learning outcomes assessment
DESCRIPTION
Presentation given at D2L's Fusion conference in 2014 around the work that our university is doing on Learning Outcomes Assessment.TRANSCRIPT
Learning Outcomes at McMaster University
Lavinia Oltean, McMaster University
Jon Kruithof, McMaster University
Background Story
• Gov’t of Ontario was giving money to various projects around productivity and innovation
• University of Guelph and four other D2L clients (McMaster, Mohawk College, Waterloo, Wilfred Laurier) part of the project to work with D2L to improve Analytics/Insights
Timeline
• September 2013 – submit proposal for funding
• November 2013 – proposal accepted• November 2013 – budget for spending from
April 2013, write a mid term report• March 2014 – budget for spending up until
March • June 2014 – start doing the work
Life Sciences
• Looking for alignment between course & program outcomes
• Fall 2014 – one course, one outcome• Winter 2015 – three courses, five outcomes• Spring/Summer 2015 – five courses, all
outcomes• Fall 2015 – full program
Geography and Earth Sciences
• Looking for alignment between course & program outcomes
• Fall 2014 – four course, two outcomes• Winter 2015 – six courses, three outcomes• Fall 2015 – all courses, all outcomes
Org Structure
Org Structure
• Create “shadow” structure to the Org– In our case Program
• Add competencies at the Org level• Add competencies at the Program level• Add objectives at the Template level• Add activities at the Course Offering level• Connect Offering > Template > Program
Report
Lessons Learned
• Logic of Competencies are too rigid• Year over year? How to manage?• Introduced/Practiced/Mastered classification• Global reporting was slow– Fixed by D2L
• Structure of D2L system can be flexible– Using the DOME/OrgUnit Editor to connect
courses allows for multiple levels of reporting
What’s Next - Engineering
• 140 external standards that need to be assessed per student
• 4 levels of achievement – will be assessed with different competencies… – Problematic as reporting will not recognize two
“distinct” competencies are related (eg. Level 1 – Numeric Literacy and Level 2 – Numeric Literacy)
What’s Next - Continuing Education
• Fall 2014 will compare/contrast same course delivered in a blended approach and a face-to-face approach
Beyond “Next”
• Extending to Nursing, MedRadSci– Both programs have external accreditation that
must be reported to– Both have unique challenges in the types of
information they require• Reporting back to D2L