Category: OBE

What to write for the “Reflection” part in your OBE CAR?

What to write in the “Reflection” part in your OBE CAR?  To be honest, it is up to you what to write in this part.  But for me (since I am super lazy to think further), I will summarise what have been highlighted in the CQI for PO and CLO.  This time around, I use the three headings: Analysis of data, Areas for improvement and Action Plan to emphasize my views.

Here is an example from one of the courses that I taught.  Pssttt… if you want to copy-paste my example, it might be considered as plagiarism.   So, it is up to you to remain ethical and uphold your integrity.

Analysis of data:

The students comprised of teachers (primary and secondary school) as well as others (counselors and just recently graduated their bachelor’s degree).  I assigned them with assignments that challenge them to think outside the box.  They were asked to think about an issue related to a topic assigned to them and they have to discuss the issue from relevant perspective using personality psychology theories or models.  However, only some of them are able to relate relevant theories with personality traits.   This can be exemplified through their writing in assignment and final examination (take home examination).

Few of the students are less critical and analytical in explaining the various concepts of personality psychology.  Based on the assignment given to them, in general majority of students are able to explain, investigate and relate personality traits based on personality assessment scores and relevant theories.   Some of the students are able to provide insightful criticisms and evaluation.  Quizzes are given twice.  One of the quizzes is given through ELearning and thus they can take the quiz multiple times (as formative assessment).

Areas of improvement:

Some students are struggling to understand with some concepts such as psychoanalysis and humanistic views of personality traits.  They are not able to differentiate between various theories that explain various personality traits and domains.  This can be exemplified in their quiz and final exam marks.  This could be due to lack of reading since majority of them do not have a textbook (I have suggested the main textbook and other references that that they should refer to for this course).

Action plan:

To assist students to understand the various concepts better, I would encourage them to submit their report draft for feedback that they can use to improve the quality of their report (I have practiced this for several semesters but unfortunately, only few students took the chance to submit their draft for comments).  In addition, I would also encourage them to take any quiz that I assign on the ELearning as a means to self-regulate their learning.  Some of the students requested to have more than one quiz (but only the highest marks will be considered as the final marks for their quiz).  Unfortunately, only few of them took this chance.  So, perhaps, they need extra encouragement to try out the quizzes without feeling too much pressure while attempting it.  In addition, I will encourage or semi-force the students to have a textbook.

Example of CQI for OBE CAR: Based on CLO

This is an example of CQI that I wrote for the courses that I teach this semester (Semester 2, 201920) based on Course Learning Outcome (CLO).

CLO1: One student failed to submit the final examination (take home examination).  There other students who seem to struggle to link concepts relating to various theories of personality with life events.  It perhaps due to misconceptions or overloaded information that they have to digest within shorter period of time especially if they do not have continuous revision on their own.  So, students will be guided to have continuous revision through weekly online quizzes which will prompt them to revise consistently.

If I can break down the above CQI reporting based on three things: 1) Analysis of data, 2) Areas for improvement and 3) Action plan, you will see that I organise the sentence structure according to such order.

1) Analysis of data,

One student failed to submit the final examination (take home examination).  There other students who seem to struggle to link concepts relating to various theories of personality with life events.

2) Areas for improvement 

It perhaps due to misconceptions or overloaded information that they have to digest within shorter period of time especially if they do not have continuous revision on their own (in this sentence, I believe one of the areas for improvement is continuous revision.  So, I highlighted this aspect which I will take action in the future).

3) Action plan,

So, students will be guided to have continuous revision through weekly online quizzes which will prompt them to revise consistently.

Example of CQI for OBE CAR: Based on PO

This is an example of CQI that I wrote for the courses that I teach this semester (Semester 2, 201920) based on Programme Outcome (PO).

PO1: In general, with PO1 = 87.5%, it shows that on average students get above average mark (A range).  It seems that students performance for this PO is better than the previous semester (PO1 = 79%).  What is different in this semester is students are forced to be more independent in their learning due to COVID-19.  With support from the instructor for class notes (Prezi, Powerpoint notes with audio recording), extra ungraded quizzes (that they can take and convert into their carry marks for quiz = 10%) and such, students are scaffolded accordingly regardless of the limitations or challenges that they might experience throughout the Movement Control Order (MCO).  In the future, students will be given continuous formative assessment such as online quizzes which are non-graded assessment to assist students to revise and identify which concepts that they are still struggling with.

If I can break down the above CQI reporting based on three things: 1) Analysis of data, 2) Areas for improvement and 3) Action plan, you will see that I organise the sentence structure according to such order.

1) Analysis of data,

In general, with PO1 = 87.5%, it shows that on average students get above average mark (A range).  It seems that students performance for this PO is better than the previous semester (PO1 = 79%).  What is different in this semester is students are forced to be more independent in their learning due to COVID-19 [in this sentence (italic) is a personalised insight based on what I observe for this particular cohort]. 

2) Areas for improvement 

With support from the instructor for class notes (Prezi, Powerpoint notes with audio recording), extra ungraded quizzes (that they can take and convert into their carry marks for quiz = 10%) and such, students are scaffolded accordingly regardless of the limitations or challenges that they might experience throughout the Movement Control Order (MCO).

3) Action plan

In the future, students will be given continuous formative assessment such as online quizzes which are non-graded assessment to assist students to revise and identify which concepts that they are still struggling with.

How to write CQI for OBE CAR?

How to write Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) for Outcome based Education Course Analysis Review (OBE CAR )?  That is the question that I asked myself few years back.  Being a novice, I struggle to find out what is needed for me to improve my teaching.  So, I did some reading and after that, I just do whatever I think is suitable and appropriate for me to improve my teaching based on my reading.  Sometimes, I discuss with my senior colleagues about how to improve my teaching, asking them to review my rubrics, assignment instruction and such.

For the CQI, it is basically based on what I did, do and plan to do in class.  It is really as simple as it it.  Pssttt…. of course passion for teaching is one of the key ingredients in this case.   Another thing is, since it is our own teaching practice, we have to be honest in reporting what we did and do in class.  I have seen some examples of colleagues who “borrow” the idea of teaching practice from looking from others CQI report and in fact, they don’t even practice that in their teaching or class.  So, it is not right to do so just for the sake of reporting.

In my case, based on what I did and do in class, when I write the CQI for OBE CAR, I will look at the programme outcomes (PO) and course learning outcomes (CLO).  So, my CQI will be based on that.

In the column where it is required for us to write an overall CQI, I will summarise what I find (based on data i.e. students performance), what I did in class that can be improved (class activities, tasks given to students etc.) and what I want to do in the future.

So, basically, I will put it under these three headings:

1) Analysis of data (What do I find from this cohort of students?)

2) Areas for improvement (What did I do in class that can be improved?)

3) Action plan (What are the things that  I want to do in future and how to do it?)

For more details, I provide

* an example of CQI based on PO and

* an example of CQI based on CLO.