institutional level

Institutions that understand what helps and hinders student learning will know how to improve student proficiency in core academic areas that are important for college and workforce success. Research supports learning as a holistic (Pascarella and Terenzini, 2005), complex, and domain-specific process (Beyer et al., 2007). Institutions are encouraged to employ principles of learning that are domain-independent, experience-independent, and culturally relevant (Ambrose et al., 2010). It is important that institutions continue to examine a variety of (new) learning tools and innovative pedagogical approaches in order to improve or evolve undergraduate teaching methods, curriculum, and experiences. This study provides important descriptive evidence for understanding undergraduate student learning across campus and over time. The results provide specific ways faculty and administrators may teach and implement services to better serve students.

Factors and Experiences that Help and Hinder Undergraduate Student Learning

Institutions that understand what helps and hinders student learning will know how to improve student proficiency in core …

Core Assessment: general education and faculty engagement

Our institution is developing processes to assess our general core education. After redeveloping our seven learning objectives, direct …

Making Institutional Academic Assessment Work for Faculty

Academic Assessment is required for institutional accreditation, yet may be challenging for individual departments, programs, and faculty to …

Graduate Assessment at a Predominantly Undergraduate Institution

This project focuses on improving graduate program assessment at a primarily undergraduate-serving liberal arts college. The university has …

From Seedlings to Harvest: Successes and Challenges of a Grassroots Approach to Assessment

Impactful assessment must be responsive to its broader institutional context as well as immediate situational demands. At UCSC, …

The Road to Institutional Effectiveness: Cultivating Partnerships for General Education Assessment

Chaminade University of Honolulu has restructured General Education in recent years. Various faculty committees have been spearheading a …

Strength in Numbers: Facilitating Faculty Learning Communities for General Education Student Learning Outcomes Assessment

Reaching consensus on curricular issues and learning outcomes is challenging, especially in attempting to achieve campus-wide agreement on …

Integrated Planning for Student Success: Kapi‘olani Community College’s Continuous Improvement Journey

In early 2019, ACCJC reaffirmed Kapi‘olani Community College’s accreditation status, but mandated a follow-up report and provided an …

Advanced Degree Institutional Learning Achievement Investigation: Methods and Opportunities for Action

This poster presents the process and results of an institutional assessment project that investigated advanced degree program learning …

First-Year Programs (FYP) utilizes multiple approaches to assess student learning outcomes and program success. Institutional data are used to measure retention rates for students participating in Access to College Excellence Learning Communities (ACE); National Student Clearing House (NSCH) data are gathered to measure student transfer rates. Qualitative data and feedback is collected through focus groups and surveys. In addition, ACE students complete two surveys measuring student expectations, engagement, and institutional commitment. Fall 2007 student engagement survey results indicate ACE students felt significantly more informed about core graduation requirements, major requirements, and registration procedures. Students also felt significantly more connected to the university community. NSCH data indicates that a large proportion of ACE students that did not continue at UHM transferred to other institutions after their first year. FYP will expand its evaluation by collecting Drop-Failure-Withdraw (DFW) rates for classes offered as part of an ACE learning community.

First-Year Success: Evaluating a Peer-Led Learning Community Program

First-Year Programs (FYP) utilizes multiple approaches to assess student learning outcomes and program success. Institutional data are used …

Faculty have difficulty in clarifying how their assessments and instructional strategies are aligned with both course and General Education learning outcomes in the Instructor-Based designation process. The low number of clear proposals proves the need for the General Education Office to offer an alignment framework with guiding questions.

Developing an Alignment Framework to Support General Education

Faculty have difficulty in clarifying how their assessments and instructional strategies are aligned with both course and General …

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s highest attrition rate occurs between students’ first and second years. This issue may be attributed to students succumbing to the sophomore slump, demonstrated by decreases in grades, motivation, and outlook on college experiences. To address this issue, a campus-wide program comprised of members from both academic and student affairs was established in Spring 2010 and was named the Mānoa Sophomore Experience (MSE). To better understand our student population and how to address their needs, MSE members collaboratively developed, analyzed, and applied the results of three assessment resources: 1) Survey (601 student respondents), 2) Focus groups with students, faculty, and staff (3 separate sessions), 3) Written reflection assignment (over 500 student respondents). Each of the assessment resources examined first- and second-year students and their challenges faced, interest and likelihood of attending MSE activities, level of use of campus resources, what they enjoyed most about attending UHM, and suggestions for MSE programming. Using the data collected from assessment, MSE successfully developed and executed programming for UHM’s first- and second-year students. This poster outlines the assessment methods, sample student programming, and assessment results.

Manoa Sophomore Experience: An Example of Successful Data-Driven Programming

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s highest attrition rate occurs between students’ first and second years. This issue …

The purpose of this poster is to describe for faculty, staff and students what the ILOs are, why they are important and how faculty can help implement the ILOs. This poster details the ILOs, differentiates ILOs from SLOs and PLOs, and describes how ILOs and assessment fit into the unique context of the Mānoa campus.

Institutional Learning Objectives (ILOs): Shaping the Mānoa experience, adding meaning, quality and integrity to the Mānoa undergraduate degree

The purpose of this poster is to describe for faculty, staff and students what the ILOs are, why …

In Spring 2016, the General Education Office identified a need to improve its indirect assessment efforts. Working with the co-creators of the Student Assessment of their Learning Gains (SALG) instrument, the office developed and piloted an assessment plan beginning with the Hawaiian, Asian, and Pacific Focus requirement. Through the pilot, the General Education Office aimed to increase familiarity with SALG in order to educate others about its value in improving the quality of instruction; recruit faculty to pilot the use of SALG in HAP-designated courses; and identify how meaningful, usable assessment data could be extracted from SALG to address programmatic and learning needs within the General Education program. This poster provides information on the SALG instrument, outlines the process taken and challenges involved in implementing a new assessment plan, and identifies important next steps in the process.

Adopting a New Assessment Approach: Using SALG to Evaluate General Education Learning Outcomes

In Spring 2016, the General Education Office identified a need to improve its indirect assessment efforts. Working with …

Exploring possibilities for, and effects of, Integrated Performance Assessments (IPAs) in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, this poster reports an action study using IPAs in an undergraduate beginning Mandarin program. The poster first features a review of IPAs, followed by an overview of curriculum redesign and IPA test reconstruction. The poster then presents a concrete model for IPAs in a Chinese 101 and 102 Beginning Mandarin. Successful teaching activities and assessment task samples will be presented. The effects of this adaptation are demonstrated using quantitative and qualitative data, including oral assessment videos, writing samples, supplementary listening and reading materials, rubrics for scoring, test scores, student self-reflections, and more. The data show that students (1) generally favored using IPAs, (2) took initiative to review the IPA rubrics and to reliably engage in filling out "can-do" checklists, (3) demonstrated a positive correlation between IPAs and traditional test scores. The poster concludes that IPAs can be equally successful, and can offer more, in university foreign language classes.

Implementation of Integrated Performance Assessments (IPA) in Beginning Level Chinese Language Classes

Exploring possibilities for, and effects of, Integrated Performance Assessments (IPAs) in the Department of East Asian Languages and …

This poster presents examples of academic programs in higher education using learning assessment results for program improvement. The poster defines excellent-use-of-assessment at a large research intensive higher education institution, summarizes ways of using assessment through the content analysis of 238 academic programs assessment reports, provides low-hanging fruit examples in of ways to use results, maps excellent example programs on campus, and illustrates excellence with nine concrete program examples. Not only does the poster show possible ways for programs to use results, it also serves as a showcase of excellence in using assessment results on campus, thus promoting the assessment-for-improvement concept and culture.

Excellent Uses of Assessment Results: A UH Manoa Showcase

This poster presents examples of academic programs in higher education using learning assessment results for program improvement. The …

This poster presents the assessment of curriculum through the Interprofessional Education committee, which was created in 2015 with the support of the Deans of the John A. Burns School of Medicine, School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work, the Daniel K. Inouye School of Pharmacy and Director of the Office of Public Health Studies in order to help prepare students for working collaboratively in complex healthcare settings. The process through which the curriculum is assess against the Interprofessional Education Collaborative competencies is outlined. In addition to discussing the identified curriculum gaps and plan for action, a detailed curriculum map is provided.

Working Across Professions to Develop the Interprofessional Education Curriculum Pathway

This poster presents the assessment of curriculum through the Interprofessional Education committee, which was created in 2015 with …

This poster presents undergraduate assessment results for critical thinking, information literacy, quantitative reasoning, and written communication based on a 2015-2016 qualitative review, led by the Assessment Office, of WASC-defined core competencies using the VALUE Rubrics and the expertise of instructional faculty from across campus. These results are presented as baseline data as well as the jumping off point for faculty and administrators regarding discussions about how to ensure all students graduate with the knowledge and skills we intend them to have. Suggestions for utilizing the findings toward improvement as well as next steps are discussed.

The Institutional Learning Objectives and Undergraduate Assessment

This poster presents undergraduate assessment results for critical thinking, information literacy, quantitative reasoning, and written communication based on …

The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) utilized historic program data to identify potential gaps in campus awareness of and participation in UROP funding opportunities. Using this information, UROP launched a targeted information campaign, which increased the overall number of applications and the number of student applicants from select underrepresented units.

Using Data to Promote Awareness of and Participation in Undergraduate Research & Creative Works

The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) utilized historic program data to identify potential gaps in campus awareness of …

This study employed propensity score matching and regression analysis to determine whether or not a retention scholarship pilot program at a mid-size public research university was effective at increasing first year retention.

Scholarships as a Retention Tool

This study employed propensity score matching and regression analysis to determine whether or not a retention scholarship pilot …