Assessment of SLOs: Questions to Consider
Mission Statement
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Do you have a mission statement?
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Does this mission provide the framework for your goals?
Goals
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What major concepts and experiences do you want your students to have?
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What are the broad-based areas you want to assess?
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Are these consistent with your mission statement?
Objectives
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What are your desired specific student learning outcomes?
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Are these learning objectives related to and in alignment with your goals and your mission statement?
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Are your objectives written in terms of what impact your program should be having on the students?
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Are your objectives too vague (i.e. like an objective that begins: Students will understand…)?
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Are your objectives measurable?
Curriculum
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Where in the curriculum are students having certain experiences that lead to your desired outcomes?
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Where in the curriculum are students applying concepts learned in your program?
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Do you have a course matrix that represents/illustrates where students meet learning objectives and apply knowledge?
Assessments
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What measures are already in place? Which new ones will be implemented?
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Are you collecting data from a variety of sources including students, faculty, employers, community, etc.?
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What instruments need to be developed (if any)?
Process of Assessment and Analysis
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Will you look at data in a longitudinal manner?
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Are you assessing each of the goals and objectives?
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Are you assessing the skills students have or are you only getting at the attitudes/perceptions students have of what they learned (the latter is important but not sufficient).
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Are both faculty and students (and possibly other groups such as alumni) assessing the effectiveness of the curriculum through multiple measures such as exams and evaluations?
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What do scores represent (if you are using instruments to assess?
Next Steps in Assessment and Program Evaluation
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What are your next steps in assessment?
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Are there other questions you need answered about your program? If so, will you use, for example, focus groups, portfolios, surveys, etc. as measures?
Program Improvement
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What is the process you'll use to revise programs as feedback from assessment is received?

