Assessment Resources

Below are resources intended to support faculty as they develop assessment processes within their courses, programs, departments, and schools. While these resources can stand on their own, we encourage faculty to contact us about meeting to discuss assessment issues specific to your focus, unit, or discipline.

Examples of Best Practices – UCI Undergraduate Major Assessment Reports:

Social Ecology

Sociology

Sample Rubrics:

• Association for American Colleges and Universities’ VALUE rubrics.

Resources answering the question-does assessment actually make colleges and universities better?

• NILOA’s “Using Assessment Results: Promising Practices of Institutions That Do It Well.”
• Lattuca, L. R., Terenzini, P. T., & Volkwein, J. F. (2006). Engineering change: A study of the impact of ED2000. Baltimore: ABET, Inc.

Assessment of Undergraduate Majors:

• NILOA’s “Down and In: Assessment Practices at the Program Level,” a report on a national survey of program heads about assessment at the program and departmental level.
• Video of Richard Light’s 2011 presentation on Why Faculty Should Take Ownership of Assessment

General Assessment Resources:

• Measuring Quality in Higher Education Database. The database includes over 250 instruments, tools, and resources for assessment at practically every level of interest within and across an institution.  It is searchable by several different factors such as: the level of assessment, who is being assessed, what/who the assessment aims to evaluate, etc.
• National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA), an information-rich resource for anyone planning and implementing campus assessment activities.
  • NILOA’s assessment resources page can be found here.
• A meta-list of assessment-related links hosted by North Carolina State University. This site includes complete assessment guidebooks, such as University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Program-based Review and Assessment: Tools and Techniques for Program Improvement.
• The Association of American Colleges and Universities maintains an excellent, comprehensive assessment resources page.
• A compilation of articles about assessment and accountability from Inside Higher Ed. The Chronicle of Higher Education also regularly publishes articles on assessment.
• Each year, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis hosts the nation’s oldest and largest assessment conference, the Assessment Institute. A complete list of national and regional assessment conferences can be found here.
• Searchable archives of the Assessment in Higher Education listserve.
• Western Association of Schools and Colleges:
  • Rubric for Assessing the Quality of Academic Program Learning Outcomes
  • Rubric for Assessing the Use of Portfolios
  • Rubric for Assessing the Use of Capstone Experiences

Higher education associations:

• Association of American Colleges and Universities
• Association for Institutional Research
• Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education
• American Evaluation Association
• Association for the Study of Higher Education
• American Educational Research Association
• Western Association of Schools and Colleges