Tag Archives: assessment solutions

Rubrics Assessment Capability Saves Faculty Time and Enables Institutions to Aggregate Direct Evidence of Student Learning

ExamSoft’s revolutionary rubrics assessment solution unites objective and subjective assessment in a single platform designed to provide a consistent and comprehensive framework for giving students actionable feedback on all assignments

Dallas, Texas, October 21, 2013 – ExamSoft, the leading provider of intelligent embedded assessment solutions, today announced a new rubrics assessment platform available for the 2014 Spring Semester. The new solution, which is currently in limited release to clients, is an easy-to-use tool for capturing assessment data on subjective student work such as essays, OSCEs, papers, presentations, and class participation. The addition of rubrics to ExamSoft’s entire suite of software, will provide clients a consolidated and comprehensive picture of each student’s performance, regardless of the assessment type or delivery method.

Students crave interaction and engagement, and faculty members want to help them learn. Previously, ExamSoft offered ways for faculty to engage students with detailed feedback data based on results from objectively scored assessments. Now, rubrics will enable faculty members to close the feedback loop with students by providing clear and actionable direction around subjective assignments and assessments students submit for grading. The clarity made possible by rubrics provides a format within which faculty and students can communicate and collaborate with each other and peers about students’ learning progress in a structured way.

“Presently we are tracking student progression on learning outcomes throughout the didactic curriculum assessed through traditional exams,” Dr. Jane Souza, an Assistant Dean of Assessment at St. John Fisher College, said. “With the introduction of rubrics, we will soon be able to document student achievement on performance-based assessments which include counseling sessions, oral presentations, and formal papers. The collective data will provide us a more complete view of student progress.”

With the added functionality, faculty members will be able to create templates for rubrics, which will cut down on time required to recreate new rubrics for each assessment and give faculty members the ability to easily share rubrics across departments and the institution. Faculty will also be able to share rubrics with students in advance of an assignment and conduct complex grading strategies, such as anonymous grading and consistent peer or TA grading. Finally, the new functionality will enable faculty to run comprehensive analytics reports of student learning filtered by student, class, or course—all with one click. Aggregating student, course, and program by learning objectives, helps all institutional stakeholders, without placing any additional burden on faculty.

“Faculty and institutions are being asked to do more with less. They are being asked to both prove and improve student learning at a level of unprecedented granularity,” said Daniel Muzquiz, CEO of ExamSoft. “We are hearing from universities that they want solutions that leverage existing assessment efforts in a pragmatic way. Our rubrics solution is purpose-built to make it easy for faculty to capture the metadata, using an automated system, needed to generate real-time learning analytics, while keeping their current assessment processes stable. Real-time data empower faculty to intervene earlier to help current students and faculty achieve their goals.”

ExamSoft is used by over 500 clients and the new rubrics functionality is now available in limited capacity to existing customers. Current ExamSoft users can send an email to rubrics@examsoft.com to learn more. A webinar will be held on Wednesday, October 23 at 3 pm ET to learn about how ExamSoft’s new rubrics functionality was designed for faculty, by faculty, and discover how St. John Fisher College plans to use rubrics to develop a comprehensive picture of student learning and their curriculum. Register for the webinar at http://learn.examsoft.com/webinar/rubrics-launch.

“This is an exciting next step in ExamSoft’s evolution because rubrics add a powerful dimension to embedded assessment. Hundreds of faculty members at our client institutions have worked with us to create a sophisticated, elegant way to harness the data and insights from subjective assessments in an easy-to-use platform,” Muzquiz said. “We’re not only committed to creating a solution that works well, but also to listening and responding to the needs of those who strive to improve the teaching and learning experience.”

The rubrics assessment solution is planned to be widely available in January 2014. More information about rubrics can be found at learn.examsoft.com/rubrics

About ExamSoft Worldwide, Inc.
ExamSoft provides scalable and flexible intelligent assessment solutions that give educators actionable outcomes data and insights to help every student. Its software puts the data back in the hands of faculty and enables clients to more efficiently and practically administer direct assessments and analyze resulting data to improve curricular design, test design, and accreditation compliance. ExamSoft has served hundreds of prominent academic, certification, and licensing institutions for more than 15 years and has successfully administered millions of exams. For more information, please visit www.examsoft.com, or follow ExamSoft on Facebook and Twitter.

Contact:
Anne Jenkins
Communications Strategy Group
3225 East 2nd Avenue
Denver, CO 80206
703-624-6125
ajenkins@csg-pr.com
http://www.csg-pr.com

Texas State Technical College West Texas Uses Outcomes Based Assessment to Revive Nursing Program

Pass Rate on Licensing Exam Jumped 77 to 100 Percent Using Direct Evidence of Student Learning through ExamSoft Technology Platform

Dallas, Texas, August 27, 2013 – The Texas State Technical College West Texas (TSTC) LVN to ADN Nursing Program was able to increase the pass rate on the National Council Licensing Exam (NCLEX) from 77 percent to 100 percent by taking a strategic and aggressive approach to assessment. TSTC-West Texas was able to improve programmatic effectiveness and student retention based on evidence and insights in student learning using ExamSoft’s intelligent assessment platform, the company announced today.

TSTC-West Texas is part of a state performance-based pilot program that only reimburses the institution when graduates secure a job within their field of study. In 2011, with the NCLEX pass rate at 77 percent and retention rate near 50 percent, TSTC-West Texas was placed on conditional status by the Texas Board of Nursing and could not admit any new students. TSTC-West Texas decided to adopt an assessment platform to help completely revamp and refine their curriculum and better help their students learn, prepare for and pass the NCLEX – a barrier to employment for nurses. Since implementing ExamSoft, the NCLEX pass rate, retention rate and employment rate among graduates are all 100 percent.

“Since our state funding depends on our students graduating and getting jobs, their success is our success,” said Shawntay Sparks, Instructor and Program Chair, Texas State Technical College West Texas LVN to ADN Nursing Program. “By taking a strategic approach to assessment using ExamSoft’s platform, we can easily track and measure performance across a wide set of learning outcomes and it gives us the tools and evidence we need to remediate students on a individual basis, refine our curriculum, increase retention and help students succeed in their careers.”

TSTC-West Texas uses ExamSoft to design, manage and administer all exams, tests and quizzes in a computer-based platform and enables them to “tag” every question to learning objectives so they can track and measure student performance. With data available immediately after each exam, faculty use the learning analytics to inform targeted feedback for students and implement remediation strategies based on students’ individual needs. Longitudinal assessment data gives TSTC-West Texas the evidence they need to track students over time and map and refine their curriculum.

“We’re excited to see the kind of dramatic turn around TSTC-West Texas has seen because it shows how important a role technology and data can play in helping drive student success,” said Daniel Muzquiz, Chief Executive Officer of ExamSoft. “We thrive on helping institutions and programs succeed in their missions by giving them the technology and insights they need to help engage their students, enhance the learning experience and improve outcomes.”

In addition to being able to enhance revenue reimbursements from the state, TSTC-West Texas was taken off conditional admittance by the Texas Board of Nursing in October 2012 and anticipates being placed on full approval in January 2014. TSTC-West Texas’ accelerated online nursing program, established in 2008, includes two campuses serving 26 rural counties and trains students to become registered nurses.

“We have students scattered around the state who face and conquer challenges every day for the opportunity to achieve their degree and become better nurses, so we strive to deliver a high quality education with a non-traditional approach,” said Sparks. “In an online accelerated program, there is no time to allow a student to get behind and ExamSoft gives us the tools to find and address issues immediately and the technology is so solid that we can rely on it to support the program, and the students, in reaching this goal.”

For more information about ExamSoft, visit http://www.examsoft.com.

About ExamSoft Worldwide, Inc.
ExamSoft provides scalable and flexible intelligent assessment solutions that give educators actionable outcomes data and insights to help every student. Its software puts the data back in the hands of faculty and enables clients to more efficiently and practically administer direct assessments and analyze resulting data to improve curricular design, test design, and accreditation compliance. ExamSoft has served hundreds of prominent academic, certification, and licensing institutions for more than 15 years and has successfully administered millions of exams. For more information, please visit www.examsoft.com, or follow ExamSoft on Facebook and Twitter.

Contact:
Anne Jenkins
Communications Strategy Group
3225 East 2nd Avenue
Denver, CO 80206
703-624-6125
ajenkins@csg-pr.com
http://www.csg-pr.com