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Student Learning Assessment Resources

Use of Results for Future Improvement Overview

Action Plans – Use of Assessment Results for Future Improvement

This second part of your action plan is where you leverage all the insights gained throughout the assessment process to inspire meaningful changes and improvements. The focus of these improvements should be on student learning, so include specific action items that are intended to move the needle on student achievement of student learning outcomes. You may also want to propose improvements to your assessment assignments and methods or your data collection process. Those kinds of changes can also be important to student learning if they are improving the accuracy of the information you are collecting.

No matter what action items you choose to address, make sure they are realistic, directly tied to the data you presented, and linked to specific student learning outcomes.

Tips for Use of Assessment Results

  • Focus your action plan on improvements to curriculum and instruction to support student learning. For academic programs, reflect on program-level actions, based on your curriculum map, course learning outcomes, and alignment of course learning outcomes to program learning outcomes. For core courses, keep in mind the Core Area Learning Outcome that aligns with your course SLOs. Also consider teaching strategies, and think about any adjustments that could reinforce learning in specific courses contributing to learning outcome achievement.
  • Connect your action items to data! Sometimes, you make anecdotal observations about student learning while teaching your course(s). Those observations can be used to compliment the data you’ve collected. If you don’t have a direct data link for a proposed action item, be sure to write a clear and specific justification for why it is included.
  • Include the who, what, and when for your action items -- who is responsible or will participate, what do you plan to do, and when will this action item be completed.
  • Remember that if there are variations in your scores across campuses, you may need to present action items unique to those campuses or modes of delivery. The goal is to ensure equivalency of instruction, so this is an appropriate place to address any discrepancies.

Examples

For examples of use of results for future improvement from Georgia Southern University academic programs, please see the Academic Program Assessment Document Handbook or the Core Course Assessment Document Handbook.

 

Use of Results for Future Improvement Peer-review Critieria

Academic Program Student Learning Outcomes Use of Results for Future Improvement Criteria

At Georgia Southern, the Academic Assessment Steering Committee (AASC) reviews all academic program assessments documents on annual basis. When reviewing use of results for future improvement, the committee uses the following rubric criteria to provide feedback to the program:

1 - BEGINNING 2 - DEVELOPING 3 - ACCEPTABLE 4 - EXEMPLARY
No actions proposed for the next cycle. Proposed actions are not based on the data captured through the assessment process. Proposed actions are unrelated to the improvement of the educational program, and therefore student learning. The connection between proposed actions, results/discussion, and/or SLOs is not clear. Proposed actions are too broad or vague to guide the improvement of the educational program and student learning. Proposed actions do not demonstrate evidence of input from more than one person. Proposed actions pertain only to assessment plan changes (process/measure only). Proposed actions are directly connected to the SLOs. Proposed actions are data-driven, directly related to the results/discussion. Proposed actions focus on the improvement of the educational program and student learning. If modifications are made to the assessment process, they are data-driven. Proposed actions contain a process for evaluating their effectiveness. Proposed actions demonstrate evidence of input from multiple internal stakeholders. Carryover actions from the previous cycle are noted. If a SLO is not addressed by any proposed actions, justification is given for maintenance of ongoing curriculum and instruction. Proposed actions are specifically detailed, including who will be responsible for implementation, approximate dates of implementation, and notes about where in the curriculum and in what specific classes they will occur.

General Education Student Learning Outcomes Use of Results for Future Improvement Criteria

At Georgia Southern, the General Education and Core Curriculum (GECC) Committee reviews all core course assessment documents on an annual basis. When reviewing use of results for future improvement, the committee uses the following rubric criteria to provide the feedback to the course:

1 - BEGINNING 2 - DEVELOPING 3 - ACCEPTABLE 4 - EXEMPLARY
No actions proposed for the next cycle. Proposed actions are not based on the data captured through the assessment process. Proposed actions are unrelated to the improvement of the course, and therefore student learning. The connection between proposed actions, results/discussion, and/or SLOs is not clear. Proposed actions are too broad or vague to guide the improvement of the course and student learning. Proposed actions do not demonstrate evidence of input from more than one person. Proposed actions pertain only to assessment plan changes (process/measure only). Proposed actions do not address variations in results presented by all applicable campuses and/or delivery modes. Proposed actions are directly connected to the Area Student Learning Outcome. Proposed actions are data-driven, directly related to the results/discussion. Proposed actions focus on the improvement of the educational program and student learning. If modifications are made to the assessment process, they are data-driven. Proposed actions contain a process for evaluating their effectiveness. Proposed actions demonstrate evidence of input from multiple internal stakeholders. Carryover actions from the previous cycle are noted. Proposed actions address variations in results presented by all applicable campuses and/or delivery modes. Proposed actions are specifically detailed, including who will be responsible for implementation, approximate dates of implementation. Proposed actions are targeted to any unique needs or opportunities based on results presented by specific campuses and/or delivery modes.

Use of Results for Future Improvement Additional Resources