Curriculum Assessment
An important aspect of our educational program is the ongoing analysis of how our curriculum fulfills the ideals and goals of the college's mission and the learning objectives set forth by each department and program. Analysis based on learning objectives and learning outcomes plays a crucial role in assessing our programs while maintaining faculty autonomy and creativity.
Annual assessment reports provide the opportunity for departments and programs to reflect on the dynamic role of learning outcomes in developing and implementing curricula, and how departments and programs are meeting their learning outcome objectives.
The Assessment Report, due by June 30 each year, is your opportunity to describe how you evaluate student achievement of departmental or program student learning objectives and how your assessments are incorporated into curriculum planning. In your report please discuss the following three areas:
- Learning objectives: what student learning outcome(s) are you assessing or do you plan to assess?
- Steps: what mechanism(s) are you using to assess the outcome(s)?
- Feedback: how is the information derived from your assessment used in program curricular planning?
Please note that effective, meaningful assessment of learning outcomes does not need to be burdensome. Some departments will single out two or three student learning outcomes to assess in a given year; in other departments, each faculty member will take on the challenge of assessing a single goal; in still other departments, students play an important role in data-gathering by creating portfolios that include a range of information illustrating their progress to the degree. Whatever the process, the establishment of meaningful "feedback loops" to discuss and act on data is key to the usefulness of outcome assessment.
You can follow the links on this page to review a few examples of how some departments and programs have addressed assessment of student learning outcomes. The Institutional Research Report Repository is a great source of valuable data for your department or program.
Please contact Lisa Ferrari (lferrari@pugetsound.edu) with questions, comments, or concerns.
Thank you for your on-going assessment work.
