Assessment

Assessment Resources

Our desire to improve student learning drives assessment at UT Dallas. We have collected a few resources to help you in course planning and assessment. Please click on a heading below to expand.

• Writing a Syllabus

  A well-designed syllabus can make your class more enjoyable for you and for your students. A well-written syllabus clearly demonstrates the connection between what the instructor says the course is about and what the students are expected to do in the course. The University of Texas at Dallas provides a syllabus template for all instructors that helps you structure your syllabus (https://provost.utdallas.edu/home/syllabus-templates).

  Syllabus Resources:

  • Eberly Center, Carnegie Mellon University. “Align Assessments with Objectives.” Eberly Center: Teaching Excellence & Education Innovation. Accessed June 16, 2015. https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/design/assessments.html.
  • Lang, James M. “The 3 Essential Functions of Your Syllabus, Part 1.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 23, 2015. https://chronicle.com/article/The-3-Essential-Functions-of/190243/.
  • ———. “The 3 Essential Functions of Your Syllabus, Part 2.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 30, 2015. https://chronicle.com/article/The-3-Essential-Functions-of/228909/.
  • University of California Syllabus Checklist: https://oic.id.ucsb.edu/faculty-handbook-teaching/first-year-faculty/syllabus-checklist
• Learning Outcomes

  One of the more challenging tasks for new and experienced faculty alike is writing student learning outcomes. Course learning outcomes should make it clear to students what they will be able to do because of what they have learned by the end of the course. Strong learning outcomes are student-centered, comprehensive, aligned to program outcomes, degree appropriate, and measurable (please see the Learning Outcome Rubric for more detail about each of these characteristics).

  Student Learning Outcomes Resources:

  • Program Learning Outcome Rubric https://dox.utdallas.edu/chart1223
  • Course Learning Outcome Rubric https://dox.utdallas.edu/chart1224
  • Office of Assessment Workshops (contact Gloria Shenoy, Director of Assessment, gloria@utdallas.edu, for the next scheduled workshop)
  • Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching, “Grading Student Work.” https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/grading-student-work/.
• Using the Information from Assessment Reports

  You may be asked on a semi-regular basis to write a report for your program about assessment in your course. To write this report you will need to gather information about student work in your class, analyze it, and then consider future changes.

  At the program level, you may find that there are larger changes that need to be made based on the program assessment data that was gathered. Maybe your faculty see a need for a new course or another curriculum change, or perhaps the course descriptions need to be changed in order to address some new challenges. You should meet as a group to discuss possible changes based on assessment data.

  Using Assessment Data Resources:

  • Reed, Thayer, Jason Levin, and Geri Malandra. “Closing the Assessment Loop by Design.” Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, October 2011. https://www.changemag.org/Archives/Back%20Issues/2011/September-October%202011/closing-the-full.html.
  • Assessment Office University of Hawai’i at Manoa. “Using Program Assessment Results to Improve Student Learning,” March 2013. https://manoa.hawaii.edu/assessment/workshops/pdf/using_results_2013-03.pdf.
• On the Importance of Faculty Involvement in Assessment

  The word “assessment” often calls to mind ideas about external accrediting agencies and legislative oversight. On the most basic level, though, assessment includes what faculty members already do in the classroom every day. It is important that faculty drive how we do the assessment that affects your courses and programs.

  Faculty Involvement Resources:

  • American Public University System. “Glossary of Assessment Terms.” Accessed June 16, 2015. https://www.apus.edu/community-scholars/learning-outcomes-assessment/university-assessment/glossary.htm.
  • Hutchings, Pat. “What New Faculty Need to Know About Assessment.” NILOA, Spring 2011. https://www.learningoutcomesassessment.org/documents/ABfaculty.pdf.
• Glossary of Assessment Terms

  Term	Definition
  Assessment	"Assessment is the systematic collection, review, and use of information about educational programs undertaken for the purpose of improving student learning and development." (Palomba & Banta, 1999, p. 4) “Assessment is the process of providing credible evidence of resources implementation actions, and outcomes undertaken for the purpose of improving the effectiveness of instruction, programs, and services in higher education.” (Palomba & Banta, 2014, p. 2)
  Benchmark	The level of accomplishment against which student work is measured.
  Course assessment	Focused on whether a specific course is meeting its stated student learning outcomes.
  Curriculum Map	A chart that shows which courses in a curriculum cover which program-level student learning outcomes.
  Direct measures	These are any measures that are directly related to what students do: exams, essays, portfolios, etc.
  Formative assessment	Ongoing assessment of student learning outcomes while the learning is still taking place.
  Indirect measures	These are any measures that are derived from perceptions about student learning: exit interviews, evaluations, course grades, assignment grades, etc.
  Program assessment	“uses the department or program as the level of analysis. Can be quantitative or qualitative, formative or summative, standards-based or value added, and used for improvement or for accountability. Ideally program goals and objectives would serve as a basis for the assessment. Example: how sophisticated a close reading of texts senior English majors can accomplish (if used to determine value added, would be compared to the ability of newly declared majors).” (Leskes 2002)
  Student Learning outcomes	Student-centered, comprehensive, aligned, degree-appropriate, and measurable statements about what student can know and do by the end of a course of study.
  Triangulation	A validity test by multiple data collection methods to ensure the consistency of results (quantitative and qualitative, direct and indirect).

  For more detailed information on assessment terms, please see:

  • El Camino College. “Working Definitions @ El Camino College.” Student Learning Outcomes at El Camino College. Accessed July 31, 2015. https://www.elcamino.edu/academics/slo/definitions.asp.
  • Leskes, Andrea, and Association of American Colleges & Universities. “Beyond Confusion: An Assessment Glossary.” Peer Review 4, no. 2/3 (Winter/Spring 2002). https://www.aacu.org/publications-research/periodicals/beyond-confusion-assessment-glossary.
  • Palomba, Catherina A., and Trudy W. Banta. Assessment Essentials: Planning, Implementing, and Improving Assessment in Higher Education. 1st Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999.
  • ———. Assessment Essentials: Planning, Implementing, and Improving Assessment in Higher Education. 2 edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2014.
  • Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). “Resource Manual for the Principles of Accreditation: Foundations for Quality Enhancement,” 2012. https://www.sacscoc.org/pdf/Resource%20Manual.pdf. “Appendix B: Glossary of Terms,” pp. 106-126.
  • University of Hawaii at Manoa. “Assessment Definitions Glossary.” University of Hawaii at Manoa Office of Assessment. Accessed July 31, 2015. https://manoa.hawaii.edu/assessment/resources/definitions.htm.
• Want to Learn More about Assessment? (External Resources)
  • Assessment Commons: Internet Resources for Higher Education Outcomes Assessment: https://assessmentcommons.org/
  • National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA): https://www.learningoutcomeassessment.org/
  • Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC): https://www.sacscoc.org/
  • UTD Assessment Readings Zotero Group: https://www.zotero.org/groups/utd_assessment_readings

Forms & Templates

Please visit Hyoka Assessment Tool.

Clarifications on Reports and Plans: Let’s think of a report as two parts. Part A consists of what you plan on doing this year for assessment (fill out the column labeled measure). This is also known as an Assessment Plan. Part B then looks at the past year of what you’ve done for assessment (fill out the columns labeled results and plan along with the summary sections). A full Assessment Report is part A that was filled out last year plus part B that you’re filling out this year. Each year you will hand in Part A from the current school year (Assessment Plan) and part B from the previous school year (making it an Assessment Report).

• Example report
• Instructions for Hyoka
• Tips for Hyoka
  • Google Chrome browser is recommended
  • If copying and pasting from a document please clean the data by using a text file
  • To move lines/data up and down, control + up and control + down and to delete lines: control + delete (mac users use command instead of control)
  • Try clearing your cache and do a hard refresh of the browser
  • Attach only pdfs to the report

Upcoming Workshops

• Assessment 101 Sign up here
  • Learning Outcomes: Join us in a conversation about how to write good, measurable learning outcomes and why it is important to make learning outcomes implicit explicit.
    • August 25, 2017 at 10am
    • December 8, 2017 at 10am
  • Assessing Learning Outcomes: Ways to be transparent in assignment design, how to do curriculum mapping, and discussion of direct/indirect and formative/summative assessments.
    • September 15, 2017 at 10am
  • Using Collected Assessment Data: In this hour-long conversation we will discuss how to use what is collected for continuous improvement, frameworks of use, and what other institutions are doing with their data.
    • October 20, 2017 at 10am
• Electives Sign up here
  • Rubrics: In this hands on workshop, come learn about the benefits of using rubrics and how to create useful and meaningful rubrics for your assignments.
    • September 22, 2017 at 10am
  • Case studies: In this new workshop, we will discuss how to incorporate case studies into your course for a direct assessment and characteristics of a good case study.
    • November 7, 2017 at 10am
  • Flipped Classroom & Team-Based Cooperative Learning: In this new hands-on workshop, we will experience the flipped classroom instructional technique through group cooperative learning to understand how to transform the classroom from a performance space into a learning space.
    • November 16, 2017 at 10am

Note: All workshops are scheduled to be an hour long.

Past Workshops

View information and resources from previous workshops.

Contact

Gloria Shenoy
Director of Assessment
Academic and non-academic assessment
972.883.6786
gloria@utdallas.edu