Assessments
COD's Assessment Plan
College of the Desert engages in regular assessment of course, program, and institutional outcomes. Faculty are responsible for assessing course and program outcomes on a regular schedule. Every three years, each course-level SLO must be assessed based on a schedule developed by the faculty in each program. Assessment of program learning outcomes is often completed as part of the PEP and PEP-UP process.
Assessment allows faculty to analyze student learning in a systematic way in order to guide needed curricular updates or program changes. Assessment is a deliberate and faculty-driven process.
Assessments of both course and program learning outcomes are completed using eLumen.
External Resources for Assessment
Shared Practice in Teaching and Teacher Education, a blog with good discussion of how formative assessments can provide valuable information
of student learning during a course, allowing for faculty to make mid-term adjustments
to enhance student learning. There are suggestions using varied online or technology-based
tools for formative assessments.
City College of San Francisco’s Outcomes and Assessment site is robust. While faculty may find the whole site overwhelming, specific pages like “Why Assess SLOS” and “What Is a Rubric” can be linked individually and will be very useful for faculty.
Merritt College has many resources to assist faculty, including multiple videos examining their assessment process.
Assessment Commons, while not exclusive to higher educations, has many resources for faculty and includes links to resources specific to assessing online learning, student services units, and assessing service learning.
National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, a clearinghouse for effective and transparent assessment programs.
