Student Outcomes Assessment at UIUC

In 1997 a Student Outcomes Assessment Committee was appointed by the Provost to develop mechanisms for assessing student achievement in all University undergraduate and graduate programs. The UIUC system of assessment is intended to be unit-based and faculty-driven as prescribed by the committee:

While campus leadership and support is necessary, only through faculty involvement can large institutions devise effective and efficient program-based assessment plans that will produce results beneficial for all academic units. With assessment planning located primarily at the unit level, faculty can exercise their responsibility to devise appropriate methods to measure student learning. The Task Force recommends a process that gives widespread ownership of assessment planning to faculty and enables them to determine the methods and instruments that are most applicable to their educational objectives and missions. Also, the Task Force supports the idea that academic units are best suited to determine how assessment results can be used to ascertain curricular strengths and weaknesses and to improve programs.

The committee worked to help all academic units develop assessment plans for their majors and to develop assessment measures for the broader, overarching, campus-wide learning goals that are expected of all UIUC students. To help in the development of a unit assessment plan all academic departments were required to designate an assessment coordinator who received assessment training through workshops offered by the Center for Teaching Excellence.

In 2000 the Student Outcomes Assessment Committee asked units to report their assessment activities and any changes/improvements made in the units based upon their assessment results. A listing of unit activities and changes/improvements is provided below

Following submission of the 2000 progress reports, the Student Outcomes Assessment Committee encouraged units to continue to implement their assessment plans but has not monitored unit activity or progress since that time. To re-emphasize the importance of continuing assessment efforts, the Provost asked all academic units in Summer, 2007, to once again identify an assessment coordinator and to revise their unit assessment plans. A series of assessment workshops will be offered for coordinators by the Center for Teaching Excellence. Units will be asked to submit a new or revised assessment plan, report on planned assessment activities, and identify changes/improvements made in recent years. The report will be due in Spring, 2008.

This site contains information on the following topics:

Unit Assessment Plans --a list of degree-granting units on campus with links to the original 1997 outcomes assessment plans.

Senior Survey--summary reports of the 1997 - 2007 Chancellor's Survey of Undergraduate Experience; these reports encapsulate the findings from online and traditional surveys conducted to measure the opinions and perceptions of graduating UIUC seniors.

Assessment Resources-- a collection of print and electronic assessment resources is provided.

Campus Assessment Workshops-- lists past and future sessions and seminars offered to assist units with the development of their respective assessment plans.