Sakai

Assessing Student Learning Using AAC&U VALUE Rubrics

Submitted by jasmith1113 on 19 January 2010 - 5:00pm.

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Practice Type:

Portfolio: Assessment

Related Links:

AAC&U VALUE Rubrics

Three Canoes

AAC&U Essential Learning Outcomes:

Civic knowledge & engagement (local & global)

Creative thinking

Critical thinking

Ethical reasoning & action

Foundations & skills for lifelong learning

Information literacy

Inquiry & analysis

Integrative learning

Intercultural knowledge & competence

Oral communication

Problem solving

Quantitative literacy

Teamwork

Written communication

Purpose of Practice:

This practice is a proof of concept demonstration of one way to implement the AAC&U VALUE Rubrics in Sakai/OSP. We have created a matrix for a possible undergraduate learning experience, a set of evaluation forms using the AAC&U VALUE Rubrics, and a glossary explicating AAC&U Essential Learning Outcomes. These Sakai/OSP data structures can be used to create a portfolio implementation to assess student learning across and beyond the curriculum.

Our example is not meant to be used as is, but was created to suggest that the AAC&U Value Rubrics can be implemented in Sakai/OSP to support a variety of educational processes in specific institutional contexts. We invite users to set up these OSP data structures in Sakai and consider ways they could be further customized to capture the needs of a specific educational context.

More Details

Goals:

Our primary goal is to demonstrate that Sakai/OSP can be used to implement the AAC&U VALUE Rubrics within a customizable portfolio workflow.

Our secondary goal is to show how OSP Evaluation Forms can be used to create rubrics that allow instructors to click the descriptor for each criterion that respresents the work of a specific student and, assuming that each criterion is equally weighted, view the average score for that student on that rubric.

Tools Used:

We have uploaded the following Sakai/OSP data structures as a resource in Open Ed Practices:

An AAC&U Learning Outcomes Matrix with VALUE Rubric Evaluation Forms. The matrix has a row for each VALUE Rubric and columns for General Education, Coursework, Co-Curricular Activities, and Internships and Employment.
The VALUE Rubric Evalution Forms and their customized renderers as separate OSP data structures (for use in other matrices or wizards).
A Glossary defining the 15 AAC&U Essential Learning Outcomes for mouse-over and pop-up definitions in the matrix.
A Read Me file with instructions for installation.

One way to implement these data structures in a Sakai/OSP version 2.6 portfolio workflow is as follows:

The system admin sets osp.experimental.assignments = true in the institutional instance of Sakai/OSP.
The system admin or instructor sets up a portfolio site with the Resources, Matrices, Forms, Glossary, Evaluations, and Assignment tools and imports the data structures we have provided.
The instructor adds and posts assignments in the Assignments tool indicating to students in the assignment instructions which VALUE Rubrics will be used to evaluate each assignment once submitted.
The instructor adds the appropriate assignments to each matrix cell according to the VALUE Rubrics that will be used to evaluate the assignment.
The student completes one or more assignments and submits them for evaluation.
The matrix automatically posts the assignment to appropriate matrix cells for evaluation using the rubrics specified by the instructor.
The student reviews the assignments to be evaluated by each rubric (within the context of general education, coursework, co-curricular activities, and/or internships and
employment).
The student completes a reflection indicating his/her progress on the relevant skill
or understanding and submits the cell for evaluation.
The instructor may access the matrix of any student at any time by using the drop-down menu at the top of the matrix to view the matrix of a particular student.
The instructor may use the drop-down menu in the matrix to fill out a (formative) feedback form for any matrix cell of any student at any time.
When the student submits a matrix cell for evaluation, the instructor responsible for evaluating the cell will be able to access that cell through the Evaluations tool or via the drop-down menu in the matrix.
The instructor assigned to each particular cell uses the Evaluations or Matrix tools to access the student submission and review the evidence and reflection in each submitted matrix cell.
The instructor evaluates the evidence using the clickable evaluation rubric form in each submitted matrix cell. The evaluation form records the scores and calculates the average, assuming that all criteria receive equal weight.
The instructor saves the evaluation form and decides whether to complete the cell (lock it from any further change), leave it as pending evaluation, or return it to ready status for more work by the student.
The student reviews the instructor's evaluation via his/her copy of the matrix.

A second way to use the data structures would be to use the guidance features in each matrix cell to suggest to students what evidence to supply for evaluation with each VALUE Rubric. A drawback (or possible advantage) of this method is that students would have to think more analytically about how their available evidence fits each educational context and each essential learning outcome. Students would also have to take the initiative in associating evidence with multiple matrix cells in order to address all the learning outcomes. The matrix could be modified to have only one or two columns as a means of simplifying the process.

Lessons Learned:

There were two challenges in thinking through this practice. The first challenge was to create a viable Evaluation form for each of the AAC&U VALUE Rubrics. This challenge was met with rubric forms that match the display of each rubric on the AAC&U VALUE Rubric website, allow instructors to rate each criterion by clicking its descriptor, and providing for a total calculation of the score for each student on each instructor's rating of the rubric.

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AAC&U Essential Learning Outcomes matrix and VALUE Rubrics

Submitted by smkeesle on 18 January 2010 - 8:05pm.

in

Resource Type:

OSP Matrix

AAC&U Essential Learning Outcomes:

Civic knowledge & engagement (local & global)

Creative thinking

Critical thinking

Ethical reasoning & action

Foundations & skills for lifelong learning

Information literacy

Inquiry & analysis

Integrative learning

Intercultural knowledge & competence

Oral communication

Problem solving

Quantitative literacy

Teamwork

Written communication

Introduction

This is a package of demonstration material that illustrates one way that Sakai could be used to implement portions of an assessment strategy using the AAC&U Essential Learning Outcomes and VALUE rubrics. It is not a comprehensive solution and should be regarded as an early release. Feedback of any sort is welcome. Below we attempt to qualify this implementation with some assumptions and related limitations:

Assumptions and Limitations

Each AAC&U VALUE rubric includes a statement that says:

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Sakai

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