Drs. Jeanne Horst, Sara Finney, and Keston Fulcher of James Madison University’s Center for Assessment and Research Studies and Drs. Marsha Lovett and Chad Hershock of Carnegie Mellon University’s Eberly Center continue a year-long collaboration.  Most recently, they collaborated on a webinar on learning improvement, sponsored by Educause, June 4^th, 2019, 1:00-2:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.  

The collaboration between programs led to identification of commonalities underlying their two contexts. Although quite different on the surface, the two programs share the common goal of assessment for learning improvement. Both employ a backwards design process, in which all phases are tightly aligned to desired student learning outcomes. Following a brief description of each program, the webinar includes explanation of the core principles of assessment that are common to their work. Case studies are used to illustrate how each principle is applied in practice. Participants across a wide range of backgrounds and contexts should gain a basic understanding of the student learning assessment cycle, and the importance of alignment across each stage. These principles and approaches are transferable to numerous contexts, whether courses, programs or instructional technologies are the objects of evidence-based learning improvement.