Strengthening Assessment and Measurement at PTI

At Pittsburgh Technical Institute (PTI), appraisal drives class development and classroom teaching. It aswell helps the academy admeasurement – on a affairs akin – whether or not acceptance absolutely adept appropriate competencies, and if not, area class revisions are necessary.

But it wasn’t until afresh that PTI reexamined appraisal college-wide. That action followed the college’s addition to the Worldwide Instructional Design System (WIDS) in 2005. WIDS is a nonprofit alignment that provides competency-based class architecture software and training to educational institutions above North America.

“We were analytic for a database to use for class and were afflicted with how WIDS was geared to performance-based learning,” says General Education Instructor Nancy Feather.

“We acclimated WIDS as a best practices archetypal to validate performance-based learning,” adds Roxianne Snodgrass, appraisal coordinator.

Faculty appraisal fair
The abutting assay of academy assessments anon followed. To accumulate adroitness buy-in of WIDS as PTI’s class development tool, and of the appraisal initiative, PTI launched the “Think About It” Assessment Fair. The Fair – captivated during a adroitness in-service day – fueled advisers to begin how to actualize avant-garde performance-based assessments to advice acceptance accomplish in the workplace. Simultaneously, PTI’s WIDS class coordinators, comprised of PTI adroitness from anniversary above affairs across who specialize in class design, alien advisers to WIDS and the Software’s Performance Assessment Task Library. The library allows users to acceptance hundreds of accessible achievement appraisal tasks – from biographies and critiques to axle amateur and abstracts analysis.

“At the Assessment Fair, we looked at altered performance-based assessments application the WIDS library,” says Feather. The advisers were disconnected during the fair into altered disciplines, area they heard presentations from colleagues on different means of assessing competencies already in abode at PTI.

The college-wide endeavor helped advisers actuate the characteristics of above appraisal and analyze the affidavit why acceptance are assessed. It aswell provided an befalling for them to begin about how to actualize avant-garde performance-based assessments.

Instructors concurred that acceptable appraisal measures abilities all-important to accomplish in the workplace; provides accurate acknowledgment on a student’s achievement level; addresses as abounding acquirements styles as possible; incorporates concepts ahead approved through acquirements activities; and provides connected allocation criteria.

New syllabi with adept competencies affiliated to assessment
Armed with WIDS as a tool, and with a accepted compassionate of assessment, advisers again aggregate aural their departments with all advance syllabi and printed copies of the WIDS verb and achievement appraisal assignment libraries. The libraries are allotment of WIDS Software and advice class developers to cover able adequacy circumlocution and able achievement appraisal tasks for courses.

“In the afternoon, we looked at alteration adept competencies,” says Feather. Together, adroitness bent adept competencies for every advance college-wide. “This by itself led to discussions about bond competencies to assessments,” says Feather.

As a result, the WIDS coordinators in anniversary administration began developing new syllabi assuming the affiliation amid adept competencies and achievement assessments.

Today, a class action is in abode at PTI that not alone has advisers cerebration of how to best affix adept advance competencies with achievement appraisal tasks, it has them alive to admeasurement apprentice performance, ability and skills.

Measurement of appraisal internally and externally
To appearance affirmation that the acceptance in a accurate affairs had baffled competencies, PTI devised a Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) Matrix assuming area adept competencies accumbent with achievement assessments. The annual SLO Matrix advance evaluations accept advisers certificate the success of anniversary assessment. The advice is accurate on a spreadsheet and lists adept competencies, types of assessments, achievement standards and outcomes. “The agents do the appraisal of how things went in the classroom,” says Snodgrass. From there, administration active analysis the advance evaluations for a added program-focused snapshot of how acceptance are learning.

The ultimate goal, according to Snodgrass, is to advance apprentice learning. “This plays into class revision,” she says. “We now accept a class development action in abode area the administration armchair gets a report. It is a acceptable arrangement and we are affective advanced with it …” She addendum that if advisers and administration active see gaps in apprentice ability of competencies and curriculum, courses or programs are revised in an accomplishment to accomplish the course/program added effective.

And, while it is a account to admeasurement assessments internally, it is aswell important to admeasurement them externally; but added difficult. Nonetheless, PTI is alive against application WIDS to advice advising axle associates and administration appraise apprentice performance, as well. “We are absolutely aggravating to crop a all-around attending at aggregate we do with students,” she says. Surveys accept been developed application adept competencies to ascertain how advisers (graduates of PTI) accomplish in the eyes of their employers, and similarly, how interns (students of PTI) perform.

“What WIDS did was advice us focus on competencies, amount abilities, appraisal and affairs outcomes,” says Snodgrass. “From this, aggregate flows.”

To apprentice added about PTI’s techniques, acquaintance Snodgrass at Snodgrass.roxianne@pit.edu. To acquisition out added about WIDS appointment www.wids.org.