Learning Assessment in Modular Structures

With the recent endorsement of the proposal to engage in a modular semester structure, there has been increased requests for related literature and resources. Many aspects of good teaching and learning remain unchanged in any structure, however, there are some considerations and resources for assessment that may be helpful:

• Increase use of formative assessment: Provide opportunities for students to demonstrate consistency of performance over multiple assessments (scroll below to more formative assessment resources on this page).
• Integrative skills & content: Connect course objectives and assessments to other courses, prior  knowledge, and life experiences as much as possible. exs. Thematic Learning Communities,  Bruner’s Spiral Curriculum Theory and Model 
• Student-centered active learning: Develop collaborative and/or interactive activities and assessments to facilitate communication among students and faculty.
• Non-linear knowledge sequencing: Consider where flexibility to explore one topic deeply or examine a wider scope of information may be possible to be more responsive to student contexts and experiences. Agreeing upon some learning objectives WITH students can facilitate creation of collective learning outcomes and student-engaged development.
• Connect early and often (& efficiently with consideration to self-care and workload). Excellent insights and practical ideas from Bryan Dewsbury (who spent a day teaching us all at Bates in April 2020).

Course Learning Objectives & Goals

Starting in the 2016-17 academic year, all Bates faculty were asked to include specific learning objectives for their courses. These learning objectives can be included on formal course evaluations and integrated into voluntary mid-semester assessment data collection as well.

For some insights and guidance about the Bates College expectations and implementation, refer to the following guides:

Course Learning Objectives Guide – Bates College (2018)

Developing Goals and Objectives – Bates College (2016)

 

For external resources to support and examine development of course learning objectives and how they fit into assessment, the following resources offer templates, approaches and frameworks:

VALUE rubric design & align webinar – AAC&U (2018)

Backward Design – Center for Teaching, Vanderbilt University

Integrated Course Design  – Fink (2003)

Blooms Taxonomy and Verbs

₅E Instructional Model – Biological Sciences Curriculum Study

 

Syllabus Development 

Bates College course syllabus includes description, policies, requirements, schedule and measurable learning objectives assessed by faculty during the evaluation of student work. There are multiple examples of Bates faculty syllabi at various department/program webpages (ex. Anthropology, French & Francophone Studies). The links below connect to resources at Bates to help in development, review, or building consistency in format of syllabi:

Sample Syllabus Accessibility Statement – Bates College

Syllabus Design Handout – Faculty Commons at Bates College

Syllabus Template Language – Faculty Commons at Bates College

There are a myriad of syllabus development resources in the world of education beyond Bates. The links listed below highlight just a few of these external resources:

Universal Design for Learning: Syllabus – CAST, Boston MA

Syllabus Toolkit – Mailman School, Columbia University

The Open Syllabus Project – Columbia University

Engage students in reviewing and understanding the syllabus with pre-course syllabus quiz or readiness activity.

Curriculum Development & Course Planning

Course development is often done within the scope and sequence of the larger department or program curriculum. However, the individual course curriculum can be seen “as a vehicle for public discourse and democratic engagement” (Ladson-Billings, 2016). The following resources of a few of the many perspectives and tools available:

Design Project Guide – Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, Stanford University

An Integrative Approach to Curriculum Development…- Khan & Law (2015)

Diversifying the Higher Education Curriculum: Queering the Design and Pedagogy – Reddy (2018)

Understanding by Design – Wiggins & McTighe (2005)

Plan-Do-Check-Act – Westminster College

Offering Student Options – Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory

 

Instructional Strategies

Bates College encourages faculty to engage students in active learning and other instructional approaches that can enhance the educational experiences for all learners and instructors. Specific departments, programs, divisions are aligning practices with goals of grant-funded initiatives and institutional work with the support of the Office of Equity and Inclusion to develop and explore inclusive pedagogy and create more equitable learning experiences across campus.

Also to this effort, Bates recently opened Active Learning Classrooms in Carnegie Science Hall, rooms 225 & 339 (reserve here).

Inclusive Teaching Strategies – Center for Teaching & Learning, Yale University

Inclusive Teaching Strategies – Focus: International Students – The Ohio State University

Leading Discussions – Bok Center for Teaching & Learning, Harvard University

Discussion Guidelines – Stanford Teaching Commons

Group Work (Duke University) with Inclusive Facilitation and Team-based Learning

Active Lecturing – University of Georgia

Think-Pair-Share – Stanford University

Interactive Presentations (Swink, 2010)

Interactive Lecturing – (Barkley & Major, 2016)

Lecturing – Vanderbilt Center for Teaching

Flipped Classroom – Center for Teaching & Learning, Yale University

Pedagogies of Care – West Virginia University

 

Student Learning Assessments

Bates College academic experiences include course-level assessments such as portfolio, thesis, written essay, on-demand exam, demonstration, lab report, exhibition, capstone experience and others. Many departments/programs have student work shared on their webpages. Some examples include the Art and Visual Culture Studio Thesis Exhibitions , Mathematics placement exam, mapping described in Geology Short Term: West, and many others. Additional resources listed below include templates, models, theory, and other materials intended to support and facilitate existing faculty work in assessing their students’ learning.

Formative Assessment: Definitions & Theories

Developing the Theory of Formative Assessment – Black & Wiliam (2009)

Formative Assessment in Higher Education – Yorke (2003)

Formative Assessment: Models & Examples

Case-based Learning – Center for Teaching & Learning, Yale University

A Defense of Multiple-choice Exam – Katz Rothman (2016) The Chronicle of Higher Education

Exit/Entry Tickets – Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory

Designing Problem Sets – UChicago, Center for Teaching

Classroom Assessment Techniques – Angelo & Cross (1993) with some selections of formative assessment compiled in these Examples

Summative Assessment: Research, Models & Examples

Retrieval Practices – Karpicke & Blunt (2011)

Rubric Development Webinar (slides) & (checklist) – Stanford University (2017)

VALUE rubric design & align webinar – AAC&U (2018)

VALUE Rubrics – AAC&U (2018)

The Risk of a Halo Bias… – Malouff et al. (2013) re: blind grading

Assessing Group Work – Eberly Center, Carnegie Mellon University

A-Rubric-for-Rubrics – B.Mullinix, Monmouth University

 

Teaching & Assessing Writing

Writing @ Bates has wonderful resources, guides and opportunities to connect with Bates professional writing specialists during individual consultations and faculty workshops.

VALUE Writing Rubric – AAC&U 

 How Students Learn

Toxic Stress – Harvard University

Metacognition – Sheridan Center for Teaching & Learning, Brown University

Multiple Intelligences (are not learning styles!) – Howard Gardner, more on the Learning Styles myth:  Yale Center for Teaching & Learning

Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes – precursor to Lev Vygotsky’s “Zone of Proximal Development” (described in Shabani et al., 2010)

Transfer of Knowledge – National Science Foundation (2002)

 

Feedback on Teaching & Student Learning

“For when we hide our light we collude in the overall cultural devaluation of our teaching vocation.” – bell hooks, Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope

Examining and understanding how and what students are learning in their experiences and academic work is an essential element of the continual process of providing high quality educational experiences…for students and educators (educators = faculty, staff, administration, parents, peers, etc.). Bates Dean of Faculty, Faculty Commons and the Learning Assessment Specialist facilitate this reflection by offering support and resources from Bates and other colleges/universities across the globe for collecting student opinions, evaluating curriculum and programming and providing colleague feedback. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel; the list below connects to a few of these tools.

Bates Mid-semester Assessment Process (FMI contact Kika Stump estump@bates.edu)

Faculty Self-assessment – Smith College

From Traditional Accountability to Shared Responsibility – M. Cook-Sather (2009)

Samples of Mid-semester Assessment Models  – (Princeton, UC Berkeley, Brown, and others) via Smith College

Midterm Student Course Evaluations – Yale University

Dr. Poppy McLeod (video clip) – Cornell University

Mid-semester Assessment Feedback Question Bank – UC Berkeley

Suggestions?

We would enjoy hearing about resources, materials or ideas that have worked for you, too!

To share resources, learn more about materials above, or discuss ways in which our office can support your teaching and course-level learning assessment work, contact Kika Stump at estump@bates.edu or 207.786.8220.