Accreditation is the recognition of an institution's ability to serve in an educational capacity, awarded by an independent entity that ensures the accredited institution adheres to a set of standards.  Illinois Tech is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC). 

accreditation, specialized (also called program or disciplinary accreditation) 

Accreditation of units, schools or programs within a larger educational institution or for the sole program or area of concentration of an independent, specialized institution.

accredited institution

An institution that has been approved by a regional accrediting body. In Illinois Tech's case, we are accredited by the midwest's regional accrediting body, the Higher Learning Commission (HLC).

accredited status

Status that indicates an institution is accredited by a regional accrediting body, in our case, HLC.

Accreditation Liaison Officer (ALO) (Illinois Tech's ALO is Nick Menhart)

The individual appointed by the institution’s CEO to serve as the primary contact between the institution and HLC. The ALO communicates changes at the institution to HLC, responds to communications from HLC, and provides oversight for the currency, accuracy and timeliness of institutional information submitted to HLC, including the Institutional Update.

Within the institution, specialized accreditation refers to the independent evaluation and monitoring of a program.  Specialized accreditation is maintained by Illinois Tech with Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) for some engineering, computer science, and related disciplines; and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) for some business disciplines. A comprehensive list of specialized accrediting bodies can be found here  Illinois Tech's accreditors. 

Alignment refers to the direct links between learning activities and assessments to learning outcomes.  Well-aligned outcomes, assessments, and activities support each other towards a common goal. As assessments in courses are aligned to course learning goals, course learning goals should be aligned to overall program and/or core curriculum goals, visualized in a program's curriculum map. These learning goals are, in turn, aligned with Illinois Tech's overall mission. 

An artifact refers to a piece of student work that demonstrates a level of achievement of a learning objective.  Artifacts are gathered, analyzed, and retained as evidence of the students' achievements of the stated learning objectives. Artifacts must meet the following criteria:

• be completed, individual student work

• be submitted for auditing purposes

• be evaluated according to a rubric

Assessment refers to the measurement of how well students are achieving learning goals, objectives, or outcomes. Assessment is distinct from grading in that assessment provides information to the faculty on the strengths and areas of needed improvement in the curriculum, while grades inform the student of their mastery of course content.  When reviewing student artifacts for program or core curriculum assessment, a reviewer is not re-grading that artifact, but assessing whether that artifact meets the program objective or outcome to which it was aligned. 

Assessment from ABET: Assessment is one or more processes that identify, collect, and prepare data to evaluate the attainment of student outcomes. Effective assessment uses relevant direct, indirect, quantitative and qualitative measures as appropriate to the outcome being measured. Appropriate sampling methods may be used as part of an assessment process.

The Assessment  Cycle is the timeline for departments to run their assessment plans and continuous improvement processes to ensure program, core curriculum, and cocurricular learning goals and outcomes are achieved and/or improved. Well-documented reports of completed processes and improvements not only help departments improve programs and courses for better student success, they also serve to demonstrate overall program quality assurance to third party accreditors. 

At Illinois Tech there are core curriculum and program assessment reports.

Core curriculum reports assess the learning objectives of each core curriculum designation. One designation is evaluated over either the fall or spring term.  Evaluating all the core curriculum objectives is a three-year cycle.

Programs analyze the results of their assessment of the PLOs and write an annual program assessment report. Reports are typically due in the fall. 

Benchmarks refer to standards or points of reference against which achievement is measured.  Benchmarking can be applied to student achievement of learning outcomes, program assessment, and evaluation of institutional effectiveness. 

Bloom's Taxonomy is a framework of levels of cognition, from remembering to creating.  These terms and levels are used in the development of student learning outcomes or objectives.  

A capstone project is a culmination and application of students' learned skills, especially to a real-world prolem or situation. At Illinois Tech, IPRO courses serve the function of capstone course, in that they are project-based, interdisciplinary, and team-driven.  

Cocurricular activities are those that complement the institution's curriculum and reinforce the mission and values. Cocurricular activities involves students' application of skills to areas outside the formal curriculum, including research experiences, student mentoring, service learning and professional clubs or initiatives.

Continuous Improvement refers to the cycle of setting goals, implementing activities to meet the goals, analyzing data to measure achievement, and making modification to improve the activities or curriculum. 

Core curriculum assessment is the evaluation of how well undergraduates at Illinois are achieving the core learning goals.  

A curriculum map is documented alignment of program learning goals and/or core curriculum learning goals to individual courses within a program, and ultimately, to the aligned course assessments, which can be used as evidence or artifacts of student achievement of those learning goals. 

Resources 

Curriculum Map - How to Guide 

from the Glossary of HLC Terminology:

An evidence file is a collection of documents that an institution provides in its Assurance Filing to support the claims and arguments made in the institution’s Assurance Argument.

Generally low-stakes or no-stakes assessments, formative assessments are any activities that provide feedback to the student and instructor about how the student is doing in the class. 

In contrast, the purpose of formative assessments is to monitor student learning for both instructor and students. The purpose of summative assessments, on the other hand,  is to measure how much a student learned after completing a specific unit or course. 

The purpose of student grades is to provide individual feedback to the student about how well they are mastering (or mastered) the content of the course. 

In contrast, the purpose of student learning assessment is continuous improvement and quality assurance that students are learning the expected course and program learning goals. Grading should not be confused with the act of reviewing artifacts against rubrics to determine if program learning goals are met. 

Learning objectives, outcomes, and goals are often used interchangeably. They typically refer to those abilities students will have developed at the end of a course of study,  a course, a module, or an assignment. Curriculum maps show the alignment of program and core curriculum objectives to course objectives. Course assignments are similarly aligned to course learning objectives and are linked back to overall program learning objectives, while assignment learning goals and objectives are linked back to the course learning objectives. 

Student Outcomes (5.C.)  from the Glossary of HLC Terminology, Criteria for Accreditation:  Education-specific results to measure against the objectives or standards for the educational offerings.  Examples could be results from licensure or standardized exams, course and program persistence, graduation rates and workforce data.

Student Outcomes from ABET:  Student outcomes describe what students are expected to know and be able to do by the time of graduation. These relate to the knowledge, skills, and behaviors that students acquire as they progress through the program.

Program Educational Objectives from ABET  Program educational objectives are broad statements that describe what graduates are expected to attain within a few years after graduation. Program educational objectives are based on the needs of the program’s constituencies.

PLO Quick Start Guide

Curriculum Map How To Guide

Program assessment provides feedback to faculty about how well the program curriculum is working to help students achieve the learning goals of a program. In contrast, the purpose of grades is to provide individual feedback to the student about how well they are mastering the content of the course. The spirit of the assessment is continuous improvement.

A program assessment plan is a written document by the department responsible for the program that outlines the program learning objectives and outcomes, the courses that should demonstrate achievement of those learning goals and outcomes, and a regular timeline in which that department will review those objectives against student work to ensure that the program meets and continues to meet program learning goals and outcomes. 

Program Assessment Plan Template

Program Learning Objectives are the broad  knowledge, skills, and abilities that graduates will attain by the end of their particular  course of study.  Learning objectives, outcomes, and goals are often used interchangeably in assessment terminology. They typically refer to those abilities students will have developed at the end of a course of study,  a course, a module, or an assignment. Curriculum maps show the alignment of program objectives and core curriculum objectives to course objectives. Course assignments are similarly aligned to course learning objectives are linked back to overall program or course of study learning objectives, while assignment learning goals and objectives are linked back to the course learning objectives. 

Student Outcomes (5.C.)  from the Glossary of HLC Terminology, Criteria for Accreditation:  Education-specific results to measure against the objectives or standards for the educational offerings.  Examples could be results from licensure or standardized exams, course and program persistence, graduation rates and workforce data.

Student Outcomes from ABET:  Student outcomes describe what students are expected to know and be able to do by the time of graduation. These relate to the knowledge, skills, and behaviors that students acquire as they progress through the program.

Program Educational Objectives from ABET  Program educational objectives are broad statements that describe what graduates are expected to attain within a few years after graduation. Program educational objectives are based on the needs of the program’s constituencies.

PLO Quick Start Guide

Curriculum How To Guide

Performance Indicators are specific, measurable tasks that are part of achievement of a learning objective.  Typically used as part of a rubric. 

A rubric is a scoring guide in which key performance indicators are measured using detailed criteria to evaluate if performance met, did not meet, or exceeded specific assignment, course, or program learning goals. 

Student learning assessment provides feedback to faculty about how well the program or core curriculum is working to help students achieve the learning objectives defined for a core designation or program. It is quality control assurance for core or program curricula. The spirit of the assessment is continuous improvement.

In contrast, the purpose of grades is to provide individual feedback to the student about how well they are mastering the course content. 

from the Glossary of HLC Terminology, Criteria for Accreditation:

Student Outcomes (5.C.) 

Education-specific results to measure against the objectives or standards for the educational offerings.  Examples could be results from licensure or standardized exams, course and program persistence, graduation rates and workforce data.

Summative assessment refers to the evaluation of student learning at the end of an instructional cycle.  Summative assessments measure student learning against a benchmark.  The purpose of summative assessments is to measure how much a student learned after completing a specific unit or course. 

In contrast, formative assessment measures how a student is learning during a particular course or unit.