Learning

Summer Reading List

June 2, 2022 by Darby

Summertime is about hanging out by the pool (or lake or ocean) reading a good book, right? Most people think about fiction, mystery, or romance books to take a mental vacation along with a physical one. Well, here are a few of my recently read assessment books that you might want to check out. They might just keep you on the edge of your seat, take you places you haven’t been before, and put a smile on your face with a happy ending. I can’t vouch for the romance, but I think you will see how you can improve your relationships with assessment and your colleagues.

If you are interested in imbedding student learning into your advising, supervising, and interactions with students, you might like Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners by Ritchhart, Church, and Morrison. While more geared to K-12 classroom settings, I think the concepts can be adapted to the college co-curricular environment. There are tips and tools that you can use in a variety of settings that promote thinking, reflection, and documentation. I think this is a good resource when working with individuals and groups.

The Curricular Approach to Student Affairs: A Revolutionary Shift for Learning Beyond the Classroom by Kerr, Edwards, Tweedy, Lichterman and Knerr takes a macro approach to how we can integrate learning in what we do beyond a traditional programming model that many departments have used in the past. The book describes alignment of institutional, division, and unit mission, goals, and outcomes as practitioners think about implementing learning strategies. I think this is a great resource for divisions of student affairs who what to take a collaborative and comprehensive approach to learning across a larger organization. If done well, students can then see how learning is integrated across their experiences both in and out of the classroom.

Advancing Assessment for Student Success: Supporting Learning by Creating Connections across Assessment, Teaching, Curriculum, and Cocurriculum in Collaboration with our Colleagues and Students by Driscoll, Wood, Shapiro, and Graff. The focus of this book on student learning and success comes from the perspective of faculty, student affairs professionals, and assessment staff who work together in a purposeful way. The book covers everything from equity in assessment to learning outcomes, rubrics, and reflection. The examples and resources are helpful in being able to apply strategies at your own institution. I appreciate their perspective about supporting the curriculum and cocurriculum in student learning.

You are a Data Person: Strategies for Using Analytics on Campus by Parnell puts assessment and data in perspective. If you do not consider yourself a data person before you read this book, you will afterward. Assessment doesn’t have to be big and scary, and we use data at our disposal to make decisions every day. The framework provided is clear and easy to understand. She even provides a self-assessment exercise to help you define your data approach. This book may inspire you to be more engaged in assessment efforts on your campus.

I hope you have a few moments this summer to read more about assessment and student learning. Maybe you can suggest a summer book club and get your colleagues involved in reading, discussing, and acting on that learning. You may have another book that you want to share with your colleagues, which is also fantastic. Remember, learning and improvement do not take place in a vacuum, and assessment is a team sport.

Let Me Be Direct

April 1, 2022 by Darby

Folks new to assessment may not have heard the terms direct measures/assessment and indirect measures/assessment, particularly related to student learning. In student affairs, it can be challenging to use direct measures because of the less structured work we do.

Indirect measures are considered those in which people reflect on their perception of their knowledge or ability. It is self-report data that is collected from participants, quantitatively or qualitatively, usually at the end or an experience. Typical assessment methods include surveys, focus groups, exit interviews, and tracking use of services/program.

On the other hand, direct measures require participants to demonstrate their knowledge or ability. Typically, someone else then can determine whether the participant performs at an acceptable level. This demonstration of knowledge or skill can also be quantitative or qualitative. Typical assessment methods include work samples, demonstration/observation (with a rubric), portfolios, and tests. Depending on the learning you are looking for, methods could include surveys and interviews.

Let’s think about some examples. Suppose you taught a one-time, two-hour workshop on leadership theories to first-year students. Because that is not a lot of time, your assessment will probably not be particularly in depth. You might do a brief survey at the end that asks students about whether they could explain a certain theory or their confidence level in applying a theory. You might even ask them to give an example of how they would apply that in the future. You don’t really have enough time to have students demonstrate their application of a leadership theory. It’s okay to use indirect methods and try to frame it of how students will apply what they have learned. If you wanted to be more direct, you could ask students to describe or define a particular theory and give 2-3 examples of how it would be applied in student organizations. In that sense, your survey turns into more of a test because there are right and wrong answers. Using multiple indirect measures can provide more confidence that learning has happened if you cannot implement more direct measures.

Here’s another example. Students who work at the climbing wall at the Rec Center must be proficient in climber safety. That includes being able to tie knots correctly to ensure that climbers will not fall off the rock wall and injure themselves. Personally, I want those students to be able to tie the knots correctly 100% of the time. Following their training, I want an experienced staff member to observe a student tying the knot multiple times correctly and monitor them periodically to ensure continued correct performance. I do not think it is sufficient to just ask a student whether they feel confident about knot tying or that they understand the knot tying process. Sometimes direct measures can take more time to implement but provide a better evaluation of learning and application.

The bottom line is to start implementing measures to assess student learning. If you can use direct methods, all the better. If not, at least try to implement indirect measures that might give you some sense of learning. Remember, assessment takes practice and is an iterative process. It’s never too late to get started.

Easy Learning Assessment Methods

November 29, 2021 by Darby

Do you think the assessment of student learning is a daunting task that requires lots of time, resources, and background in data analytics? Fortunately for many student affairs professionals, assessment can actually be “easy.” Granted, you still need to identify your purpose, audience, timeframe, and use of results, but you don’t need a Ph.D. in statistics.

Let’s say you are facilitating a one-hour presentation, attending a meeting with a student organization you advise, or training new student employees. There is a time frame, as well as some outcome that you want your participants to walk away with (knowledge, understanding, action, etc.). There are a couple of quick assessment techniques you can use to know whether participants have picked up what you wanted them to know or do.

National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment Resources

November 3, 2021 by Darby

Do you ever have the feeling that there is so much information out there that you don’t know where to start? That can be the case with assessing student learning outcomes. There are books, articles, videos, podcasts, websites, conference presentations, and more! It can be overwhelming.

I’m going to share a good place to start for information, examples, frameworks and more: NILOA, the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment. They advocate for systematic assessment of student learning and provide resources and research to support that endeavor.

Formative vs. Summative Assessment

July 5, 2021 by Darby

Last week, I attended NASPA’s virtual Student Success in Higher Education (SSHE) conference. (It’s a great conference; you should think about attending). One of the sessions, Assessment Choices: Moving beyond the Either/Ors of Assessment Work, was presented by Sherry Woosley from Macmillan Learning and Jen Hodges from New Mexico State University. It really spoke to me about the false dichotomy that is sometimes set up in research and assessment—qualitative vs. quantitative, surveys vs. focus group, etc. I really think about this in terms of student learning and how and when we assess to know that learning has occurred. Assessment of student learning is not something that you only do once, and learning is also a developmental process over time.

Co-curricular Mapping

February 9, 2021 by Darby

Have you ever thought about mapping your programs to help you understand the learning that takes place? If you haven’t, this might be a good time to think about it. There is a useful, brief article from the National Institute of Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) that specifically focuses on learning in student affairs: https://www.learningoutcomesassessment.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/OccasionalPaper45.pdf. In addition, the DSA Committee on Student Learning in the Co-curricular is launching a project to map student learning in a variety of experiences across the Division of Student Affairs. Division staff might be reaching out to you for information about your programs!

Jankowski and Baker, the authors of the NILOA article, note

Mapping is a collaborative process of indicating which activities or experiences align with which learning outcomes throughout an institution of higher education. It is a process of making clear the relationships between different parts of the educational enterprise as well as providing clarity to students on the intended educational design. (p. 6)

As with other aspects of assessment, mapping is a team sport. It is helpful to get multiple perspectives, including students, when you are mapping experiences. These efforts provide collaboration and transparency.

Before you can map, you need to create appropriate learning outcomes for the experiences students will have. What do you want them to do after an experience? What exactly are the experiences that you are giving them in order for them to learn? What sort of evidence will you collect to know they can do something (video of a presentation, score on a test, performance judged by a rubric, etc.)?

The map can be a table of learning outcomes in the rows, the learning experiences in the column headings, and the exact assessment methods in the intersection of the two. It can be fairly simple, or it can me more complex including whether the experience introduces or emphasizes a topic. If you would like to see examples, NILOA has developed a toolkit: https://www.learningoutcomesassessment.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/MappingLearning.pdf.

If you have any questions about co-curricular mapping, please reach out to Student Life Studies. We’d be happy to help.

Student Learning Competencies

January 4, 2021 by Darby

Students come to college with previous knowledge, personal experiences, and specific expectations. As they travel through their college journey, they continue to accumulate knowledge, experiences, and expectations. At the same time, employers of college graduates have particular ideas about what those former students should know, experience, and expect when the start a job.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) worked with college career services staff and staffing professionals to define career readiness and associated competencies. They define career readiness as “the attainment and demonstration of requisite competencies that broadly prepare college graduates for a successful transition into the workplace.” In addition, they created eight competencies to support career readiness:

Critical thinking/problem solving
Oral/written communications
Teamwork/collaboration
Digital technology
Leadership
Professionalism/work ethic
Career management
Global/intercultural fluency

(For more detail about the competencies, how they were developed, and resources to enhance them, see https://www.naceweb.org/career-readiness/competencies/career-readiness-defined/)

Students learn both in and out of the classroom. Student affairs professionals–as supervisors, advisors, and mentors–can help students develop, reflect, and assess their skills. While not necessarily written in staff job descriptions, we have a responsibility to help prepare students to be productive, contributing citizens and successfully employed after graduation. At the very least, we can have conversations with students about the NACE competencies to let students know that future employers are looking for people with particular skills. We can also create experiences for students to practice those skills, getting feedback from others (supervisors, advisors, peers) to further develop. During this time, it is important for students to have an opportunity to reflect on their experiences and learning. As students near graduation, student affairs professionals can have conversations with students, perhaps using common interview questions, to prepare students to articulate their knowledge and skills.

As we begin a new year, let’s commit to making student learning a transparent and developmental process. Let’s engage students in their own learning. Let’s prepare students to be successful lifelong learners. If you need help with student learning, please reach out to Student Life Studies. We are here to help you.

Extracurricular vs. Co-curricular

January 2, 2019 by Darby

Language is important. We can all agree on that, right? It helps us communicate meaning so we understand each other. In higher education, we create our own jargon, slang , and acronyms that are supposed to aid in communication and exemplify our culture. Unfortunately, we don’t always stop to confirm that we are talking about the same thing.

Language also changes over time as our environment changes and we develop more nuanced vocabulary or more appropriate verbiage. One example is “extracurricular” and “co-curricular.” On the face of it, they look very similar, but to me can have a very different meaning for college students and those of us who work with college students.

The curriculum is defined as the aggregate of a course of study in school. If you look at the prefix of extracurricular, extra-, it means outside or beyond. In the same vein, the co- in co-curricular means together, jointly, or partnership.

We used to talk about students engaging in extracurricular activities. The tagline of Student Activities used to be “The Other Education.” Looking back, we see that those phrases made it sound like student involvement and engagement were outside of and separate from the learning and education that takes place on a college campus. It was something that wasn’t necessary and valued by others outside of Student Affairs.

Alternatively, we now hear the word co-curricular to mean those experiences that happen alongside or with the curricular, rather than separate from the curricular. Learning takes place all over, regardless if it is in a classroom, residence hall, or a camping tent. We, as student affairs educators, need to continue to embrace the co-curricular as our classroom. In our positions, we have the tremendous opportunity to influence student learning. Many times, as advisors or supervisors, we have one-on-one or small group discussions with students that help them make meaning of their experiences, both in the formal classroom and outside of it. Faculty may not have that luxury when teaching large classes.

There are many examples of how the co-curricular engages students in learning. On the more academic side, experiences such as study abroad and internships provide students with valuable learning experiences. Closer to student affairs work, we see opportunities such as employment, student leadership, and international excursions as tremendous learning experiences. A Resident Advisor (RA), who is also an engineering major, gains skills in teamwork, problem solving, critical thinking, and verbal communication. Those RA skills can be applied to their curricular activities in group projects, presentations, and lab work. Faculty members don’t have the time to teach those “soft skills” but probably expects students to develop them along the way. As advisors and supervisors, we teach those skills and provide real-time feedback that students can use in multiple environments.

Students (should) have one college experience, rather than several siloed experiences. Students should be able to integrate and transfer their learning. As student affairs educators, we should strive to enhance the co-curricular so students have a challenging and rewarding college experience and productive post-graduation life.