CRLT Assessment & Evaluation Services

If you are looking for teaching evaluations, please contact the Registrar's Office [1], 647-3626.

Assessment for Curriculum Improvement

CRLT's Director of Assessment and Instructional Consultants work with chairs, associate deans, and departmental committees engaged in assessing student learning for curricular improvement or accreditation.

All of CRLT's assessment projects have two defining characteristics:

They are led by faculty responsible for the curriculum or the courses being assessed, with CRLT providing support and expertise as necessary
They are action-oriented, generating data of interest to faculty and faculty committees responsible for improving their courses or curricula.

CRLT provides the following services to support the assessment of student learning:

Consulting

Discussion of assessment plans for departments or evaluation plans for educational grants
Consultation with chairs and deans on assessment of curriculum

Facilitating Workshops and Retreats

Retreat planning and facilitation to help faculty identify develop a mission statement or identify learning objectives
Discussion of assessment data, to come to consensus on key next steps for enhancing a curriculum
Discussion of curricular cohesion/gaps, through curricular mapping exercises

Assisting with Data Collection

Design, implementation and reporting on student and alumni surveys
Focus groups with students, faculty and staff (e.g., to collect information on the reported impact of curricular changes or climate for learning)
Collection and analysis of student work (i.e., direct measures of student learning)
Discussion of how to use embedded assessments to efficiently provide data for assessment purposes

Providing Grants and Resources

Gilbert Whitaker Fund: [2]Support for larger-scale departmental, school or college assessment projects
Investigating Student Learning: [3] Funding for scholarship of teaching and learning projects for a course or courses
Examples of discipline-specific approaches to assessment
Web resources and articles on assessment

Supporting Dissemination of Results

Opportunities at poster fairs, seminars, and workshops where faculty discuss their work. Examples are:
- Teaching: What Are They Learning? Approaches to Assessing Student Learning [4] (From the Fall 2009 Provost's Seminar on Teaching)
- Materials from the LSA Assessment Symposium, May 18, 2009 [5]
- Materials from Investigating Student Learning poster fairs, 2009-present [6]
Advice about assessment conferences and journals for publication of assessment findings

For more information contact Mary Wright, Director of Assessment at CRLT by calling 936-1135 or sending an email to mcwright@umich.edu [7].

CRLT Assessment of Student Learning Projects

Click to see a list of the assessment and evaluation projects in which CRLT consultants are currently or were recently engaged (as of September 2012). While there are just a subset of all of the projects on campus, they represent a wide range of schools, colleges, and departments, and are representative of the types of assessment and evaluation activities taking place across the U-M campus.

You can browse the full list of projects below or navigate to a particular unit using the list below:

Central Administration or University-wide Projects

Provost’s Seminar on Teaching in Fall 2009 for 100 faculty on “What Are They Learning? Approaches to Assessing Student Learning,” [8] with a keynote address by Carol Schneider, President of AAC&U, a poster fair on faculty assessment projects, and concurrent sessions on approaches to assessment.
Assessment of the President’s Multidisciplinary Learning and Team Teaching (MLTT) Initiative including data collection across all courses that have been funded by the project and assessment of student learning for new courses. Data collection includes a survey of students about skills learned and applied to other contexts, interviews with faculty, and implementation of rubrics for instructors, student teams and individual students to assess student learning. MLTT courses include:
PUBPOL 201, SEAS 215, CSCS 281/POLSCI 281, UARTS 250, WOMENSTUD 432.002, GEOSCI 334.721, MATSCI 493.033/ARCH 409.001/ARTDES 300.010, INFO 410.001, and SW 305.001.
Assessment of student success in the Community College Transfer Initiative, comparing course grades of transfer students’ and non-transfer students of comparable standing, overall and by school/college.
Winter 2010 & Fall 2010 Whitaker Fund for the Improvement of Teaching [9] grants competition focused on assessment projects at the department, school, or college level.
Investigating Student Learning [10] (ISL) [10] grants competition for faculty interested in studying the impact of their teaching approaches on student learning (i.e., the scholarship of teaching and learning), including CRLT staff support with project design and execution.
Assessment of LectureTools (an interactive educational technology system used in large lectures) and courses that use laptops to determine impact on student learning and ways that faculty can use the technology in more pedagogically effective ways.Data collection included student surveys and interviews with instructors. Courses surveyed include: POLSCI 101, ENVIRON 110/AOSS 171/BIO 110/ENSCEN 171/GEOSCI 171, EDUC 601, EDUC 737, BIO 100, NURS 454, NURS 357, AOSS 105/CHEM 105/ENSCEN 105/ENVIRON 105, POLSCI 160, GEOSCI 119/ENVIRON 119, EDUC 604, EDUC 665, BIO 101, NURS 458, NURS 354 and ENVIRON 201. Findings about this study have been disseminated through a CRLT Occasional Paper, Lecture capture: A guide for effective use [11].
Fall and Winter seminar series for faculty and GSIs that often features programs on assessment, e.g., Assessing Multicultural Learning; Classroom Assessment Techniques; Are They Learning What You Are Teaching? Analyzing Student Learning for Course Revision, Assessment, or Accreditation
Midterm student feedback [12] service, helping over 15,000 U-M students per year, which offers anonymous feedback for instructors about what students feel is working well for their learning and what changes they would suggest
Resource for the Academic Affairs Advising Committee (AAAC) of the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs (SACUA), Fall 2010.
Evaluation of the On-Job/On-Campus (OJ/OC) Program, a joint executive master’s degree offered by Medicine, Pharmacy, and Public Health.
Representation of University of Michigan in a collaboration between the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) and the Committee on Insitutional Cooperation (CIC, Big Ten Universities plus the University of Chicago). CRLT participated in multiple meetings and online dicussions to share best practices for measuring and communicating assessment data.

School, College, and Departmental Projects

Architecture & Urban Planning

Workshop for faculty about planning, developing, and assessing capstone courses, in support of the college’s review of the curriculum.
Consultations on new curriculum initiatives.

Art & Design

Long-term assessment of new undergraduate international experience requirement, involving student surveys, instructor focus groups and work analysis

Business

Design and facilitation of retreat for B.B.A. curriculum, in preparation for accreditation visit.
Evaluation of BA 201, involving a survey and focus groups of seniors and groups of students
Consultation with faculty in the Center for International Business Education to determine course-taking patterns for students after UC 245 (with a particular emphasis on courses with international topics)
Consultation on assessment of the Executive Education Program

Dentistry

In collaboration with the School’s Assessment Committee, development of a plan for evaluating the School’s new predoctoral curriculum. In support of this plan, CRLT conducted multiple focus groups with students and faculty and coordinated retreats to support key findings.
Assistance with evaluation of online Dental Hygiene program
Workshop on assessing student performance in clinical situations for Periodontics
Assistance with a Whitaker I grant for assessing integrative and lifelong learning through MPortfolios
Assistance with an Investigating Student Learning Grant project on changes in dental hygiene student perceptions as a result of service learning experiences

Education

Assistance with Investigating Student Learning Grant projects on:
- Assessment of student learning from instructor engagement in the Ann Arbor Languages Partnership (A2LP)
- Assessment of novice teacher learning through videotaped “rehearsals”
- Records of practice: Means for engaging students in the examination of how the complex and adaptive practices of teaching might be understood and learned.
Frequent consultations with faculty to help them design the evaluation components of agency- and foundation-funded grant proposals

Engineering

College-Level

Collaboration on research project analyzing the impact of screencasts and related innovations on student learning, with attention to impact of students from diverse demographic and academic subgroups.
Assessment of student learning outcomes in the M-STEM program
Faculty discussions in 2009 of College-wide curricular goals for the new Curriculum for the 21st Century
Assistance with a Whitaker I grant for investigating the efficacy of screencasts as learning tools in college of engineering courses
Assessment of the impact of gateway exams in introductory courses
Coordination of annual poster fair that features assessment projects. Links to these posters can be found here: http://www.engin.umich.edu/teaching/crltnorth/researchscholarship/poster/index.html [13].
Consultation about NSF GK12 grant evaluation plan for the Office of Engineering Outreach and Engagement
Frequent consultations with faculty in the Office of Engineering Outreach and Engagement to help them design the evaluation components of agency- and foundation-funded grant proposals
Participation in a meeting to strategize about the ABET assessment process
Research study on the question, “Does enrollment in Applied Honors Calculus II have a positive causal impact on subsequent academic performance for engineering students at the University of Michigan? Published in Mesa, V., Jaquette, O., & Finelli, C. J. (2009, Oct.). Measuring the impact of an individual course on students’ success. Journal of Engineering Education, 98(4), 349-359.
Assistance with Investigating Student Learning Grant projects on:
- The impact of first-year design-build-test courses in engineering
- The development of engineering students into design practitioners as a result of interdisciplinary design team experiences
- The art and science of story-telling in the engineering classroom
- Inquiry-based learning in an introductory course on semiconductor devices
- The impact of a Wiki site on TAs’ teaching experiences
- A systematic assessment of the benefits of active learning in undergraduate aerodynamics
- The effect of group gender composition on student learning in undergraduate engineering project teams
- Self-teaching materials for large lecture courses
- The impact of streaming lecture on class dynamics and learning
- Developing pedagogical methods that facilitate the translation of problems into computer programming solutions
- Fostering the entrepreneurial mindset in the engineering classroom
- Team-based term projects in undergraduate engineering mechanics
- Using screencasts to enhance student learning in a large lecture material science and engineering course
- LectureTools
- Evaluation of student learning in EECS 314 labs
- Prediction of student success in a first-year programming course

Department-Level

Evaluation of Chemical Engineering 342/343 course sequence
Research project focusing on the impact of theatre sketches about student-focused teamwork in Engineering 100
Research project comparing the academic success of qualified engineering students who take applied honors math and those who do not (collaboration with Mathematics and the School of Education)
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science curriculum review, involving focus groups of first-year students, second-/third-year students and seniors
Evaluation of online modules in Material Science 330 on critical thinking
For Material Science Engineering 220 (MSE 220), assessment of use, usefulness, and impact of podcasts, through student self-reports, website data, and an analysis of the impact of the podcast usage on course grade, controlling for concentration in Engineering, standing (sophomore, junior, senior), GPA, ACT or SAT scores, race/ethnicity, and gender

Frequent consultations with faculty in Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences; Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Materials Science and Engineering; and Mechanical Engineering to help them design the evaluation components of agency- and foundation-funded grant proposals

Information

Assessment of student learning in the core master’s course (SI 500)
Consultation on design of assessment of student learning in SI 626.

Kinesiology

Curriculum evaluation for two departments, involving focus groups, surveys of upperclassmen, alumni surveys, and retreat planning to discuss implications of the findings.
Consultation on evaluation of Jack Kent Cooke seed grant

Law School

Evaluation of the Michigan Access Program (MAP), involving surveys and focus groups

Literature, Science and the Arts

College-Level

Assistance with research design for assessment of Michigan Learning Communities.
Consultation and design of feedback form for evaluation of the Understanding Race Project, in support of the Winter 2013 theme semester.
Assessment of the Quantitative Reasoning Requirement [14], including a large survey of QR1 takers and a control group, analysis of results, consultations with LSA Dean’s Office, and departments about survey results and implications for findings. Departments included Communication Studies, Economics, Mathematics, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Sociology, and Statistics.
Assessment of two aspects of the Writing Requirement: the placement process for the introductory writing requirement and the overall effectiveness of the upper-level writing requirement
Assessment Symposium in 2009 for department chairs to share approaches to assessing student learning
Design, implementation, and data analysis of experiment examining the impact of different types of metacognitive strategies on improving disciplinary writing and thinking in Upper-Level Writing courses and implications of faculty feedback on student writing (a project funded by Teagle and Spencer Foundations). Courses included in the study include ECON 432, PSYCH 351, and POLSCI 409.
Research project on the role of GSls in undergraduate retention in the sciences, including a survey of students in gateway courses in Biology, Chemistry, Math, and Physics; analysis of results; consultations with LSA Dean's Office and graduate chairs in relevant departments about survey results. Findings were also disseminated through CRLT Occasional Paper No. 25, Teaching for retention in science, engineering, and math disciplines: A guide for faculty [15].
A multi-year assessment of the impact of personal response systems (clickers) on student learning and satisfaction. Data were collected through student surveys and instructor interviews, and findings were disseminated to instructors and through CRLT Occasional Paper No. 22, Teaching with clickers. Data were collected from students and instructors in the following courses: ASTRO 101, ASTRO 102, ASTRO 111, ASTRO 112, BIO 100, BIO 171, BIO 172, CHEM 100, CHEM 130, CHEM 200, CHEM 260, CHEM 261, COMM 478, MCDB 418, PHYSICS 125, PHYSICS 126, PHYSICS 140, PHYSICS 288, PSYCH 240, SOC 100 and SOC 210.
Consultation on evaluation of Science Learning Center activities

Department-Level

American Culture

Evaluation of Latina/o Studies curriculum, including focus groups with undergraduate concentrators and graduate students in a new certificate program, and a survey of students in the gateway course

Center for Japanese Studies

Assistance in developing evaluation plan for a successful grant proposal to fund new graduate student fellowships in an interdisciplinary master's program.

Chemistry

Assistance with evaluation of enhanced podcasts in Chem 125-126
Assistance with an Investigating Student Learning Grant project on concurrent versus non-concurrent enrollment in natural and physical science lecture and laboratory courses
Assistance with a Whitaker I grant for assessing learning resources in large lecture science classes

Comprehensive Studies

Consultation on assessment of netbook use in English 125 and 225

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Presentation of workshop in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology on formative techniques for assessing student learning
Assistance with Investigating Student Learning Grant project on cognitive constraints on undergraduates' understanding of evolution

English Language and Literature

Evaluation of hevruta pedagogy in English 313 and English 407
Assistance with an Investigating Student Learning Grant projects on:
- Identifying and serving “Generation 1.5” writers at the University of Michigan
- Examining how students perform close readings in a large lecture course (English 350)

History

Assistance with an Investigating Student Learning Grant project on fostering critical engagement and cross-cultural comparison
In collaboration with the department’s curriculum committee, CRLT designed, conducted, and analyzed the results of focus groups and two large surveys of undergraduates about influences on course selection. Findings were presented to the associate chair and head of the curriculum committee in support of a department retreat.

Linguistics

Assistance with an Investigating Student Learning Grant project on evaluating the Bluestream database for linguistics learning and teaching

Mathematics

Assistance with an Investigating Student Learning Grant project on structuring evaluation to improve mathematical writing, reading and problem solving

Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology

Assistance with Investigating Student Learning Grant projects on:
- Teaching of the central dogma using physical models in an active-learning classroom
- Evaluating techniques to improve student learning in a large lecture genetics course

Museum Studies Program (MSP)

Facilitation of two focus groups with students enrolled in the MSP certificate program, to support curriculum review.

Near Eastern Studies

Deisgn, distribution, and analysis of student surveys about course selection criteria in 4 large courses.
Design, distribution, and analysis of survey about website and slide database tool for ACABS 277.
Assistance with Investigating Student Learning Grant project on language learning strategies and student motivation in the Arabic classroom

Physics

Consultation on evaluation of Physics 140
Assistance with a Whitaker I and II Grant, and EDUCAUSE Next Generation Learning Challenge Grant, for institutionalizing assessment as part of introductory course reform in physics. CRLT staff conducted interviews with undergraduates about their approach to studying physics and surveyed Science Learning Center study group leaders.

Political Science

Consultations on incorporating metacognitive activities into a course on 20th-century political theory and evaluation of the impact of those interventions as part of a Teagle-/Spencer-funded project on the systematic improvement of education

Program in the Environment

Consultation with a faculty advisory board and facilitation of a faculty retreat in preparation for a departmental self-study.

Psychology

Assistance with evaluation of video technology in two large courses
Assistance with Investigating Student Learning Grant projects on:
- Assessing deep knowledge of statistical concepts
- Evaluating student learning in intergroup dialogue (IGR) facilitation training and practicum courses
Assistance with evaluation of new course created through NSF CAREER Grant.

Residential College

Assistance with an Investigating Student Learning Grant project on pedagogical implications of individual interview assignments through international teleconference using Skype

Romance Languages and Literatures

Assessment of impact of curricular modules on students’ intercultural competence across multiple sections of Spanish 231
Consultation on an intercultural development survey for Spanish 232

Screen Arts and Cultures

Screen Arts and Cultures curriculum review, including a survey of concentrators and students in the gateway course, as well as a focus group with majors

Sociology

Assistance with an Investigating Student Learning Grant project on understanding the value-added of peer-facilitated community service learning in Project Community (SOC 389)

Sweetland Writing Center

Assistance with a Whitaker I grant for assessing the LSA upper-level writing requirement
Assistance with an Investigating Student Learning Grant projects on:
- Investigating student learning with writing modules in SWC 100: Writing Practicum
- Evaluation of the Dissertation Writing Institute

Medicine

Evidence-based medicine curriculum research project in Pediatrics
Participation with Medicine and Education in a poster fair featuring projects involving assessment
Assistance with Investigating Student Learning Grant projects on:
- How student presentations enhance second-year Pathology students’ analytical skills and confidence
- Enhancing the geriatric psychiatry rotation for medical and nursing students
- The influence of classical and electronic educational resources on students' learning success in the first-year Medical School histology component at the University of Michigan
Frequent consultations with Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences faculty to help them design the evaluation components of agency- and foundation-funded grant proposals
Assistance with a Whitaker II grant for feedback on clinical skills (FCS)
Assistance with a Whitaker I grant for creation and evaluation of a web-based breast disease curriculum

Music, Theatre & Dance

Assistance with Investigating Student Learning Grant project on mindfulness in college class piano

Natural Resources and Environment

Assessment of student learning outcomes in the new required core curriculum for master’s students (NRE 509, NRE 510, & NRE 580), and facilitation of a faculty discussion about implications of the findings
Consultation and planning for development of course and curricular learning objectives to prepare for next accreditation in Landscape Architecture
Consultation on evaluation plan for NSF Science Master’s Program proposal
Assistance with a Whitaker I grant for an evaluation of a new core curriculum for SNRE’s Interdisciplinary Professional Master's Program

Nursing

Discussion of program evaluation course design in Nursing
Evaluation design for Web-based curriculum project in library/informatics services
Survey assessment of community health nursing clinical experience
Assistance with Investigating Student Learning Grant projects on enhancing the geriatric psychiatry rotation for medical and nursing students
Frequent consultations with faculty to help them design the evaluation components of agency- and foundation-funded grant proposals
Design and facilitation of multiple focus groups to support curriculum evaluation

Pharmacy

Consultations and literature review to inform assessment of new team-based learning approaches
Evaluation of impact of pedagogical innovations for pharmaceutical care labs (P551-552) in second-year pharmacy curriculum, involving student surveys and instructor focus groups
Assessment of “Proposal Wizard,” an online student proposal writing guide
Evaluation the conversion of P430: Nonprescription Therapeutics and Self-Care from a large lecture course to one structured around team-based learning.

Public Health

Consultations for Health Management and Policy assessment plan including curriculum map, and exit survey design
Collection and analysis of student feedback for Health Behavior and Health Education capstone course
Assessment of NIH graduate training program in Center for Statistical Genetics

Public Policy

Multi-year curricular review and assessment of master’s program, including surveys of faculty, students, alumni, and employers
Implemented an evaluation plan for the revised Winter 2010 Integrated Policy Exercise (IPE)
Implemented an evaluation plan for the revised Fall 2010 core politics courses
Assistance with an Investigating Student Learning project on policy students’ experience of learning by doing case-study wikis
Consultation on Ford School internship assessment processes

Rackham Graduate Studies

Evaluation of graduate student program review for Rackham
Evaluation of Rackham Health Initiative programming
Consultation on evaluation of new PLAN initiative for professional development of graduate students
Assistance with evaluation of the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships

Social Work

Multi-year assessment of the new doctoral curriculum, with student focus groups and surveys
Faculty Development Fund Grant to document outcomes in the School's Community Based Service Learning Initiative and comparison of outcomes to students not part of CBI.
Faculty Development Fund Grant to document student and faculty learning in the 17 courses that focus intensively on the core issues of Privilege, Oppression, Diversity and Social Justice (PODS) to inform curriculum and faculty development efforts
Assistance with Whitaker I and II grants to develop a process for creation of student portfolios to assess the impact of the curriculum's intensive focus on PODS in a variety of settings including field placements.
Assistance with an Investigating Student Learning Grant project that examines social work students’ understanding of their future roles and functions as mental health providers
Consultation on evaluation of University of Michigan Sexual Health Certificate Program and SSW extension courses

Projects for Other Units at U-M

Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute

Consulted on strategies for evaluating campus-wide initiatives on teaching sustainability.

Libraries

Consultation on Provost’s assessment plan for Library UC 174 and workshops
Consultation on evaluation of study groups and assessment of one possible concentration
Consultation with library team on UC 170 course evaluation
Consultation on assessment plan for instructional podcasts

Sample Assessment and Evaluation projects at the University of Michigan

Posters presented at CRLT's 50th Anniversary celebration

Consultations on Teaching: Benefits for Engineering Faculty [16] (.pdf)
Cynthia Finelli, CRLT

Developing Intercultural Competence in Art & Design Students: Evaluation of the Impact of an International Experience Requirement [17] (.pdf)
Joseph Trumpey, Art, School of Art & Design
Mary Wright, CRLT

Enhancing the Geriatric Psychiatry Rotation for Medical Students: From Passivity to Participation [18] (.pdf)
Mary Blazek, Psychiatry, Medical School
Laura Struble, School of Nursing
Graduate student collaborators: Andre Cavalcante, Communication Studies, LSA, and Johanna Masse, School of Education

Online Quiz Use in a Large Lecture Genetics Course [19] (.pdf)
Patricia J. Wittkopp, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, LSA
Graduate student collaborator: Lisa Sramkoski, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, LSA

Teaching Close Reading Skills in a Large Lecture Course [20] (.pdf)
Theresa Tinkle, English Language and Literature, LSA
Graduate student collaborators: Daphna Atias, Ruth McAdams, and Cordelia Zukerman, English Language and Literature, LSA

Identifying and Serving Generation 1.5 Writers at the University of Michigan [21] (.pdf)
Anne Ruggles Gere, English Language and Literature, LSA
Graduate student collaborators: Laura Aull, Timothy Green, and Ann Porter Christie Toth, Sweetland Center for Writing/Joint Program in English and Education

LSA Quantitative Reasoning Assessment [22] (.pdf)
Mary Wright, CRLT

Assessment [23]
Evaluation [24]