Key Assessments

According the SACSCOC Principles of Accreditation:

The institution identifies expected outcomes, assesses the extent to which it achieves these outcomes, an provides clear evidence of seeking improvement based on the analysis of the results for student learning outcomes for each of its educational programs.

These assessments are known as KEY ASSESSMENTS. Key assessments are selected and/or developed by the full-time faculty in the discipline. As per the faculty handbook, the full-time faculty are responsible for curriculum.

In most cases, key assessments are embedded into courses. When a course contains a key assessment, it must be administered in all sections of the course, every term/semester.

For AOE students, almost all key assessments are administered via Blackboard. At the end of each semester the AOE Assessment Coordinator retrieves the results directly from Blackboard and reports them to Program Coordinators (full-time faculty member). Program coordinators combine results and report them to deans/department chairs/faculty via Tk20.

If you are teaching a course in which a key assessment is embedded, you will be notified by AOE leadership. Instructions for the assessment are located in the key assessment guide located on the AOE Assessment organization on Blackboard. This site contains guides and other files pertinent to the assessments.

Key assessments must be administered as per your employment contract. To assure that students perform their best, key assessment must count towards a student’s final grade.