Assessment Questions

1. How are your stated student learning outcomes appropriate to your mission, programs, degrees, students, and other stakeholders? How explicitly do major institutional statements (mission, vision, goals) address student learning?

• How well do the student learning outcomes of programs and majors align with the institutional mission?
• How well do the student learning outcomes of general education and co-curricular activities align with the institutional mission?
• How well do course-based student learning outcomes align with institutional mission and program outcomes?
• How well integrated are assessment practices in courses, services, and co-curricular activities?
• How are the measures of the achievement of student learning outcomes established?How well are they understood?

2. What evidence do you have that students achieve your stated learning outcomes?

• Who actually measures the achievement of student learning outcomes?
• At what points in the curriculum or co-curricular activities are essential institutional (including general education), major, or program outcomes assessed?
• How is evidence of student learning collected?
• How extensive is the collection of evidence?

3. In what ways do you analyze and use evidence of student learning?

• Who analyzes the evidence?
• What is your evidence telling you about student learning?
• What systems are in place to ensure that conclusions are drawn and actions taken on the basis of the analysis of evidence?
• How is evidence of the achievement of student learning outcomes incorporated into institutional planning and budgeting?

4. How do you ensure shared responsibility for student learning and assessment of student learning?

• How well integrated are assessment practices in courses, services, and co-curricular activities?
• Who is responsible for the collection of evidence?
• How cross-functional (i.e., involving instructional faculty, Student Affairs, Institutional
• Research, and/or relevant administrators) are the processes for gathering, analyzing, and using evidence of student learning?
• How are the results of the assessment process communicated to stakeholders inside and outside the institution?

5. How do you evaluate and improve the effectiveness of your efforts to assess and improve student learning?

• What is the quality of the information you have collected telling you about your assessment processes as well as the quality of the evidence?
• How do you know how well your assessment plan is working?

6. In what ways do you inform the public about what students learn—and how well they learn it?

• To what internal stakeholders do you provide information about student learning?
• What is the nature of that information?
• To what external stakeholders do you provide information about student learning?
• What is the nature of that information?