Student Learning Issues on Campus

January 1997 Newsletter, Vol. 1, No. 3
Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Bowling Green State University

I am pleased with the progress that the Campus is making on the parallel activities of program review for all academic and support units and student outcomes assessment in the academic departments and programs. These two related activities, because of their ongoing nature, are vital to our Campus efforts to create BGSU as the premier learning community in Ohio. Academic program review, in particular, will focus on department and/or program activities across the whole range of responsibility that the unit under review has undertaken. The process to be followed will be discussed this semester and it is my expectation that we will develop the final protocols and procedures sometime in the spring to be implemented in the first academic departments in the next academic year (1997/98). In the meantime, the academic departments and programs have moved ahead vigorously to develop assessments of student learning outcomes. I am pleased to have been able to provide initial funding to support this activity and I look forward to hearing the results of our efforts in various programs on the Campus. Next year in the program review cycle, we will be interested in whether assessment plans have been created and implemented. Thereafter, we will be interested in the plans for program improvement coming from the results of assessments and whether implementation of those plans actually leads to improvement. The combination of assessment and program review will give the Campus powerful sources of information with which to plan for the future as they will identify goals that will help us attain the status that we seek as the premier learning community in Ohio. I appreciate the hard work that is going into both endeavors and I am confident that as a result of these changes, the University will be academically stronger in the future.

Assessing Impact: Evidence and Action. June 11-15, 1997--AAHE Assessment and Quality Conference in Miami, FL. For more information, contact Liz Reitz, Project Assistant, Assessment Forum, at (202) 293-6440, Ext. 21.

Teaching and Assessing Student Abilities. A Day at Alverno College. April 10, 1997--Milwaukee, WI. For more information or to register, call 414-382-6087.

As the importance of assessment in higher education is realized by the academic community, departments are becoming much more proactive in developing new and innovative ways to assess student learning. One model assessment program on campus that has been fully incorporated into the curriculum can be found in the Architecture/Environmental Design Studies program. This unique program is a pre-professional program housed in the Department of Visual Communication and Technology Education in the College of Technology. According to the former director of the program, Frank Bosworth, "The Architecture/Environmental Design Studies program is committed to keeping assessment of student achievement and continuous program evaluation at the center of the teaching and learning process."

A crucial component of the Architecture/Environmental Design Studies program is cooperative education experiences. There have been modifications made to effectively integrate the experiential learning component of the program with the classroom component. The goals for the experiential learning component are:

(1) All experiences are closely related to academic objectives of the program.

(2) All experiences are structured to provide for reflection and self-assessment in addition to faculty assessment.

(3) All experiences should contain a provision for external validation by the employer.

(4) Experiences must be sequential and of increasing complexity, occurring at specific points in the student's program of study.

(5) Activities encountered in the experiences must be connected to the curriculum.

(6) Experiences must be relevant to the student.

(7) Assessment of the experiences must provide feedback on the quality of student academic achievement.

The experiential learning component of the curriculum is organized into three progressive levels:

Level One: The field experience consists of a two week seminar designed to provide students an awareness of the professional occupations they are aspiring to enter. Students will prepare portfolios, resumes, develop interviewing skills, and meet with industry professionals to discuss the qualifications and expectations for professionals entering the field. The seminar is followed by a 240 hour internship requirement at an approved site.

Level Two: Students attend a seminar where they will make a formal report on their first experience in addition to preparing a report on the level one experience. The reports will include self-assessment, reflection, and responses to instructor-generated inquiries. Internship employers will be asked to participate in the session as well.

Level Three: This level of the experiential learning component incorporates a seminar that focuses on preparation of the student's portfolio and interviewing skills. The student will also serve as a mentor and present work from their field experiences.

The architecture/environmental design program emphasizes the application of theoretical knowledge to investigate and resolve problems of human-environment interface in an active, hands-on learning environment. For more information, please contact Dr. Naomi Lee, Coordinator of Program Services, College of Technology.

The initial phases of Bowling Green's academic assessment efforts have been directed to the program level. The decision to begin with the program--rather than the course or student--level of assessment has shaped the strategies for assessment that are being developed and implemented on campus.

The distinctions among the levels of assessment are easily approached by example. Term papers or projects produced in the context of a senior seminar or capstone course could be used as material for assessment at all three levels. A grade on the paper or project would represent "evaluation," whereas comments to the student about strengths and weaknesses in the paper would be representative of student level assessment. In general, paper-and-pencil tests are difficult to adapt to the purpose of assessment. Consequently, alternatives to paper-and-pencil tests have been sought for assessment at the student level.

The instructor teaching the course might also review the papers or projects as a source of information about the course itself. Here, the instructor is not so much concerned with the identity of the individuals or improving individual performance. Rather, s/he is assessing the material in light of the goals and objectives of the course. Having identified the course goals that students in general did and did not achieve, the instructor is informed about which aspects of the course functioned well and which ones need to be improved upon for the next time.

Several departments at Bowling Green have modified the above procedure in a way suitable for program level assessment. A small committee of faculty or outside readers assess the materials in light of program level learning objectives. It is important that the course be synthetic in nature and come at an appropriate point in the curriculum, so that the materials reflect the students' learning in the whole course of study. The committee uses the material as a source of information about strengths and weaknesses in the program. Such inferences could be based on a sample of student work, rather than on the whole population. Program assessment includes action: the committee is responsible for suggesting changes in the curriculum or in other aspects of the learning environment that will lead to improved learning outcomes for future students.

Bowling Green has emphasized the program level in the initial phases of assessment. In the future, we hope that assessment will naturally develop in ways that include course and student levels. Another dimension in which assessment at Bowling Green will grow is programmatic. For now, the emphasis is on programs, or majors. In the future, we must think about assessment of General Education and graduate programs, as well as student life aspects of the students' learning experience.

Articles published in The Student Learner in Focus are occasionally reproduced from The Teaching Professor by permission from Magna Publications. A copy of The Teaching Professor is available in each academic unit for use by all faculty, graduate students, staff, and administrators. The Teaching Professor is published monthly, except July and August by Magna Publications, Inc., 2718 Dryden Dr., Madison, WI 53704-3086.

The Jerome Library has a comprehensive list of materials related to assessment on reserve. The following resources represent just a sample of recommended readings:

• Liberal Learning at Alverno College by Alverno College
  
• The National Assessment of College Student Learning: Identification of the Skills to be Taught by Addison Greenwood
  
• Student Outcomes Assessment by Iowa State University
  
• Assessment for the New Curriculum: A Guide for Professional Accounting Programs by Joanne Gainen and Paul Locatelli

The Student Learner in Focus is a newsletter published by the Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. The newsletter serves to inform the academic community at Bowling Green State University of new and innovative learning strategies at the programmatic and classroom levels. The Student Learner in Focus also summarizes ongoing assessment programs on campus. Comments, suggestions, and questions are welcome and may be directed to Dr. Steven Russell, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Education and Allied Professions at 372-7401

Editor : Steven C. Russell
Associate Editor : Jeffrey A. Johnson

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