[social-bio]   By Carolyn Hoessler I was reminded this week of the similarity between designing a research question and writing a learning outcome. In undergraduate research the most common challenge is determining the appropriate scope for a research question. Not too broad, such as what causes addiction or what is the role of kings? Yet not too specific or too shallow that one struggles to find sufficient data or literature. There is an art to writing research questions that is informed by prior experience, colleagues, as well as a good dose of trial and error; similarly for learning outcomes. In addition to feedback from colleagues and personal reflection, there are…

[social-bio]   By Carolyn Hoessler Solving a puzzle involves selecting, viewing, planning, and placing many pieces in order to see the full image. Answering questions of how well do I teach, how is this activity going, or what should I do differently next time, entails a similar set of four phases. As each instructor is unique, the questions embedded within each phase allows us to customize the feedback process to our own needs. So what might we want to think about to make evaluating our teaching a rewarding experience? Planning and gathering insights: What? Preconditions: demographics, prior experience, knowledge, location of class Plans: course goals (e.g., How clear are course…

[social-bio]   By Carolyn Hoessler   What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
 By any other name would smell as sweet”  (William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet) If what determines the nature of a flower is its smell and not its name, then what determines the nature of an assessment tool is its use and not its form or label. The same identical test can be used for formative, summative or mixed purposes. What determines if an assessment is “Formative” or “Summative” is who has access to the resulting evaluative information and what is the subsequent use of such information. When the purpose of assessment is to provide information…