Assessment Plan Development

All academic programs and most administrative and educational support/service units will be required to submit assessment plans each fall, conduct assessments throughout the academic year, subsequently utilize the assessment results to make improvements, and document changes implemented. This website was designed to provide you with information about what will be expected, and some resources that will help to guide you in the development of assessment plans.

Q: Who must submit assessment plans?
A: Department Chairs and College/School Deans of all academic programs at the baccalaureate and graduate levels, and the unit heads for administrative and educational support units.

Q: Of what should the assessment plan consist?*
A: For academic departments, assessment plans for academic programs must focus on student learning outcomes (SLO): what students are expected to know, think, or be able to do upon completion of the program. SLO will need to be linked to the departmental mission, which in turn will need to demonstrate links to the College/School mission, which will demonstrate how the SLO link to the University mission.
Academic assessment plans must detail:

• three to five student learning outcomes
• means for assessing those outcomes
• criteria for determining success (i.e. whether the outcomes are achieved)
• explanation of how the information gained through the assessment will be used for program improvement
• link to our Departmental Assessment Plan Development page for more information on academic assessment plans

Assessment plans for administrative and educational support units may focus either on student outcomes (if appropriate), or processes that link the unit to the University mission. Administrative and educational support assessment plans must detail:

• one to three outcomes or process objectives
• means of assessing those outcomes or objectives
• criteria for determining success (i.e. whether the outcomes or objectives are achieved)
• explanation of how the information gained through the assessment will be used for the improvement of the administrative or educational support unit.
• link to our Administrative Unit Assessment Plan Development page for more information

Q: What is the required format for the assessment plans?
A: While you are encouraged to adapt this assessment plan template to your needs, we want to emphasize that WEAVEOnline software is being introduced to accomodate the coordination of assessment on campus. WEAVEOnline software incorporates all of the components listed on the template and after your drafts are entered in WEAVE, you will be better able to manage the assessment process within your program.

Q: When are the assessment plans due?
A: Assessment plans are due November 1 every year. Follow-up reports and revisions for the next planning cycle are to be submitted to the CAA office by July 1, 2008 in order to prepare for the SACS compliance audit scheduled in September 2008. After collecting your assessment plans, CAA only intends to assist you with making any revisions or expansions to your assessment plans. The data collected during the assessment process should be maintained by your department to review the information collected and to help you determine the progress of the goals established for the two-year cycle.

Q: What will be the next step in the assessment process?
A: The assessment plans that you draft will be entered into WEAVE through a series of workshops in POD. We will work with you to become familiar with WEAVE and will be available for consulting with your program to maintain assessment efforts.

Q: Why is it necessary to document our assessment and program improvement efforts?
A: An excerpt from a recent publication of AAC&U provides a simple answer: "Seen through the lens of classroom inquiry, assessment is a feature of the pedagogical imperative in which faculty see themselves as responsible for the learning of their students and for deepening our collective sense of the conditions in which important forms of learning can occur." (A Brief History of Student Learning Assessment: How We Got Where We Are and a Proposal for Where to Go Next, 2007, Richard J. Shavelson, with a forward by Carol Geary Schneider and Lee S. Shulman)

Furthermore, in preparation for SACS reaffirmation, the Principles of Accreditation list several standards and requirements pertaining to assessment. SACS Core Requirement 2.5 states: "The institution engages in ongoing, integrated, and institution-wide research-based planning and evaluation processes that incorporate a systematic review of programs and services that (a) results in continuuing improvement and (b) demonstrates that the institution is effectively accomplishing its mission."

SACS Comprehensive Standard 3.3.1 requires that: "The institution identifies expected outcomes for its educational programs and its  administrative and educational support services; assesses whether it achieves these outcomes; and provides evidence of improvement based on analysis of those results."

SACS Comprehensive Standard 3.4.1 indicates that: "The institution demonstrates that each educational program for which academic credit is awarded (a) is approved by the faculty and the administration, and (b) establishes and evaluates program and learning outcomes."

Q: What goals should I enter into WEAVE? That is, do I only include SLO related goals, or can I also include Academic Year goals and Calendar Year Departmental goals?
A: One of the great features of WEAVE that I might not have emphasized enough yesterday is that it is one database that can accommodate all sorts of assessment and planning needs. That being said, it is reasonable to include Calendar Year and Academic Year goals in the WEAVE database, regardless of whether or not they can be linked to a student learning outcome or to a strategic agenda item. As long as departments see value in using one database for all assessment/planning purposes, and are able to coordinate the reporting functions according to the Academic Year timeframe and the Calendar Year timeframe, WEAVE is the best place to keep everything. 

Yet, if it is the case that departments only want to use WEAVE for the SLO assessment and strategic agenda planning, and it works for them to keep separate lists of goals and the associated reports, that is fine too.

Q: Is what I am preparing for another accrediting agency (i.e. NCATE, AACSB, ABET, CAAHE, etc) sufficient for the purposes of student learning outcomes assessment?
A: Most likely, the answer is yes - the work you are already doing for another accrediting agency will provide you with a majority (if not all) of the components you will need for student learning outcomes assessment and to maintain everything in WEAVE. Although the assessment you may be working on for these other accrediting bodies may appear different or use different terminology, we want to assure you that we are on hand to help make the translations!

PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT US WITH QUESTIONS!
We are more than happy to answer your phone calls or emails,
and can always arrange to meet with you individually or
as a department to clarify any questions specific to your needs.

Remember: the assessment plan you create should be treated as a living document; careful records should be kept about the information gathered and the changes or improvements that are made based on the information gained from the assessment.

To see what other departments at NKU are doing, visit:
Biology
Physics
Theater
Accounting
Respiratory Care

To see what other Universities are doing, visit:
University of North Carolina, Greensboro
University of Alabama, Birmingham
North Carolina State University
Arizona Western College
Center for Assessment and Planning Support, Dr. Larry Kelley