Beyond the Assessment Cycle

Placement

One of the things your team might discover is that the learning outcomes are not attainable for the level of students that are regularly admitted into the course or program, yet you do not find that there is an error with the outcomes. In other words, the outcomes fit well with the level, knowledge/skills, and rigor demanded by the course and its place in the program or overall discipline, but students seem to lack the foundational knowledge required to meet the outcomes within the time constraints of the course or program. Your team may recommend careful consideration of or changes to the school or department's placement procedures or thresholds going forward.

Department Planning/Funding

Issues that might arise during your team's discussion of assessment data include frequency or timing of course offerings, need for the development of additional courses, revision or removal of courses based on currency or relevancy in the field, considerations of equity and/or access, or the development of articulation agreements with receiving institutions. While these issues are not articulated specifically by the basic assessment cycle, and while assessment is not the only avenue to identifying these recommendations (they may be illuminated by engagement in Academic Program Review, for example), they are valuable to mention in your assessment report. Your assessment reports are available to your dean, so recommendations for curriculum development funding or review of certain administrative processes that come up through assessment are important for them to consider in their annual department planning.

Planning for Academic Program Review

Some issues you discover through your assessment process could encourage you to pursue deeper investigation through APR. It is strongly recommended that you share your most recent assessment report(s) with your APR coach at the outset of a new APR cycle.