Assessment Excellence

Faculty members (usually with student representatives) have regular meetings to share student learning outcomes data. Examples include (1) the annual Faculty Retreat, (2) the annual Chairs’ and Deans’ Workshop, (3) the annual General Education Faculty Workshop, (4) monthly University Faculty Assembly meetings, (5) periodic ePortfolio faculty meetings, (6) twice-per-semester departmental ePortfolio meetings, and (7) periodic meetings of the Institutional Improvement and Student Learning Committee. Student learning outcomes are presented in the periodic publication, ORU Assessment Newsletter , and through a number of other venues. ORU’s annual Assessment Catalog provides a record of all assessment efforts at the University, grouped by academic and service departments. The catalog fosters a cross-flow of assessment ideas between and among departments and schools. Departments can learn from what others are doing and can replicate or adapt assessment techniques. The Assessment Catalog iden...

Each academic department at Oral Roberts University has a designated faculty member to coordinate its ePortfolio processes, called a Subadministrator. The Subadministrator enters departmental outcomes, rubrics, and demographic survey questions into ePortfolio; runs reports; aggregates, disaggregates, and analyzes the performance data; informs the department and school about student progress related to learning outcomes; conducts research; and exports raw or filtered data into a database for further analysis. When interpreting the data, departments often confer with ORU’s ePortfolio Administrator or the Institutional Improvement and Student Learning Committee, which has general oversight of assessment issues. In addition to using ePortfolio to document student learning, some departments utilize major field tests and/or gather data on student success on professional or licensure exams. The University also conducts the Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP) Test for second s...

As part of the process to use outcomes for improvement, ORU regularly incorporates information about success with student learning outcomes in discussions and decision-making processes at all levels. At least twice during most semesters, faculty members who serve as course coordinators meet to discuss student learning outcomes. They revise course assessment rubrics to better measure student learning, determine which assignments should be designated as ePortfolio artifacts for data analysis, and ensure that student learning outcomes further the mission of the department, school, and University. Student learning outcome results are integral to the ORU program review process. Faculty members from each major and program compile a self-study document, incorporating variables such as student learning results harvested from ePortfolio and other sources. The program review process also includes surveying students, faculty, alumni, employers, and graduate faculty of alumni who pursue graduate d...

The last blog posting had a broken link. Thanks to Debbie George, I was able to restore it, so that you can read the Excellence Magazine article about ORU's ePortfolio program. Here it is: http://alumni.oru.edu/excell/fall04/pages/department/campus-currents4.asp or click_here. Also, it is always better to click the link at the bottom of this email and go to the blog itself, rather than trying to read it in email format. Did you know that you can also post to this blog? Go ahead--it is open to anyone. Have a happy day!

NCATE, the Oklahoma State Board of Education, and ABET have praised ORU’s approach to assessing student learning outcomes. Additional self-studies in process for site visits will inform other accrediting agencies of evidence of the success of individual majors and programs in achieving student learning outcomes. The School of Nursing completed a self-study with ePortfolio data as a main source for documenting student progress and program improvement. The School of Theology and Missions has completed a two-year process of examining the school’s learning outcomes and converting their tracking process to ePortfolio in preparation for the start of their next re-accreditation visit, as have the music and social work programs. The School of Business is using ePortfolio to demonstrate its success in measuring and increasing student learning as well as in identifying program weaknesses in its current study to achieve initial accreditation through the Association of Collegiate Business School...

ORU educators interact with professional colleagues regarding the use of ePortfolio to trace and document achievement of learning objectives. They inform the larger academy of institutional progress, share lessons learned during the implementation and maintenance processes, and obtain peer input to improve ePortfolio. ORU’s Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs supports, promotes, and encourages ORU faculty, staff, and administrators in their efforts to share ePortfolio experiences. Faculty and staff members have presented at over 40 regional and national conferences, offered 6 regional workshops, authored numerous publications, and consulted with other institutions that are considering a similar approach to assessing student learning outcomes. An article outlining ORU’s ePortfolio in the May 11, 2005, issue of Education Week quoted the dean of the ORU School of Education as saying, “Now, all [evidence needed to qualify for graduation] is available online and can quickly be ga...

Using external accreditation criteria as benchmarks, ORU’s School of Education and Engineering Department serve as examples that the institution has begun documenting whether actual achievement levels of students are acceptable given the mission, student population, and resources available. Some majors and programs are in earlier stages of documentation, but making progress. To cite a specific example related to critical thinking, each student in the Principles of Chemistry lab course writes a 250-300 word abstract for a meat analysis lab exercise. The student’s hypothesis as to which of four types of meat is the healthiest and most cost-effective is then tested by analyzing the results of the lab experiment. The abstract is submitted electronically to a faculty member via ePortfolio under the Intellectually Alert outcome and Critical Thinking proficiency. The faculty member assesses the abstract using the Critical Thinking rubric criteria, which include a clearly identified purpose a...

A report from the Association of American Colleges and Universities states that a “purposeful educational program starts at the endpoint, with the desired characteristics of an institution’s graduates, and asks the faculty to reason backwards from outcomes to the implementation of an intentionally designed curriculum to cultivate the desired qualities.” This statement characterizes ORU’s process to articulate the University’s student learning outcomes with their accompanying proficiencies/capacities, as well as the development of the ePortfolio process. ORU’s School of Education has been collecting ePortfolio data since 2002. The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) has heralded the ORU School of Education’s ePortfolio system as an example for all member institutions. The Oklahoma State Board of Education has done likewise. It serves as a model for other ORU programs to determine whether student learning outcomes have been achieved. Undergraduate faculty in ...