Guidelines for Completing Annual Assessment Report for Academic Programs

St. Cloud State University

Spring 2007

General information

Ø This form should be used to report assessment activity for the 2006-07 academic year for all academic programs except General Education. (Separate forms are available for General Education and Upper Division Writing.) Submit one form per program. For example, a department with three undergraduate major programs, one minor, and one graduate program would submit five forms. If no assessment activity has taken place in the past year for a program, a form should still be submitted.  

Ø Forms should be submitted electronically (as e-mail attachments) to your college assessment director.

Ø Reports are primarily for the use of the program. They should be disseminated among and discussed by program faculty in an effort to identify ways to improve the program and assessment methods. College assessment directors will provide summary information from the reports to the University Assessment Director, who will use this information in preparing the annual institutional assessment report. Assessment reports will be kept on file by the Assessment Office. It will use these reports in two ways: (1) as data to be analyzed for the purpose of improving assessment and assessment reporting at SCSU and (2) as an archive to preserve for the program and its reviewers a record of assessment methods, tools, findings, and uses.  

Ø If you have questions, please contact the SCSU Assessment office at 80133 or 86590.

Information pertaining to specific parts of the form

Ø Academic program – Type in the full name of the program. If it is a bachelor’s level program, be sure to indicate whether it is a major or minor program. Complete one form for each program.

Ø Key learning outcomes assessed this year – Type in the full text of each of the program’s learning outcomes that was assessed during the past year.

Ø Where did you assess this outcome? – If the outcome was assessed in a course, provide the course number. If it was assessed in some other kind of activity, describe the activity (such as an exit survey or focus group of seniors, a student organization field trip, and so on). If the same outcome was assessed in more than one way, use a separate line for each.

Ø Assessment methods and tools – What specific tool or method was used to measure student learning? Examples might include an assignment or a test question in a course, a question on an exit survey or focus group interview, or an evaluation form used following a student club activity.

Ø Assessment tools attached? – Attach the instrument used to measure student learning, and indicate here that the tool is attached. Examples of such tools might include a rubric used to score an essay, a course assignment or test question, a survey, or a form.

Ø Key assessment findings – Describe the results of the assessment activities. Are the student learning outcomes that were assessed being adequately met? Do the findings raise questions that should be addressed by program faculty? In order to stay under the word limit, it may not be possible to describe all of the findings. Focus on the most important results. If you have data summaries (graphs, charts, tables), please attach them. (These do not count toward the word limit.)

Ø Use of assessment results – (1) Describe the meetings in which program faculty discussed assessment findings. (Who met? How often? How long? What was discussed? What decisions were made?) (2) Describe any efforts by program faculty this year to improve student learning or the assessment of student learning based on assessment activities. Because improvement of student learning is the ultimate goal of assessment, please include as much detail as possible (within the word limit) in your description.

Ø Planning for the next academic year – Follow the same instructions as were provided above for the current year. Which outcomes do you plan to assess in the coming academic year? (At a minimum, you should assess those specified in the matrix/curriculum map and timeline for your program.) Where or how will you assess these outcomes? Which methods or tools will you use? Attach the assessment tools you will use.

Approved by the Assessment Steering Committee on February 21, 2007