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.

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.