CLA in the Classroom:
A Workshop Summary
George E. Smith
OPID Faculty Representative
When:
Where:
April 3-4, 2009
Campus of UW-Whitewater
Warner Smidt (Department of Industrial Studies) and I
(Department of Performing & Visual Arts) participated in the
third of three two-day workshops sponsored by UW System’s
Office of Professional & Instructional Development (OPID) on
“Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) in the Classroom.” This
workshop did not address the CLA option within the Voluntary
System of Accountability (VSA) initiative recently adopted by
the UW System.
The program was directed by Dr. Marc Chun and Ms. Esther Hong
of the CLA/Council for Aid to Education, which is funded in part
by the Teagle Foundation.
Overview
The primary focus of the two-day workshop was development of
“authentic learning” activities that promoted higher-order
cognitive skills. Specific attention was paid to creation of
appropriate assessment tools (i.e., rubrics) designed to promote
student development rather than simple means of evaluation.
“Crime Reduction”
The CLA team provided one of a series of case studies (“Crime
Reduction”) that consisted of a basic task and scenario
(“consultant to the mayor”) and a series of related artifacts (a
press release, a newspaper article, a memo, statistical tables, and
abstracts from several research studies). Students were expected
to demonstrate higher-order cognitive skills in assessing the
artifacts and the arguments developed by the mayor’s opponent.
For example, students were expected to recognize the fallacy of
“correlation is not causality” when increases in drug-related
crime occurred. Students were expected to discover the
irrelevance of some data being used to support arguments. And
students were expected to compare data trends and determine
whether they supported claims presented by mayoral candidates.
Rubrics
Simple rubrics were offered as tools for general assessment of
student performance on the “Crime Reduction” activity. The
presenters suggested that three- or four-item rubrics were
sufficient for providing general feedback … but that more
elaborate rubrics (e.g., a 60-item tool) were more appropriate for
traditional assessment. The former rubric was designed to share
with students before the activity; the latter rubric was not
shown to students.
Not
Attempted
0
Did not
address
the
question
Emerging
1
2
Developing
3
4
Demonstrates
acceptable &
Demonstrates
proficient
some skills
skills
Mastering
5
6
Demonstrates
strong to
excellent skills
While a simple three-level rubric was presented, the CLA staff
suggested that slightly larger tools might also be appropriate.
The unscored “not attempted” was reserved for cases in which
the student failed to recognize the problem at hand.
More detailed rubrics were also presented, including scales that
addressed very specific aspects of higher-order learning (e.g.,
evaluation of evidence, drawing conclusions) in recognizing
flaws in support or reasoning, identifying false dichotomies, etc.
Participants were directed to review students’ written
submissions for “Crime Prevention” and to identify students’
performance levels on a common rubric. Inter-group data
comparisons revealed much similarity in how participants
assessed student performance—once we agreed on the rubric.
Applying the Knowledge
Most of the first day of the workshop was devoted to analysis of
the higher-order cognitive skills required to develop a response
to the “Crime Reduction” case study. Participants worked in
two-person teams to study the artifacts and then identify
potential problems in their application.
The second day was devoted to applying the knowledge and
perspective gained the day before. Participants were asked to
create (or adapt) an “authentic” learning activity from one of
their courses. This involved identifying specific higher-order
skills to be learned by students, creating scenarios, identifying or
creating artifacts to support the student activity, and designing
rubrics that established standards for various levels of
performance by students.
“Authentic” activities were defined as relevant, real-life
situations in which students could apply what they’d learned.
My application was an extension/adaptation of an existing course
activity from SPCH 3250/Interpersonal Communication. Our
“Design Your Perfect Mate” activity challenged students to
identify key positive traits they sought in their “perfect mate,” as
well as “deal buster” characteristics that would automatically
eliminate potential mates. In other words, possessing all five
positive traits would be trumped by a single “deal buster”
(negative) characteristic.
The specific activity designed was an attempt to identify false
and/or inconsistent claims on Face Book or MySpace sites. For
example, a potential online mate who claimed to have a graduate
degree in English would probably discredit him/herself by having
multiple spelling or grammatical errors in online communication.
Summary
CLA presenters Chun and Hong were articulate, very well
organized, practical and intelligent. Their interactions with
participants were specific and supportive. The workshop’s
content was useful and insightful, with specific focus on the
identification and assessment of higher-order cognitive skills.