Dearborn Discovery Core Assessment
DDC Assessment 2.0 Cycle & Reporting Plans
The new DDC assessment cycle and reporting plans were developed and endorsed by the Assessment Subcommittee and the DDC Subcommittee during the DDC Evaluation process in the 2018-2019 academic year. The modifications to the first iteration of DDC assessments include improvement to the reporting process, more focused and integrated assessments, and a faster turnaround for use of data and improvement.
Assessment Cycle:
Reporting for QTPS, SBA, NS, HA, and CCT:
- Higher enrolled courses (courses with a significant proportion of the total enrollment for the category) will be asked to use Canvas Outcomes to fulfill the DDC assessment requirements
- All other courses in the category will be asked to submit a brief, reflection based narrative on the course and the learning outcomes.
Instructors will be contacted individually to notify which reporting line they should follow. This two pronged approach allows for quantitative data to be collected across higher enrolled courses that impact the most students, while also collecting qualitative data in courses as well.
Reporting for ULW, CAP, WC:
Upper Level Writing, Capstone, and Writing and Communication courses will be assessed in disciplines and integrated with Program Assessment within programs. These data will be collected through Program Assessment reports and included within DDC Assessment review sessions.
Reviewing Data and DDC Sessions:
Members of the Assessment Subcommittee and faculty representatives from the categories being assessed will be a part of the review group.
In the first cycle, DDC assessment data were not reviewed until the end of the cycle which made it difficult for faculty to discuss the data as it related to their experience in the course because too much time had passed. The new cycle includes DDC Sessions the year following collection. These sessions will allow instructors to come together to discuss student learning in their category and review the data collected in the prior year. We hope to provide support from the Hub for Teaching and Learning and/or external pedagogical support as a part of these conversations as well in the form of workshops or resources.
Important Information about the DDC Assessment Procedures
- If a course is approved for a category but is not offered in the assessment year for that category, it does not have to participate in the assessment reporting.
- All instructors offering a DDC course in the category's assessment year are required to participate in assessment.
- If an individual instructor offers more than one section of a DDC course in the category's assessment year, they are only required to assess one of the sections. However, we encourage instructors to assess all of their sections, especially if an instructor alters the course in different sections.
- We encourage course instructors to conduct DDC assessment (data collection) outside of the assessment year window for the category, but it is not a requirement.
- If a course counts for more than one category in a given reporting year window, DDC assessment must be conducted in both categories.
DDC Assessment Frequently Asked Questions
No. Only courses offered during a category's assessment year are required to submit assessment reports.
No. You only have to conduct assessment in one of your sections during a category's assessment year. If other instructors are also offering sections of the course during that year, each of them has to submit an assessment report on at least one of their sections.
DDC learning outcomes are the three to five statements provided for each DDC category that describe the skills and concepts students who take a course in that category should learn and demonstrate. For example, the first learning outcome in the Written Communication category is: "Students are able to compose, revise, edit, and present their own writing for clarity and fluency of expression. "These learning outcomes appear on the DDC category's application, and for each application the instructor explained how the course addresses those outcomes.
An assessment instrument is a quiz, exam, research paper or some other assignment that an instructor uses to "assess" (or measure) a student's learning of a particular outcome. An assessment instrument should be something that is graded, and it should measure individual students' abilities (as opposed to a group or team of students' work).
If you have not seen the DDC application that was approved for your course, that's where you should start (please contact Jessica LaGrange for the application). Many of the applications specifically state which instrument(s) will be used to assess each DDC learning outcome. If the application gives multiple options for assessment instruments, then you need to decide which instrument in your class best aligns with each learning outcome. It is advisable to use only one or two assessment instruments per learning outcome. (Don't make this more complicated than it has to be.) Also, you can use the same assessment instrument to assess multiple learning outcomes.
The Assessment Subcommittee did not create specific criteria for determining those performance categories because there is so much variability across disciplines. Either individually or with a group of colleagues who teach the course, you decide what it means for a student to exceed, meet, approach, or not meet a learning outcome on a particular assignment/exam.
It depends on how your discipline has decided to handle this course for DDC. Some disciplines are highly coordinated in their approach and ask all instructors of the course to use the same assignments/exam questions and conduct a fairly uniform DDC assessment process. Other disciplines have set it up in a way to allow for much more flexibility among instructors. The DDC course application should indicate what to do. If you are in doubt, then contact your discipline's assessment coordinator for the course.
Yes, learning outcomes for all DDC categories have been entered into Canvas. You can select one or more DDC learning outcomes and use them to create rubrics (or add them to existing rubrics) to use when grading your students' work in Canvas. (You do not have to add these outcomes into the assignment score.) Learn more about detailed DDC assessment using Canvas.
Contact:
Jessica LaGrange
Director of Academic Success
[email protected]