Learning Assessment: A Closed-Loop Control Metaphor

Abstract

This article proposes a learning assessment model that enables staff to systematize information analysis from learning and teaching scenarios for curriculum evaluation. The learning assessment is represented as a closed-loop control system, with students at the center of the process, staff as the actuator, and students’ impressions and assessment instruments as the sensors. By a matrixial interpretation of curricular mapping for learning assessment. The collected information is represented as course indicators, which are used to calculate learning outcome indicators as the system’s output. In this model, the curricular mapping of the program is represented by a weighted contributions matrix called the ‘program matrix,’ whose coefficients denote the different levels or contributions of the courses to the learning outcomes. Thus, learning outcome indicators are obtained as a linear combination of the weighted contributions to the course. This article also presents an example illustrating the application of the model, in which data from over 12 semesters are analyzed for two engineering programs. We discuss the way in which this model simplifies data acquisition and provides a scalable solution for learning assessment management in curriculum evaluation and warn of the importance of establishing curricular alignment in the curricular mapping and course design stages for the success of the learning assessment.