TLS Library

Effective assessment of student learning outcomes is a common challenge for many instructors.  You may have asked yourself, “do my students truly learn what I teach?”

This introductory assessment workshop is the first in a series designed to support faculty in assessing student learning outcomes in their courses. This first workshop will focus on rubric development, but will also cover course goal setting and curriculum mapping.

Rubrics or scoring guides are one method that may be used to evaluate students' responses to performance assessment. Rubrics are simply statements of key criteria or characteristics of the particular learning outcome -- statements of what demonstrated performance for each criterion looks like at various achievement levels.  In best practices rubrics, like other forms of assessment, are part of a cycle of reflection. They evolve based on input from users and the on-going refinement of learning goals and course activities.

This workshop will also highlight the faculty and student benefits of using rubrics in any course format (campus, blended, online, independent study). The focus will be on discussing the development, use, problems, and on-going refinement of rubrics to assess student learning in multiple types of learning environments.

Participants should bring their course goals and one sample of an assignment and the rubric or scoring guide (if developed) from a current class.  Participants will receive resources for future use.

About our presenter:

Dr. Anne Wahl joined the Academic Affairs division in January 2009 as the new Director of Student Learning Outcomes Assessment. Anne was previously the Director of Assessment, Certification, and Accreditation at St. John Fisher College. For the past ten years, she has worked and conducted research in the areas of assessment and accreditation in higher education.