Assessment of Student Learning: Overview

Over the last several years, UCI has increasingly taken a more systematic and coordinated approach to student learning assessment. Particularly at the level of the undergraduate major, we’ve worked to build capacity within each department so that faculty can sustain a meaningful and manageable assessment process. Our approach has been incremental, with programs first developing learning outcomes in 2009, assessment plans in 2010, and assessment reports that reflect the collection and assessment of student work in 2011. To date, nearly every undergraduate major is poised to report on how it is using assessment to demonstrate what their students have learned.

Three campus groups have been especially important in our progress. First, the Western Association of School & Colleges (WASC) Steering Committee selected three themes—student leaning in the major, general education, and academic program review—for the current reaccreditation cycle that have focused attention on assessment. Second, the Academic Senate’s Assessment Committee was formed in 2010 and, since then, has formally involved faculty in important decisions on assessment. Formed with an understanding that faculty are and should be at the heart of assessment planning and implementation, the Committee works in tandem with central administration to organize our efforts. Third, since 2008, the Assessment Grant Program has rewarded faculty for innovative work that not only fits their departmental context but the research university context as well. With nearly 30 faculty having been or currently in the program, the Assessment Grant Program continues to have a campus-wide impact and to engage faculty and staff in the on-going discussion on how we can improve our work for the sake of our students.

Two ideas have united the work of these groups and motivated us over the last several years. First, while we value student learning assessment as part of fulfilling the requirements of reaccreditation and “accountability” more generally, the primary reason we assess is to continuously improve student learning and the quality of our academic program. This drive to assess for the sake of improving ourselves and what our students learn has acted as a touchstone during discussions on the purpose of assessment. Equally important has been the idea that the assessment process, and information gathered by that process, is actually used by faculty. As they think about assessment and act on their plans, we encourage faculty to consider how utilizable the process—and the results it produces—is for themselves. With programs having now made plans and collecting student work, our next step is to work with departments as they use their assessment results to reexamine what is familiar and consider new and better methods.

Last Updated: 1/5/2012