Assessment Plan Guidelines

Saint Peter’s University Subcommittee on Academic Information and Assessment

Guidelines for a Departmental Assessment Plan of Student Learning

The present guidelines are to be used for developing a plan for assessing student learning for academic departments or programs. An assessment plan for student learning is one component of a comprehensive program review of self study.

Saint Peter’s University defines assessment as a dialogue among students, faculty and administrators to determine how well students are learning. It employs quantitative and qualitative measures of students’ progress and involves students in the process of assessing their learning. Assessment engages all university personnel and utilizes the expertise and uniqueness of each unit of the College to decide what to assess, how to assess it and how to best use the results.

Guidelines

The assessment plan needs to be formulated with the input from all members of the Department. One individual needs to be designed as the Coordinator and take responsibility for organizing the plan and serving as liaison to the Ad Hoc Committee on Academic Information and Assessment. All members of the department or program are to be involved in the implementation of the plan. Assessment plans are to be submitted to

The assessment plan should be approximately 8-10 pages both in length and may be submitted in narrative format with tables as needed. The following areas need to be addressed:

  1. In a few sentences, state the mission of your department or program.
  2. List the goals of your department or program. Goals are broad-based statements that describe the purposes or aims of the educational program. Assess the relationship of the mission and goals of the department to those of the College.
  3. List the program objectives in terms of desired student outcomes.
  4. Link desired student objectives and outcomes to specific courses.
  5. Identify methods useful for measuring the attainment of the      objectives/outcomes.
  6. Establish a timeline for the evaluation of the objectives/outcomes and state who will be responsible for collection.
  7. Establish procedures for using the data to improve the major/program.

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