Assessing Co-curricular
Learning
Robert Mundhenk
Visiting Scholar
The Higher Learning Commission
•Co-curricular Assessment workshop presented by Bob Mundhenk
Yellowjacket Union 203 While most institutions have devoted effort and re
Targeted Audience: Faculty and staff in non-academic units interested in assessment.
Ask Institutional Research about
graduation, retention, GPAs, and the like
 Ask faculty about their teaching and the
learning it produces—but not necessarily
whether they know they’re producing
learning
 Ask faculty how they know they’re
producing learning

Traditional Approaches to
Assessment of Learning
Traditional wisdom: Learning outcomes
need to be aligned at course, program,
and institutional levels
 But where are many general education
goals, like “tolerance” and “teamwork”
and “the ability to function in an
increasingly diverse world” and
“inclination” taught and assessed?
 Or is “taught” the right word???

The Institutional Mismatch
What happens if we substitute the word
“learned” for the word “taught”?
 What are the implications of “Where are
learning outcomes learned and
assessed”?

 Emphasis on student demonstration, not topiccovering
 Ability to do or apply supersedes knowing
 Responsibility for learning is shared
 Site of learning becomes less specific, and
boundaries become more fungible
Shifting Perspectives
“Learning” is not exclusively classroombased
 Many valued outcomes are not taught
exclusively in the classroom
 Many valued outcomes are the result of
processes outside the classroom
 “Learning” is a process based on three
interdependent student experiences:

 Understanding academic content and processes
 Student development
 Identity formation
After Learning Reconsidered
Responsibility for “learning” exists
outside the classroom
 Responsibility for “learning” doesn’t
always take the same form; some
entities on campus produce it, some
facilitate it, some support it
 Responsibility for assessing learning
exists outside the classroom as well

After Learning Reconsidered

Civic Responsibility
 AA: Service learning
 SA: Student government, voter registration,
student judicial boards

Think and Engage as a Global Citizen
 AA: Language courses, Anthropology, Sociology
 SA: International experiences, culture days,
residence halls
Some Post-LR Examples of
Learning

Ability and inclination to:
◦ Think and make connections across disciplines
◦ Express oneself in multiple forms
◦ Analyze and reflect upon multiple perspectives
to arrive at a perspective of one’s own
◦ Think and engage as a global citizen
◦ Engage in evidence-based problem-solving
UW- Superior’s
Five Institutional Goals
How is ability made evident?
 Where and how is ability developed?
 Where is ability assessed?

What is “inclination”?
 How is it made evident?
 Where and how is it developed?
 Where is it assessed?

Ability and Inclination

Campus Life learning outcomes:
◦ Recognizing and enhancing leadership potential
◦ Developing an appreciation of human
differences
◦ Seeking opportunities to engage in the campus
community and beyond
◦ Expanding desire for life-long learning
How Do These Outcomes Connect
with Undergraduate Learning
Outcomes?

Campus Life learning outcomes:
◦ Recognizing and enhancing leadership potential
◦ Developing an appreciation of human
differences
◦ Seeking opportunities to engage in the campus
community and beyond
◦ Expanding desire for life-long learning
What Ability or Inclination Do
They Develop?

Campus Life learning outcomes:
◦ Recognizing and enhancing leadership potential
◦ Developing an appreciation of human
differences
◦ Seeking opportunities to engage in the campus
community and beyond
◦ Expanding desire for life-long learning
How Do We Know They’re
Achieved?
Need to be intentional
 Need to be planned
 Need to be part of the structure of a
student’s experience
 Need to be assessed

Co-curricular Outcomes
BEING INTENTIONAL

Efficiency models:
 Focus on process
 How well is this office/service functioning?
 Focus on numbers:
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Clients served
Graduation rates
Tutorial visits
Attendance at activities
Student/staff ratios
Traditional Co-curricular
Assessment

Effectiveness Models: Indirect
◦ Based on surveys and other indirect indicators,
like NSSE
◦ Often rely on student self-reporting
◦ Tend to skew positively on outcomes, if not
always on the processes that led to them
Newer Co-curricular Assessment

Effectiveness Models: Direct
◦ Focuses on student performance
◦ Can be based on observation or objective
measures
◦ Require carefully designed and consistent
measuring practices
Newer Co-curricular Assessment

Apply external standards, like CAS

Use surveys and questionnaires

Develop direct measurement strategies

All of the above
How to Assess Co-curricular
Learning

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Standards for 40 functional areas
Thirteen component parts:
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Mission
Program
Leadership
Organization and management
Human resources
Financial resources
Facilities, technology, and equipment
Legal responsibilities
Equity and access
Campus and community relations
Diversity
Ethics
Assessment and evaluation
CAS Standards
Knowledge acquisition, construction,
integration, and application
 Cognitive complexity
 Intrapersonal Development
 Interpersonal competence
 Humanitarianism/Civic Engagement
 Practical Competence

CAS’s Six Outcome Domains
Can easily document the efficiency of
processes and organization
 Can be used as well (through an
emphasis on the domains) to chart the
effectiveness of outcome development
efforts—depending on outcome definition
and quality of evidence

Using CAS Standards

Career Services: As a result of
interactions with the Career Services
Office, students and alumni will:
 Identify their skills, abilities, and strengths in
order to make knowledgeable career decisions
 Have the necessary resources and skills to
prepare for life-long post-graduate experiences
How are these outcomes connected to
institutional learning outcomes?
 What are “resources and skills”?

Outcome Definition

College Unions: As a result of experiences in
the Yellowjacket Union, students will:
◦ Identify and utilize the opportunities and services
available to them
◦ Demonstrate a sense of ownership for the campus
community and civic involvement
◦ Interact with and value individuals from diverse
backgrounds and lifestyles
How do you know you’ve achieved the
second and third outcomes?
 How do they overlap with institutional
outcomes?

Outcome Definition
Clearly defined outcomes help determine
the nature of evidence to be collected
 Clearly defined outcomes focus on
student performance and development,
thus calling for both direct and indirect
forms of evidence

Outcome Definition and Evidence
DIRECT: uses performance or product,
created by students, that can be
compared to expected outcomes
--Capstone courses, projects,
internships, clinical experiences, etc.
INDIRECT: uses information that does not
directly link the learning to the outcomes
--graduation rates, grades, surveys,
“usage” rates
Direct and Indirect Measures
Is it relevant to the area’s stated mission
and function?
 Does it measure what we want it to
measure?
 Does it deal in some way with outcomes?
 Is the information derived useful?
 Can the information be used to improve
either function or learning?

Questions about Evidence
Did you accomplish what you hoped to
accomplish in your meeting with your
advisor?
 How well did your experience at X prepare
you for employment?
 As a result of this First-Year program, do
you feel better prepared for college?
 Write a short essay in which you describe
the ways in which your attitudes and values
have changed as a result of your semester
in Argentina.

Surveys and Questionnaires:
Some Sample Questions

Traditional, indirect source of information
on effectiveness

Limitations:
 Self-reporting
 Unvalidated opinion
 Response rates
 Opportunistic data
 Skewed samples
Surveys and Questionnaires:
Indirect Evidence

Kinds:
 Satisfaction
 Reflective
 Post-experience experience (alumni and
employers)

Value:
 True “customer” response
 Can indicate areas for improvement and
ratification
 Provides data for planning and review
Surveys and Questionnaires

Making them tools to assess learning:
 Use learning outcomes as basis for at least some
questions
 Validate by cross-referencing outcomes with
different populations (employers, alumni,
graduate, current students)
 Emphasize the learning outcomes in design and
analysis of surveys and questionnaires
Surveys and Questionnaires
If Learning Reconsidered made the case
for cross-campus responsibility for
learning, then assessment of learning
outcomes is also a cross-campus
responsibility
 Adaptation of practices and devices
already in use in academic settings

 Standardized
 Judgment-based
Direct Effectiveness Measures

Intentional Planning:
◦ Determine areas of responsibility: what
office/function might be a logical place to contribute
to particular learning outcomes?
◦ Plan the outcome-based purpose of the activity
◦ Aim at the appropriate level of Bloom’s taxonomy
◦ Design non-passive activities (watching a film plus
discussion; International Days as more than food,
costumes, and dance)
◦ Design outcome-focused opportunities for
processing
Developing Direct Measures of
Effectiveness
What is “inclination” and how is it
developed in co-curricular activities?
 How does a student “express oneself in
multiple forms”?
 What is a “global citizen”?
 What does it mean to “make connections
across academic disciplines” and how
might co-curricular activities have a role
in developing this outcome?

Understanding the Outcomes

Choose one of the outcomes below and
determine how your co-curricular area
might have some responsibility for
developing it. Name specific activities that
might help develop the outcome and specify
what their effect on the student should be.
 Think and make connections across academic disciplines
 Express oneself in multiple forms
 Analyze and reflect upon multiple perspectives to arrive at
a perspective of one’s own
 Think and engage as a global citizen
 Engage in evidence-based problem-solving
Being Intentional

Mapping:
◦ If the learning outcome is important, single
exposure isn’t enough
◦ How do first-year experiences differ from lastyear ones—or what difference is expected in
student response?
◦ How to assure student’s development of
outcomes from first year to last?
Planning for the Long Term
One-shot assessment produces
haphazard results that are usually
insufficient for planning improvement
 Tie assessments to logical stages of
development, based on an outcome map
 Be consistent in approach to assessing
 Options:

 Standardized instruments
 Self-generated tools
Regular Assessment
Observations
 Expert judgments
 Student self-reflection
 Employer/supervisor judgments

Self-generated Tools
Consistency across observers is crucial,
so a rubric of some kind is essential
 Holistic rubrics: broad judgments
(Acceptable/Not Acceptable/Needs
Improvement)
 Descriptive rubrics: defined criteria and
measures

Using Self-Generated Tools


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First, determine the aspects of student
performance that would indicate he/she has
achieved an outcome (e.g., one aspect of a
“social justice” outcome might be “the student’s
writing demonstrates sensitivity to issues of
class and power”)
Second, define the specific things a student
would have to do to show he/she has mastered
that aspect (e.g., “Clear understanding of the
ways in which economic status affects
behavior.” (Criteria)
Finally, describe degrees of achievement for
each criterion (Measures)
Descriptive Rubrics

Using the outcome and the functional
area you chose earlier, develop a rubric
to measure student achievement,
defining one performative aspect of the
outcome, one criterion for measuring
that aspect, and a system (holistic,
descriptive, whatever) for describing
degrees of attainment
Developing a Rubric
Assessments done across campus should
ideally use the same rubrics or measures
 When using the same tools is not
possible, it is essential that there be a
way to extract information that is usable
at the institutional level while still serving
the needs of the functional area

Institutional Assessment

To conclude:
◦ Understand the meaning of the desired
outcomes and your role in developing them
◦ Separate efficiency from effectiveness
◦ Plan experiences and assessments carefully
◦ Focus on using assessment information to
improve learning, not to justify your existence
◦ Collect information that is relevant, meaningful,
and useful
◦ Design systems that are reasonable and
manageable
ROBERT MUNDHENK
asmt357@aol.com
rmundhenk@hlcommission.org