Building on the institution’s interim report on Assessment (June 2022), since the 2020 HLC reaccreditation visit, we have made progress on developing “an infrastructure for systematic documentation of assessment activities for degree and certificate programs that are not nationally accredited.” The majority of the programs within the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) do not have a national accrediting body. Our first step was to create and fill the position of Assessment Coordinator for the college, which was accomplished in late 2020. The position was vacated about a year later. After a search, Lannaea Alexander was hired as the current Assessment Coordinator for CAS in June 2022.
As the Assessment Coordinator for the College of Arts and Sciences, Ms. Alexander works closely with the dean and two division chairs to lead program faculty in yearly program assessment of student learning. For AY 22-23, CAS developed and completed the following targeted initiatives:
- • Each program needed to confirm and document Program Learning Outcomes
- • Each program needed to create or update a Program Curriculum Map
- • Each program needed to create or update a 5-year Program Assessment Plan
- • Each program needed to create a pathway toward assessing at least 1 program goal each academic year
First, templates were created to present faculty and program coordinators with a format for developing curriculum maps. Programs that already had previous drafts of curriculum maps either updated the past document or created it using the template. Updated curriculum maps were shared with the Assessment Coordinator by Week 8 of the academic calendar.
Next, an Assessment Plan template was created and shared. The Assessment Coordinator conducted meetings with program coordinators to assist in developing a plan for the evaluation of the program goals. The assessment plan was built to follow the hierarchy of the curriculum map and designed to assess the mastery of each program’s PLOs. Emphasis was placed on the undergraduate goals, noting that the same process would be applied to graduate classes as program coordinators and faculty became more versed in the new assessment structure. Updated assessment plans were shared with the Assessment Coordinator by Week 15 of the academic calendar.
Once the plans were produced, training began on the web-based assessment tool, Watermark’s Outcomes Assessments Projects, which was used to facilitate the program assessment process. “Outcomes Assessment Projects (OAP) is a streamlined outcomes-based assessment tool that allows institutions to collect student work products from a variety of courses and disciplines and score such artifacts using standard rubrics.” The assessment coordinator uploaded rubrics and program learning outcomes, then created each program’s assessment project according to the assessment plan developed. From there, evaluators of the assessment projects participated in training on how to conduct evaluations using the OAP online tool. After evaluators were instructed, evaluation of the term’s projects was completed. The same process of creating the assessment project, uploading the rubrics and program learning outcomes and training evaluators was repeated for the spring term as well. The assessment coordinator was also responsible for scheduling evaluations and ensuring that assessment projects were scored, and results were shared with program coordinators.
After setting up the assessment projects, the assessment coordinator developed a template to record the findings of the assessment and document the insight and information that was gained through the evaluations. This “Assessment Findings Report” detailed any maintenance, changes, or improvements that would be implemented based on the assessment results. Program coordinators met with faculty to discern the actions necessary to improve the effectiveness of the program.
This new, more formalized assessment structure resulted in a 20% increase in the completion of CAS program-level assessments over the course of one academic year (AY22-23). Based on this implementation, CAS has determined its assessment process is scalable, “feasible, sustainable and effective for determining the effectiveness of assurance of learning for each program.” For the current academic year and each year moving forward, each program reviews its key assessment documents (PLO’s, Curricular Map, and Assessment Plan) and either reaffirms or updates them. Each program has again been charged with completing and documenting a formal assessment of at least one program learning outcome during the AY23-24 year. Ms. Alexander continues to provide guidance, support, and training for faculty as they move through the annual process. She also leads our efforts to centrally and transparently document assessment efforts and findings. During the Spring 2024 All College Meeting, Ms. Alexander led a workshop on assessment for the entire college. As part of our work to develop and embed a culture of assessment in the College, both division chairs and a variety of faculty were invited to attend HLC’s annual conference with the dean.