Category-Specific Learning Outcomes Assessment
Assessing category-specific learning outcomes at the institutional level provides a valuable opportunity to measure, document, and highlight student achievement across all majors and programs. The Office of Assessment facilitates this effort by collecting student work from all Core Ed courses. To remain in Core Education, all category-approved courses must participate in assessment.
What do faculty need to do?
Before the beginning of the term, faculty teaching Core Ed courses should link the appropriate Core Ed category-specific learning outcomes (CSLOs) to their Essential Assignments in Canvas.
Linking CLSOs to an Essential Assignment in Canvas
Follow the step-by-step instructions and/or watch a video walkthrough on the Faculty Resources for Core Education page. This process takes approximately 10-15 minutes and lets the Assessment team know where to find student work to be used for Core Education category assessment.
- Be sure that each CSLO for your category is attached to an Essential Assignment.
- Each CSLO should be linked to only one assignment, whether you link all of them to the same Essential Assignment or link each of them to a different EA.
- If you need tach support with this process, please reach out to the OSU Canvas Support Team at [email protected].
- For questions about the Core Education category assessment process, contact Nancy Barbour at [email protected].
- For more information about Core Education assessment, click here.
Key information about the Core Education Assessment Process
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Essential Assignments: All Core Education courses must have an identified Essential Assignment for each category-specific learning outcome (CSLO). Different assignments may be used to assess each outcome, or a single assignment may address all/multiple CSLOs.
- Submission via Canvas: Ideally, students should submit their work for the Essential Assignment(s) in Canvas. Faculty who have different submission requirements should contact the Office of Assessment.
- Anonymization: Assessment staff will anonymize student work to make it difficult or impossible to identify individual students. Core Ed assessment is FERPA-compliant.
- Scoring Process: Scoring will be conducted by OSU Faculty Assessment Fellows, composed of faculty with expertise in the relevant category. If you are interested in becoming a Faculty Assessment Fellow, please contact the Office of Assessment.
- Reporting Results: Assessment results will be reported at the institutional level, not disaggregated by individual courses or programs. The results will be reviewed by the Faculty Senate Core Education Committee and shared with the OSU community.