The array of instruments available to assess student learning at St. Olaf has been steadily growing, and can be used for a variety of purposes. Different instruments examine different aspects of student learning. Some, such as the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), are indirect measures, examining student experiences, opinions, and attitudes. Others, such as the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), are direct measures of learning outcomes, emphasizing student knowledge, abilities, and values. Still others, such as the Research Practices Survey, include both indirect and direct measures.
Instruments also differ with respect to the scope of the educational experiences they examine. Some are particularly well-suited to assessment at the course level; others examine learning at the program level; and still others address students’ comprehensive experiences at the institutional level. Some can be adapted for more than one level. Below are links to information about specific assessment instruments currently available at St. Olaf.
Collegiate
Learning Assessment (CLA)
Direct measures; institutional level
A three-hour online evaluation of students’ ability to think critically, interpret data appropriately, and write effectively. Students prepare an evidence-driven policy recommendation, critique a poor argument, and craft an argument of their own. St. Olaf administered the CLA to a sample of first-year students in Fall 2005 and a sample of seniors in Spring 2006. The Fall 2005 cohort of first-year participants will complete the CLA again in the spring of their sophomore year (Spring 2007) and a third time in the spring of their senior year (Spring 2009).
National
Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)
Indirect measures; institutional level
A fifteen-minute online questionnaire that focuses on how undergraduates spend their time in college and the extent to which they engage in behaviors associated with the desired outcomes of a college education. The results provide information about the degree to which an institution provides its students with a high level of academic challenge, active and collaborative learning experiences, high-quality student-faculty interactions, enriching educational experiences, and a supportive campus environment. St. Olaf administers NSSE to a sample of first-years and seniors in the spring semester of odd-numbered years.
Collegiate
Learning Assessment Survey of Student Engagement (CLASSE)
Indirect measures; institutional level
A fifteen-minute questionnaire that examines the aspects of students’ educational experiences that, in their view, contributed the most to the learning outcomes measured by the Collegiate Learning Assessment -- critical thinking, data interpretation and application, and effective writing. Items are adapted (with permission) from the National Survey of Student Engagement. This instrument was developed by Evaluation and Assessment and was administered to the seniors who completed the Collegiate Learning Assessment in Spring 2006. Results are being analyzed to determine the usefulness of this instrument in “unpacking” aggregate results from the CLA.
Research
Practices Survey
Both direct and indirect measures; course, program, or institutional
level
A fifteen-minute online questionnaire that examines the information literacy of undergraduate students. Items capture students’ experiences with, attitudes toward, and knowledge about conducting effective academic research in a liberal arts setting. The instrument was administered to first year students in Fall 2005 and Fall 2006 before they had received any instruction in college-level research. It was also piloted as a post-test in selected first-year and advanced courses in Spring 2006.
Student
Learning Item Catalog (SLIC)
Indirect measures; institutional level, but adaptable to
individual courses and programs
A searchable “catalog” of items about many different dimensions of student learning – behaviors, attitudes, and self-reported outcomes – embedded in the regional and national student surveys St. Olaf administers. Items range from students’ library use to their self-perceived scientific literacy, their ability to write well, and their commitment to civic engagement. Data are reported at the institutional level; however, St. Olaf faculty can develop surveys for their own students that adapt items of greatest relevance to a specific course or program, and compare results for their students to the results for college-wide samples. The online survey tool Form Creator can be used to administer and tabulate results.
Learning
Impact Analysis
Both direct and indirect measures; course or program level
Evaluation and Assessment has developed a simple matrix that elicits student feedback on the extent to which their experience in a course or program advanced their learning with respect to the intended outcomes for that course or program. This link will bring up the matrix in a one-page Word document which can be adapted to the intended learning outcomes for the course or program being assessed.
Classroom
assessment techniques
Both direct and indirect measures; course level
Assessment at the course level attempts to determine the extent to which students as a group are achieving the intended learning outcomes of a course. As one of our colleagues puts it, course-level assessment attempts to answer the question, “Are my students learning what I think I’m teaching?” The most commonly-used strategies involve the use of “classroom assessment techniques,” activities designed to elicit helpful evidence of student learning periodically throughout a course. Some techniques ask students to self-assess, and thus provide indirect measures of student learning; others ask students to demonstrate their knowledge or understanding, thereby providing direct measures.
AAC&U Essential Learning Outcomes Metarubrics
Direct measures; course level
AAC&U staff, in conjunction with teams of faculty and administrators from around the country, are gathering, analyzing, and synthesizing rubrics (and similar materials) for each of the AAC&U Essential Learning Outcomes in order to create "metarubrics." Each metarubric will represent a carefully considered summary of criteria widely considered critical to judging the quality of student work with fourteen metarubrics to evaluate each outcome area.
GE
Learning Outcome Assessment
Indirect measures; general education curriculum
Evaluation and Assessment has developed student survey items that relate to the intended learning outcomes of the College's general education curriculum. A learning outcome assessment survey template for each general education requirement can be found in Form Creator. These templates can be used and adapted by professors to elicit students' feedback on the extent to which their experience in a course providing a GE requirement advanced their learning with respect to the intended outcomes for that requirement.
