Assessment & Evaluation

Student Learning Outcomes

Alignment of Student Learning Outcomes - Learn about the importance of ensuring your student learning outcomes align with both your course and program outcomes by reading this page from Academic Technology’s Online Course Design Essentials course.

Creating Meaningful Student Learning Outcomes - Writing meaningful student learning outcomes is not as easy as it might seem. Especially if you are new to teaching, this resource from Academic Technology’s Online Course Design Essentials course includes information to understand the characteristics of a good learning outcome as well as how to write them using Bloom’s Taxonomy and the ABC method.

Assessment Resources in Canvas

If you have been teaching in Canvas, you are likely aware that Canvas has built-in assessment features, such as quizzes and rubrics, which allow for greater transparency and speed in grading.

There is an additional feature in Canvas called Outcomes, which allows you to track student learning outcomes separate from their grade in the course or on a particular assignment. You can implement at the course level, but several areas have also leveraged Outcomes to track program-level outcomes as well. This is part of a university-wide initiative to enhance assessment practices across St. Kate’s.

At the University level, the Writing Intensive Program, the Library (Information Literacy outcomes), and CORE, in conjunction with the Office of Scholarly Engagement, all have outcomes that may be a part of courses you teach, and your own program may have its program outcomes they want you to assess in your course. Check with your program chair or other academic leadership to see if the course you teach is a part of this growing initiative.

Canvas Outcomes Resources

To learn more about assessment and outcomes, please consider enrolling in the Online Course Design Essentials Workshop, which was designed and developed by the St. Kate's Academic Technology team.

Assessment Basics

Assessment Methodologies and Types - Learn how to align assessments with learning outcomes and master formative and summative methods for comprehensive student evaluation.

Assessment Techniques - Discover how to select the best assessment methods to accurately measure student achievement and enhance engagement.

Instructional Strategies - Discover how to seamlessly connect your course outcomes and assessments with engaging instructional strategies. Learn to design impactful, low-stakes activities that truly prepare students for major course evaluations.

Assessment Measurement - Master effective assessment measurement with our guide to crafting powerful rubrics and multiple-choice questions. Learn best practices for creating clear criteria, defining performance levels, and designing unbiased, insightful evaluations that truly assess student learning.

Aligning Learning Objectives to Types of Assessment - This handy table, based on Bloom's Taxonomy, shows you exactly what assessment types and measures best match each level of cognitive performance. Design clearer, more impactful evaluations and ensure your students are truly demonstrating their understanding.

Assessment Lead Toolkit

The Assessment Lead Toolkit involves many activities: Collecting data, reviewing data, and then using the feedback and results to improve student learning, ensure course and curriculum alignment, revise or replace assessment measures, plan, and budget, develop an improvement plan, and conduct program review. The Assessment Committee has created and curated resources to assist you in this process in the attached ATLAS Program Assessment Toolkit. The goal of program assessment is always to ensure student learning and improve departmental programs. It also ensures that we conform to best practices across higher education and meet the requirements of the Higher Learning Commission for the assessment of curricular and co-curricular learning outcomes. We hope this toolkit is helpful to Assessment Leads, Program Chairs, or whomever is tasked with the assessment process in their current role.