The Office of Assessment supports University-level assessment in many ways, including supporting assessment programs and activities, and University-level reporting. Some of those activities include the following:
University Strategic Plan
The current UCA Strategic Plan was approved by the university’s Board of Trustees on May 13, 2016. It covers the 2016-2022 fiscal years of university operations. The strategic plan is a guide for institutional priorities and operations. All colleges and programs are encouraged to align and document their contributions to the UCA Strategic Plan as a measure of continuous improvement and assessment of institutional performance. This information is documented in P.A.W.S., the institution’s data warehouse for strategic planning and assessment.
Diversity Strategic Plan
The UCA Diversity Strategic Plan serves as a guide of practices and principles to be implemented as a means to achieve to the UCA Core Values focused on Diversity. These values focused on attracting, retaining, educating, and supporting a diverse faculty, staff, and student population. This is achieved through a multicultural community environment that provides enhanced learning opportunities for the university’s diverse populations. Diversity focused initiatives are documented in P.A.W.S., and are directly aligned to the UCA Core Values.
UCA Core Assessment
The UCA Core is structured to encourage students to explore educational opportunities, enrich their educational experience, and empower them for future success. This structure is based on the four pillars, or Core Values, of Critical Inquiry, Effective Communication, Responsible Living, and Diversity. The Office of Assessment assists in UCA Core Assessment in an effort to provide meaningful data to support evidence-based decision making that improves student learning.
Existing Academic Program Review
The Office of Assessment actively works to ensure all programmatic assessment efforts align with Existing Academic Program Review (EAPR). The EAPR process has been updated to meet the standards of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education (ADHE), and consist of complete program reviews for focus, viability, and success.
NSSE
The Office of Assessment works with the Office of Institutional Research to support the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). The NSSE is an empirically based survey that measures institutional involvement in recognized “good practices” that support student engagement. This survey is nationally recognized and implemented. Here you can explore the results of UCA’s most recent NSSE survey.