The COSS Assessment Page: A resource for faculty in the College of Social Sciences, St. Cloud State University

 

Assessment defined

Assessment is an ongoing process aimed at understanding and improving student learning. It involves making our expectations and explicit on public; setting appropriate criteria and high standards for learning quality; systematically gathering, analyzing, and interpreting evidence to determine how well performance matches those expectations and standards; and using the resulting information to document, explain, and improve performance. When it is embedded effectively within larger institutional systems, assessment can help us focus our collective attention, examine our assumptions, and create a shared academic culture dedicated to assuring and improving the quality of higher education. --Thomas A. Angelo, Reassessing (and Defining) Assessment. The AAHE Bulletin, 48(2), November, 1995, pp. 7-9.

 

Assessment is the monitoring of student learning; it is NOT the evaluation of professors’ teaching. --Douglas Eder


SCSU Assessment Office

 

SCSU's General Education Learning Outcomes (LINK INACTIVE WHILE GEN ED MISSION/GOALS AWAIT FINAL APPROVAL)

 

An overview of assessment

"Assessment Clear and Simple": Barbara Walvoord's very accessible explanation of a three-step assessment process (pp. 1-8) with sample department-level assessment plans for Biology, Gen Ed Literature, Sociology, and Economics (pp. 9-16).

 

Program Assessment

For Departments: A brief guide to program outcomes assessment

COSS program assessment plans posted on the University Assessment Office website

Assessment resources for departments and instructors

Barbara Walvoord's short list of essential classroom assessment resources

Resources listed by the University of Washington Center for Instructional Development and Research

A huge compendium of assessment resources compiled at N. Carolina State

A brief guide to writing effective and measurable learning objectives/learning outcomes

          Sample program learning outcomes

                   A history program

Sample learning-centered assessment (i.e., grading) rubrics

Sample assessment reports

Reporting on assessment

SCSU’s program assessment report template

Created and maintained by Joe Melcher, COSS Assessment Coordinator. Please email problem reports or comments (jmmelcher@stcloudstate.edu)
Created Nov. 4, 2004. Last update: Dec. 5, 2007