Degree Program Assessment: Why We CareImproving teaching and learning.Screwing accreditation!

Outcomes

Introduce Degree Program Assessment as a process for continual improvement

Engage one-way of successful method for degree program assessment

assessment is interrogating whether or not we are keeping our promises in teaching and learning

http://www.assessment.uconn.edu/why/index.html

http://www.assessment.uconn.edu/why/index.html

–John Dewey

“Any genuine teaching will result, if successful, in someone's knowing how to

bring about a better condition of things than existed earlier.”

M.Div Degree Program Assessment @WTS

Theology

Credo (Senior Theology Thesis)

Formation for Ministry

Case Study from Summer Internship

Exegesis

Old Testament/New Testament 1st year Exegetical Paper

Elements of Assessment• Assessment Dossier

• Student Learning Outcomes• Artifacts• Rubrics• Syllabus for Course (context)

• Process• Reports

• Initial Assessment Team Report• Field Report, “Acting on

Recommendations”• End of Year Report, “Closing the Loop”

• Repeat

Text

Assessment MapFaculty-wide participation

–From Banta, et. al., in Assessment in practice: Putting principles to work on college campuses

“institutional assessment efforts should not be concerned about valuing what can be

measured but, instead, about measuring that which is valued”

Elements of Assessment

Theology Field

Graduating students will be able to provide a theological summary of their Christian faith and will have a knowledge (both cognitive and experiential) of the global character of the church’s witness.

Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)

What a student is able to do at the end of a degree program

SLO’s emerge from the mission of the school

Elements of Assessment

Theology Field

Credo: Capstone mini-thesis in an upper level required theology course. The Credo serves as preparation for classes exams

Artifacts

The randomly-selected student-produced document or project used to evaluate how students (plural) fulfill the program outcomes

Elements of AssessmentRubrics

A scoring tool that measures the important value-based criteria embedded in the SLOs

Theology Field:Credo

Graduating students will be able to provide a theological summary of their Christian faith and will have a knowledge (both cognitive and experiential) of the global character of the church’s witness.

Theological Coherence and Breadth

Depth of Personal Internalization

Engagement with the global character of the church’s witness

Engagement with one’s own theological tradition

clarity of communication to the specified audience (the local church)

Elements of AssessmentContext of the Artifact: Modern Church History, 3.0 credit hours

This course offers an introduction to modern Christianity via an examination of the main ideas, persons, movements, and institutions that shaped the development of Christianity in America. The approach is historical, beginning with the Christian diaspora from Western Europe in the sixteenth century and following major themes into the twenty-first century.

Assignment Description

Starting in week 2, a weekly reading journal is due, based on the readings for the week. The purpose of the reading journals is for students to engage thoughtfully with the assigned readings in advance of class discussion and to provide a resource as you craft course papers and the final exam. Unless otherwise specified, reading journals are due in hard copy form at the end of the class period. Each journal should run no more than one page, double-spaced, and, with all of the assigned readings for the week in mind, should include the following elements:

1) Write four or five sentences that capture the key point(s) of the assigned readings.

2) List any important figures, events, or dates that you would like to remember.

3) Offer a 140 character summary of the highlighted primary source reading noted for the week. (If you choose to do so, you can also Tweet your summary, using the hashtag, #ch03pts.)

4) In one or two sentences, respond to how the readings connect to overall course themes

Elements of AssessmentProcess

Three Activities

Initial meeting to detail the work

Do the work, alone: read, score, reflect

Follow-up meeting to share findings and learnings

Designate team member to draft report

Elements of AssessmentReports

Four Reports

Initial Assessment Team Report

Assessment Coordinator’s Report (with numbers)

Field Report, “Acting on Recommendations”

End of Year Report, “Closing the Loop” OR

AKA What we did and did not do that we said we would do in the earlier report

Reflection on the Process