Introduction

Achievement & Improvement

Academic program assessment is an ongoing process to measure the extent to which an academic program has, a) achieved its objectives regarding the knowledge, skills, and abilities of program graduates and, b) focused continuous improvement efforts to help the program better achieve these objectives.

 Assessment provides the answers to these questions: “What do students need to know to successfully graduate and what do graduates need to know to be successful professionals?” and “What programmatic changes can be made to continuously improve instructional quality, increase student success and build required knowledge and skillsets for program completion?”

Academic program assessment is a structured and iterative process in which qualified faculty

• Identify the specific knowledge and skills program graduates should possess;
• Identify academic progress milestones students need to meet to become successful graduates;
• Identify the elements of general education that complement and enhance the specific knowledge and skills graduates should possess;
• Identify specific methods for measuring knowledge and skills;
• Interpret the results of those measures of student knowledge and skills;
• Use those results to make curricular decisions intended to improve student learning; and
• Repeat the process to monitor the effectiveness of curricular changes and to identify additional changes.

Academic program assessment should not be thought of as a periodic activity with a finite beginning and end. It is a continuous and ongoing process; each cycle provides information about the degree of success from the previous cycle and informs continuous improvement decisions and activities in subsequent cycles.

Note: The information collected in the Measures and Methods section of the UOEEE New Assessment Plan portal will be used to help complete the Assessment Methods and Measure sections of new program proposals being submitted to the Office of the University Provost and subsequently the Arizona Board of Regents for approval.  

Assessment Handbook

To assist units in the assessment planning process, we created a handbook: Program Assessment Handbook.  Please refer to this handbook as you create your assessment plans and reports. To access this handbook, please authenticate using your ASURITE.