Assessment: A continuous process of gathering, evaluating, and communicating information to improve learning and institutional effectiveness.

 

Assessment of Student Learning: The third element of a four-part cycle: developing articulated student learning outcomes, offering students opportunities to achieve those outcomes, assessing achievement of those outcomes, and using the results of those assessments to improve teaching and learning and inform planning and resource allocation decisions.[1]

 

Benchmark: A standard of comparison against which performance can be measured or assessed.

 

Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs): Assessment tools that faculty members can use to gather timely feedback about a single lecture or discussion. Examples include the Minute Paper, the One Sentence Summary, and Direct Paraphrasing.

 

Criteria: An accepted standard, measure, or expectation used in evaluation or making decision-making.

 

Critical Success Factors (CSFs): Key areas of activity where positive results are necessary for the organization to achieve its goals.

 

Direct Measures: Measures which are directly tied to performance. In assessing student learning using direct measures, students’ work or performance provides information directly linked to students’ attainment of knowledge or skills. Direct measures are more reliable indicators of student learning than indirect measures. Examples include classroom and homework assignments, examinations and quizzes, capstone courses, student portfolios, and artistic performances.

 

E-Portfolio: A portfolio that is maintained online, containing student work in digital format.

 

Goal: Something the organization wants to achieve; desired outcomes for the organization or program, rather than actions. Goals are related to the institution or department’s mission and vision.

 

Indirect Measures: Measures which are not directly tied to performance and often require inferences to be made about performance. Indirect measures often rely on perception and are less meaningful for assessment than direct measures. They are, however, helpful to corroborate the results of direct measures. Examples include exit surveys, student opinion surveys, alumni surveys, grades not based on scoring guidelines, retention and graduation statistics, career development over time, and student activities.

 

Institutional Effectiveness:  The extent to which an institution has a clearly defined mission and institutional outcome, measures progress towards achieving those outcomes, and engages in continuous efforts to improve programs and services.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Quantifiable goals that measure performance. These goals should be well-defined, critical to an organization’s success, and reflect the organization’s mission and goals. KPIs are usually measured against benchmarks.

 

Learning Outcomes: The knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes that students gain from a learning experience.

 

Mission : The purpose of an organization or program; its reason for existing. Mission statements provide the strategic vision or direction of the organization or program and should be simple, easily understood, and communicated widely.

 

Objective: The tasks to be completed in order to achieve a goal. Objectives are specific and measurable and must be accomplished within a specified time period.

 

Outcomes: Synonymous with goals. Outcomes are tied to the mission and are something that the organization, department, program, or unit wants to achieve. Outcomes should be specific, measurable, use action verbs, and focus on the ends rather than the means.

 

Portfolio: An accumulation of evidence about individual achievement or progress towards goals. Student portfolios used for assessment purposes may include but are not limited to projects, journals, research papers, creative writing, presentations, and video or recordings of speeches and performances.

 

Program Review: Periodic self-studies in which departments are asked to present their mission statements; resources, including the number of faculty, faculty qualifications and productivity, teaching load, curriculum, and technology; learning outcomes and assessment measures; the ways in which departments have shared assessment results and used those results to inform departmental decision-making; and plans for improving learning.

 

Qualitative Data: Data that cannot be measured or expressed in numerical terms and relates to or is based on the quality or character of something. Qualitative data describe or characterize something using words rather than numbers. Examples of qualitative data include surveys, focus groups, and feedback from external reviewers.

 

Quantitative Data: Data that is capable of being measured or expressed in numerical terms. Examples of quantitative data include test scores, grades, certification exam results, and graduation and retention rates.

 

Rubric: A criteria-based scoring guideline that can be used to evaluate performance. Rubrics indicate the qualities the judge/reviewer will look for in differentiating levels of performance and assessing achievement.