Key Terms

Key Terms

GCU's Office of Assessment seeks to remain flexible when it comes to assessment vocabulary in order to preserve each college's distinct disciplinary vocabulary and to avoid redundancy in reporting assessment results for those colleges which must also report to specialized accrediting agencies. Thus, some terms, such as objectives, goals, and learning outcomes, might be used to mean almost the same things as domains, sub-domains, and competencies at different times, in different disciplinary documents. However, for the most part, these terms are used at GCU in the following ways when talking about assessment:

Assessment: Collection and analysis of information about student learning and institutional effectiveness.

1. Assessment is best accomplished through multiple means. No single measure can adequately capture complex constructs such as teaching, student learning, or institutional effectiveness.
2. Assessment of student learning can be quantitative or qualitative but is most often a combination of both.
3. Assessment of institutional effectiveness is most often quantitative, although at times, qualitative data might be collected.
4. Assessment is an essential component of the continuous improvement process and is undertaken at GCU for two reasons: first and most important, to improve student learning, and second, to improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of institutional systems and processes (most often referred to as "institutional effectiveness").

Competencies: the specific skills developed within a program of study, or in other words, what students should be able to do after completing the program. In GCU Program Maps, domains and sub-domains are associated with specific competencies developed in individual courses.

Domains and Sub-Domains: the educational tracks, themes, and expectations in a particular course or set of courses. Specifically, a domain is a key thematic element that runs throughout a program, including domains derived from the mission statement, while sub-domains are organizational elements (overarching sub-themes) within the domain. Used at GCU primarily in the Program Designs and Maps which are produced for each program/program of study through the CDD.

Formative Assessment: uses assessment information as immediate feedback to improve performance and is therefore used by individual faculty members in their daily teaching activities. Formative assessment is also used at the program level as a way to determine curricular modifications needed when students in specific courses have not met stated learning outcomes.

Goals: the educational expectations of a planned program or set of programs, such as the "goals" of a particular college or the overall GCU "goals." The term is associated primarily with program- and institutional-level assessment.

Objectives: the educational expectations of a planned course of learning experiences, or in other words, the skills that students develop within a specific course, expressed in terms of Bloom's taxonomy. The term "objectives" is thus primarily associated with course-level assessment and is generally used as synonymous with "expected learning outcomes."

Student Learning Outcomes or Learning Outcomes: the expected learning outcomes of an educational experience or a series of educational experiences (e.g., assignment outcomes, course outcomes, program outcomes, etc). Learning outcomes are most often associated with course and program-level assessment.

Summative Assessment: does not provide a learning experience. The goal of summative assessment is to make a judgment of student competency after an instructional phase is complete. A department or program would conduct summative assessment at the completion of the major or the end of the program to ensure students have met the major or program goals and objectives.