HBR: A Tool to Help You Reach Your Goals in 4 Steps

Article: A Tool to Help You Reach Your Goals in 4 Steps
Author: Heidi Grant Halvorson
Publication: Harvard Business Review
Date: October 7, 2015

This article and accompanying webtool are aimed at audiences hoping to break down business goals into actionable plans, but with a little tweaking, can serve as a great way to transition from departmental Student Learning Outcomes to assessment plans across courses.

The article and webtool walk the user through breaking down goals into four components, each of which have analogs in the assessment world:

1. Goal - A departmental Student Learning Outcome.
2. SubGoals - topics relating to the SLO that may be covered in individual courses.
3. Actions & Who-When-Where - the actions are the measurable skills students will be able to demonstrate upon mastering the topics outlined in step 2, and the Who-When-Where identify the courses in which those skills are taught and assessed.
4. If-Then Plans - the assessments in which the skills from step 3 will be measured.

After completing the process, users can down load a .pdf version of their assessment plan.  I'm including an example below for a sample SLO for Biology (click to view the large version):

Try out the webtool here to see how it can apply to your own departmental SLO's.

IHE: Assessment and the Value of Big, Dumb Questions

Article: Assessment and the Value of Big, Dumb Questions
Author: Matt Reed
Publication: Inside Higher Ed
Date: October 4, 2015

In this opinion piece, Reed described outcomes assessment's importance in defending and measuring the offerings of a curriculum.  He asserts that assessment initiatives can sometimes become bogged down with "false precision," in which the temptation becomes to choose student learning outcomes that are too narrowly focused.  Reed offers an alternative:

Instead, I’m a fan of the “few, big, dumb questions” approach. At the end of a program, can students do what they’re supposed to be able to do? How do you know? Where they’re falling short, what are you planning to do about it?

I think this article leads us to ask a crucial question that all assessment should start with: what do I choose to measure about my program, and does that reflect our values?  By doing deep thought about what are the essential outcomes of a program, assessment can become more streamlined and, even more importantly, more meaningful.  The trick, then, becomes defining student learning outcomes so they are both broadly applicable AND measurable with some validity.  See your friendly neighborhood assessment director for help exploring wordings that can satisfy both criteria to best fit the needs of your program or course.

Click here to read more of Reed's take on outcomes assessment.

Chronicle: Does Assessment Make College Better?

Article: Does Assessment Make Colleges Better?  Let Me Count the Ways
Author: Joan Hawthorne
Publication: Chronicle of Higher Education
Date: August 19, 2015

In this commentary column, Hawthorne uncovers the ways in which she views Outcomes-Based Assessment has been beneficial to the state of higher education.  In particular, she views some of the greatest benefits to include an emphasis on being transparent and explicit in what faculty members want students to learn, and a shifted focus to student "doing" rather than simply student "knowing."  Additionally, she sees the discussions that resulted among departments around the most authentic ways to measure students' ability to "do" as leading to advancements in both assessment and curriculum development.  In summary, she says:

Regardless of the scale of a fix, assessment is effective for promoting greater thoughtfulness and purpose in teaching — and for focusing our attention on learning. That matters. On that basis alone, assessment works.

Read the original column for more of Hawthorne's views of the importance of assessment in higher education.