Education Commons^™

Defining Best Practices And Validation For Curriculum Mapping, Hannah Smith, Jesse Chittams

College of Nursing Faculty Papers & Presentations

The alignment of curriculum content with standards is a quality improvement measure used to identify gaps or overlaps in academic content. Curriculum mapping results, while commonly used, are rarely reported. Undergraduate faculty mapped 11 courses in a single timepoint using a web-based curriculum mapping tool. Quantitative results were calculated and compared to defined client needs categories. A validation analysis was performed by mapping one course in triplicate. Faculty feedback following the exercise was obtained by online survey. Three client needs categories were determined to be marginally out of range in the initial analysis of the quantitative mapping data. The curriculum …

Deep Change Theory: Implications For Educational Development Leaders, Caitlin Martin, Elizabeth Wardle

Publications

While chapters 1 and 2 explore the promise of theoretical frameworks for making conceptual change that leads to innovative action around teaching and learning in higher education, they also point out the challenges to this kind of work as teams of faculty strive to lead change in their programs and departments after completing the program. To summarize our claims thus far: one of the goals for the HCWE Faculty Writing Fellows Program is to empower faculty who participate to return to their departments to make programmatic changes—changes they identify as central to their work and values and program culture. The …

The New Frontier: Can Faculty Be Consistent When Rating Clinical Skills Virtually?, Leona O. Hidalgo, Tatiana Godoy Bobbio, Rossniel Marinas, Christine Salmon, Leiselle Pilgrim, Mariesol Figueroa Wallace

Education Collection

Purpose/Hypothesis: Accreditation criteria mandate the evaluation of student technical skills. The emerging need for DPT programs to deliver course content remotely and subsequently assess student clinical skills highlights the lack of research surrounding faculty rating consistency when evaluations occur virtually. This study aimed to investigate rating consistency among faculty testers when assessing clinical skills virtually. The primary questions were: (1) is there faculty rating consistency for virtual practical assessments, (2) are there any trends that impact faculty rating of virtual practical performance?

Number of Subjects: 623

Materials and Methods: Faculty utilized check list rubrics based on Miller’s Pyramid of Assessment …

The Promise Of Labor-Based Grading Contracts For The Teaching Of Psychology And Neuroscience, Jasmine Mena, Jennie Stevenson

Faculty Journal Articles

Introduction: Instructors assign grades to communicate to students how well they are learning the course content. However, students and instructors are often displeased with the process and outcome of grading. Statement of the Problem: We contend that conventional grading inadvertently detracts from student learning and simultaneously replicates systems of oppression in academia. We discuss Labor Based Grading Contracts (LBGC) as an alternative to conventional grading. Literature Review: We review the conceptual and empirical literature on LBGCs as an alternative method of assessing student work and extend its application to psychology and neuroscience courses. Teaching Implications: We present recommendations for implementing …

Aligning Metaliteracy With Self-Directed Learning To Expand Assessment Opportunities, Trudi E. Jacobson, Thomas P. Mackey, Jako Olivier

University Libraries Faculty Scholarship

Metaliteracy is a holistic model that emphasises information-related knowledge attainment whilst challenging individuals to take charge of their learning strategies and goals. It prepares learners to become informed consumers and responsible producers of information. Metacognition is a core concept in metaliteracy, just as it is in swelf-directed learning (SDL) and in methods of assessment appropriate to SDL, such as assessment as learning (AaL) and assessment for learning (AfL). This congruence provides clear avenues for using metaliteracy’s framework in ways that support SDL. The first part of the chapter explores metaliteracy and its connections with SDL and assessment. The remainder of …

Beyond The Checklist Approach: A Librarian-Faculty Collaboration To Teach The Beam Method Of Source Evaluation, Jenny Mills, Rachael Flynn, Nicole Fox, Dana Shaw, Claire Wiley

Library Faculty Scholarship

Evaluating information is an essential skill, valued across disciplines. While librarians and instructors share the responsibility to teach this skill, they need a common framework in order to collaborate to design assignments that give students multiple opportunities to learn. Librarians and First Year Seminar faculty at Belmont University collaborated to design a unit of instruction on source evaluation using the BEAM method. BEAM requires students to apply a use-based approach to evaluation, to read and engage with sources more closely, and to think about how they might use a source for a specific purpose. Structured annotated bibliographies that included BEAM …

Uptodate Use As A Predictor Of Medical Student Success, Connor Buechler, Kurt Wendland, Jason Booza, Diane Levine

Medical Student Research Symposium

Background

Both practicing physicians and student learners prioritize speed of access and ease of use over most other criteria in choosing how to look up clinical information, with electronic resources far outpacing books for these reasons. While there are many variations of electronic reference materials available, UpToDate is one of, if not the most, frequently referenced clinical knowledge resources. It is professionally written and edited by practicing clinicians with frequent updates as new information or studies become available to inform care, allowing the learner to answer clinical questions rapidly, correctly, and fully. Given its proven popularity, the usefulness of UpToDate …

Assessment As A Learning Opportunity: Feedforward With Multiple Attempts, Emily Faulconer

Publications

High quality feedback is well-known to provide multiple student benefits, especially if students are provided the opportunity to apply the feedback. It reasons, then, that we can support student success on summative assessments by combining multiple attempts with high-quality immediate feedback. This study explores student behaviors, performance, and perspectives regarding this strategy.

A Psychologist’S Perspective For Coordinating Interdisciplinary Courses, Amanda L. Almond

Publications and Research

Developing a student evaluation for interdisciplinary teaching revealed a clearer goal for interdisciplinary course assessment. This chapter summarizes how interdisciplinary course assessment is a cooperative and reflexive process. Using professional judgment and a working group of peers, interdisciplinary courses maintain their integrity through regular reviews. A reflection on experiences with team-teaching, guest lecturing, and learning-communities is also included. Best practices for interdisciplinary course maintenance and concepts of validity are applied to the debate between evaluation and assessment methods. By fostering transparency, accountability, and peer-led critiques, interdisciplinary learning objectives within courses are sustained each semester. Recognizing concerns regarding evaluation, flexible approaches …

Yes, You Can Get A Job With That Major! Goal 5 Strategies For Facilitating, Assessing, And Demonstrating Psychology Students’ Professional Development, Kristin M. Vespia, Karen Z. Naufel, Jerry Rudmann, Jaye F. Van Kirk, Deborah Briihl, Jason Young

Publications and Research

The Summit on the National Assessment of Psychology was held on June 2016 to chart a path for assessing student achievement of the goals of the undergraduate psychology major. Our subcommittee was charged with identifying evaluation strategies and tools for students’ professional development, which included applying psychology to various careers; engaging in effective self-regulation, project management, and teamwork; and developing lifelong professional skills. In this article, therefore, we not only review a wide range of assessment tools for facilitating and evaluating professional development in psychology, but we also discuss the larger importance of the learning goal both to students and …

Sulitest®: A Mixed-Method, Pilot Study Of Assessment Impacts On Undergraduate Sustainability-Related Learning And Motivation, Alicia Mason

Faculty Submissions

A United Nations international collaboration between the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) resulted in the creation of Sulitest® (aka Sustainability Literacy Test) an open, online training and assessment tool freely available to higher education institutions globally. This study analyzes the effectiveness of the newly developed Sulitest® to not only measure sustainability literacy of higher education student populations, but also act as a catalyst for boosting affective learning outcomes by: (a) generating interest in sustainability-related issues, (b) improving sustainability-related understandings, and (c) enhancing students’ interests in the subject matter. In order to do …

Leaf (Learning From And Engaging With Assessment And Feedback) Final Project Report, Ziene Mottiar, Louise Bellew, Sara Boyd, Greg Byrne, Jane Courtney, Cliona Doris, Helen O'Brien Gately, Geraldine Gorham, Leanne Harris, Natalie Hopkin, Anne Hurley, Louise Lynch, Ciaran O'Driscoll, Denise O'Leary, Noel O'Neill, Emma Robinson, Mary Scally, Barry Sheehan, Mairead Stack

Reports

The LEAF (Learning from and Engaging with Assessment and Feedback) project was funded under the Teaching Fellowship in TU Dublin, city campus for 18 months beginning in January 2018. The project team comprised 18 academics from across the TU Dublin - City Campus and there are representatives from all colleges. Also included were two further members who represented the student voice: the Director of Student Affairs and the Students’ Union Education Officer.

This project sought to address a key issue in third level Teaching and Learning, that of assessment and assessment feedback. Assessment strategies have been shown to have a …

Timely Student Feedback, Ronan Oliver, Evelyn Casey, David O'Connor

Practitioner Research Projects

Students are not only interested in their grades but they are also interested in feedback (Mulliner & Tucker, 2017), as this is an important element of their learning cycle (Gibbons et al., 2018). Together with lecturers they agree that for this to be effective, it must be returned quickly so that it can be acted on within the context of their learning (Denton et al., 2008; Mulliner & Tucker, 2017). However, the delivery of timely and effective feedback can be a burden on lecturers, particularly if they are responsible for large classes and in the early stage of their career. …

A Rubric Guide For New Academics, Pearlean Chadha, Louise Lynch, Barry Nevin, Edmund Nevin, Anushree Priyadarshini

Practitioner Research Projects

Early career academics entering Higher Education face many challenges. The demands of a new work environment – particularly a third-level institute – can lead to struggles for identity and purpose together with uncertainty of how to fit into a new role (Archer, 2008; Houston, Meyer, & Paewai, 2006). The importance of supporting new academics is identified by many authors including Adcroft and Taylor (2013) and Sadler (2012), and is a crucial issue where assessment of student performance is concerned. Assessment is a major driver of student learning, and scholars have extensively documented the importance of constructively aligning assessment types to …

A How-To Guide For Student Generated Video, Janet Gillanders, Kate O'Brien, Sean O'Leary, Ariane Perez-Gavilan, James Sheridan

Practitioner Research Projects

The type of assessment used by the instructor is a major consideration that must be taken into account when designing a third level course. The importance of assessment can be understood if one frames it not only as assessment of learning but also as assessment for learning. In this new framework, in addition to measuring students’ knowledge of the material, assessment can be thought of as a tool used for providing feedback, for defining academic standards, and for directing student learning (Harris, 2005). There is currently a movement calling for a shift away from traditional high-stakes assessment towards alternative assessment …

Assessing Students’ Writing And Public Speaking Self-Efficacy In A Composition And Communication Course, T. Kody Frey, Jessalyn I. Vallade

Information Science Faculty Publications

One avenue for assessing learning involves evaluating self-efficacy, as this psychological beliefis a strong predictor of academic achievement. As such, the purpose of this study was to evaluate writing self-efficacy and public speaking self-efficacy in a composition and communication course. This course is structured to develop both writing and public speaking competencies; the research sought to determine whether students believed they were leaving the course feeling more confident in their capabilities within each respective academic domain. Results (N= 380) from pre- and post-test data suggest that students’ reported writing and public speaking self-efficacy significantly increased over the semester. Additionally, students’ …

Introduction: History And Conceptual Basis Of Assessment In Higher Education, Peter Ewell, Tammie Cumming

Publications and Research

Assessment and accountability are now inescapable features of the landscape of higher education, and ensuring that these assessments are psychometrically sound has become a high priority for accrediting agencies and therefore also for higher education institutions. Bringing together the higher education assessment literature with the psychometric literature, this book focuses on how to practice sound assessment.

This volume provides comprehensive and detailed descriptions of tools for and approaches to assessing student learning outcomes in higher education. The book is guided by the core purpose of assessment, which is to enable faculty, administrators, and student affairs professionals with the information they …

Assessment-Orientated Instructional Design Using Dream Approach, Juhong Christie Liu Ph.D., Andrea H. Adams, Wei Wang

Libraries

This presentation proposes an assessment-oriented instructional design approach to enhancing student learning with blended learning environments and report its pilot implementation. Students gain significant learning experience through understanding the relationship between learning outcomes and learning process, connecting acquired knowledge, being able to tackle problems individually or on teams, and learning how to learn (Entwistle, Tait, & McCune, 2000; Fink, 2013; Suskie, 2010; Wiggins, 1998). These components ought to be designed in learning activities to educate learners through formative assessment such as self-reflection, peer evaluation, and constructive feedback from instructor (Angelo & Cross,1993; Wiggins, 1998). In blended learning with online environments, …

What Impacts Do Oer Have On Students? Students Share Their Experiences With A Health Psychology Oer At New York City College Of Technology, Cailean Cooney

Publications and Research

This article reports findings from a study conducted with students in three sections of a Health Psychology course that replaced a traditional textbook with open educational resources (OER) as the primary course material. The purpose of the study was to learn how OER impacted students. Data were collected in Fall 2015 with students from New York City College of Technology (City Tech), of the City University of New York (CUNY), a comprehensive college located in Brooklyn. Students were assigned the OER by their course instructor, who developed it as part of a library funded OER pilot initiative. Two research instruments …

The Experiences Of University Faculty Expected To Implement Edtpa Within A Teacher Preparation Program, Lance Kilpatrick

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to examine the experiences of university faculty expected to implement a teacher performance assessment called edTPA within a teacher preparation program. This study synthesized the experiences university faculty members have when preparing and implementing the edTPA. A deep examination of 12 university faculty members who teach in teacher preparation programs in a Midwestern state where the edTPA is required for licensure offer their experience through a questionnaire, an individual interview, and a focus group interview. The data were collected, organized, and analyzed by employing transcendental phenomenological systematic data analysis procedures positioned to …

Internships: Experiential Learning, Academic Connection And Assessment, Arlene J. Nicholas

Faculty and Staff - Articles & Papers

This paper reviews the current literature on internships and the impact internships have for students. For example, according to Gault, Leach, and Duey (2010) interns who exceeded employers' expectations were offered a 9.2% higher salary than other non-intern alumni counterparts. Employers of students who complete credit internships are required to respond to a questionnaire about the students work. However, like many other universities and colleges, students were not required to complete formal surveys of their internship. Overview of student surveys regarding their experiences and academic associations is discussed. The benefits of electronic documentation for outcomes and assessment is explained.

Use It Or Lose It? A Longitudinal Performance Assessment Of Undergraduate Business Students' Information Literacy, Ilana Stonebraker, Rachel Fundator

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

No abstract provided.

Are We Teaching Them Anything?: A Model For Measuring Methodology Skills In The Political Science Major, Christi Siver, Seth W. Greenfest, G. Claire Haeg

Political Science Faculty Publications

While the literature emphasizes the importance of teaching political science students methods skills, there currently exists little guidance for how to assess student learning over the course of their time in the major. To address this gap, we develop a model set of assessment tools that may be adopted and adapted by political science departments to evaluate the effect of their own methods instruction. The model includes a syllabi analysis, evaluation of capstone (senior) papers, and a transcript analysis. We apply these assessment tools to our own department to examine whether students demonstrate a range of basic-to-advanced methodological skills. Our …

An Exploration Of Fairness In The Assessment And Process Of Student Group Work, Rita Gibson, Emma Geoghegan, Oscar Macananey, Andrew Hines, Lorraine D'Arcy

Practitioner Research Projects

This project was driven by a motivation to be as fair as possible in the assessment of students' group work. Achieving fairness in assessment is a recurrent them in group project assessment literature (Nordberg, 2009). All authors of this report teach modules with group projects, and acknowledged that discrepancies often exist between a mark assigned to a group and an individual's contribution. Our aims were to (a) collectively enhance our understanding of the issues that need to be considered when assessing a group work project and (b) collectively build our confidence in approaches chosen to overcome these challenges. The findings …

Methods For Deriving Individual Marks From Group Work, Miriam Delaney, Lucy Bowe, Breiffni Fitzgerald, Peter Maccann, Christina Ryan

Practitioner Research Projects

Group assessment is a valuable teaching and learning method (Springer et al., 1999). This has been comprehensively demonstrated in the teaching and learning literature both in general (Johnson et al., 1991) and in specific contexts. This assessment practice promotes questioning, discussion and debate and encourages students to become active team players (DIT, 2013). However, when using this form of assessment, it is important to recognise that it is "individuals who graduate and gain qualifications" (Gibbs, 2009, p.4). The problem of freeloading has been identified and one of the suggested methods of reducing this is to incorporate individual assessment into the …

Facilitating Group Work: A Guide To Good Practice, Ronan Mccrea, Irene Neville, David Rickard, Ciara Walsh, David Williams

Practitioner Research Projects

Oakley et al. (2004) and Gibbs (2009) observe that owing to the extensive literature on group work, lecturers searching for a succinct guide on how to facilitate this activity effectively would find it challenging to digest such a large corpus. We extensively reviewed the literature in order to produce a quick and accessible guide for lecturers to use. It is our aspiration that this could be referred to when planning and facilitating group work projects with insights and recommendations informed by our research. Moreover, as this work draws on publications from educators in a wide range of disciplines, we expect …

Shooting Down The Gold Star: Using The Power Of Feedback And Assessment To Draw Students Through The Threshold, Natalie Bishop, Holly Mabry

Dover Library Faculty Professional Development Activities

The ACRL Framework presents librarians with the opportunity to develop a deeper, more effective learning environment that encourages students to go beyond simply achieving the gold star. Measuring students’ mastery of threshold concepts for information literacy instruction presents a challenge to our assessment and accreditation-driven culture. Learn how librarians can use targeted student learning outcomes to develop innovative assessment initiatives to overcome the “making the grade” mindset, which can be an obstacle for both one-shot and for-credit information literacy instruction.

In this workshop, presenters will provide a brief overview of their institution’s for-credit research skills course, identify some of the …

Annual Report Fall 2014-Summer 2015: The Design, Implementation, & Assessment Of Nexus Learning Hubs, Jeffrey Ashley, Susan Frosten, Marion Roydhouse, Sally Dankner, Shannon Gahagan

Annual Reports & Administrative Documents

Executive Summary

Literature suggests that active and collaborative pedagogies, as compared to traditional lecturing, may enhance student engagement, motivation, retention, learning, and achievement. While Philadelphia University’s faculty members have embraced these Nexus Learning pedagogies that facilitate active and collaborative learning, the built environment of our traditional classrooms, and their associated technologies, have often limited the effectiveness. Philadelphia University began an initiative aiming to radically transform existing traditional learning spaces into intentionally designed learning environments that aim to minimize the physical and technological limitations of some of our traditional classrooms and maximize the beneficial evidence-based approaches of active, collaborative, real world …

Authentic Assessment, Sinead Freeman, James Fox, Vanessa Murphy, Nicola Hughes

Practitioner Research Projects

No abstract provided.

Pharmacy Student Self-Testing As A Predictor Of Examination Performance, David Stewart, Peter Panus, Nicholas E. Hagemeier, Jim Thigpen, Lauren Brooks

ETSU Faculty Works

Objectives. To determine if student self-testing improves performance during a doctor of pharmacy course.

Methods. Students were given access to online quizzes with a large pool of randomly selected questions specific to upcoming examination content. Quizzes were electronically scored immediately upon completion and students were provided corrective feedback.

Results. Examination scores following implementation of the practice quizzes were significantly higher in all but the last testing period. The upper fiftieth percentile of students scored higher on both the practice quizzes and subsequent examinations in all but the fourth testing period.

Conclusions. Providing pharmacy students with self-testing opportunities could increase their …