Institutional Assessment Expectations
Each academic degree program is expected to maintain accurate and relevant learning outcomes for its graduates. The University recommends 5-7 learning outcomes for each program, but faculty can choose to have greater or fewer based on program curriculum, accreditation requirements, or personal preference. Faculty in the program should follow departmental procedures for approving changes to program learning outcomes. Any program learning outcome changes shall be forwarded to the Office of the Vice Chancellor for updating the University catalog through PCAS.
Faculty are expected to identify key pieces of student work or collect other student input by which the level of student learning for the outcomes are measured. Data collections should occur with a frequency by which faculty are comfortable generalizing an overall level of proficiency for program graduates.
Reporting of assessment activity shall be summarized and reported to academic departments and UMN Crookston Institutional Effectiveness annually. Historically, this reporting has been submitted during spring semester finals week, however faculty may submit their report at a time that best fits their academic schedule and/or accreditation deadlines. Annual reporting should include the outcome being evaluated, any data used to show student proficiency in the outcome, and actions that will be taken, if any, based on the data and level of student learning.
Faculty do not have to report assessment activities for all learning outcomes each year. Faculty shall set a schedule reporting such that data collection is manageable and changes based on a particular data collection cycle have a period of time to impact student learning. UMN Crookston recommends a cycle such that all program outcomes are assessed once every 3-4 years.
Each fall, Institutional Effectiveness provides the Assessment Committee of the Faculty Assembly with copies of reports received the prior year. Upon review of the reports, the Committee is encouraged to share findings with their respective departments, commending those doing quality and unique assessment work and aiding those where assessment activity could be strengthened.