Celebrating Assessment at LMU
Assessment Success Stories
In this year’s Educational Effectiveness Inventory survey programs throughout LMU reported using assessment to better understand student learning and to make changes for improvement of learning. Here, we share their stories to celebrate their successes.
Math
The Math Department at LMU is using assessment on an ongoing basis to make certain that math students are getting the best possible education. Dr. Curtis Bennett, Chair, recently shared a story of closing the assessment loop.
Using a knowledge survey to assess their content proficiency outcome, it was discovered that at the end of Calculus II and the beginning of Calculus III students did not feel very confident about their abilities with sequences and series. To address this, the faculty decided to spend a bit more time during Calculus II on sequences and series; however, to do this they chose to cut time spent on examples of applications of calculus. A formal assessment of the results of this change has yet to be conducted, but the faculty feel that while students have improved in sequences and series there also seems to be a corresponding drop off in ability to apply calculus. At this time, the faculty are thinking about other ways to approach the situation, and are carefully considering the relative importance of the topics to their students in making their decisions.
Math is doing a great job of using what they learn from assessing their learning outcomes to make relatively small changes for big improvements, and as a conversation starter for faculty about what’s most important for their students. They see the process of closing the assessment loop as ongoing, as they are aware that not every change will be perfect and may need tweaking for best effect. Dr. Bennett called these small changes ‘baby-steps,’ and said that most faculty make these kinds of assessments of student learning and changes for improvement all of the time—essentially faculty are already doing assessment but are just not realizing it.
Economics
For a number of years, the Department of Economics has used the Major Field Test (MFT) to assess two of its student learning outcomes. The test is administered near the end of the senior year, and the scores provided allow the Economics faculty to make decisions about how well their students are accomplishing the outcomes by the time they graduate. The MFT is not just about assessment, however, because preparing for the test means students have another reason to review essential knowledge and skills for life after graduation.
A few years ago the faculty decided that scores on the MFT were not truly reflective of how well they felt their students knew the material. The faculty decided to make a couple of changes for improvement so that the test results provided a more accurate measure of the true abilities of students. Each year small changes were made, including instituting a set of topics in their principles courses to make sure that all of the needed information was covered, developing a review packet and session, using classical terminology to familiarize students with language used on the MFT, and requiring that students pass the test by scoring above a fair, but low bar. These changes, combined with a number of other improvements in the Department, resulted in improved MFT scores that the faculty feel are more representative of the capabilities of their students.
Dr. Jennifer Pate of the Department of Economics says that by adding another piece to the puzzle of improving student learning each year, she has seen how small changes can make a big difference. Closing the assessment loop does not require major action, but can be done with small and thoughtful changes.
We know that there are more assessment success stories out there. If your program has an assessment story that you’d like to share, please contact Dr. Laura Massa , Director of Assessment.