Assessment of Student Learning Resources

This page is annotated bibliography of recommended resources for faculty and others responsible for assessment. 

OSU-Oklahoma City faculty and staff are encouraged to join the Assessment of Student Learning community in the online classroom (oc.okstate.edu) for more resources on improving student learning through assessment.  Click here for step-by-step directions for registering in the Assessment of Student Learning community.

Assessment of Student Learning in the OSU System

• Oklahoma State University Assessment and Testing  offers general information about assessment, information on assessment planning and reporting and access to assessment plans and reports for programs at Oklahoma State University - Stillwater. 
• Oklahoma State University - Institute of Technology
  • The Office of Institutional Assessment & Research (IA&R) page provides access to training  and reports on assessment at the OSU-Okmulgee campus.
  • Dreyer, Melissa, and Daniel Claborn. "Developing a Culture for Continuous Assessment of Student Learning." A Collection of Papers on Self-Study and Institutional Improvement, 2008. HLC. Print.  Summary of presentation on assessment of student learning at OSU-Okmulgee made at the Higher Learning Commission annual conference in 2008.

Comprehensive Resources:

• Assessment Quickies:  Student Learning Outcomes Assessment in 10 Easy Steps is a series of 10 short podcast videos on how to do assessment presented by Michelle Saint-Germain, PhD, Director of Program Review and Assessment at California State University, Long Beach.   View the series on YouTube or download to iTunes from iTunesU.

• Assessing Student Learning in Higher Education  (http://online.bakersfieldcollege.edu/courseassessment/Default.htm)  is a website designed to introduce community college faculty to Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) and assessment. The purpose of this website is to make assessment possible and practical in any course or program.  The author, Janet Fulks, is Professor of Biology at Bakersfield College, Bakersfield California.

• Shaping Outcomes:  An Online Course (http://www.shapingoutcomes.org/course/index.htm) is an online course on Outcomes Based Planning and Evaluation (OBPE) for museum and library professionals.  While not specifically addressing higher education, the course provides a planning model consistent with outcome based assessment of student learning. The OBPE model presents a planning model with 4 distinct components. (1)Identify specific individuals or groups  with a need you can define concretely and which falls within your institutional mission; (2) Decide on clear program outcomes (benefits) to meet that need; (3) Develop program activities to provide services for your audience to bring about the desired results; (4) Establish ways to measure whether those results/outcomes have been achieved.

• North Carolina State University maintains a very extensive list of Internet Resources for Higher Education Outcomes Assessment.

Defining Student Learning Outcomes

Student learning outcomes are statements of observable and measureable student performance which provide the foundation for assessment of student learning.  They define what a student will be able to do at the end of a learning activity, course, or program. In the simplest form, a student learning outcome says,  "Students will be able to <action verb> <something>."  The following resources offer guidance in constructing and using student learning outcomes.

• Hatfield, Susan. "Assessing Your Program-Level Assessment Plan." The IDEA Center | Insight. Improvement. Impact. N.p., 2009. Web. <http://www.theideacenter.org/sites/default/files/IDEA_Paper_45.pdf>.  Hatfield suggests that every program assessment plan will benefit from occasional review and revision.  In this short article, she presents a series of 14 questions to guide the review of an assessment plan.  She suggests using a curriculum map to review the association of program learning objectives with courses in the curriculum.  While ideally, program learning outcomes are in place before development of the program's curriculum, she acknowledges the reality that program learning outcomes are often developed after the curriculum to fit the existing curriculum.  She emphasizes the importance of faculty in the process of developing and reviewing program outcomes and stresses the importance of faculty training and development for development of program outcomes and for "closing the loop" by using assessment data to improve student learning.  The Resources section of the article includes a selective list of recommended online resources and books.

• Declan Kennedy, Áine Hyland, Norma Ryan: “Writing and using learning outcomes: a practical guide”, article C 3.4-1 in Eric Froment, Jürgen Kohler, Lewis Purser and Lesley Wilson (eds.): EUA Bologna Handbook – Making Bologna Work (Berlin 2006: Raabe Verlag)  <http://crilt.ncirl.ie/moodle/file.php/1/moddata/forum/1/46/Writing_and_using_learning-outcomes.pdf>. Establishment of student learning outcomes for degrees and programs is a key component in the Bologna Process, an effort to reform higher education in Europe. This article suggests a user-friendly methodology for developing learning outcomes for courses and degree programs. This article is an excellent overall resource on writing and using learning outcomes.

• Wentland, Ph.D., Ellen. "Guide for Developing and Implementing a Program Outcomes Assessment Plan." Northern Essex Community College. 2009. Web. <http://www.necc.mass.edu/program_review_and_outcomes/assessment.php>.   This article is written as a guide to program outcomes assessment at Northern Essex Community College (Massachusetts).  The introduction chapter offers a good overview of the process of developing a program outcomes assessment plan.  Further chapters present detailed methods for addressing specific aspects of a program outcomes assessment plan with a specific focus on Northern Essex Community College. 

Rubrics: A rubric defines criteria for assessment of student performance. The rubric identifies the criteria to be evaluated and describes a range of acceptable and unacceptable performance. These proficiency levels describe a continuum from excellent to unacceptable. Using the rubric, the rater matches the student’s performance to a set of pre-defined criteria.   

• Winona State University maintains a webpage with a links to a wide variety of rubrics. (http://www.winona.edu/air/rubrics.htm).

• A searchable database of rubrics submitted by educators ( http://landmark-project.com/rubric_builder/index.php) may provide a starting point for developing rubrics for your course.

Grades and Assessment of Student Learning

Rogers, Gloria. "Do Grades Make the Grade for Program Assessment?" ABET, Inc.,  Web. <http://www.abet.org/Linked%20Documents-UPDATE/Assessment/Assessment%20Tips4.pdf>.  In this article, Rogers addresses  a common question raised by faculty -- "We are already accessing students in courses: why can't we just use student grades as an indication of what our students know or can do?"