Provost

Program assessment begins with a clear articulation of the mission, goals and desired student learning outcomes of the program.  The primary goal of program assessment is the improvement of student learning, not accountability. The assessment of student learning outcomes helps determine if students are acquiring the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values expected, and provide a process for continual improvement and adjustment of the program.

Typically, there are three steps of Program Assessment.

1. Clearly articulate Student Learning Goals
2. Gather evidence about how well students are meeting the program goals.  This evidence will include both qualitative and quantitative information.
   1. Direct measures evaluate student work.  These include exams, papers, projects, performances.
   2. Indirect measures are based on feedback from students or alumni on how well they learned and how well prepared the students were for graduate school or employment.

3.   Use the information gathered from the evidence to update and improve the program

Strategies to measure student learning at the program level include the identification of learning outcomes, the means for measuring student learning on those outcomes, and follow-up activities to review and act on assessment data. The purpose of these efforts is to provide information that can be used to improve student learning.