This report is a follow up to the report you wrote last year. It
is intended as a guide for you to reflect on where you are currently
and what you want to accomplish for next year. It will also reflect
your intended outcomes statements that will be implemented in the
fall. If you already have implemented intended outcome statements
this year, please include them in your July report.
The report will be done by July 1, 2006 (and on a continuing
annual basis in the future), to provide evidence of continuous,
longitudinal assessment each year using multiple approaches.
The assessment process is intended, first of all, for the
benefit of our students; second, to provide others with knowledge of
the things we are doing well; and third, to meet the North Central
Association’s (Higher Learning Commission’s) accreditation
guidelines.
Our students will benefit by our efforts to gain feedback from
them on how well we are delivering our programs, activities, and
services to meet the goal of being actively involved in their
success at the university and planning changes to better serve them.
The assessment report for July 1, 2006 has several parts to it.
It will contain a summary of your assessment planning for
this year.
It will contain a summary of the assessment studies that you
carried out this year.
It will include your mission, vision, values, and priorities
statements.
It will include your intended outcomes statements and how
these are to be measured.
It will contain your future plans, including changes you
intend to make as a result of your assessment activities. This
looping process is a important part of the report. Please state
how you used the data from your assessment results in changing
your programs, activities, and services to better serve
students/clients/customers.
Please continue to carry out satisfaction studies, while
adding intended outcomes statements and assessment plans to be
implemented in the fall of 2006. If you have already developed
and assessed intended outcome statements for this year, please
continue this process for next year.
Developing intended outcomes statements, using multiple
methods of assessment, engaging in longitudinal studies, and
looping the results into program change strategies will greatly
aid both your students/clients/customers and our preparation for
the HLC visit. The HLC (Higher Learning Commission) heavily
emphasizes the importance of having intended outcomes statements
for you programs, activities, and services and demonstrating the
looping process in assessment.
Use some form of an assessment planning and evaluation model,
such as the Context, Input, Process, and Product (CIPP) Model
Begin with the context (C)of your planning statements for
your department (vision, mission, values, and priorities) and
evaluate those planning statements (Context Evaluation).
Use inputs (I) in the assessment planning process (data from
earlier studies; feedback from students, staff, faculty,
parents, or others; your perceptions; analysis of the CAS
Standards, etc.) and evaluate them (Input Evaluation).
Implement the process (P) of delivery of
programs/services/activities and evaluate them (Process
Evaluation).
Obtain study results on the products (P) or outcomes of your
programs/services/activities. Revise your
programs/services/activities based on your assessment findings
(Product Evaluation).
“Loop” back to your planning statements (vision, mission,
values, and priorities) to see what revisions you would like to
make in them.
Use Your Satisfaction Survey This Year as a Baseline for
Intended Outcomes Statements for Next Year.
There are several benefits to this practice
it will help you establish a baseline for next year’s
assessment work
it will help in developing a longitudinal approach with
baseline data each year.
it will aid in writing intended outcomes statements, by
basing some of your assessment goals and objectives on
improving results on your present satisfaction survey for
next year.
for example, a goal for next year could be, “ We will
have a increase of 10% in student satisfaction in the area
of providing useful information to them in a timely manner
on our Student Satisfaction Survey to be given in November,
2006”.
This helps your assessment goals be more specific and
measurable, as well as providing a standard or criterion to
meet..
Consider doing a web-based satisfaction survey.
Carry out Tracking and Counts of the Use of Your Services and
Participation in your Programs and Activities
These numbers can be very helpful in describing the use of
your services and participation by students and others.
They can also help you see patterns of use and areas that
you might want to focus on or to change in the future.
Consult with the chair of UWSP’s Institutional Review Board
(IRB) before engaging in your study about the instruments you plan
to use.
Review of Several Key Concepts from North
Central Association (Higher Learning Commission) Accreditation Process
The assessment process contributes to continuous improvement.
The assessment process uses longitudinal data, involving the
same survey data over multiple years (benchmarking data is also
helpful in this regard).
The assessment process focuses on intended outcomes, whether in
the area of student learning, programs, activities, student
development, or services.
The assessment focuses on a “looping” process, in which
assessment results are “looped” back to the vision, mission, values,
and priorities for review and evaluation.
The assessment process focuses on multiple methods of assessment
(i.e., surveys, focus groups, observations, interviews, tracking,
counts).
The assessment process is integral to the overall planning of
each area, including the establishment of priorities for each year.
