Assessment, Accreditation and Strategic Planning

Student Assessment Definitions

Annual Reports: Description of annual activities on all steps.

Direct Measurement: Forms of direct measurement provide clear evidence of student learning. Measures directly stem from the learning outcomes identified for each major and include, for example, content of knowledge tests and demonstrations of student skills acquired.

General Education: refers to the breadth component of a baccalaureate degree program. This component contains those courses designed to provide students with an understanding of the breadth of knowledge, fundamental principles and questions, and methods of inquiry in the basic categories: humanities, social sciences, human well-being, multicultural and cross-cultural studies, and natural sciences and mathematics.

Course-Embedded Assessment: refers to a method of assessment that uses existing or created assignments employed in a course to provide a direct measure of student learning in relation to the learning goals and objectives.

Indirect Measurement: Information that implies that students have achieved learning outcomes but that cannot stand on their own as proof of student learning.

Learning Outcomes: the most important knowledge skills and attitudes that all students in the program should demonstrate.

Student Assessment: refers to the use of objective and subjective measures beyond regular course and program evaluation related activities to determine the extent to which a student, or group of students, has achieved a defined learning goal. Assessment serves to clarify student competence, proficiency, or mastery after completion of a course, collection of courses, or an entire program on both a short-term and long-term basis. Assessment in the classroom, a primary component of the strategy for the assessment of student learning, effectively promotes continuous improvement in learning by providing immediate feedback to faculty and students.