What Survey Students Learn from Reacting to the Past Games

Institutions face increasing requirements to assess and document student learning outcomes, and this can be daunting task for faculty and departments. My research will focus on how student learning in Reacting games can be assessed using the Association of American Colleges & Universities’ LEAP (Liberal Education and America’s Promise) goals and the VALUE (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education) rubrics designed to support them. I will present results and observations from different types of assessment of what students have gained in my classes from Reacting to the Past games. The different methods will include direct assessment of student work, reflective essays (somewhat structured and more open ended), and focus groups. The breakout session will explore the following questions: How can we use the VALUE rubrics produced by the LEAP initiative to assess the learning from Reacting games? What are the advantages and disadvantages of self-assessment? How does it change the self-assessment if students are presented with an open-ended question vs. a more structured task? What can be assessed directly from student work, and what cannot? Which method(s) is (are) more time-intensive for faculty?