Draft:TaskstreamStudentLearningOutcomes

To access a workspace begin by clicking on it.

Once you click on the workspace title, you will see the structure. This structure has been designed by Winona State University and contains several different requirements related to your assessment process. The Five Year Assessment category contains/will contain assessment data that will remain relatively steady over time, whereas the assessment cycles will be completed anew each year.

• Begin with the Mission Statement requirement. It is the second in the structure.
• To begin working on it or any other requirement, please select it from the workspace structure.

Conversion Tip

If you entered your Mission Statement in the HLC SharePoint portal previously, it will have been copied over for you!

Please note that each requirement has its own custom set of directions. To view these directions click the Directions link and the directions will expand/collapse as appropriate.

You will see a green Check Out button. Please note that all requirements in TaskStream’s AMS system use a Check In / Check Out system. NOTE: To edit or add data to any requirement you will first need to “Check Out” the requirement. Additionally, to allow your peers access to the same requirement, you must “Check In” the requirement when you are finished.

• When you click the Check Out button, the Edit button will appear. Click this to add or edit your mission statement.
• Once you have entered the appropriate mission statement, you may click the Submit button. Return to Workspace by clicking Return to Work Area.

• Be sure to click the Check In button, to allow your peers the ability to modify the Mission Statement requirement.

• When you are ready to move on to the Learning Objectives/Outcomes requirement, you may select that requirement from the workspace structure.
• To begin, you must first check out the requirement. Once you do so, you will be presented with two buttons and you will want to choose the Create New Outcome Set button.

Conversion Tip

Outcome Sets are a new way to organize your assessment data that weren’t previously universally available. If you have more than one program or division within your area you can set up different Outcome Sets for each program or division.

• You may then title the outcome set and choose whether you want to allow other academic programs to map to this (your) outcome set. Then you may click continue.
• Next, you will create an operational objective. Click the “Create New Learning Objective” button.

Conversion Tip

TaskStream AMS uses slightly different language to refer to WSU’s Goals and Objectives. Goals are called Learning Objectives in TaskStream AMS. Where possible, your Goals from the HLC SharePoint portal have been entered into TaskStream AMS as Learning Objectives.

• Assign your Objective a title and description, then click “Continue.”

Objectives should be high level descriptions of the work your area engages in routinely to support WSU’s mission. Some possible example Objectives for WSU areas are below:

1. Career Services: Serve as a primary resource for students to help them learn about possible career options in their chosen field of study
2. Alumni Affairs: Facilitate communication to and between alumni about upcoming WSU events and activities.
3. IPAR: Collaborate with campus decision-makers to collect, access and analyze institutional data to guide planning and decision-making at the University, College, Department and Program levels

• You may have to shorten your full Objective for the title, but you can put the full text and additional detail in the description field if needed.
• You may now create Outcomes. To create an Outcome, click the “Create New Outcome” Button.

Conversion Tip

TaskStream AMS uses slightly different language to refer to WSU’s Goals and Objectives. Objectives are called Outcomes in TaskStream AMS. Where possible, your Objectives from the HLC SharePoint portal have been entered into TaskStream AMS as Outcomes.

• Enter a title for your Outcome and an optional description, and then click the “Continue” button.

Outcomes should be more specific descriptions of the work your area engages in routinely to support WSU’s mission related to each of your Objectives. Some possible example Outcomes for WSU areas related to the example Objectives given previously are below:

1. Career Services: Collaborate with faculty to communicate about services we provide to students.
2. Alumni Affairs: Manage alumni contact information to ensure it stays up-to-date.
3. IPAR: Provide reports and analysis related to enrollment management (e.g., student admission, retention, and graduation).

• When finished entering outcomes, you may map or align your outcomes in the Outcomes requirement as well. To do this, click the Map link to the right of the outcome you wish to map.
• You can then click the Create New Mapping button.
• To map or align your outcomes with global sets, you’ll want to select the category of the set to map to and then click the Go button.

Conversion Tip

Goal Sets include goals distributed across the institution or whole divisions. For instance, the annual University Work Plan and the Technology Master Plan have been entered as WSU-specific Goal Sets. If you would like other Goal Sets added or created, please contact the Office of Institutional Planning, Assessment & Research by emailing datarequest@winona.edu.

• Select the appropriate set and click continue.

Conversion Tip

Goal Sets include goals distributed across the institution or whole divisions. For instance, the annual University Work Plan and the Technology Master Plan have been entered as WSU-specific Goal Sets. If you would like other Goal Sets added or created, please contact the Office of Institutional Planning, Assessment & Research by emailing datarequest@winona.edu.

• Select the appropriate set and click continue.
• Choose which Outcome set items align with your objective and then click the “Continue” button.
• You will now see the Outcome set items mapped or aligned with your objective. Repeat these steps for all future mappings.
• When you are finished, be sure to click the Check In button, to allow your peers the ability to modify this requirement.
• When you are ready to move on to the Curriculum Map requirement, you may select that requirement from the workspace structure.
• After checking out the requirement, choose "Create New Curriculum Map" and enter a title and description and select and outcome set.

To complete the map, select Edit Map.

• Use the "Insert Course" quick link to add courses to your map.

• Access the legend for each course by selecting the grey "click" box and click multiple times to change the legend.
• Close out of the map when finished and check in.
• To continue click on Assessment Plan. Choose Create New Assessment plan and title the new set.
• Underneath the new set look for the "create New Outcome" button and select.
• Title the outcomes and add a description. Continue to add outcomes until finished. Then choose "Back to all outcome sets."
• Choose "Accept and Return plan." Select "Add new measure" and complete the measure. Continue adding measures as needed, then check in.
• Continue to Assessment Findings. Check out and click in the far right hand corner. When finished click submit.
• To add documents continue to the Document Repository. On the bottom ribbon select the format of the information.
  • 

After uploading don't forget to check in.

• When you are finished working in the Standing Requirements section, you may then proceed to the cyclical assessment sections and enter your Annual Measures / Findings and your Action Plan / Status Report. Begin by checking out the requirement.
• The Annual Measures requirement allows you to either create Annual Measures from scratch, or to carry them over from previous assessment cycles in the workspace structure.
• To carry forward Annual Measures from previous Assessment Cycles, select the Annual Measures requirement from the workspace structure, check out the requirement, and click the Copy Existing Plan as Starting Point button.

Next, select the existing plan you would like to copy. Doing so will pull in the selected Annual Measures. To create your Annual Measures from scratch, select the Annual Measures requirement from the workspace structure, check out the requirement and click the Create New Assessment Plan button. Then you may click the Select Outcomes button.

• Click the Select Existing Set button, to select your outcome set from the Outcomes/Learning Objectives library.
• Select the outcome set you wish to assess that cycle and click the continue button.
• To add Measures to each outcome, click the Add New Measure button beneath the Outcome the Measure will be associated with. There are two methods by which you may add measures:

1. Adding the measure details from scratch, or
2. Importing Measures from a previous Assessment Cycle

• To add the details of your measure into the measure data entry screen, simply type in the appropriate text boxes.
• To import Measures from previous Assessment Cycles, click the Import Measures button. Select the radio button for the desired measure and click the Copy Selected button. The selected Measure details will be carried over to your current Measures screen (click the Apply Changes button if you are satisfied with the information listed).
• Measures are generally on-going, over time. For instance, if you conduct a regular survey of students who use your services, results from that survey would be entered as a measure. However, if one of the things you needed to do this year was to create the survey, that would be entered as an Action in the Action Plan (see page 23).

New for WSU users in TaskStream AMS is the ability to identify targets to track performance on measures. You can, but are not required to, create both a near term target for the current year and/or a long term target to cover multiple years. If a measure is new for your area this year, you may want to set the near term target to “Benchmark for future years” so you have a year to collect the data for the Measure and then plan future targets to either maintain or improve. You may repeat these steps to add additional measures for this or other outcomes. Additionally, you may upload documents (such as a copy of the survey you’ll be using) or link to other websites (such as a page with information about the survey) by clicking the Add/Edit Attachments & Links button.

• When you are finished, be sure to click the Check In button, to allow your peers the ability to modify this requirement.

• Once you have gathered your data, you may select the Assessment Findings requirement and add your assessment data to the system. To do so, check out the requirement and then click the Add Findings button. You may then enter the details of your assessment findings into the data entry screen. Analysis and interpretation related to this measure should be entered with your Findings. In short, this space is where you can provide interpretation of the Findings within the context of your assessment efforts.

If you entered a near term target when you created your Measure, it will be displayed above the radio buttons where you can indicate whether you met the target. Similarly, if you entered a long term target, it will be displayed above the radio button where you can indicate whether you’re on track for achieving the long term target.

• Once you have entered your data, click the submit button. Additionally, you may upload documents as supporting evidence (such as a report giving the full results of your survey) or link to other websites by clicking the Add/Edit Attachments & Links button.
• When you are finished, be sure to click the Check In button, to allow your peers the ability to modify this requirement.

• To create your Action Plan you will select the requirement from the workspace structure and check out the requirement.

Action Plans are a way for you to track the specific actions or projects that you might be working on related to some of our Objectives. For instance, if you will be working to create a new website for students, you might add that as an Action instead of a Measure. Actions can be meant to be finished within a given year, or span multiple years. There are two ways to enter an Action Plan:

1. Import it from a previous Assessment Cycle
2. Create it from scratch

• To Import an Action Plan from a previous Assessment Cycle, click the Copy Existing Plan as Starting Point button. Next, select the desired Action Plan and click the Submit button. The selected Action Plan will be pulled into your current Assessment Cycle.
• To create your Action Plan from scratch, click the “Create New Operational Plan” button.
• Then you may click the Select Outcomes button.
• Click the “select existing set” button, to select your outcome set from the Student Learning Outcome library.
• Select the outcome set you wish to assess that cycle and click the continue button.
• Select the outcomes you wish to assess and then click the Accept and Return to Plan button. If you will not have an Action for a particular objective this year, simply leave it unchecked and it won’t appear in this Assessment Cycle. You may now add an Action to each applicable Outcome by clicking the Add New Action button beneath the Outcome the Action will be associated with.
• If your action is a result of or related to a Finding for this Outcome, you can select the checkbox to include the Findings for Measure and clicking Continue.
• You may now populate the Action detail fields with your data.
• You may repeat this process for each additional action you need to add. When you are finished, be sure to click the Check In button, to allow your peers the ability to modify this requirement.

• To document the Status of each of your actions, you may select the Status Report requirement from the workspace structure. Check out the requirement and then click the Add Status button.
• You may then complete the Status Report for that particular action and click submit. If an Action is not finished and will continue into the next year, you can mark it In Progress and then import it into the next Assessment Cycle’s Action Plan to track again next year. Additionally, you may upload documents as supporting evidence or link to other websites by clicking the Add/Edit Attachments & Links button.
• Repeat these steps for each subsequent Action and Status Report. Be sure to click the Check In button, to allow your peers the ability to modify this requirement.

Marking objectives/outcomes as obsolete

• To mark your old objective/outcomes as obsolete after they are no longer to be used, select the Goals and Objectives requirement from the left-hand structure, and click the “edit” link next to the desire outcome(s).
• Next to Status, click the radio button labeled “Obsolete.” Then click the Update button.
• The outcome will be marked obsolete and can be re-activated at a later date, if necessary.