When the Assessment for Improvement of Student Learning Committee talks about Program Level versus Course-Level Assessments, what do they mean? Because assessment always begins with learning objectives, consider this first. Program-level learning goals generally relate to higher-order skills (ala Bloom) than Course-level. For example, Program-level goals require analysis, synthesis, and evaluation while Course-level objectives require knowledge, comprehension, and application. “Program-level” is systems-level concept while “Course-level” is a component-level concept, since it is courses that make up – in part – the program. As a result, Program-level assessments use instruments like portfolios, state boards, projects, and juried reviews, whereas Course-level instruments use “Classroom Assessment Techniques” (www.trinidadstate.edu/AISL/references/CATs.htm) such as multiple-choice tests, reports, background-knowledge-probe, empty-outlines, one-minute-paper, muddiest-point, pro/con-grid, one-sentence-summary, approximate-analogies, RSQC2, and so on.

Every program on campus, from Aquaculture to Mathematics to Welding has a program plan. That program plan is archived on the TSJC-AISL website (www.trinidadstate.edu/AISL/aps/status.htm) so that anyone – and everyone – can read it. Each of these plans use the six-column format where a program-level goal, such as “produce graduates that can enter job force at entry level or higher,” is broken into its various components: the goal itself, its TSJC Mission antecedent, the instrument(s) that will be used to measure the degree to which the goal is met, the data collection details, the goals for the assessment, and any mechanics that need to be explained. The sample goal above uses the VE-135 as its assessment instrument, the data collection being all graduates (as per state rules for CTE), the goal is to reach some percentage of “employed in the field” graduates, and the mechanics specifies who will do the actual telephone work.

Every year, every program assessment plan should be written and reviewed by the faculty in that discipline. Look for the extent to which you are actually implementing the existing plans, the extent to which you are reporting on them, what those assessments are telling you, and what needs to be changed. Many things can be changed, the assessment instruments themselves, the data collection timing or population, etc. Often, what you wanted to measure one year may not be as important to measure this year. If this is the case, eliminate that row of the program assessment plan and replace it with something more useful, something that IS going to be important to the quality and viability of the program.

Every year, the members of the Assessment for the Improvement of Student Learning Committee (AISLC) read through all of the assessment reports submitted to the automated assessment database, www.trinidadstate.edu/AISL/reports/asp/form.html . This is done with an eye toward several things. First, we look for items that may need to be addressed by way of college planning activities. These may be budgetary or staffing requests, or as simple as an instructor changing the course presentation sequence. Second, the committee reads with an eye toward the quality of the assessment effort itself, with the goal of continually improving the utility of the assessment program itself. This second aspect is addressed in an upcoming article.

* new supplies and equipment such as graphing calculators;
* stipends for guest speakers;
* media for storing digital portfolios;
* supplemental instruction or a teaching assistant on the remote campus for Polycom courses;
* more timely assistance and maintenance of equipment such as document cameras at Polycom course locations;
* technology training - Powerpoint, Vista, and Polycom;

In some cases, the resource requested already exists. For example, one instructor wondered "aloud" in the assessment analysis about possible first day activities; many applicable classroom assessment techniques exist and are described on the assessment website www.trinidadstate.edu/AISL/articles.html. Other requests might best be met by taking advantage of study skills workshops through the Learning Centers. Finally, the Southern Colorado Literacy Resource Center - housed on the Trinidad campus - has a wide range of materials related to learning styles available for checkout. These include DVD's and books, plus consulting with the staff at the center (719-846-5471, www.cde.state.co.us/cdeadult/adultSLRCtrinidad.htm ).

A wide range of problems were identified by instructors regarding pedagogy:
- attendance and tardiness problems
- skill problems (Excel/formulas - root math weakness, writing - root vocabulary/dialog weaknesses)
- weakness solving problems, analysis, logic, synthesis
- plagiarism
- test-taking skills, test anxiety
- note-taking skills
- technology frustrations: PolyCom and Vista

As well as identifying problems, faculty also made a variety of explicit (and in some cases, implicit) suggestions for improving pedagogy:
- more group work (paired problems ... workshop style.... mock trial)
- provide adequate time to complete assignments and use multiple due dates as appropriate
- more hands-on work
- writing about results helps promote higher-order thinking (analysis, synthesis, evaluation)
- use rubrics and anchors (examples of work, some or all of poor, good, outstanding)
- immediate feedback (by instructor directly or via Blackboard)
- "real-life" applications (mock interviews, day-to-day statistics,
- student involvement in planning
- individualizing instruction, even just acknowledging individual interests/opinions

These reports are available for all to view any time; simply visit the AISL website and select "Database Search." This sends you to www.trinidadstate.edu/AISL/reports/asp/search.html, which allows you to search the database many different ways. For example, you can view all reports from a particular department and semester, or by a particular faculty member and semester, or by course prefix, or by choosing "Dump entire database," which displays all 593 reports to date.