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 Basics
Assessment Methodologies and Types - Assessments provide evidence that students have achieved the intended learning outcomes as a result of your course and your instruction, which is demonstrated in more than just summative assessments. Learn about different assessment types on this page, taken from Academic Technology’s Online Course Design Essentials course.
Assessment Techniques - Student achievement of a single course outcome might be demonstrated via several assessment techniques within a course, or only one. This resource from Academic Technology’s Online Course Design Essentials course provides an overview of assessment techniques that might be used to measure students' skills and knowledge acquired during the course.
Instructional Strategies - When you have established the course outcomes and the assessment techniques you will use for your course, it is only a short step to select the types of instructional strategies (or learning activities) that match those assessments. This resource from Academic Technology’s Online Course Design Essentials course includes some strategies you can use (though it is not meant to be an exhaustive list).
Assessment Measurement - An assessment measurement, like a rubric or an exam, is the fundamental tool with which an instructor evaluates the student's performance on an assessment. It is both the tool the instructor uses to evaluate the gradable artifact and the data-gathering method used to explain the instructor's evaluation. This resource from Academic Technology’s Online Course Design Essentials course focuses primarily on the two most commonly used assessment measures: rubrics and multiple-choice test questions.
Aligning Learning Objectives to Types of Assessment - This table is sourced from the Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of California, Berkeley. It's a handy reference that outlines types of learning objectives according to Bloom's taxonomy of action verbs (from low to high cognitive performance) with types of assessment and assessment measures that match well to these objectives.
Assessment Resources in Canvas
If you have been teaching in Canvas, you are likely aware that Canvas a few assessment features built in, from the New Quizzes feature, which is largely used for testing purposes, to the Rubrics feature, which allows 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. Learn more about the Canvas Outcomes Project.
At the University level, the Writing Intensive Program (WIP outcomes), 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
Guide to Adding Outcomes to Rubrics in Canvas.
Add a rubric to an assignment.
Align an outcome to a quiz question in New Quizzes.
Align an outcome to a quiz in New Quizzes.
View all aligned items and artifacts within an outcome.
View the outcomes results report for individual students in a course.
View outcomes results using the Learning Mastery Gradebook.
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.