Transcript New Faculty Welcome & Orientation

Supporting Assessment of Student Learning:
Strategies from a Large Public Research University
Maureen Noonan Bischof
Eden Inoway-Ronnie
Office of the Provost
Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association
Annual Meeting
April 22, 2007
Outline
I. History & Context for Assessment at UWMadison
II. Underlying Assumptions & Guiding
Principles
III. Our Tripartite Approach
IV. Challenges & Priorities
University of Wisconsin-Madison:
The context for assessment
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Student population
29,000 undergraduates
11,000 graduate and professional students
3,100 international students
Faculty and Staff
2,200 faculty
11,000 academic and classified staff
Academic Programs
13+ Schools and colleges
200+ Academic Programs
125 Departments
Assessment History
- Assessment plans mandated by UW System in the
late 1980s
- Decentralized leadership approach
- Provost’s office: campus-wide leadership, tools &
examples, funding
- Assessment of general education early on.
- Continuous development of departmental &
school/college assessment plans
- Revised University Assessment Plan in 2003
- website: http://www.provost.wisc.edu/assessment
Underlying Assumptions
& Guiding Principles:
• Academic assessment is an integral
component of academic activities
• Academic assessment supplements (rather
than replaces) curricular review, program
review, and other program improvement
processes
• Academic assessment is the major
responsibility of the faculty and departments
and units that offer academic programs
Underlying Assumptions
& Guiding Principles:
• Academic assessment informs decision-making
at institutional, school/college, department/unit,
and course level
• Academic assessment is ongoing and periodic.
Assessment is used to improve programs or
elements of a program, and can be used to
maintain program excellence
• Academic assessment provides a systematic
process for better understanding what we are
doing well and how we might enhance the
educational experiences of our students.
A Tripartite Approach
1. University Assessment Council
2. School/College and Institutional
Assessment Plans
3. University Assessment Funds
1. University Assessment Council
• Convened by and reports to Provost
• Council Membership:
School/college representatives appointed
Support unit representatives appointed
• Coordinating body for cross-campus
support
University Assessment Council
Mission of the UAC
• Cross-campus forum for the exchange of information &
ideas
• Connects people with resources
• Keeps the university community apprised of
expectations
• Helps assure the implementation & evaluation of the
university's assessment plan
• Advises the provost on matters related to assessment
and evaluation
School/College and Institutional
Assessment Plans
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•
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Agree on your mission
Create goals for student outcomes and processes
Identify related activities for each goal
Brainstorm appropriate measures
Evaluate and select measures
Identify appropriate assessment methods
Develop a plan for collecting data
Prioritize goals
Set timeline, milestones
Implement assessment plan
Use data to improve processes
Communicate results
* From Hatfield, Susan, "Assessment in the Major - Tools and Tips for Getting Started."
Paper presented at the 1997 Assessment Conference in Indianapolis. Professor
Hatfield is/was the Assessment Coordinator at Winona State University.
2. School/College and Institutional
Assessment Plans
School/College and Institutional
Assessment Plans
Key factors for success:
- Assessment plans must be faculty- (and staff) led
- Visible, active support for assessment by deans
and provost
- Availability of support services to draw upon
- Examples of “good” departmental assessment
plans made available
- Inventory of tools and assessment measures
available
- Assessment of general education demonstrates
institutional commitment to assessment of student
learning
- Connections made between assessment of student
learning and broader program review process.
3. University Assessment Fund
• Annual call for proposals
• $180,000 annually set aside for support
1/3 of the funds support General Education
assessment
http://www.provost.wisc.edu/assessment/Assessment_
Funds.html
• Purpose is to support academic units assessment
of student learning
• Catalyst for promoting assessment activities (not
ongoing source)
• Ongoing consultation with departments and units
• Review and selection committee
University Assessment Fund
Successful proposals include those that:
• focus on improvement of student learning at the
program level
• identify specific program goals
• demonstrate a clear understanding of how
activities will be assessed (indicators of learning)
• explain and demonstrate how the results will
improve the program
• link to program review plans and/or regional and
specialized accreditation processes
• willing to share findings and resources across
campus
Challenges and Priorities
1. Integrating academic program assessment more
intentionally with other forms of evaluative and
improvement processes.
2. Continuing to improve alignment between academic
program assessment and program review.
3. Developing stronger connections between academic
program assessment and other assessment of student
learning.
4. Improving communication with the campus community
and external constituents.
Challenges and Priorities
1. Integration
Integrating assessment of academic programs with:
• performance of individual students (grades)
• performance of individual instructors (teaching
evaluations)
• curricular improvements
• program review
Challenges and Priorities
2. Alignment with Program Review
Program Review
• Holistic view of program –
range of issues including
student enrollment,
funding, staffing, etc.
• Periodic – every 10 years
• Often linked to
department’s strategic
planning process
• Program review makes
use of assessment
evidence
Academic Assessment
of Student Learning
• Different assessment
activities focused on
different learning
outcome goals
• Ongoing but not
necessarily same
assessment activity
every year
• Evidence of student
learning is one part of
program review
Challenges & Priorities
3. Connection to other program
evaluation efforts
Align and integrate academic assessment
(degrees/majors) more intentionally with:
• Assessment of out-of-class learning experiences (e.g.,
first-year programs, study abroad, service learning,
certificate programs), and,
• administrative assessment efforts (e-portfolio, “alumni
profile” project, early-alert systems)
Challenges & Priorities
4. Communication
Develop multiple strategies to better communicate
internally & externally:
• outcomes of general education assessment
• assessment of student learning in the major/program
Share best practices and resources across
schools/colleges
New Initiative: Identify and articulate more broadly a set
of university-wide undergraduate student learning
expectations
What Next?
Reaccreditation in 2009
• Annual Teaching & Learning
Symposium 2008
• Using reaccreditation self-study
process to explore future
directions and connect with
campus strategic planning
process
• Questions for Self–study process:
- What will it mean to be a great
public university in a changing
world?
- How will UW-Madison uniquely
embody this greatness?
UW-Madison Assessment
Resources
• Assessment of Academic Programs and Student
Outcomes http://www.provost.wisc.edu/assessment/
• UW-Madison Academic Assessment Plan 2003
http://www.provost.wisc.edu/assessment/AssessmentPlan2003.pdf
• UW-Madison Assessment Resources
http://www.provost.wisc.edu/assessment/Assessment_Resources.html
• College of Letters and Science Academic
Assessment http://www.ls.wisc.edu/assess/
UW-Madison Assessment
Resources
• Academic Planning and Analysis http://apa.wisc.edu/
Alumni Profiles http://apa.wisc.edu/Alumni/alumni_profiles.html
• Division of Information Technology
http://www.doit.wisc.ede
WebSurvey http://www.doit.wisc.edu/websurvey/
• Office of Quality Improvement
http://www.quality.wisc.edu/index.php
• Testing and Evaluation Services http://testing.wisc.edu/
• UW Survey Center (UWSC) http://www.uwsc.wisc.edu/