performance. A comprehensive assessment of student achievement might include feedback about academic and professional performance such as communication abilities, teamwork, leadership role performance, and ethical behavior.
Programs also might use institutional data that can be aggregated across time and then disaggregated to examine any discrepancies in achievement by student demographic. At CSU Fort Collins, Institutional Research, Planning & Effectiveness supports programs through disaggregation of institutional data.
Formative and Summative Assessment
Formative Assessment is a low-stakes, “checking in” point to see how well students are doing. Formative assessment is an opportunity to provide feedback that students can use for improving their learning strategies, correct misconceptions, and determine needs for additional instruction. Formative assessment at the program level might be done at the end of the second/sophomore year, or during a core course such as an intermediate skill-building course. Formative assessment should inform curriculum and course planning, as well as student learning support activities like tutoring and advising.
Examples of formative assessments for programs include:
- Mid-semester course feedback surveys asking students about their learning experience
- Regular curriculum committee meetings where faculty discuss course alignment and student progress
- Analysis of student performance in prerequisite courses to identify preparation gaps
- Peer teaching observations with structured feedback
- Student focus groups during their second or third years
Summative assessment evaluates student learning and performance at the end of a course or program. Summative assessments include exams, papers, projects, and performances. A summative assessment may target more than one learning outcome. Summative assessment at the program level is often done at the end of capstone courses, or completion of the thesis or dissertation.
Examples of summative assessments for programs include:
- Capstone course performance analysis
- Senior thesis or final project assessment using program rubrics
- External program reviews
- Professional licensure exam pass rates (where applicable)
- Senior exit surveys and interviews
- Comprehensive senior portfolios
- Field placement supervisor evaluations