Closing the Loop on
Course Level
Assessment.
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Process Overview
2009-2011
Art 2: Introduction to Art
An introductory course designed to provide students with studio
and lecture experience in the visual arts. Concepts covered
include line, value, composition, color and both 2 and 3dimansional space. Media used include drawing, painting,
printmaking, ceramics, sculpture and new media.
Course
Student
Learning
Outcomes
measured
SLO #5:
Depict and verbally
describe the
concepts of line,
composition, shape,
value, space, and
color for
representational
and nonrepresentational
image making in
two and three
dimensions.
ASSESSMENT
TOOL/
ASSIGNMENT
Describe
briefly and/or
attach a copy
of the
assignment,
if possible
2 full-time faculty
(Shannon Sullivan, Garth
Johnson) and 2 part time
faculty (Dean Smith, Kit
Davenport) gathered on
December 10, 2009.
Each faculty member
teaching a section of Art
2 during the fall 2009
semester selected 10
student artworks from
the final portfolio review.
Professors were careful
to randomly select works
from a range of students
and projects. Each
professor arranged his or
her work in a group and
each artwork was labeled
#1-30.
Rubric or Criteria for
Evaluation
Describe briefly
and/or attach a copy
of rubric
Faculty members
discussed the broad,
overarching concepts
that make up SLO #5,
and decided to place each
work in one of three
categories:
1: The student is demonstrating
an outstanding attainment of SLO
#5
2: This student is demonstrating
an average attainment of SLO #5
3: The student is not
demonstrating an attainment of
SLO #5
ASSESSMENT RESULTS
In general, describe how
students performed on the
assignment.
(Include performance data
if applicable
In what areas was student
performance outstanding?
In what areas should
student performance be
improved?
Describe any unaddressed
student needs or issues
that the assessment
revealed.
65% of students demonstrated outstanding
attainment of SLO #5, 30% of students
demonstrated an average attainment of SLO #5,
and 5 % of the students demonstrated no level
of attainment of SLO #5.
The 4 instructors took note that many students
were performing beyond the limits of the
assignments. Many students demonstrated
conceptual innovations and technical excellence.
The 4 instructors determined that an placing an
emphasis on avoiding subject matter Clichés
when approaching a project is important to
improve student performance.
Instructors discussed the dynamics of
collaborative projects. Professor Garth Johnson
did some experimentation with collaborative
sculpture and found it to be a great way build
community within the class.
X-Revise course content and/or assignments
NEXT STEP(S) TO
IMPROVE STUDENT
LEARNING
How will you address
the needs and issues
that were revealed by
your assessment?
What are your plans
and strategies for
improving student
learning?
Check all that apply
□Revise activities leading up to and/or supporting
assignment/activities
□Increase guidance for students as they work on assignments
□Revise the amount of writing/oral/visual/clinical or similar work
X-State goals or objectives of
assignment/activity more explicitly
□State criteria for grading more explicitly
X-Employ different/revised teaching methods
(Explain
below)
□Increase/improve in-class discussions and activities
□Increase/improve student collaboration and/or peer review
□Provide more frequent and/or more effective feedback on student
progress
□Encourage more interaction with students outside of class
X-Seek out collegial feedback on
assignments/activities
□Collect more data
□Nothing; assessment indicates no improvement necessary
□Other (please describe)
Additional Explanation:
1.Continue to incorporate digital technologies such as
google docs, you tube, and Art Stor
2. Encourage student knowledge of historical and
contemporary art trends by assigning student research
presentations on course related topics.
3. Tour students around the Creative Art facilities. This
extra effort encourages students to engage deeply in
their material and in our discipline.
IMPLEMENTATION This assessment activity was completed in
December of 2009 and implementation began the
following spring semester of 2010.
Describe the
departmental plans
to implement these One year passed before we took a look at how the
assessment findings have permeated In the
priorities.
spring of 2011, a survey was given out to all
instructors who had taught Art 2 during the
spring 2011 semester. Here are the questions from
the survey:
1. In the Spring 2009 assessment activity, the participants
suggested that faculty continue to incorporate digital
technologies such as google docs, you tube, and Art Stor. Have
you been using these technologies on at least a couple of
occasions in your class?
2. In the Spring 2009 assessment activity, the participants
suggested that faculty continue to encourage student
knowledge of historical and contemporary art by assigning
student research presentations on course related topics. How
have you been incorporating historical and contemporary
trends in your course?
3. In the Spring 2009 assessment activity, the participants
suggested that faculty tour students around the Creative Arts
facilities. Have you toured your students in CA?
4. In the Spring 2009 assessment activity, the participants
suggested that faculty continue seek out collegial feedback on
course related activities. Have you had dialogue with other
instructors who teach Art 2?
5. In the Spring 2009 assessment activity, the participants
suggested that faculty continue to revise course content
and/or assignments to improve student success. What have
you changed to improve your course?
We had 4 faculty involved in the
initial course level assessment.
One year later when it became time
to close the loop, 4 instructors were
teaching Art 2 and 3 of them replied
to the survey. Two of these four
instructors were participants in the
initial assessment activity.
Here is a summary of the responses:
1.
All instructors are actively using digital technologies in their courses. All
faculty surveyed use MyCR for posting course related materials.
Respondents cited using google docs, slideshare, You Tube, and Netflix to
expand the possibilities of their course.
2. All three faculty respondents incorporated historical and contemporary art
trends in their courses and have found unique assignments to foster
student learning about this topic. One instructor assigns a contemporary
artist research assignment by having students select a keyword that
corresponds to an artist. Another instructor uses art periodicals, such as
Art in America, for her students to an write informational summery.
Another instructor assigns a gallery review project where students attend a
local art event.
3. All three instructors made strong efforts to familiarize students with the art
department as a whole. Some instructors utilized various studios to teach
their course, others made official tours of the department, and all were
able to connect with the ceramics department for viewing and participating
in special firings such as raku, pit firing, and wood firing.
4. All of the respondents reported active collegial interactions such as
broadcasting local and campus events, inviting colleagues into class,
trading assignments, and encouraging students to participate in the juried
student exhibition.
5. Respondents reported incorporating new online course content including
videos and web content. All three instructors are continuously altering
course content to improve student success
A useful assessment?
Yes…
How could it have been better
for faculty trying to improve
student learning and success?
Keep everyone in
the loop!
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
One associate faculty member teaching Art 2
during the spring 2010 semester reported
feeling “out of the loop” when she received
the survey for closing the loop.
It had been a year since we performed the
first course level assessment, and while the
assessment information had been passed to
all Art 2 faculty for fall 2009, it was not passed
to new instructors for the spring 2010
semesters.
Lesson learned: effective assessment
involves regular departmental
communication!
Now that I’ve summarized the
process of creating an
assessment activity and
closing the loop, Cindy is
going to discuss closing the
loop using data from IR
Closing The Loop on an Art 17 (Drawing)
Assessment Activity
This is how we “quantified” our analysis:
These are the conclusions we came to:
Results from an anonymous
follow-up survey (conducted two
years later):
1.We all now include color theory
principles among our
assignments.
2.We all include abstractionbased and
postmodern/conceptually themed
assignments.
3.We all use technology-based
instruction, but are not yet sure
about technology-based
assignments.
A data set that
tracks Art 17
student success
data from 3 years
before and 3 years
after the
assessment
activity:
What should we
do with this
disappointing
data?
Try to assess a
different Art 17
SLO to see if
positive changes
occur?
Reevaluate/modify
our existing Art 17
SLOs?
Reevaluate our initial
assumptions?
Are factors outside of
our assessment
efforts responsible for
this trend?
We did get something accomplished, though—according to our new
Assessment Handbook:
(Our mutual commitment to technology-based instruction.)
(Our discussion is helping us develop a departmental philosophy statement.)
(We did more closely coordinate our Art 17 curriculum.)
And here’s Erin with another
example…
Closing the Loop in
Mathematics
Math 55- Differential Equations (Fall 2009)
Math 55 (Math 45)
Assessment Tool:
Math 55 (Differential Equations) is offered once a year in the
spring. The student clientele in this class is comprised of
mathematicians, engineers, and scientists, all of whom have had
a minimum of two courses in calculus.
In order to assess SLO's #1, 2, 3, 5, and 6, students in the Spring
of 2009 were assigned a term project. Students were required to
investigate a real-world application of differential equations,
write a paper on the topic, and present a 15-minute talk on their
topic, to be accompanied by presentation slides prepared in
advance.
Other Details
• Smaller Project first using LaTex. The
guidelines and requirements for this
project can be found online at the
http://msemac.redwoods.edu/~darnold/
math55/model.php
• Timeline for Term Project and
Presentation.
http://msemac.redwoods.edu/~darnold/
math55/TimelinesAndGrading.php
Assessment Results
• All of the students successfully
completed their term projects and
presentations on time. Student work,
both term papers and presentation
slides, can be viewed at the following
URL:
http://msemac.redwoods.edu/~darnold/ma
th55/DEProj/index.php
Two Problem Areas to Address:
1st: A large amount of time was wasted in the opening
week or two as students tried to find a suitable model
for their first project. For comparison, students in the
Fall 2009 Math 45 (Linear Algebra) class were assigned
a specific task for their opening introduction to the
LaTeX document preparation system. This was highly
successful, allowing students to get started with LaTeX
much earlier. We recommend that future
instructors in differential equations use this
strategy in the future.
2nd: Another difficulty that presented itself was the fact
that students had a hard time choosing an application of
appropriate difficulty for their term project. Some chose
topics that were too trivial, others chose topics that were
too difficult to tackle in a semester's time. For
comparison, in the fall of 2009 in Math 45 (Linear
Algebra), the instructor hand-picked a number of papers
and allowed the students to choose from this collection
during the first class meeting. Hopefully, this strategy
will allow students an early start and they can focus
on the learning rather than running about looking for
a suitable project on their own.
*These changes will be implemented in Spring 2010*
Result of the Proposed Changes
(From Spring 2011 Program Review)
Over the past several semesters, additions and edits to the department written
“Student Term Project Timeline’’ have enabled students to address their paper
and presentation throughout the semester, instead of waiting until the last
minute to rush out a poor result. This has helped to greatly improve students’
effort on their term project.
Student work can be viewed at the following URL’s:
http://msemac.redwoods.edu/~darnold/math55/DEproj/index.php and
http://msemac.redwoods.edu/~wagner/math55/DEprojects. It is noteworthy
to examine the development and improvement in student work over the
course of the past 13 years.
Another Example, Math 120
Current SLOs
1. Students should be able to read, write, and speak accurately
about mathematical ideas using correct mathematical notation.
2. Students should be able to apply the mathematics they have
learned to real-world problems and applications.
3. Students should be able to use graphs and the graphing
calculator to explore mathematical concepts and to verify their
work.
4. Students should be able to demonstrate competency in the
required prerequisite skills for all transfer level math courses.
5. Students should be able to demonstrate the characteristics of
an effective learner, such as note-taking, critical reading, etc.
6. Students should be able to explain the concept of function,
identify the characteristics of different classes of functions,
and use functions to solve problems in mathematics.
7. Students should be able to demonstrate the algebraic skills
that will support success in the other outcomes.
Proposed Changes: Math 120
SLOs
1. Evaluate and interpret general functions symbolically,
numerically, and graphically. Identify the domain and range
using interval notation.
2. Sketch a collection points and a line of best fit, then find and
interpret the equation by hand and by use of technology.
3. Produce an accurate graph of a quadratic function by hand,
and identify all salient features.
4. Sketch the graph of a polynomial function by hand by
identifying the zeros and the end behavior.
5. Sketch the graph of rational functions, simplify mathematical
expressions involving rational functions and solve rational
equations.
6. Given exponential and logarithmic functions, sketch accurate
graphs and solve equations and applications.
7. Simplify mathematical expressions involving square roots,
sketch the graphs and solve equations involving square root
For More Information
Attend the next session:
Refining Student Learning
Outcomes at the Course
and Program Level
(AT103/104)
Future
• Complete course outline update for Math
120.
• Update Math 380 and Math 376 outlines
using the same process piloted for Math
120 (Course Meetings)
• Add Assessment Information to Course
Pages and Department Repository
(Improved Communication)
• Working our 5-Year Plans