Developing an Institutional Assessment Plan: Product and Process

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Developing an Institutional Assessment Plan
Product and Process Bruce P. Szelest
Winter Workshop - January 20-21, 2005 Saratoga
Springs, NY Association of Institutional
Research and Planning Officers
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• Assessment and the
• Changing Rules of the Game
• NYSED Quality Assurance Initiative, Assessment
  and Institutional Effectiveness, Part-52
  (1999-2002)
• Report of the Provost's Advisory Task Force on
  the Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes
  (2000)
• Assessment in the major
• General Education assessment
• Middle States Characteristics of Excellence
  (2002)
• Institutional assessment Standard 7
• General education Standard 12
• Assessment of student learning Standard 14
• Strengthened Campus-based Assessment (2004)

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• UAlbany Needs Assessment
• Re-focus and put primary emphasis on student
  learning outcomes
• Leadership and direction from Academic Affairs
• Develop more systematic assessments of
  institutional effectiveness
• Write an Institutional Assessment Plan
• Build a pervasive culture of assessment

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• UAlbany Needs Assessment
• Leadership and direction from Academic Affairs
• Director of Assessment
• Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies for
  General Education
• Assistant VP for Strategic Planning and
  Assessment
• Provosts Assessment Advisory Committee (PAAC)

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• Provosts Assessment Advisory Committee (PAAC)
• Goals
• Participate in drafting Institutional Assessment
  Plan
• Work with the Vice Presidents and Deans to create
  organizational structures to implement and
  support assessment within each division by
• By virtue of 1st two goals, MSCHE role

• General Support for Assessment
• Assessment Inventory
• Identify and disseminate best practices
• Develop and maintain website http//www.albany.edu
  /assessment
• Maintain document library
• Assist as able in implementation of divisional
  assessment plans

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• UAlbany Needs Assessment
• Re-focus on student learning outcomes
• Embed assessment in the major within the academic
  program review process
• Partnering with faculty governance
• General Education Assessment Subcommittee
• Council on Academic Assessment

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• UAlbany Needs Assessment
• Develop more systematic assessments of
  institutional effectiveness
• Build on long history of episodic and targeted
  assessments of issues of institutional import
• Convince student support and administrative units
  across VP divisions that they need to
  meaningfully engage assessment
• Create linkages between assessment and planning
  and budgeting
• Develop a body of evidence of how assessment
  results are used

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• UAlbany Needs Assessment
• Write an Institutional Assessment Plan
• Work through the PAAC

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Organizing Assessment Activities

• ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE ASSESSMENT
  PROCESS
• Vice Presidential leadership
• Dean Leadership
• Role of University Senate Councils
• The Provosts Assessment Advisory Committee
• FOCAL POINTS OF INTROSPECTION
• Assessments of Student Learning
• Institutional Level Outcomes
• General Education Outcomes
• Academic Program and Course Level Outcomes
• Assessment of Institutional Effectiveness in
  Research, Public Service, Academic Support, and
  Administrative
• Linkages Between Assessment and Planning and
  Resource Allocation

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• All Assessment Plans Should
• Identify goals and objectives both within the
  framework of the institution's mission and in
  terms of program goals
• Develop qualitative and quantitative metrics, and
  a timetable for their implementation, to
  determine whether goals and objectives are being
  achieved
• Include provisions for incorporating assessment
  results into operations
• Document processes of evaluation and improvement
  and
• Detail plans for communicating assessment plans
  and how assessment results are used to campus
  constituencies.

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• Institutional Assessment Plan (IAP) Highlights
• Assessment in the major and Gen Ed already in
  place.
• Each VP division will have an assessment plan
  that describes how their division supports and
  measures the achievement of institutional goals.
• Undergraduate and Graduate Deans responsible for
  developing assessment plans for University-wide
  programs in their areas
• Plans for Academic Affairs divisional plan to
  incorporate deans and school/college assessment
  plans to encourage their active participation
  and benefit from their insights on support
  operations.
• Divisional plans should include a detailed
  listing of units that will develop unit
  assessment plans, timetables.
• Divisional and unit assessment plans, and annual
  activity reports, will be shared with appropriate
  University Senate Councils and campus
  constituencies to promote collegial review of
  assessment processes and promote community
  awareness of assessment efforts.
• Provosts Assessment Advisory Committee is
  charged with annually reviewing and promoting
  this flow of information.

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• UAlbany Needs Assessment
• Build a pervasive culture of assessment
• All of the above, and then some

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End