Annual Assessment for Academic Departments & Programs

Process & Form

Beginning with the Fall 2011 academic year, an Annual Assessment Process will be in place. To encourage participation, faculty were informed that participating in this annual assessment process would ensure their programs meet minimum institutional assessment standards. The Educational Policies Committee also agreed that programs could substitute the annual assessment process for the more onerous assessment section of their five-year program review. This new annual assessment process received a statement of support from the Educational Policies Committee in Spring 2011. The new annual assessment process requires academic programs to complete the Annual Assessment form by the end of each academic year (June 30).

To complete this form, programs must provide information in three areas:
1) General program information
2) Programmatic assessment activities
3) Evaluation of contributions to General Education outcomes

General Program Information
In addition to providing contact information for the individual completing the annual assessment form, this section requires programs to identify the contributions made by faculty and staff to the assessment process.

Programmatic Assessment Activities
The annual assessment process requires programs to assess each of their student learning outcomes at least once during a five-year period. To assist in planning, this form allows programs to list their student learning outcomes, identify the tools and methods they intend to use to assess each outcome, and identify the year(s) in which they intend to assess each outcome. The form also requires programs–at the end of each academic year–to provide results from their assessment activities. Programs are allowed to provide a brief explanation or discussion of these results.

Evaluation of Contributions to General Education Outcomes
Programs hosting General Education courses must also complete a section to document how their courses contribute to the General Education student learning outcomes (SLO). To do this, programs first identify the courses that address each General Education SLO. They then specify the year(s) in which the contributions of these courses towards General Education SLOs will be evaluated.

To demonstrate how courses contribute to General Education SLOs, the annual assessment form asks programs to briefly explain:
1) What the course instructor does to help students attain the SLO
2) What students do to demonstrate their performance on the SLO 

Annual Assessment Process Implementation Timeline

• August: Academic programs will receive the Annual Assessment Form with a reminder of the outcomes they intended to assess and methods they intended to use during the year. 
• September-February: The Assessment and Evaluation Advisory Board will work to evaluate assessment forms from the previous year using the rubric explained below
• March: Programs will receive feedback from their previous year's assessment form. Programs will be reminded of the Annual Assessment Process.
• June: Programs will submit the annual assessment for to the University Assessment Coordinator.

Evaluating the Annual Assessment Process
As the timeline shows, the Assessment and Evaluation Advisory Board will collect, evaluate, and provide feedback on program annual assessment forms. To evaluate assessment forms, the Advisory Board will use a rubric (see Institutional Assessment & Evaluation Plan). It is hoped that, over time, feedback to annual assessment forms will improve programmatic assessment across SAU.