Peer Review

Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP) Assignment Library

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Reviewed:: Mar 6, 2019 by Faculty Development

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Overview:: This library contains a set of categorized and searchable assignments created by instructors. The assignments represent examples of effective practice, can be mined for assignment ideas, and reviewing them is an excellent opportunity for faculty development. Assignments are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The library is administered by the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) Project Team, which is associated with the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). Each assignment is designed to fulfill a subset of cross-disciplinary skills from the Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP) Proficiencies. The DQP was developed principally by NILOA, the Institute for Evidence-Based Change (IEBC), and the Lumina Foundation. There is an assignment submission form for those who would like to engage. Assignments are screened by the NILOA Project Team first and then by three to six discipline-specific faculty before they can be posted. Feedback is provided and revisions are expected. The assignments are categorized by discipline and assignment type (e.g. spreadsheet, research methods, community engagement), by DQP proficiencies, and by academic level (associate's, bachelor's, and master's). The library is also searchable by title, author, citation, and description. In addition to title, author, and citation (which you are asked to employ if you make any use of it), each assignment includes a description (including background and context, reflections, and performance criteria), a link to download the assignment itself and, in most assignments, a separate link to download an accompanying rubric. There is also a comment box at the bottom of each page. Note: it is not necessary to use the DQP Profile; however, its areas are cross-disicplinary and can be helpful. More information on the DQP can be found here: http://degreeprofile.org/.
Type of Material:: Collection
Recommended Uses:: By faculty: -to view and learn more about effective assignment design -to get assignment ideas for their courses By faculty developers: -to teach effective assignment design -for use in instructor consultations -for raising awareness among institution administrators about the importance of embedded assignments and the assessment of all students. By faculty: -to view and learn more about effective assignment design -to get assignment ideas for their courses By faculty developers: -to teach effective assignment design -for use in instructor consultations -for raising awareness among institution administrators about the importance of embedded assignments and the assessment of all students.
Technical Requirements:: None
Identify Major Learning Goals:: NILOA lists the following goals and outcomes. 1. To create an interactive, online collection of faculty-generated, peer-reviewed assignments of DQP proficiencies — assignments that can be reviewed, used, adapted, commented on and improved over time. 2. To build a community of expert judgment around this work by developing networks for peer collaboration and review. 3. To develop resources that can aid in developing assignments — including templates, guidelines, collections of existing research and links to other collections of assignments — and to make these resources easily accessible online. 4. To reinforce the DQP’s vision of assessment as one in which faculty are primarily responsible for evaluating student performance.
Target Student Population:: Faculty, faculty developers, administrators in higher education.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: None. Recommendation: Review the Degree Qualifications Profile here: http://degreeprofile.org/. (Look under Resources tab to download the document.) Some knowledge of DQP might be helpful, but is not necessary, as the website provides resources and information regarding DQP and proficiencies. Instructors should be knowledgeable about the content of the chosen assignment.

Content Quality

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Strengths:: The quality of the assignments in this collection is high. 1) There is a wide variety of assignment types by discipline and by student academic level. 2) Assignments are categorized by DQP Proficiencies, which represent skills that students should attain in their education, which apply to most disciplines, and which are desired by employers. These are: use of information resources, quantitative fluency, ethical reasoning, communicative fluency, broad and integrative knowledge, analytic inquiry, specialized knowledge, intellectual skills, engaging diverse perspectives, civic and global learning, and applied and collaborative learning. 3) Each assignment has been reviewed twice: the first time by the NILOA Project Team, multiple members of which are long-time associates of the AAC&U. The second review is undertaken by "three to six faculty peers, typically from the same or related fields, who have experience with assignment design." The faculty peers provide written feedback and suggestions for revisions. The Project Team assumes that even submitted assignments will continue to evolve and indeed, there are a couple of updated assignments in the library. 4) There is a wealth of documentation on this project, including support materials for implementation of their “charrette” process for developing and reviewing assignments, all of which are freely available. 5) Instructors are welcome to submit an assignment for review as well as to make comments on assignments already in the library.
Concerns:: None

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

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Strengths:

The assignments are of excellent quality. The library is well-organized. There are many supporting materials. The NILOA Project Team is composed of senior scholars. They are, or have been, associated with the AAC&U and multiple other significant organizations supporting continuing improvement in higher education. NILOA's work in helping develop the DQP and, in particular, supporting instructors in developing effective assignments and then making those assignments freely available, is premised on three fundamental beliefs: 1. Assignments are the heart of assessments. 2. Assessment should be all about the student. 3. "Assessment must be embedded in the work that faculty members assign - not an 'add-on' measure, or an 'exo-skeletal' approach." These statements are consonant with other research in teaching and learning such as educative assessment (Wiggins), backwards design (Wiggins and McTighe), and the importance of alignment (Fink) among others.

Concerns:

each assignment would benefit from consistent and formatted explanations

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

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This assignment library is very well organized. Instructors can easily identify whether and if there are helpful assignments via multiple search functions: assignment title, author, citation, description, academic discipline or assignment type (e.g. research methods, community engagement, spreadsheet), DQP proficiencies, and academic level (associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s). Each assignment entry is extensive, including title, author, citation, description (which includes background and context, reflections, and performance criteria), a link to download the assignment itself and, in most assignments, a separate link to download an accompanying rubric. Formatting of each entry is consistent and well laid out.

Concerns:

the quality of the content is great, but there is an overwhelming amount of content. Some of the pages open with the website and others open outside of the website making navigation slightly challenging

Other Issues and Comments:: None
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