EditStudent Affairs Assessment
Student affairs assessment has traditionally evaluated aspects of the co-curricular (outside of classroom) student experience and is typically performed by student affairs professionals and administrators. More recently, student affairs assessment work has become more integrated with academic and institutional assessment to allow for a more holistic understanding of the student experience.
EditAcademic Affairs Assessment
Academic affairs assessment has traditionally evaluated the curricular (within classroom) student experience. Academic affairs assessment is often focused on student learning outcomes and performed by faculty.
EditProgram evaluation
Academic programs and departments often evaluate student learning on a programmatic level. Faculty in this discipline will determine the intended outcomes of each program, major, as well as specific courses. Periodically a program is evaluated by collecting evidence that these intended student learning outcomes are met. Grades are not considered reliable evidence of learning. Some examples of evidence used in program evaluation include case studies, portfolios, rubrics, pre- and post-tests, or student self-reports.
EditGeneral education
General education, although known by many names, is the common educational experience of all students obtaining an undergraduate degree. General education is usually defined by a set of course requirements (or distribution requirements) with faculty-determined intended learning outcomes. In a manner similar to program evaluation, general education is evaluated by measuring student learning in those defined outcomes.
EditCourse evaluations
Course evaluations differ from program and general education evaluations in that it can measure student needs, satisfaction, participation and/or learning. Typically this evaluation tool is administered at the conclusion of a course to gather summative data. It is usually consistent across all colleges, departments and majors, and its administration and review is overseen by the senior academic officer of an institution. Recent trends have shown increased use of evaluation tools that gather formative data at a midpoint in a term, although this is not the norm, and is usually done on an individual basis by certain faculty.
EditFaculty evaluations
Faculty evaluations are often included in course evaluations and gather data about student satisfaction with a particular faculty member. This data is often used in a faculty member’s performance evaluation or tenure review. In many cases the results of course and faculty evaluations are made public to students. Recent trends include the use of online tools, external to the institution, such as http://www.ratemyprofessors.com.
EditInstitutional Research
Primary responsibilities of Institutional Research offices include reporting to external audiences, facilitating and documenting strategic planning, coordinating accreditation, and administering and analyzing institutional-wide surveys.
Reports commonly include:
- Integrated Postsecondary Data System, collected by the Department of Education
- Common Data Set, provided to publishers
- Accreditation self-studies and updates
- Membership organization reports
The Association for Institutional Research (AIR) is a professional association with a membership of over 4,000 professionals from over 1,500 higher education institutions around the world.
EditInstitutional Effectiveness
Institutional effectiveness is a term used to describe an institution’s ability to provide services consistent with its mission and vision that are consistently measured, evaluated and improved. In some cases this term is used interchangeably with assessment (e.g., “Director of University Assessment” or “Director of Institutional Effectiveness”) as assessment is a fundamental component of achieving institutional effectiveness.