Assessment of Learning

Lane's framework for assessing learning is based on the premise that four types of assessment data are key to evaluating the educational program, and that different levels of assessment provide information to serve different purposes.

Class-based assessment (bottom left quadrant) provides feedback to faculty and individual students about learning. Typical assessment tools include quizzes, problem sets, exams, essays, term papers, class presentations, projects, group work, portfolios, and informal classroom assessment techniques including self-assessments. Class-based feedback is used to improve individual student learning and to improve instruction. Results of class assessments are sometimes aggregated for assessing student learning outcomes at the program level.

Student learning outcomes assessment (top left quadrant) is a continuous process aimed at understanding and improving student learning at the program level. It answers the question, “How well have students learned what we expect them to learn?” The results are then applied by faculty and other stakeholders to determine how well students are achieving the outcomes of a program or defined set of courses and used in making decisions about improving the curriculum. Assessment tools include both direct assessments of learning in cognitive, affective and kinesthetic outcomes (externally validated exams, licensure exams, common exams or embedded questions, capstone projects, juried performances, portfolios of student work) and indirect assessments (exit interviews, surveys of alumni, surveys of employers). Student learning outcomes assessment provides data about learning in:

• General education in transfer degrees and the Oregon Transfer Module.
• Career technical certificates and degrees.
• Non-credit career training and pre-licensing curricula.
• Developmental course sequences key to student success.
• Other sequences of instruction.

Program review (top right quadrant) at Lane occurs in two forms:

• On a three-year cycle, the Career Technical Education Coordinating Committee (CTECC) reviews the work of each program and its advisory committee. Program coordinators and division managers submit written reports to the CTECC and present their findings to the committee for feedback and guidance for improvement. Through strengthening the advisory committee relationship, the CTECC supports continuous program improvement. In addition to the committee’s review cycle, the Vice President for Instruction and Student Services reviews each program and interviews the program coordinators and managers at the midpoint between CTECC reviews, providing additional emphasis on program improvement.
• Annual unit planning has involved all faculty and staff in reviewing program data on student retention and course success data, transfer rates, licensure rates, and employment placement rates; and in creating unit initiatives for program improvements. Each unit requests funding of initiatives through budget planning documents that are reviewed by OISS and various funding committees of the college.

Lane is considering a new four-year cycle of program review, a periodic, comprehensive peer-review of all academic and co-curricular programs. This type of program review answers the question, “How effectively is the program meeting the needs of students, the college, and the community?” The purposes of such program review are to improve programs by identifying strengths and challenges, setting priorities, planning for change, and informing decisions about resource allocation. Assessment of student learning outcomes is a central component of such comprehensive program review. Faculty, staff and managers actively participate in gathering and analyzing program review data, and planning and evaluating educational programs. Program review requires multiple sources of data to evaluate the program’s use of human, physical, and financial resources. If adopted, the new program review process will be conducted every four years in units responsible for academic credit programs and courses, non-credit programs that provide career training or basic skills development, co-curricular student services, and the library.

Institutional effectiveness (bottom right quadrant) information provides feedback to our many interested stakeholders about how well Lane achieves its mission. Direct assessments of student learning are conducted at the institutional level through random sampling of students to monitor effectiveness of the educational program. Typical data also includes “proxy” or indirect measures of success as "credit student outcomes": graduation rates, time to graduation, transfer or employment rates of graduates, student satisfaction and employer satisfaction, and other benchmarks that identify trends over time. Results of these measures generate meaningful conversations about effectiveness of the educational program.