HANDOUT - Why Assess in Student Affairs?

HANDOUT - Writing Learning Outcomes Workshop (1)

HANDOUT - Writing Learning Outcomes Workshop (2)

HANDOUT - Level of Specificity and Reach with Learning Outcomes

HANDOUT - Key Area Analysis/Departmental Template

HANDOUT - Activity Mapping Project: Helpful Definitions

• The assessment of student learning begins with educational values
• Assessment is most effective when it reflects an understanding of learning as multidimensional, integrated, and revealed in performance over time.
• Assessment works best when the programs it seeks to improve have clear, explicitly stated purposes.
• Assessment requires attention to outcomes but also and equally to the experience that lead to those outcomes.
• Assessment works best when it is on-going not episodic.
• Assessment fosters wider improvement when representatives from across the educational community are involved.
• Assessment makes a difference when it begins with issues of use and illuminates questions that people really care about.
• Assessment is most likely to lead to improvement when it is part of larger set of conditions that promote change.
• Through assessment, educators meet responsibilities to students and to the public