SLO ASSESSMENT IN GEOSCIENCE COURSES: A THREE STEP METHOD

Students learning outcomes (SLOs) are becoming a useful tool for identifying and assessing important content items in our curricular areas. Assessment of the outcomes is our greatest challenge. After identifying specific outcomes to test, I utilize a step method of assessment. First, the outcome is presented as a “homework problem set” which allows the student to do some basic research of the SLO. This item is turned in and evaluated using a rubric and returned to the student so that they can re-evaluate and clear up any parts of the content that they do not understand. The second step is a short quiz that pertains to the SLO. This quiz can be of any style of assessment the instructor chooses. I frequently use objective or oral quizzes. Finally, the SLO is the assessed in the exam using two different methodologies. Objective (multiple choice or true-false types) questions are asked and can be monitored easily through a scantron, and an essay question similar to their original problem set is used as well. Through utilizing this 3 step approach, the students demonstrate an understanding of the SLO by the end of the class, and the instructor has a series of data that can be evaluated in order to determine if the students are developing an understanding of the content.