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Syracuse University is engaged in ongoing assessment of student learning for a number of reasons. A primary reason is to honor our institutional commitment to student learning. As an institution, we want to know─and want our students to know─how well they are learning to use the complex knowledge and abilities that faculty articulate as important to their learning. A second reason is to provide credible answers to legitimate questions about student learning that arise from external evaluation by peers, policy makers, and the public. For both of these reasons, the University has committed to developing a deeper understanding of the level and quality of student learning in each of its programs of study. (Here, program may refer to a program, curriculum, a major, a department, or an entire school.)

We expect assessment approaches to differ due of the complexity of the educational process and the diversity of our campus learning environments. We know that collective faculty effort is required to establish learning goals for academic programs and to put in place and sustain a set of ongoing teaching, learning, assessment, and feedback practices that will allow faculty to be more aware of the effects of their work. This site has been created to support faculty in that effort, and it will grow in response to faculty needs for additional information.

Course Level Assessment
Effective assessment arises from the learning environments of individual courses and programs. This site includes recommendations for creating effective assessments that do double duty as assignments providing feedback on individual progress toward course goals and generating meaningful information about collective student performance. Faculty will find help documenting student learning in their courses in ways that are personally useful and that contribute to program level assessment of student learning.

Program Level Assessment
Faculty in individual programs will find suggestions for building assessment of student learning into their shared practices ─devising systematic plans for articulating goals for student learning at the program level; gathering, analyzing, and interpreting evidence of learning; and building on strengths and strengthening areas in which student learning is less successful. Faculty will also find ways to document student learning in ways that support the program and its students, help prepare for program accreditation, and provide evidence of student learning for assessment at the institutional level.

Institutional Level Assessment 
The University Assessment Council (UAC) was established in 2001 by Vice-Chancellor and Provost, Deborah Freund, to support the University’s institutional commitment to student learning by providing oversight and coordination of the campus-wide efforts to understand and improve learning outcomes in all of the University’s academic programs. The Council is also charged with (a) understanding the Middle States Commission’s requirements for assessment of student learning, (b) developing strategies for meeting those requirements within the individual schools and colleges, and (c) identifying options for assessment of SU’s general education offerings within the Liberal Arts Core.

The Council makes recommendations regarding institutional practices and policies that affect the work of teaching, learning, and assessment and prepares appropriate reports and submissions to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) and the New York State Education Department (NYSED).

Accreditation
Accreditation is higher education’s response to external pressures for accountability. It is the means we have chosen to insure that the distinctive and valued goals of our programs (specialized accreditation) and our institution (Middle States Commission regional accreditation) are evaluated appropriately by external reviewers. Increasingly, accrediting bodies are asking participating programs and institutions to include information on assessment of student learning─as well as evidence of how assessment data have been used to strengthen programs or enhance student learning. The accreditation process provides us with feedback on how well we are achieving programmatic or institutional goals.

What you will find in the Assessment of Student Learning section.

1. Assessment Trends, Commitments, and Concerns
2. The Language of Assessment
3. Getting Underway
4. Effective Assessments/Research on Learning
5. Disciplinary Assessment Resources [under construction]
6. General Assessment Links [under construction]
7. Institutional Assessment [under construction]
8. Accreditation [under construction]
9. History of SU Assessment [under construction]

Assessment Events/Activities

• Workshops
  Workshops addressing a variety of teaching-related topics are offered each year. For special workshops tailored to your department or program’s needs contact, cstl@syr.edu.
   
• Experiential Learning Options
  For faculty who would like some feedback and guidance in developing their own practices, contact cstl@syr.edu.

Consultation
CSTL Consultants can provide faculty, individually and collectively, with assessment assistance more specific to their needs. CSTL consultants are experienced researchers and teachers who can help faculty organize ways to assess student learning and students’ experiences of learning in their courses and programs. CSTL consultants also provide the UAC with campus-wide assessment and accreditation support.

PageUpdatedTuesday, August 14, 2007