Building Capacity for Course, Program, and Department Evaluation: Improving and Expanding the Student Assessment of Learning Gains Site

STEM education is in the midst of a national movement that centers attention on the learning of students rather than the actions of teachers. New assessment strategies, including tools that measure gains in student learning, are essential components of this national shift in focus. The Student Assessment of Learning Gains (SALG) instrument has proven to be a particularly effective tool for faculty seeking formative feedback so as to gauge progress in student learning and improve their instruction. Use of the SALG is greatly facilitated by an associated web site that enables instructors to customize the SALG instrument, have students complete the instrument online, receive raw data and simple statistical analyses, and maintain archival access to their data. In the past 5 years, the SALG has been used by more than 1,000 undergraduate instructors in more than 3,000 courses serving more than 65,000 students.