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Keywords

alignment, assessment, curriculum, general education, post-secondary education, quantitative literacy, undergraduate education

Abstract

In this analysis, we examine how course assessment items were aligned with learning objectives in a quantitative literacy course at Michigan State University. The alignment analysis consisted of mapping assessment items to a list of operationalized learning objectives from the course. Our analysis shows how often the learning objectives are represented in assessment items, how often they are paired with other learning objectives, and how influential they are in contributing to a student’s course grade. In addition, through comparisons across four assessment types (e.g., exams and homework), we show how each learning objective was assessed differently within each assessment type. The most frequently represented learning objectives in the particular course we studied concern the creation and interpretation of graphical representations; these learning objectives were assessed relatively evenly across the assessment types. However, those learning objectives often co-occurred with other objectives in assessment items, and the point values per item associated with these objectives were less than those for other objectives. Our study shows how quantitative literacy learning objectives can vary with assessment type in a course, and also provides numeracy scholars with an analysis technique suitable for use at their respective institutions.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5038/1936-4660.12.2.10

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

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