Using Evidence of Student Learning to Improve Higher Education by
American higher education needs a major reframing of student learning outcomes assessment Dynamic changes are underway in American higher education. New providers, emerging technologies, cost concerns, student debt, and nagging doubts about quality all call out the need for institutions to show evidence of student learning. From scholars at the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA), Using Evidence of Student Learning to Improve Higher Education presents a reframed conception and approach to student learning outcomes assessment. The authors explain why it is counterproductive to view collecting and using evidence of student accomplishment as primarily a compliance activity. Today's circumstances demand a fresh and more strategic approach to the processes by which evidence about student learning is obtained and used to inform efforts to improve teaching, learning, and decision-making. Whether you're in the classroom, an administrative office, or on an assessment committee, data about what students know and are able to do are critical for guiding changes that are needed in institutional policies and practices to improve student learning and success. Use this book to: Understand how and why student learning outcomes assessment can enhance student accomplishment and increase institutional effectiveness Shift the view of assessment from being externally driven to internally motivated Learn how assessment results can help inform decision-making Use assessment data to manage change and improve student success Gauging student learning is necessary if institutions are to prepare students to meet the 21st century needs of employers and live an economically independent, civically responsible life. For assessment professionals and educational leaders, Using Evidence of Student Learning to Improve Higher Education offers both a compelling rationale and practical advice for making student learning outcomes assessment more effective and efficient.
Real-Time Student Assessment by
This book challenges institutions and their programs to prioritize the use of chronological assessment results to benefit enrolled students in comparison with the more common practice of prolonged assessment cycles that generally benefit future students. Peggy Maki advocates for real-time assessment processes to identify patterns of underperformance and obstacles that require timely interventions for enrolled students to succeed. In tandem with the sets of educational practices and policies that many institutions have now undertaken to close achievement and graduation rates across our diverse student demographics, such as developing clear degree pathways, she calls on all higher education providers - if they are to remain relevant and meet their social purpose in our complex world - to urgently recalibrate their assessment processes to focus on currently enrolled students' progress towards achieving a high-quality degree, regardless of when they matriculate or re-enter higher education. She demonstrates that we already have sufficient examples and evidence to implement real-time assessment of students as they progress through their studies. She draws on the practices of specialized accredited programs, such as those in the professions that assess in real time; on the experiences of institutions that have adopted competency-based education; and on the affordances of technologies that now provide faculty and students with up-to-the-minute diagnostics. She identifies the six principles necessary to implement a real-time assessment process, illustrated by case studies of how campuses have operationalized them to advance students' equitable progress towards achieving a high-quality degree; and demonstrates the benefits of real-time assessment compared to more future-oriented processes, among which is engaging students in reflecting on their own progress along their degree pathways. She advocates for the use of well documented national outcomes-based frameworks such as Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP), its aligned Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education scoring rubrics ( VALUE), the Degree Qualifications Profile, and discipline-based outcomes assessments to ensure high-quality degrees that meet well-defined standards and criteria. She also identifies how data systems and technological developments help to monitor closely and respond in time to students' patterns of underperformance. The book is an urgent call for higher education to achieve the values of equity, transparency and quality it espouses; and ensure that all students graduate in a timely fashion with the competencies they need to be active and productive citizens.
Transparent Design in Higher Education Teaching and Leadership by
This book offers a comprehensive guide to the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) framework that has convincingly demonstrated that implementation increases retention and improved outcomes for all students. Its premise is simple: to make learning processes explicit and equitably accessible for all students. Transparent instruction involves faculty/student discussion about several important aspects of academic work before students undertake that work, making explicit the purpose of the work, the knowledge that will be gained and its utility in students' lives beyond college; explaining the tasks involved, the expected criteria, and providing multiple examples of real-world work applications of the specific academic discipline. The simple change of making objective and methods explicit - that faculty recognize as consistent with their teaching goals - creates substantial benefits for students and demonstrably increases such predictors of college students' success as academic confidence, sense of belonging in college, self-awareness of skill development, and persistence. This guide presents a brief history of TILT, summarizes both past and current research on its impact on learning, and describes the three-part Transparency Framework (of purposes, tasks and criteria). The three sections of the book in turn demonstrate why and how transparent instruction works suggesting strategies for instructors who wish to adopt it; describing how educational developers and teaching centers have adopted the Framework; and concluding with examples of how several institutions have used the Framework to connect the daily work of faculty with the learning goals that departments, programs and institutions aim to demonstrate.