Volume 95 - Spring 2007	Download

President's Report by By Shauna Anderson, PhD, MT(ASCP)C, CLS(NCA) President, Board of Directors

One of the purposes of accreditation is to assure quality academic education. The quality of a program can be judged by its students' academic achievements. Prospective students want evidence that the program is sound as they make decisions about entering that program.

The development of student learning outcomes is the first step in developing an assessment program that will provide the evidence that the program offers a quality educational experience. A student learning outcome is the particular level of knowledge or the skills and abilities that a student attains at the conclusion of instruction or the skills and abilities that a student attains at the conclusion of a program. For example, a student learning outcome for a CLS/MT program might be, "demonstrate cognitive knowledge and perform the full range of clinical laboratory tests in the areas of hematology, clinical chemistry, immunohematology, microbiology, serology/immunology, coagulation, molecular diagnostics, laboratory operations, and other emerging diagnostics." This outcome rearranges a statement from the Description of Career Entry of the Clinical Laboratory Scientist/Medical Technologist in The Guide to Accreditation and creates a student learning outcome or something that will happen to that student as a result of being enrolled in a CLS/MT program.

The next step is to provide evidence that students have attained the learning goals as stated in the student learning outcomes. An assessment program is a formal plan of how the program is going to provide evidence that students have achieved those goals. There is no simple formula for designing and implementing an assessment program. The program may even wish to create and maintain an assessment portfolio. This portfolio can serve as a repository for collected data and evidence of student learning. An example of the type of evidence that might be included for the student learning outcome stated above would be the performance of students on a national certification examination. This evidence demonstrates that actual cognitive learning has occurred directly in the subjects examined (i.e., hematology, clinical chemistry, immunohematology, microbiology, serology/immunology, coagulation, molecular diagnostics, laboratory operations, and other emerging diagnostics). Another example would include observations and documentation of the skills or abilities performed during the clinical experience. These examples are direct methods for assessing student learning.

Other evidence about effective program performance with regard to student outcomes may include graduation rate, retention or attrition rate, time to graduation, and employment following graduation. These types of data are indirect measures of student learning.

In summary, programs need to:

• Establish clear and concise statements of student learning outcomes
;

• Develop an assessment program;


• Collect and interpret data to be used as evidence of student learning, and


• Utilize the results of the analysis to identify strengths and recognize and rectify weaknesses.

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			President's Report by By Shauna Anderson, PhD, MT(ASCP)C, CLS(NCA) President, Board of Directors
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