Stephen Bothwell
ABSTRACT
Curriculum assessment is a critical but arduous task. It yields insight into the strengths and weaknesses of our programs, outlining paths for curriculum improvement. However, current methods of assessment are often viewed as burdensome, as disorganized, or even as unfruitful. A lack of consistent assessment makes determining the impact of program modifications to be extremely difficult, if not impossible. Even when issues are identified, lengthy and backloaded assessments do not leave any time to address these issues for the assessed students. To overcome the obstacles of program assessment, we have constructed the Continuous Assessment Database System (CADS). This system conducts direct assessment of student prerequisite knowledge at each semester's outset. By tracking prerequisite knowledge, we determine whether students recall the crucial elements of our curriculum. Furthermore, educators receive data on students' preparedness early in the semester, allowing for them to adapt their courses to best meet student needs. In order to generate informative reports for faculty each term, CADS maps its assessment questions to student information, to CS knowledge topics, to departmental student learning outcomes, and to taxonomic mastery levels. These reports visualize current data against historical data and present deeper examinations of significant data shifts for causal analysis. Different diagrams give insight into specific courses, while others examine student learning across the entire CS program via diverse mappings. Overall, CADS provides a model for using technology to craft an expedient form of program assessment that dynamizes a curriculum. This paper details our CADS implementation.
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Index Terms
- The Return Statement: Establishing a Continuous Assessment Database System for Consistent Program Feedback
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