CMC Libraries: Faculty Resources: Pedagogy

HIPs

HIPs Guide developed by Pikes Peak State College

High Impact Practices (HIPs) focus on equity of access and outcomes, especially for students historically underrepresented in college success measures. High Impact Practices (HIPs) include teaching approaches like Service Learning, Collaborative Projects, Undergraduate Research, Internships, Diversity Global Learning, among others. The essential premise is that the more a student is engaged in learning, the more they will persist and complete. George Kuh drew attention to High Impact Practices in his seminal research in 2008. Since then, institutions of higher learning have implemented HIPs and report higher student engagement, deeper student learning, and increased retention in college. A recent national study concludes that community-based projects have the most impact on students of color in the community college.

HIPs have eight components in common: challenging goals are achieved, time spent on task, substantive conversations with faculty and peers, experiences with diversity, regular and constructive feedback, opportunities for reflective and integrative thinking, real world applications of learning, and public demonstrations of competence. For example, through a Service Learning project students work harder than what they thought they were capable of and achieve something of significance outside the classroom; the students report developing closer relationships with peers and faculty and learning from diverse people and circumstances. To deepen learning, students engage in metacognitive reflection about themselves both as students and as citizens, as well as report out on such discoveries in applicable mediums (e.g., writing a feature article in the campus newspaper).

Centering Racially Minoritized Student Voices in High-Impact Practices

Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT)

Transparent Instruction: What, Why, and How?

TILTed Assignment for ePortfolio

Assessment at CMC

Assessment = improving student learning

Are our students learning what we say they are learning? Through assessment, we know and our students know. Assessment as a practice allows us to continually improve and adapt assessment methods to be more inclusive and representative of student knowledge regardless of students’ experiences, knowledge, or skills. Assessment allows us to celebrate our students as unique learners and share successes!

Throughout the cycle of assessment in our curricular and co-curricular spaces, student success should be at the center and surrounded by equity. Your CMC Academic Support Team is here to help you in this work.

The six steps of the assessment cycle are labeled in six rectangles evenly spaced over a circle with an arrow. The words

Steps in the Cycle of Assessment

SLOs: Starting with well-developed, concise Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs), we can ensure we have measurable outcomes for learning (be it a course, a program, a co-curricular activity, etc.). Sharing SLOs up front with students helps them understand relevancy and expectations for their learning. CMC SLOs come from the Colorado Community College System (CCCS) Common Course Numbering System (CCNS) catalog. We also use Bloom's Taxonomy to develop SLOs.
Instruction: Implementing instruction guided by the outcomes alongside students with formative assessments can help us pivot our teaching if needed to ensure students are developing learning mastery.
Assessment method: Providing a variety of assessment methods and assessment options to students for an outcome embeds equity and inclusivity in the course. Formative and summative direct assessments as well as indirect assessments measure our learning outcomes.
Analysis: We can know, with evidence, if our students are learning what we expect them to learn by analyzing results of learning mastery, such as rubric scores of assessment artifacts,
Reflection and Reporting: Colorado Mountain College’s assessment reporting process includes reflection of the above-described steps in the cycle and consideration of improvements that need to be made, based on the analysis of learning outcomes. Improvement: Although the practice of assessment with this cycle is ongoing, the final step is implementing improvements and re-assessing to know if students are grasping learning outcomes (“closing the loop”).
Improvement: Although the practice of assessment with this cycle is ongoing, the final step is implementing improvements and re-assessing to know if students are grasping learning outcomes (“closing the loop”).

How does our assessment work?

The practice of assessment is woven throughout curricular and co-curricular programming. This page describes the innerworkings from the course level to programs to college-wide outcomes. Your CMC Academic Support Team is here to help you in this work.

A diagram with three rectangles (or boxes), one inside another, showing how course assessment is embedded in program assessment which is embedded in institutional assessment. Within each box are additional rectangles representing multiple student learning outcomes.

Course Assessment:

At the course level, Course Student Learning Outcomes (CLSOs) and Colorado Department of Higher Education’s GT Competencies or “Guaranteed Transfer” general education competencies) are assessed. Colorado Mountain College references the Colorado Community College System’s Common Course Numbering System for courses, including course student learning outcomes (CSLOs).

Most CMC courses are part of a larger program or collection of required courses, such as a degree or certificate program, general education course requirements, and CEPA (“Concurrent Enrollment Program at” CMC) course offerings. The CSLOs map to Program Learning Outcomes (or PSLOs) or GT Competencies.

In Canvas, GT Competencies, PSLOs, and ISLOs can be assessed at the course level using the “Outcomes” tools. Please review the tutorial videos in Learning Hub to learn the functionality of this feature that can embed assessment of SLOs in your courses and learning activities.

Program Assessment:

At the program level, Program Learning Outcomes (or PSLOs) exist for programs that lead to a credential, such as an associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree, or a certificate program. Program directors and faculty are to assess, on a rotating basis, three to five PSLOs each year (unless there are other PSLO assessment requirements by program-specific accreditors, such as nursing). PSLO assessment can be informed through CSLO assessment. PSLOs map to and support ISLOs.

Programs, with involvement of all program faculty, are to submit an annual assessment report to SLAC (CMC’s Student Learning Assessment Committee) by mid-October. These assessment reports are reviewed by SLAC and included in each program’s 5-year Program Review. Over the course of five years, a program should have assessed all PSLOs at least once and closed the loop by re-assessing improvements. (Student learning assessment is just one of several elements of Program Review. Academic Council oversees the 5-year review process.)

Institutional Assessment:

At the institution level, ISLOs (Institutional Student Learning Outcomes) support Colorado Mountain College’s mission and are the learning outcomes we expect students who graduate from CMC to be able to know and do. The PSLOs, co-curricular learning outcomes, and GT Competencies map to the ISLOs. We can assess the ISLOs through these programs and outcomes as well as through the High Impact Practice of student ePortfolios, which are being implemented through a pilot in Fall 2022. Canvas Outcomes reports at the course, program, and college level can provide assessment data of learning mastery. In addition to direct assessment, ISLOs can be assessed through indirect assessments such as student college outcomes (retention and graduation rates and job placement), demographic data, student engagement surveys, alumni surveys, and more.

During 2022, CMC’s new ISLO Taskforce with cross-college representation is embarking on reviewing and updating the Institutional Student Learning Outcomes to best support the mission, students, and communities of CMC as well as align with CMC’s designation as a Hispanic Serving Institution. Please check CMC’s Basecamp for announcements, invitations, and updates.

Colorado Mountain College has adopted a new, more reflective structure for assessment reporting. Our goal is that all faculty practice assessment and focus on “improvement of student learning.” To ensure that faculty are well supported and that programs are conducting assessment, we ask these four primary questions in our reporting processes. (A variety of collection tools and platforms are used. For example, some reports are submitted online through MS Forms or Qualtrics.)

The Four Assessment Questions:

What information/evidence/data did you gather to inform you about student learning for the outcomes you planned to assess?
What did you discover? What were your conclusions?
What do you plan to do the same and differently based on your discoveries about your students and their learning?
What support or resources do you need to make your plans happen?

Assessment as Learning

Learning, and dare I say assessment, can and should be FUN! Active learning can happen through properly designed assessment methods. (Active learning strategies are described in the “Champions of Reimagined Assessment”, which is a series of brief videos describing alternative assessments. I encourage you to watch some of these to gain ideas for inclusive and equitable assessments that give students belonging and relevancy to their learning. Here are some examples of formative direct assessments that could be used in place of traditional assessments such as mid-semester exams:

Sources: Talking About Teaching: The Future of Grading and Assessment (The Chronicle, 2022), Concept Mapping as an Assessment (2020), Champions of Reimagined Assessment (2022)

Consider assessment methods that not only let you as the professor know your students learned the outcome(s) but are inclusive for students who may not have previous knowledge or understanding. Constructing alternative assessments can take extra time and creativity, but the benefit to students and your own professional growth as an educator can be remarkable.

Student-Centered Assessment

The journal article "Equity and Assessment: Moving Towards Culturally Responsive Assessment" by Erick Montenegro and Natasha A. Jankowski (January 2017) provides evidence-based research about equity and assessment.

Here are some recommended assessment strategies for equity and inclusivity of students:

Spend the initial class getting students excited; focus very little on grades.
List all assignments for the course up front.
Provide explicit instructions of assessment, especially for group learning/projects.
Create detailed rubrics.
Conduct bias reviews of tests and other assessments.
Minimize disposable assessments, such as written exams.
Allow multiple attempts if needed for learning.
Allow lowest score dropping from grade.
Use a variety of assessments throughout the course.
Consider open notes/open book exams.
And...use a growth mindset! (What CAN be done?, our strengths vs. deficit, not doing, can't be done, etc.)

Concluding Focal Point:

Has the student truly learned? How can I as the instructor ensure my students learn the intended outcome(s)?

We can use the practice of assessment in our pedagogy to support belonging and success for CMC students.

Inclusive Excellence

Centering equity and inclusion in course design, the selection of course materials, assessment, and course delivery is crucial in ensuring that we are honoring our mission of being student-centered; it is also good pedagogy. Establishing a welcoming and diverse learning environment is key to student engagement and retention and we can do this from day one with diversity statements in our syllabus.

Worksheets

DEI Worksheet Self Audit

Inclusive Teaching by Kelly A. Hogan; Viji Sathy
ISBN: 9781952271649
Publication Date: 2022-08-01
Award-winning teachers offer practical tips for addressing inequities in the college classroom and for making all students feel welcome and included. In a book written by and for college teachers, Kelly Hogan and Viji Sathy provide tips and advice on how to make all students feel welcome and included. They begin with a framework describing why explicit attention to structure enhances inclusiveness in both course design and interactions with and between students. Inclusive Teaching then provides practical ways to include more voices in a series of contexts: when giving instructions for group work and class activities, holding office hours, communicating with students, and more. The authors finish with an opportunity for the reader to reflect on what evidence to include in a teaching dossier that demonstrates inclusive practices. The work of two highly regarded specialists who have delivered over a hundred workshops on inclusive pedagogy and who contribute frequently to public conversations on the topic, Inclusive Teaching distills state-of-the-art guidance on addressing privilege and implicit bias in the college classroom. It seeks to provide a framework for individuals and communities to ask, Who is being left behind and what can teachers do to add more structure?
Reframing Assessment to Center Equity by Gavin W. Henning (Contribution by); Gianina R. Baker (Contribution by); Natasha A. Jankowski (Contribution by); Anne E. Lundquist (Contribution by); Erick Montenegro (Contribution by)
ISBN: 9781642672565
Publication Date: 2022-04-12
This book makes the case for assessment of student learning as a vehicle for equity in higher education. The book proceeds through a framework of "why, what, how, and now what." The opening chapters present the case for infusing equity into assessment, arguing that assessment professionals can and should be activists in advancing equity, given the historic and systemic use of assessment as an impediment to the educational access and attainment of historically marginalized populations. The "what" chapters offer definitions of emerging terms, discuss the narratives of equity in evidence of student learning, present models and approaches to promoting equity, and explore the relationship between knowledge systems and assessment practice. The "how" chapters begin by progressively moving from the classroom to the program, then beyond the program level to share examples from student affairs. Subsequent chapters address the problem of equitable access to STEM fields; culturally responsive practices within the context of community colleges; the ongoing work of culturally situated assessment practices in Historically Black Colleges and Universities; and the role of technology-enabled assessment as a possible tool for equitable assessment. The final two chapters in the book address the "now what", providing a way for assessment professional to develop individual awareness within their practice as a next step in the equity journey, and a conceptual framework to anchor equity in their work.