• University Policy
• Academic Program Review (APACE)
• Board of Regents
• SACS requirements
• Professional Accreditation
• Right thing to do

How--examples to follow.

• GSU General Education Outcomes
• Upper Division Adaptations of General Education Outcomes
• General Education outcomes for core courses--Geography
• Aligning courses and learning outcomes--Computer Science, Geology
• Aligning courses and learning outcomes (CS)
• Definition of weighted scores for program matrix
• Course Outcomes
• Assessing outcomes
• Interpreting and using evaluation results

Background Information

• Purpose of Outcomes
• Goals
• Types of Learning Outcomes

Handbooks and Manuals

• Cal State--Fresno
• Texas A&M
• University of Wisconsin
• Virginia Commonwealth University

Examples

• Robinson College of Business
• Departmental Examples

Helpful Links

• Understanding by Design: Power Point (Wiggins and McTighe)

Purpose of Developing and Assessing Learning Outcomes
There are several reasons why we assess student learning at a program and institutional level. The primary reason for developing an assessment program is to improve student learning. More specifically, we assess to inform ourselves about what is happening in our courses and programs. This formative aspect of assessment provides a feedback loop that enables faculty members to adjust instruction and programs to redesign curricular offerings and requirements. Second, we assess in order to evaluate the effectiveness of courses, programs elements university-wide degree requirements. This summative aspect of assessment also involves examining the relative contributions made by programs and units. Finally, assessment documents the work of programs as well as the university and provides evidence to the various stakeholders of the university.

Through the process of assessing student learning, several important dynamics occur:

1. Program faculty engage in discussions about what a graduate "should look like" and from the discussions develop a shared vision of what program graduates should know (content knowledge), be able to do (skills and processes), and dispositions (values, ethical positions, and attitudes) that are desirable.
2. The faculty frame the discussions within the standards that have been set by governing groups (e.g., Board of Regents), discipline-specific professional groups (e.g., American Historical Association, ), accreditation groups (e.g., Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business or National League for Nursing Accreditation), and institutional guidelines (e.g., the general education core and university requirements, such as writing intensive courses).
3. Within these discussions, the faculty must prioritize what is most important to them (e.g., greater depth of understanding at the cost of broader coverage of topics) and decide how a set of individual course experiences each contribute to student learning, i.e., knowledge, skills, and dispositions.