Supporting Learning with Technology: Assessment's Role

Assessment, accountability, and evaluation are increasingly common topics of discussion in higher education. Information technology is both the subject of assessment and a means to an end. There are many questions about how IT facilitates learning: some want to demonstrate that IT improves learning, and others want to document what students know. But the answers are only as good as the questions asked—and as good as the evidence we collect and analyze.

This session will focus on strategies that document how technology influences student learning. Several tenets underlie the session:

• The collection and interpretation of evidence is critical to the improvement of teaching and learning.
• There are multiple ways to collect useful evidence on how technology can improve teaching and learning (for example, surveys, interviews, and e-portfolios).
• Evidence is most useful when the right questions are asked and the assessment strategies are matched to those questions.
• Collecting, analyzing, and interpreting evidence is only part of the process; assessment must be linked to improvement strategies and changes in practice.

ELI’s 2006 Fall Focus Session brings together IT professionals, faculty, administrators, institutional researchers, and learning technologists to better understand how evidence supports the advancement of teaching and learning with technology. Join us in exploring:

• The difference between assessment, which focuses on student learning, and evaluation, which focuses on broader issues (for example, the cost-effectiveness of technology and measuring satisfaction).
• Knowing what questions to ask, the appropriate metrics to use, and what to do with the answers.
• How to create a culture of improvement that is ready to act on carefully collected, analyzed, and interpreted evidence.
• Assessment as learning and as a tool in sustaining a learner-centered culture.

Who Should Attend

This focus session is designed for those who use technology to improve learning or those who are interested in documenting its impact but are not experts in assessment. Interested groups may include:

• Information technology professionals
• Faculty
• Administrators
• Institutional researchers
• Others as determined by your institutional context

We encourage you to attend as a team. Some institutions send a team to focus on an upcoming project; others use meeting attendance to reward innovators or to build cross-disciplinary collaboration. By sharing a common experience and being able to reflect on the implications for their own campuses, team members find that the travel to and from the meeting, on-site discussions, and on-campus follow-up builds rapport, solidifies plans, and enriches collaboration.

Meeting Preparation:

Attendees will be asked to complete readings and a premeeting survey in preparation for the focus session.

Outcomes

As a result of the focus session, we expect participants to:

• Acquire a deeper understanding of the variety of ways to gather, analyze, and interpret evidence with the goal of improving student learning.
• Learn to distinguish between assessing how technology facilitates learning and assessing learning outcomes.
• Learn how to make evaluation and assessment learner-centered activities.
• Develop an appreciation for how carefully collected evidence can contribute to systemic improvement.