Office of Institutional Effectiveness Use of Student Learning Evidence

Use of Student Learning Evidence

"We use it to improve it!"

Use of Student Learning Evidence

There are multiple ways that assessment informs change to improve the student learning experience. Faculty participation in the assessment of student learning occurs at the course and program levels. For example, the General Education Assessment Team (GEAT) is assigned specific tasks on an annual basis to assess the integrity of the General Education Program at the goal level. The Annual GEAT Project Reports are used to inform the General Education Council in its efforts to confirm the relevancy and currency of the program. Faculty assigned to teach general education courses also participate in course embedded student learning outcomes assessment and report their findings annually using the Student Learning Outcomes Assessment Reporting Tool (SLO-ART). The contributions of the General Education Assessment Team in evolving the general education goals and improvement in student learning strategies are available for your review, through the following linked .pdf documents.

Oftentimes, strategies that impact learning effectiveness are employed on a day-to-day basis by faculty as they instruct courses. These adjustments are made as faculty analyze and implement changes throughout the semester based on formative assessments of student learning as it is occurring. These improvements in the learning experiences are driven by individual faculty members who are expert in the craft of teaching. Faculty articulation and reflection on these improvement strategies are collected through course assessment reporting at the end of a term. By far, this is the most frequently employed practice in improving student learning experiences. And, this form of assessment activity is the most under-reported type of strategic change directed toward the improvement of student learning at the course level. The Analysis of Faculty Participation in the Assessment of Student Learning.pdf presents data supporting faculty use of the Course Level Student Learning Outcomes Reporting Tool (SLO-ART) to report their course embedded assessments.

The Annual Assessment Reporting 2015-2024 is an accumulation of student learning assessment efforts for all academic units over the past five academic years, and is produced and distributed transparently. This document serves to inform stakeholders of the enormity of work that is done on an annual basis and also serves as an evidence repository for affiliated documentation of assessment efforts.

The General Education Program has been increasingly successful at using assessment as a tool for implementing strategic changes. Since 2014, the efforts of faculty teaching general education courses across the disciplines have come together to report individual course embedded assessments. Meanwhile, monitoring the student success metrics is essential in identifying where change strategies have impacted student learning improvements. Beginning in the fall of 2017 we began tracking student success metrics for the general education program. This 2017 report, General Education Course Embedded Assessment and Student Success Metrics provides a 3-year trend snapshot of the incremental improvements in student success in general education program courses from 2014 through 2017. The data presented in the report shows the efforts of the faculty in coming together for a common good to promote student success in general education courses.

The University is dedicated to providing high impact learning experiences for all of its students. One of the best ways to assess the effectiveness of current strategies is to triangulate the information from several sources to create a clear picture of these experiences and how our students perceive the quality and extent of these unique learning opportunities. In 2018, the Office of Institutional Effectiveness assessed the efficacy of our High Impact Learning strategies by comparing survey data from the National Survey of Student Engagement with the ESU Senior Survey, combined with Personal Interviews of Faculty, Staff, Students, and Administrators. The Analysis of High Impact Practices and Student Perspective report is used to confirm our institution-wide commitment to this strategic plan initiative while identifying opportunities to make the experiences even better. Integrating multiple High Impact Practices into the student learning experience continues to be a strategic emphasis in our academic planning.

Student Learning Outcomes and Learning Improvement Strategies are measured and reported using the Student Learning Outcomes Assessment Reporting Tool (SLOART). The data from faculty course assessments is shown in the tableau visuals below: