Academic Reports and Plans
Assessment reports are a list and description of the past academic years’ assessment activities at all stages of the assessment cycle (which goals were assessed, what assessment tools were used, what benchmarks were set up, what data was collected, what analysis resulted from the data, and what changes were made based on the evidence.) Assessment plans contain many of the same elements (which goals will be assessed, what tools will be used, and what benchmarks will be set up) but look forward to the next academic year.
Departments and programs should document all of their mission, goals, and student learning outcomes on their assessment plan every year. They then can choose which goals and SLOs they are going to assess in the upcoming year by including proposed assessment tools and benchmarks for those SLOs. (Not every goal needs to be assessed every year! Your assessment plan should follow the 3M’s and be measurable, meaningful, and manageable.)
We realize that sometimes the assessment you plan for at the beginning of the year doesn’t happen due to changing circumstances or outside forces. In these cases, it’s not acceptable to simply not assess anything – it’s okay to change your assessment on the fly and switch to another SLO or even develop new plans, tools, and benchmarks. The important thing is that you’re doing something to determine how well a part of your department or program is working (and documenting it!).
The Academic Assessment Committee, the Associate Dean of the College, and the VPAA and Dean of the College receive and review these yearly reports and plans. The Academic Assessment Coordinator is the main resource in helping departments and programs create and develop these documents.