Teaching and Learning

Developing meaningful and effective program-level assessment is a complex, iterative process. Faculty conduct significant work toward continuous improvement of curriculum, instruction, and assessment that does not necessarily show up in the specific task of measuring student achievement. These assessment activities offer ways for faculty to think about student learning in the curriculum and how to […]

The Office of Assessment of Teaching and Learning (ATL) is pleased to offer collaborative assignment design charrettes and mini-workshops to WSU faculty and departments, adapted to meet goals, needs, and individual or group contexts. Developing powerful, clear assignments is one of the most consequential intellectual tasks that faculty undertake in their work as educators. Assignments […]

WSU faculty had a unique opportunity over the summer to enhance high-impact culminating senior experiences for students. On May 25-26, WSU hosted a two-day workshop with Dr. Patricia Hutchings, senior scholar with the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA), and previously senior scholar and vice president at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of […]

Room 118 in Carpenter Hall in the School of Design and Construction contains tables stacked with syllabi and assignment prompts. Every wall is covered with design presentation boards and other student work. The room holds course materials from every required course in the Interior Design curriculum along with samples of student products from all courses […]

Should more producers utilize bovine growth hormone to meet the 100% expected increase in global food needs by 2064? This is the sort of question tackled by students in Agricultural and Food Systems (AFS). In the AFS senior capstone course, students are provided with the opportunity to apply scientific inquiry, critical thinking, and problem solving […]

WSU Teaching Academy members are pleased to offer several individual services for the Washington State University teaching community: Class Observation/Syllabus Analysis and Feedback Guidance for Creating Teaching Portfolios and/or Preparing for Tenure or Promotion Applications Individual Mentoring Group Mentoring To request a service, send an email to Chuck Munson, Teaching Academy Chair, at: munson@wsu.edu. Requests can […]

Last year, WSU piloted the use of the Science Literacy Concept Inventory (SLCI) to assess whether the curriculum as a whole is developing scientifically literate students. The SLCI is designed to gauge students’ grasp of science as a way of knowing and of the scientific processes required for personal decision-making, participation in civic affairs, economic productivity and […]

On March 28th, more than 100 judges (faculty, staff, and outside experts) evaluated the oral and poster presentations of 192 undergraduate students at SURCA, the Showcase for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities. Undergraduates from all years, majors, and campuses shared the results of work conducted in partnership with a mentor and competed for awards.

Instructors, are you looking for a quick way to assess if various aspects of your course are helping students learn? The Student Assessment of Their Learning Gains (SALG) is a free, adjustable course-evaluation tool that measures the degree to which a course helps students reach a course’s student learning outcomes. The SALG invites students to […]

Scientific Teaching involves applying scientific methods and rigor to teaching practice; it encourages using active learning strategies to better engage students in learning. On October 17, Dr. Samantha Gizerian and Dr. Steve Lampa introduced the principles of scientific teaching as part of the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Teaching Academy. Attendees mapped deliberate teaching methods to […]