| Measuring Learning Outcomes
Three types of measures are used to assess learned outcomes:
- Baseline assessments
- Course-related learning outcome assessments
- Degree program learning outcomes assessments
Baseline assessments are those taken at the beginning of a degree program and of each course. This includes incoming freshmen baseline determination tests, pre-tests that assess student aptitude for a major and concentration, opening quizzes at the beginning of each course, problems used in the first week that demonstrate the background knowledge, preparation, and skill with which students are working.
Course-related learning assessments measure what students have learned during a course. These measures are benchmarked against the targeted learning outcomes of the course. Course objectives are framed as student-learning outcomes. Faculty focus classroom time and assignments on the desired learning outcomes, so that students can achieve and demonstrate the intended learning. In-class exercises provide authentic assessments of student learning in real-time. Homework assignments are geared toward practice, discovery, review, and are used to demonstrate learning. Traditional quizzes and tests provide a measure of learning, particularly in rules based technology and business curriculum. Creative course assignments provide simple, elegant, and innovative ways for students to demonstrate what they are learning.
Degree Program learning assessments measure what students have learned across a degree major program and how they stack up to the Institutional Learning Outcomes described above. At JP Catholic University, the measure of programmatic learning are determined based on the student’s performance in the two-year, six-course Business Plan sequence, which serves as an applied capstone project and provide evidence of the student’s ability to integrate multidisciplinary knowledge from across their whole learning experience. JP Catholic University’s most successful evidence of student learning and achievement are measured and evident from the types of real world sustainable businesses that are built by student teams.
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