Incorporating Student Feedback and Reflection into Program-level Assessment

Incorporating Student Feedback and Reflection into Program-level Assessment 

What is this Research About?

University programs go through assessment processes to ensure that students are learning what the program intends to teach. This research responds to critiques about typical teaching and learning assessment practices in university level courses. The authors point out that this assessment process is sometimes considered burdensome because instructors are already pressed for time and resources, and the methods for gathering assessment data can be somewhat poor. This paper presents an alternative assessment method that incorporates student self-assessment and reflection. 

What did the Researchers Do?

In the paper, the researchers offer a plain language, step-by-step outline of their assessment model used at a small, Canadian liberal arts university. The steps in the assessment framework are: 

1. Craft easily understood learning outcomes for students, and present them and discuss them with students at the beginning of the course;  

2. Conduct a survey that asks students to self-assess their achievement of a few of the learning outcomes. The survey also asks students to provide written evidence and a reflection on their self-assessments 

3. Code, validate, analyze, and report the student survey data.  

What did the Researchers Find?

The researchers described their use of this assessment approach and provided examples. In one example, they showed how students’ self-assessments and reflections about their achievements of the learning outcomes may be accurate (i.e., supported by evidence) or inaccurate.  

→  How to Implement this Research in Your Classroom

This article provides a step-by-step plan for program administrators to implement a program assessment model that includes student self-assessment and reflection. This approach is intended to create intentional engagement with students in assessing a program, and to bring forward conversations rather than do “bureaucratic box checking.” They also encourage anyone using the model to consider what they want to do with the data prior to collecting it. Instructors might apply this model in their classrooms by emphasizing the course learning outcomes at the beginning of the course, and encouraging students to reflect on their achievement of the learning outcomes throughout the course.  

→  Citation

Flournoy, E. L., & Bauman, L C. (2021). Collaborative assessment: Using self-assessment and reflection for student learning and program development. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.5206/cjsotlrcacea.2021.1.14207 

→  Keywords

  • Program Assessment
  • Collaborative Assessment
  • Reflection
  • Self-assessment 

Creative Commons by logo This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Canada License

Snapshot Writer: Hannah Harrison

Snapshot Publication Date: 2022

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