Abstract:

Assessment appears to be all too common in the instructional setting; yet, it often misses the opportunity to make meaningful improvements to effectively enhance student learning and to determine if course and program learning outcomes are being achieved. Utilizing a writing rubric, this project assessed student learning in a health management course at two different time periods. The first step was to select a program learning outcome to be assessed (i.e., articulate the role of supervisors, managers, directors, and administrators in health services organizations). Once this was done, a course focused on the selected learning outcome was chosen for assessment. Then, a specific assignment matching the learning outcome was assigned a writing rubric adapted for the assignment. The rubric purposefully had two key indicators that were relevant to the learning outcome ([1] addressing the assignment related to understanding an administrator's role and [2] analysis/argument related to understanding the importance of an administrator's role in health care). The initial assessment occurred in 2016 (N=26). About 21.7% of the students showed proficiency in addressing the assignment and 4.3% showed proficiency in analysis/argument. Based on the results, an improvement plan was developed to enhance the assessed assignment. The goal was to improve proficiency among students by five percentage points. Reassessment was done in 2018 (N=47). Approximately 23.4% of the students were proficient in addressing the assignment and 8.5% were proficient in analysis/arguments. Proficiency was defined as having highly developed skills with a holistic capture of the complexity of the task with evidence of creativity and sophistication. While the results were below a five percentage increase for both indicators, there was an overall improvement in the targeted learning outcome from one data collection period to the next. Intentional assessment to improve the quality of course delivery has the potential to aid students in meeting learning outcomes.

Keywords:

Assessment, Continuous Improvement.