Domain: Educational Services
Question:
You are a professor assigned to serve on a Curriculum and Learning Assessment Committee. You are tasked with reviewing your colleagues' assessments of the university's student learning outcomes for this year's courses. In order to improve the educational assessment process, please answer the following questions concerning the assessments. Across the courses described here, which instrument categories (direct/indirect, formative/summative, internal/external, comparative) appear absent or rare, and what additions would broaden coverage while keeping the same outcomes?
Given those gaps, what targeted additions would strengthen progress-monitoring and intervention evaluation while keeping the same learning outcomes and staying anchored to the existing instruments (e.g., exams, labs, projects) rather than introducing unrelated new objectives?

Expected points in a correct answer:
States whether direct assessment methods are present, absent, or rare across the courses described.
States whether indirect assessment methods are present, absent, or rare across the courses described.
States whether formative assessment methods are present, absent, or rare across the courses described.
States whether summative assessment methods are present, absent, or rare across the courses described.
States whether internal assessment methods are present, absent, or rare across the courses described.
States whether external assessment methods are present, absent, or rare across the courses described.
States whether comparative assessment methods are present, absent, or rare across the courses described.
Recommends additions that would broaden the assessment instruments included by explicitly recommending external and comparative approaches
Recommends that there should be a clear assessment of data showing progress before and after various interventions, including analysis of why specific interventions were chosen
Attaches all recommended additions to existing instruments such as exams, labs, or projects
Acknowledges any tradeoffs or implementation considerations for the proposed additions (e.g. such as faculty burden or feasibility)
Defines direct assessment as measuring student learning through observable demonstration of skills or knowledge
Defines indirect assessment as measuring proxies for learning such as student self-reporting, surveys, or perceived confidence rather than demonstrated performance
Defines formative assessment as ongoing evaluation conducted during the learning process to provide feedback before a final judgment.
Defines summative assessment as evaluation conducted at the end of a learning period to measure overall achievement against defined outcomes.
Defines internal assessment as instruments designed and administered within the program or institution.
Defines external assessment as instruments developed or benchmarked outside the institution
Defines comparative assessment as evaluating performance relative to a reference group
Distinguishes intervention evaluation as different from general progress monitoring
Recommends that professors create SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely) for their assessment plans.
Recommends specific progress monitoring methods such as office hours, standardized midterms, or additional content/tools for challenging concepts.
Recommends tracking rubric implementation with a clear timeline showing when rubrics were implemented, how they were implemented, and their effectiveness year to year.
Provides concrete examples of external or comparative assessment methods, such as collecting work from professors teaching similar courses or having professors from other departments review student submissions against the original rubric.
Recommends that there should be an analysis of why certain interventions (such as a rubric) were chosen.
Notes that the lack of diverse assessment methods suggests professors are not being encouraged to use diverse approaches at the university level.
Recommends improving Column A by creating goals that better explain why the goal was chosen and how a high passage rate on the final is relevant.
Recommends improving Column B by expanding on the class's purpose and the working definition of "leader," including which components are directive, formative, etc.