How will QEP Success be assessed?
Assessment of the QEP is two-fold: 1) assessment of the process and 2) assessment of student learning. Assessment is conducted by the Faculty Assessment Team assisted by the Director of Institutional Research and Effectiveness. Assessment of student learning includes one direct assessment for the Dimension of Learning Power – Changing and Learning and four indirect assessments of student learning. Assessment of the process includes the analysis of participating faculty feedback collected through monthly Faculty Learning Community Reflections.
A direct assessment is a student product or performance demonstrating learning. A common writing assignment, a one-page essay, serves as a direct assessment of students’ Changing and Learning over time. The common writing prompt essays from the first and fourth exposures to Developing Learning Power – Changing and Learning are scored and compared as an indicator of students’ growth over time. The common writing assignment is administered near the end of each term in the Learning Framework 1300 Pre-Core classes and in each of the three participating Core Curriculum discipline classes.
A Faculty Assessment Team calibrates, scores, and compares the essays of the first exposure (Learning Framework 1300) and fourth exposure (History 1301, English 1302, or Government 2306) using the Changing and Learning scoring rubric. Students are instructed by QEP faculty to post writing prompt responses to their ePortfolios and in the Richland College ePortfolio Changing and Learning Community. Since all students in the cohort to be assessed will have completed the mandatory Learning Framework 1300 course, each student already has the required ePortfolio account and has been trained to use it. Participating discipline faculty may employ ePortfolio in their course, but it is optional other than to instruct students to post writing prompt essays to their ePortfolios.
The Faculty Assessment Team, assisted by the Assessment Champion and Director of Institutional Research and Effectiveness, will select a random sample of common writing prompt essays from the pool of students who have completed their fourth exposure to Developing Learning Power. The random sample will be selected with a desired error of 5% and a 95% confidence level.
Performance targets have been determined for students’ performance after four exposures to the Dimension of Learning Power – Changing and Learning. The focus is on increasing the percentage of students who demonstrate their capacity to change and learn through effort and the intentional practice of thinking by their ability to:
- state their core beliefs and origins of the beliefs;
- articulate their strengths and challenges for future improvement;
- provide evidence of taking new and untested approaches by going beyond assignment guidelines; and
- explain the value of divergent and contradictory perspectives or ideas.
These achievements of the Changing and Learning Scoring Rubric are appropriate for two-year college students, and help prepare them to succeed at the junior and senior levels at four-year transfer institutions.