Why do we evaluate student learning?
Live our Commitment to USD’s Mission of Academic Excellence and Ethical Conduct
The learning outcomes within each core area describe the skills, abilities, and/or habits of mind that students should possess after completing a given core requirement. To uphold the University’s mission of academic excellence and commitment to ethical conduct, we want to know that our students are actually able to successfully demonstrate the learning outcomes, and if we find areas where they are not, to work towards making changes so that our students as a whole are able to do what we say they can do.
Initiate Conversations Among Faculty Regarding Student Learning
USD faculty are dedicated to excellence in teaching and welcome innovative and new approaches to pedagogy. Data collected on student learning helps faculty to see areas where they might focus new and improved pedagogies to enhance student success. The interdisciplinarity of the faculty teams that score the student work for these projects allows a platform for some deep conversations about learning to take place. The results of the projects are presented to the faculty-based Core Curriculum Committee, where further discussions take place. The final report is shared with all USD undergraduate faculty, thus providing an entry to conversations among the faculty at large.
I think this will help me clarify how we are conveying expectations to students. I will use this experience as I construct my own rubrics and discuss them with my peers.
Provide Data for Evidence-Based Changes
The aim of this process is to better understand how our students are performing so that we can identify areas of strength and weakness, with the latter being addressed through faculty development, resources for students, enhanced pedagogy, and/or refinements to the curriculum in order to better serve our students.
This experience has given me a lot to think about. I continue to think about ways to require oral presentations in my classes and ways that I can incorporate actually teaching good presentation skills.
Compile Data for Accrediting Bodies
The Western Association of Schools and Colleges - Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) is responsible for accrediting the University. USD completed its most recent Reaffirmation of Accreditation with WSCUC in Spring 2022. In addition, several undergraduate programs are accredited by various organizations, and may use some of the Core assessment data for their accreditation processes.
How often do we evaluate student work?
Each area of the Core Curriculum is assessed on a cycle.
Current and Completed Projects
| Term | Area | Project |
| Fall 2017 | Competencies | Critical Thinking/Information Literacy (CTIL) |
| Spring 2018 | Competencies | Oral Communication (CORL) |
| Fall 2018 | Competencies | First-Year Writing (CFYW) |
| Spring 2019 | Competencies | The New Future for Critical Thinking/Information Literacy (CTIL) |
| Fall 2019 | Integration | First-Year Integration (CINL) and Quantitative Reasoning (CQUR) |
| Spring 2020 | Competencies | Quantitative Reasoning (CQUR) |
| Fall 2020 | Integration Foundations |
First-Year Integration (CINL) and Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Justice (DISJ) |
| Spring 2021 | Integration | Rubrics Projects (CINL) |
| Fall 2021 | Foundations | Rubrics Projects: Ethical Inquiry (FETI) and CINL and The New Future for CTIL, resumed |
| Spring 2022 | Competencies Foundations |
Quantitative Reasoning (CQUR) Faculty Discussion Group Rubrics Projects: Ethical Inquiry (FETI) & Theological & Religious Inquiry (FTRI) The New Future for CTIL, continued |
| Fall 2022 |
Competencies |
Complete Ethical Inquiry (FETI) Rubric |
| Spring 2023 |
Competencies |
Complete Theological and Religious Inquiry (FTRI) Rubric |
What is the process for evaluating student work?
Student work is evaluated in aggregate in order to capture a representative data set of student abilities to meet each of the learning outcomes in that area of the Core. The process is initiated and coordinated by the Core Assessment Team, who reports the data to the Core Curriculum Committee and ultimately disseminates the final findings to the greater USD community. The actual scoring of student work, construction or revision of rubrics, and resulting suggestions for improving student success, is all faculty driven.
The norming session made me more aware of emphasizing to students audience awareness, use of evidence vs. organizational strategies, etc.
In designing a given assessment project, the aim of the Core Assessment Team is to:
- Involve faculty in as much of the planning and decision-making as possible;
- Base assessments on actual student work that is included in part of a normal course (i.e., not externally created standardized tests);
- Balance maximizing faculty independence- with regard to assignment design and minimizing impact to faculty teaching the course- with collecting valid and reliable data;
- Select student work that occurs sufficiently late in the semester after students have already received related feedback on earlier work;
- Assemble the faculty scoring team from a diverse group of tenure-line and adjunct faculty across a range of disciplines;
- Train and calibrate faculty scorers to the rubric, to help ensure the validity and reliability of our results.
First-Year Writing Faculty Scorers report:
I have already referred to the rubric and taken specific language from it when revising a rubric for a course I'm teaching this semester. I found this to be a very useful experience for me as a teacher and will definitely use what I've learned to improve assessment in my courses and department.
This has helped me design assignments for my own FYW150 courses and writing assignments in Core Curriculum literature courses. Very valuable to be a part of this! I most enjoyed reading other people's prompts and supplementary materials, and learning others' perspectives on evaluation. So glad I got to be a part of this!
RUBRICS PROJECTS
In projects through Spring 2020, faculty scorers expressed the need for developed rubrics across Core areas, to help provide clarity and transparency of the learning outcomes for both faculty and students. Early on in the pandemic, we also quickly learned that larger-scale projects were not feasible with the extra demands on faculty, so we shifted our efforts to begin a series of mini-projects where small teams of faculty volunteers constructed and stress-tested Core rubrics using small samplings of student works. This change allowed us to move forward in assessment efforts during the uncertainty of the pandemic, while maintaining the collaborative, faculty-driven process that we highly value. These projects have revealed the added benefit of providing a platform for faculty conversations across departments and undergraduate units, helping us to identify where increased communication and faculty support are needed before full-scale assessment projects are conducted. It is our goal to continue developing Core rubrics as we resume larger-scale projects.
Ethical Inquiry Rubric project faculty participants report:
“I…left with a sense of participants' openness and/or desire to develop a shared culture around the teaching of ethics at USD.”
“Participating in the project gave me enhanced clarity about how to refine my classes to better meet the FETI LOs and helps me serve as a reference for other faculty in my department. Valuable experience.”
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