Co-curricular Direct Assessment
Direct assessment, or gathering evidence demonstrating exactly what students did, or did not, learn, provides the most helpful information about student learning. While indirect assessment can supplement direct measures of learning to paint a clearer picture of what and how students are learning, with direct measures we can be more confident that students have achieved the intended outcomes.
Direct assessment in co-curricular programs doesn’t have to be complicated. Students can directly represent their knowledge or skills in short quizzes/surveys, reflections, or in observations. These can be scored or evaluated by professional staff or trained students. Often these student "deliverables" are evaluated using a rubric that describes the various dimensions of student performance on the outcome, and identifies criteria for each level of learning (for example, “does not meet”, “approaching expectations”, “meets expectations”, “exceeds expectations”).
Often programs will measure student mastery after a learning experience has just taken place. However, pre-test and post-testing can also be used to demonstrate students' growth or gains in co-curricular learning. In pre-testing/post-testing students are asked to answer the same questions prior to engaging in a learning experience and again when the experience is finished. A difference can be measured to help understand if students had any gains from the experience. When the co-curricular outcome concerns the development of an attitude or belief, programs turn to a method of self-report. Using Likert scales, for example, program participants state their level of agreement on a series of statements about a particular outcome. Pre-test/post-test differences can also be determined to see if students' attitudes changed over time.
For co-curricular experiences that are more complex or take place over a quarter or longer, one would generally expect that students will be able to reach a higher level of learning by the end than experiences that are designed for a single day or short sequence.
Pre/Post-testing
Pre-testing and post-testing can be a great way to see change in knowledge, attitudes and beliefs over time. There are different applications for pre/post testing, depending on what you want to find out. Below are a few examples of different ways to use a pre/post testing method in co-curricular assessment.
Measuring Knowledge
If you are measuring a knowledge you will want to develop test questions based on the content the student will learn. These can include multiple choice questions, fill in the blank, select all that apply, or short answer. Qualtrics is a great tool to use for creating these short quizzes using QR codes for students to access. Think about the main points of the experience or intervention to decide what questions you’ll want to ask. If you want to see the change in knowledge over time you can used these questions in a pre/post-test method. You’ll want to easily be able to compare the post tests to the pre-tests, so consider this when selecting questions type and content.
Measuring an Attitude or Belief
Attitudes and beliefs can be measured using a survey tool or reflection asking students to reflect on their behaviors, beliefs, and motivations. While measuring a single instance can show where students are at a given point in time, a more compelling measure is the change in attitude or belief over time due to participation in an activity or intervention. To do this, questions are matched between time one and time two and the change is measured for significance. Something you might look to measure is confidence, spirituality, belonging, etc. An example of measuring an increase of belonging is below:
Santa Clara University has created question sets that measures students' sense of belonging in a pre/post-test format, either in the university overall, in the classroom, in their major, or with their peers. Depending on the focus of the outcome, the set of questions are asked on a survey given prior to an experience (e.g., a residential learning community seminar) and again after an experience. The scores are analyzed to determine if a significant difference resulting from the experience has occurred.
Reflection
Reflections can be used to gain deeper insights into students learning while helping them to make meaning of their learning experience. Through reflections, students can communicate how they are or will apply their learning and also communicate their attitudes and values.
Reflections can show change over time using a pre/post-testing method. By administering similar reflection questions prior to an experience, during an experience, and at the conclusion or after an experience can identify changes in attitudes and belief. Use of a rubric can help when looking for behaviors or attitudes on the reflections and showing their change over the experience. Through this method deeper insight might be gleaned, as the open-ended nature of reflections can provide additional context.
Using Rubrics
Rubrics are scoring tools that can be used on qualitative data sources like reflections and observations. Rubrics can be used to capture both quantitative and qualitative data, be customized to fit the need of the assessment, and can be used on many different exemplars of student learning. More information on rubrics can be found on our Doing Assessment page along with our Rubric Bank.
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