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Guidelines for Developing a Departmental Assessment Plan
The process involves departmental or program assessment, not individual or course
assessment. Of course, the results of assessing individual student achievement and
course-based assessment activities can be part of the departmental process.
 | Assessment programs must focus on all academic programs, both undergraduate and graduate
programs and provide separate plans. |
| Review/development of goals should include all faculty. Unit should decide if goals are
appropriate and measurable and use this time to make any changes. |
| Use a conceptual framework for assessment: cognition, affect, behavior. Program
assessment ultimately should include all three components of the framework. It should
assess student knowledge, skills, and attitudes. |
| Every goal must have an assessment technique (although one technique can address several
goals). Every assessment technique must generate information and findings. Findings must
have an interpretation and be put to use in some way. |
| Multiple measures should be used to address the three domains of the conceptual
framework. Some examples of multiple measures are pre and post tests, student surveys
(IR
already runs graduating seniors and alumni surveys for campus), portfolios, academic
program reviews, external reviews of program success (community, alumni, employer), etc.
However, multiple measures are not limited to those measures listed here. |
| Based upon assessment findings, units then determine changes to be made in teaching,
learning, and curriculum. (Note: Department must follow up changes and report this follow
up to indicate if they resulted in improvement, will continue, etc.) |
Step-by-step redesign process
| Unit's faculty should review its mission and goals and discuss any changes they may want
to make. Goals are the foundation for student achievement assessment. They must be
operationalized and measurable. Unit must indicate any changes to goals in the unit's
plan. |
| Unit's faculty should review the department's assessment infrastructure and ensure that
it emerges from the conceptual framework: Cognition (Knowledge), Affect (Attitude),
Behavior (Skills). |
| Unit's faculty should review "how" they are currently doing student
achievement assessment; e.g., assessment techniques, data collection, etc., and who is
responsible for coordinating the assessment activities for the department. It is during
this process that faculty will explore whether assessment activities address the three
components of the conceptual framework above; e.g., what is being done and what needs to
be done in the future. |
| Unit's faculty should look at the results that have been generated by assessment and how
these results are interpreted: Do the results redirect curriculum, teaching, and learning?
Are the results timely and user-friendly? Are the results interpreted in such a way as to
provide valuable feedback to faculty, students, and administrators? Are the results shared
on a regular basis with faculty, students, and administrators? |
| Unit's faculty should examine how assessment results have been used in the past. This is
the time to revise the assessment process to create a feedback loop to students, faculty,
and administration if such a loop does not already exist. Assessment should be used to
redirect curriculum, teaching, and learning.
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| Unit's faculty should determine an incremental process by which assessment changes will
occur. For example, they may decide to change one piece of the assessment process every
semester until they accomplish all the changes they want to make. Or they may decide to
make one change every academic year so they can concentrate their efforts on an important
piece of assessment. However, a definite redesign timeline should be completed and
subsequently reviewed to ensure that it is followed. |
What are the benefits of assessment to me and my department?
| If we redesign student assessment correctly this time, we can stop rebuilding
the same wheel and begin to generate valuable information that can be used by the
department, the institution, and the students. |
| Assessment results can be used to demonstrate how well your unit is doing. |
| Assessment benefits student learning and experience. |
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