Thursday, 18 September 2003
Western Michigan University

Introduction
Many faculty members have heard about learning objectives and assessment, and some have begun to apply these ideas to their courses. The one-day workshop is designed to enhance faculty members’ ability to use these ideas in their courses. First, workshop participants will examine advantages and drawbacks to using learning objectives so that an instructor can construct a more informed foundation using learning objectives. Next, workshop participants will construct specifications for learning objectives and write or revise learning objectives for their own courses using these specifications. Finally, participants will develop assessment processes and tools for their learning objectives.

The one-day workshop will be a hands-on, small-group, interactive workshop.

Objectives: Participants will gain experience in

• Describing the rationale for preparing and using learning objectives in an individual course
• Preparing specifications for high-quality learning objectives
• Writing learning objectives for a single course
• Preparing specifications for assessment processes/tools
• Generating alternative assessment processes/tools for a single course
• Selecting assessment processes/tools for a single course

Participant Background Requirements
• Experience in teaching an engineering course

Agenda
Background for learning objectives

Specifications for learning objectives
• Requirements for specifications
• Team exercise: develop a set of specifications for learning objectives
• Workshop exercise: improve sets of specifications for learning objectives

Writing learning objectives
• Individual exercise: write objectives for a course or a portion of a course
• Team exercise: review individual objectives
• Workshop exercise: develop a list of suggestions for writing learning objectives
• Individual exercises: revise objectives Team exercise: review individual objectives
• Workshop exercise: reflection

Background for classroom assessment

Specifications for assessment processes/tools
• Team exercise: develop a set of specifications for assessment processes/tools
• Workshop exercise: improve sets of specifications for assessment processes/tools

Background on alternatives for assessment processes/tools

Generating alternatives for assessment processes/tools
• Team exercise: select some learning objectives and generate alternative assessment processes/tools
• Individual exercise: critique the set of alternatives that have been developed with respective to using one or more of them in your class
• Team exercise: share individual critiques

Selecting assessment processes/tools
• Individual exercise: select a set of learning objectives and generate alternative assessment processes/tools
• Individual exercise: select one or more assessment processes/tools that you would use in your course
• Team exercise: share and review choices of assessment processes/tools

Review workshop activities

Readings
Felder, R., and Brent, R. (2003), "Designing and teaching courses to satisfy the ABET engineering criteria," J. Engr. Ed. 92:1, 7–25. Available on the World Wide Web at http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/Papers/ABET_Paper_(JEE).pdf.

Besterfield-Sacre, M., Shuman, L., Wolfe, H., Atman, C., McGourty, J., Miller, R., Olds, B., and Rogers, G. (2000), “Defining the outcomes: a framework for EC 2000,” IEEE Trans. Engr. Ed.43:2, 100–110. Available on the World Wide Web at http://www.engr.pitt.edu/~ec2000/grant_papers/MBS+IEEE-2000-act.pdf.

Writing Performance Objectives. Available on the World Wide Web at http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/writeobj.htm.

Wood, D., Felder, R., Rugarcia, A., and Stice, J. (2000), "The future of engineering education III: developing critical skills," Chem. Engr. Ed. 34:2, 108–117. Available on the World Wide Web at http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/Papers/Quartet3.pdf.

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