Glossary

Glossary of Terms

Action Plan - An agreed-upon strategy among the department faculty to address the results of assessment effort.

Assessment – The systematic, reported evaluation of student learning outcomes for demonstrating effectiveness and improving offerings (Harvey, 2004: McTighe & Ferrera, 1998; Morante, 2003; Suskie, 2010). An ongoing process aimed at exploring and improving student learning and success.  In practice, assessment is making decisions based on (systematically collected) evidence vs instinct or tradition.

Assessment Cycle – The four stages of the assessment process including: 1) identify program student learning outcomes, 2) establish benchmarks and target performance levels, provide learning experiences; 3) gather evidence data, and 4) review and discuss results to develop and implement action plans.

Assessment for Improvement – Assessment activities designed to improve outcomes directly, and ideally, immediately, via tactics such as course revision, program review, or institutional changes with the goal of improving student learning.  Both formative and summative assessment may be used to guide improvements (Leskes, 2002; Suskie, 2010).

Assessment Method: How the learning outcome is assessed.  This may involve either/both:

  • Direct Methods:  Student products that provide evidence of student learning, such as exam questions or class project.
  • Indirect Methods:  Perceptions of learning rather than actual demonstrations of outcome achievement, such as survey and interviews.

Assessment Plan: A collaboratively developed planning document that establishes a multi-year plan for program outcome assessment.  Assessment plans articulate when each student learning outcome will be assessed; the types of direct and indirect evidence (aligned to each learning outcome) that will be collected and analyzed; plans for analyzing the data; procedures to guide discussion of and application of results; and timelines and responsibilities.

Benchmark: - A point of reference (e.g. National norms, University norms, Program or Department norms) to which aggregated evidence of student learning can be compared that is often utilized as a best practice for continued improvement of processes and of learning. 

Culture of Assessment – An environment in which continuous improvement through assessment is expected, valued and recognized.

Curriculum of Assessment – A matrix which aligns courses with program-level student learning outcomes in order to identify what is taught, when. Curriculum assessment showcases where there may be gaps or over-concentration in a curriculum and also provides a road map for program-level assessment by documenting in which courses program-level outcomes are assessed.

Curriculum Mapping – The analytic process in which faculty examine the alignment between program learning outcomes and curricula.  The primary purpose of curriculum mapping is to identify courses in which program SLOs are introduced (I), reinforced (R), mastered (M) or assessed (A).  Ideally, this analytic process results in a publicly available visual representation. In addition to promoting transparency, curriculum mapping helps faculty identify courses from which to gather student work for the assessment of a particular program SLO.

Formative Assessment: Formative assessment is done to provide information useful in improving learning or teaching while learning and teaching is occurring.

Learning Objective: A brief statement describing what students should know or be able to do by the end of a defined instructional period.

Student Learning Outcome:  Statements that identify the knowledge, skills, and abilities that students will be able to demonstrate, represent, or produce as a result of a given educational experience.  There are three levels of learning outcomes: institution, program and course. Student learning outcomes describe what the student must know and do.

     Institution Learning Outcomes

An Institutional Learning Outcome is very broad in scope. In addition to demonstrating competency in their fields of study, students graduating from NJCU also will demonstrate meaningful progress in six University-wide student learning outcomes:

  • Civic Engagement and Intercultural Knowledge
  • Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
  • Information and Technology Literacy
  • Oral Communication
  • Quantitative Literacy
  • Written Communication

     Program Level Outcomes (PLO’s)

Describe the knowledge, skill and abilities students will meet at the end of degree completion.

  • Accounting-Apply professional accounting concepts and standards for financial reporting and ethical decision making.
  • Mathematics-Apply technology to actuarial problem solving.
  • Art-Interpret works of art in light of the social and historical context in which they produced.

A Program Learning Outcome is broad in scope (student achieves  outcome as he/she completes program)

     Course Learning Outcomes (CLO’s)

A statement of what students are expected to learn in a course.  Course learning outcome statements refer to specific knowledge, practical skills, areas of professional development, attitudes, higher-order thinking skills, etc. that faculty members expect students to develop, learn, or master during a course (Suskie,2004). Course learning outcomes can also be referred to as “learning outcome” or “student learning outcome”.

Describe what faculty hopes to successfully accomplish in offering their particular course(s) to prospective students, or what specific skills, competencies, and knowledge the faculty member believes that students will have attained once the course is completed. The course learning outcomes need to be concise descriptions of what learning is expected to take place by course completions.

  • History class # -Analyze historical development through knowledge of institutional, social, cultural, and political evolution and change over a defined span of time.
  • Fire Science class # -Demonstrate an understanding of building construction as it relates to firefighter safety, building codes, fire prevention, code inspection, and firefighting strategy and tactics.
  • Psychology class # -Evaluate how nature and nurture work together to produce experiences and behaviors.

Course Learning Outcome is narrow in scope (student achieves outcome as he/she completes course).

Each program communicates its learning expectations through program learning outcomes.  These outcomes align with NJCU Institutional Learning Outcomes.  Each program has a detailed plan for assessing student learning achievement.

Examples of Outcome Alignment:

     Criminal Justice

  • (University)_Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
  • (Program)_Apply critical reasoning skills to solve problems in selected areas of criminal justice.
  • (Course)_Identify the major theories of criminal behavior and victimization.

    Business

  • (University)_Information and Technology Literacy
  • (Program)_Construct an academic study linked to a contemporary marketing topic, issue, or trend.
  • (Course)_Recognize organizational markets and buyer behavior

     Biology

  • (University) Quantitative Literacy
  • (Program)_Apply quantitative knowledge and reasoning to describe or explain phenomena in the natural world
  • (Course)_Describe the primary driving forces of evolutionary change.

Program Review:  A cyclical process through which department faculty regularly engage in inquiry to support evidence-based decision making.  The purpose of program review is to generate actionable and meaningful results to inform discussions about program effectiveness, sustainability, budget, and strategic planning.  Best practices for program review call for the inclusion of multiple sources of indirect and direct evidence, gathered and analyzed over time, rather than all at once in advance of a self-study.

Rubric: A tool often shaped like a matrix, with criteria on one side and levels of achievement across the top used to score products or performances. Rubrics describe the characteristics of different levels of performance, often from exemplary to unacceptable. The criteria are ideally explicit, objective, and consistent with expectations for student performance.

Rubrics are meaningful and useful when shared with students before their work is judged so they better understand the expectations for their performance.

Rubrics are most effective when coupled with benchmark student work or anchors to illustrate how the rubric is applied.

Signature Assignment Culminating assessment toward the end of a class or program through which students demonstrate their cumulative knowledge, skills, and dispositions aligned to program-level learning outcomes. Examples include theses, oral presentation, presentations and performances and/or research papers.

Standard: A set level of accomplishment all students are expected to meet or exceed.

Summative Assessment: Evaluation of assessment data at the end of an educational experience in order to provide feedback on the attainment of learning goals and objectives.

Target Percentage:  A standard identified by faculty, programs, or the institution that expresses the quantifiable expectations for students’ collective performance related to each Program Learning Outcome. Targets, which should always be expressed as percentages rather than means, identify the minimum threshold for aggregated student outcome in relation to specific criterion. For example, program faculty may decide that for a particular program Student Learning Outcomes effectiveness will have been achieved if 80% of the student work sampled received a score of 3 or above on a 4-point analytic rubric. Similar targets can be set for indirect evidence, such as student satisfaction surveys.