What is the purpose of this guide?
The purpose of this guide is to help academic units develop and/or improve the process of assessing student learning.
Why is assessment of student learning important?
In effect there are two reasons assessment of student learning is important.
Assessment is needed for improvement. Improvement, with its internal focus provides
• opportunities for the academic community to engage in self-reflection of its learning goals, to determine the degree to which these goals correspond to student and societal needs, and to evaluate if students’ activities, products, or performances coincide with the academic community’s expectations;
• offers information to students about the knowledge, skills, and other attributes they can expect to possess after successfully completing coursework and academic programs.
• establishes ways for academic units to understand the dimensions of student learning when seeking to improve student achievement and the educational process.

Assessment is needed for accountability. Accountability, with its external focus, provides

Step One: Identify Goals
A goal is a statement expressing what ideals are to be achieved. Goal statements tend to be broadly philosophical, global, timeless and not readily amenable to measurement. They capture the knowledge, skills, and values that students should acquire in a program by a course.
This first step in identifying goals requires faculty and others to reflect on questions such as the following:
• what is the mission of this unit that guides and encapsulates the essence of learning - the knowledge, the skills, the values or attitudes to be achieved by students?
• are these goals compatible with the mission of the university and its strategic plan?
The characteristics of goal statements should be the same whether the focus is at the level of the undergraduate major