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Assessment at the course, program, and institutional levels

Student learning occurs in a variety of contexts on a college campus, and St. Olaf is no exception. Learning occurs within individual courses and course-analogous experiences, such as lab sections, studio lessons, or student-faculty research projects. It also occurs within programs, both curricular (e.g., majors, concentrations, the general education curriculum, Conversations programs, off-campus programs) and co-curricular (e.g., athletic organizations, music organizations, student organizations). Finally, it occurs within the institution as a whole, as a consequence of a student’s entire undergraduate experience.

Ideally, assessment of student learning occurs at each of these levels – within courses, within programs, and within the institution as a whole. In fact, thoughtful assessment can promote coherence and alignment, both within each level and across all three levels. In Learner-Centered Assessment on College Campuses (2000) Mary Huba and Jann Freed suggest that faculty members should “design backward, but deliver forward” in their efforts to promote student learning (pp. 107-111). On the “design” side, faculty members are encouraged to work backward from broad institutional learning goals to learning goals for specific course activities. Programs should be designed to reflect and support institutional objectives; courses should be designed to reflect and support program objectives; and assignments and activities within courses should be designed to reflect and support course objectives. When educational services are actually delivered, however, students experience these levels of learning in reverse. They begin with individual assignments and activities, and then consolidate their learning from these experiences into their learning from the course as a whole. They then integrate their learning from that course with learning from other courses in the same program; and they integrate their learning from their various program experiences into their learning from the institution as a whole.

Source: Adapted from Huba and Freed, 2000, p. 108

As a form of inquiry into student learning, assessment is related to, but different from, a variety of other inquiry practices at the course, program, and institutional level. These differences are examined below.

Assessment at the course level – Classroom assessment techniques; how assessment differs from grading

Assessment at the program level – Program assessment strategies; how assessment differs from program evaluation

Assessment at the institutional level – Institutional assessment projects