Assessment Primer: The Assessment Learning Cycle

Assessment Cycle Promoting Institutional Effectiveness

Student Learning Assessment Cycle

Successful assessment requires articulating goals

• Goals for learning – express intended results in general terms. Used to describe broad learning concepts; e.g., clear communication, problem solving, and ethical awareness.
• Objectives for learning – express intended results in precise terms. Used to describe specific behaviors students should exhibit; e.g., “graduates in speech communication should be able to interpret non-verbal behavior and to support arguments with credible evidence”.

Student learning outcomes, should derive from the objectives which flow from the goals and mission of the program. An Assessment Plan includes all these components and focuses on the assessment of each learning outcome and how the evaluation of the results of the assessment are used for program improvement.