Assessment

This site and the Assessment Guide at its heart was first created by the Director of Assessment and the Academic Assessment Committee in 2012 to give guidance to programs at UCA as they create and update their continuous improvement (assessment) plans. The site is part of a collective response by the director and the committee to the need for a UCA assessment handbook, ongoing support for programs improving their assessment plans – and so continuously improving their programs – and the creation of entities that would receive and give feedback on assessment results.

The Assessment Guide will walk you through the assessment process described in seven steps, with links to definitions and additional resources. Since assessment has a considerable history at this point, in some cases the site uses or links to helpful assessment resources at other colleges and universities. The tabs above provide Assessment Forms, the Assessment Guide itself, a helpful glossary of assessment “terms of art,” a library of existing continuous improvement plans, and the link to the student learning outcomes report form.

The result, we hope, is user-friendly and flexible to meet the needs of both assessment beginners and veterans and uses some of the expertise of institutions who have a longer history of assessment.

If you are developing a continuous improvement plan for the first time, start with the Assessment Guide’s Introduction and move through the steps in order. On later visits, go directly to whatever stage of the process you need. If you have questions, email assessment@uca.edu.