Introduction

Practices of Each College. Practical guide for doing assessment is available in the resource section.

 

Three Year Cycle of Assessment

Program Assessment Reports (PARS).

Video tutorial links/embed here.

  

Comprehensive Assessment Plan

Information here.

 

How to Write PLOs

What are learning outcomes?

Effective learning outcomes highlight expected student behavior as well as the specific conditions and standards or performance by which students will be measured.

What are the necessary components of Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs)?
There are four components of a PLO. They are as follows:

1. Expected Student Behavior
   1. It is best to write learning outcomes in terms of observable, behavioral outcomes.
   2. Learning outcomes should provide a description of what the student will be able to do.

2. Student-Centered
   1. All learning outcomes should focus on the student.

3. Specific Conditions
   1. Learning outcomes should be specific and target one expectation or aspect of understanding and highlight the conditions under which the student is expected to perform the task.

4. Specific Standards of Performance
   1. Each learning outcome should be measurable and include the criteria for evaluating student performance.

How can I develop effective, measurable Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs)?
To be measurable, outcomes need to be as specific, focused and as clearly stated as possible. General outcomes will always be very hard to measure. Essentially, we want to know how student learning will be demonstrated. Bloom’s taxonomy is a well-known description of level of educational objectives that may be useful to consider when defining your learning outcomes. Most courses in higher education focus on the cognitive domain, thus it is important to examine various levels of cognitive understanding. The cognitive domain is broken down into six categories:

1. Knowledge (Level 1)
2. Comprehension (Level 2)
3. Application (Level 3)
4. Analysis (Level 4)
5. Synthesis (Level 5)
6. Evaluation (Level 6)