FAQ
Fall 2023 TCU will begin assessing student learning outcomes and programs on an academic year cycle. We will finish the calendar year cycle in December of 2022 and report out findings and give feedback in early Spring 2023. Please use the rest of Spring 2023 to thoroughly plan programmatic assessment beginning Fall 2023.
Step 1: State your programs goal or mission.
Step 2: Identify measurable outcomes that are tied to Student Learning Outcomes and incorporate them into your assessment plans.
Step 3: Describe your data collection methodology including the measure you will use.
Step 4: Identify your target level of proficiency for student learning.
Program Assessment is an annual process that focuses on the improvement of Student Learning Outcomes. Program Review occurs every 3-7 years and analyzes the data collected in annual Assessment Reports combined with student numbers and achievement to report on the performance of the overall program.
There have been general issues with plans in prior years across the university regarding,
- Reflection – What did you change in the program? How did that impact student learning? This is a brief report on improvement you have made in the past and how effective it was.
- Future – What changes will you implement in the form of an action plan increase student learning?
- Assessment must be directly tied to student learning outcomes. Grades are not a reflection of student learning for a specific outcome because they usually include other content, extra credit, or participation. For example, “86% of the students in class got an A”, or 70% of students got a B on the final exam”. Exams and course grades usually include many things rather than just the student learning outcome.
- The goal for this year is to improve the quality and quantity of 2023 Assessment Plans.
Yes. Even though the standards reviewed by your accreditor may align with our Assessment Plan, the TCU Assessment Template aligns with the SACSCOC standard. You may translate the assessment used for your program accreditation to the institutional accreditation format.
SACSCOC asks that we provide assessment for each academic program. Academic programs are anything that is listed on the transcript as a degree, so majors, minors, and certificates. (Emphasis, tracks, concentrations, etc. are none of those and are therefore not to be assessed.)
If the outcomes are the same for a minor related to a major, you will not need to create an assessment plan/report.
The number of SLOs assessed for each program will vary, but each program should assess 2-3 SLOs each year.
These can be simple. Ask yourself, “What do we expect our students to know or be able to do upon completion of a course, sequence of courses, or a program?” Use the following formula and verbs from Bloom’s Taxonomy to create your SLOs.
SLO = Students will be able to + Verb/Action + Object + Modifiers
Example: Graduates will be able to conduct research that guides effective decisions
More often than not, grades DO NOT represent outcomes specific to Student Learning Outcomes, so we recommend using rubrics or itemized analyses as Evaluation Tools on assignments that are clearly aligned to the outcome. Specific quiz or test questions can be itemized and aligned to an SLO.
When reflecting on a previous action plan, consider these questions when reflecting on prior assessment plans:
- At some point you made an action plan (in the past). Briefly tell us about that. What was your intent on the action plan? Were there multiple items or only 1 item on the plan?
- Then you either implemented those plan action items or you didn’t (either in Spring, Summer or Fall 2020). Briefly tell us about that. What did you change? Outcomes? Methods? Assignment? Evaluation Tool?
- Finally, what impact did those changes have on student learning using some data that you collected (either in Spring, Summer or Fall 2020). Briefly tell us about that. What worked/what didn’t work?
When writing your future action plan consider what happened during data collection, findings and analysis in this assessment cycle and create an action plan for changes you will make for next year.
Our template was designed to be more user friendly than the set up in WEAVE. The information is the same, just using different headings and in a different order.
**WEAVE IS NO LONGER IN USE. REPORTS AND FUTURE TEMPLATES ARE CURRENTLY BEING DEVELOPED WITH NEW HelioCampus (AEFIS) SOFTWARE.
As long as there are students in the program, even if it is inactive you will need a plan and report until the last student matriculates. Also, please file paperwork at the college and university level to drop the program.,
Yes, a plan and report must be submitted. In the report it will be acceptable to state “there are no students enrolled.”
Assessment Ambassadors will provide support to unit leaders (department chairs, program directors) in all stages of assessment process by:
- Serving as a resource to units as they prepare their assessment plans, maps and reports
- Reviewing and providing feedback on each deliverable, in advance of due date to dean
- Serving as liaison between department/college and university assessment teams
- Providing feedback on select out-of-college assessment plans