2019-2020

Due date for recording assessment results

Program assessment results collected in 2019-2020 should be recorded no later than September 30, 2020.

Instructions for recording program assessment results

For program assessment results, please be sure to follow these instructions for recording assessment results. If you have charts or tables, you can attach these and link to the attachments. If the chart or table is not particularly large or complicated, consider creating it right in the wiki page — your readers will appreciate the reduction in clicks.

Curriculum Maps

The curriculum revisions submitted in April 2019 should be reviewed by the coordinators and the Associate Provost, and, if needed, a new version of the map should be in place on the wiki by 30 December 2019.

Academic Year Program Assessment Survey

The 2020 Academic Year Program Assessment Survey will be distributed to assessment coordinators on 1 March 2020 for completion by 1 April 2020. The brief Google survey asks which outcomes or objectives programs are assessing and what instruments or methods they are using to assess.

Academic Program Review

The following programs are scheduled to complete their five-year review during this academic year. Program chairs and assessment coordinators should meet with the Associate Provost for Assessment and Curriculum for further information.

Middle States and Academic Assessment

All assessment activities should aim to engage with MSCHE's Standard V and prepare to document each department, school, and program's process of continual improvement. Review the standard's criteria below, and think of how your assessment activities meet the criteria's specific objectives.


Assessment of student learning and achievement demonstrates that the institution’s students have accomplished educational goals consistent with their program of study, degree level, the institution’s mission, and appropriate expectations for institutions of higher education.

Criteria

An accredited institution possesses and demonstrates the following attributes or activities:

1. clearly stated educational goals at the institution and degree/program levels, which are interrelated with one another, with relevant educational experiences, and with the institution’s mission;

2. organized and systematic assessments, conducted by faculty and/or appropriate professionals, evaluating the extent of student achievement of institutional and degree/program goals. Institutions should:

a. define meaningful curricular goals with defensible standards for evaluating whether students are achieving those goals;

b. articulate how they prepare students in a manner consistent with their mission for successful careers, meaningful lives, and, where appropriate, further education. They should collect and provide data on the extent to which they are meeting these goals;

c. support and sustain assessment of student achievement and communicate the results of this assessment to stakeholders;

3. consideration and use of assessment results for the improvement of educational effectiveness. Consistent with the institution’s mission, such uses include some combination of the following:

a. assisting students in improving their learning;

b. improving pedagogy and curriculum;

c. reviewing and revising academic programs and support services;

d. planning, conducting, and supporting a range of professional development activities;

e. planning and budgeting for the provision of academic programs and services;

f. informing appropriate constituents about the institution and its programs;

g. improving key indicators of student success, such as retention, graduation, transfer, and placement rates;

h. implementing other processes and procedures designed to improve educational programs and services;

4. if applicable, adequate and appropriate institutional review and approval of assessment services designed, delivered, or assessed by third-party providers; and

5. periodic assessment of the effectiveness of assessment processes utilized by the institution for the improvement of educational effectiveness.


2018-2019

Due date for recording assessment results

Program assessment results collected in 2018-2019 should be recorded no later than September 30, 2019.

Instructions for recording program assessment results

For program assessment results, please be sure to follow these instructions for recording assessment results. If you have charts or tables, you can attach these and link to the attachments. If the chart or table is not particularly large or complicated, consider creating it right in the wiki page — your readers will appreciate the reduction in clicks.

Academic Year Program Assessment Survey

The 2019 Academic Year Program Assessment Survey was distributed to assessment coordinators on 1 March 2019 for completion by 1 April 2019. The brief Google survey asked which outcomes or objectives programs were assessing and what instruments or methods they were using to assess.

Academic Program Review

The following programs are scheduled to complete their five-year review during this academic year. Program chairs and assessment coordinators should attend the 2019 Assesstivus program review information session.

    • Art History 
    • Physics & Astronomy
      • Including Biophysics
    • Political Science/International Relations
    • Theatre and Dance

Curriculum Map Review

All degree programs were charged with confirming or revising their curriculum maps by 30 April 2019.

GLOBE Outcome Maps

All degree programs also were charged with mapping their program outcomes to the college's GLOBE Baccalaureate Outcomes by 15 May 2019.

2017-2018

Due date for recording assessment results

Program assessment results collected in 2017-2018 should be recorded no later than September 30, 2018.

Instructions for recording program assessment results

For program assessment results, please be sure to follow these instructions for recording assessment results. If you have charts or tables, you can attach these and link to the attachments. If the chart or table is not particularly large or complicated, consider creating it right in the wiki page — your readers will appreciate the reduction in clicks.

Academic Year Program Assessment Survey

The 2018 Academic Year Program Assessment Survey was distributed to deans, chairs, and assessment coordinators on 4 May 2018 for completion by 25 May 2018. The brief Google survey asked which outcomes or objectives programs were assessing and what instruments or methods they were using to assess. Respondents are recorded on the 2018 completion scorecard.

Academic Program Review

The following programs are scheduled to complete their five-year review during this academic year. Program chairs and assessment coordinators should attend the 2018 Assesstivus program review information session.

  • Philosophy
  • Biochemistry


2016-2017

Due date for recording assessment results

Program assessment results collected in 2017-2018 should be recorded no later than September 30, 2017.

Instructions for recording program assessment results

For program assessment results, please be sure to follow these instructions for recording assessment results. If you have charts or tables, you can attach these and link to the attachments. If the chart or table is not particularly large or complicated, consider creating it right in the wiki page — your readers will appreciate the reduction in clicks.


2015-2016

Due date for recording assessment results

Program assessment results collected in 2017-2018 should be recorded no later than September 30, 2016.

Instructions for recording program assessment results

For program assessment results, please be sure to follow these instructions for recording assessment results. If you have charts or tables, you can attach these and link to the attachments. If the chart or table is not particularly large or complicated, consider creating it right in the wiki page — your readers will appreciate the reduction in clicks.

2014-2015

Due date for recording assessment results

Program assessment results collected in 2017-2018 should be recorded no later than September 30, 2015.

Instructions for recording program assessment results

For program assessment results, please be sure to follow these instructions for recording assessment results. If you have charts or tables, you can attach these and link to the attachments. If the chart or table is not particularly large or complicated, consider creating it right in the wiki page — your readers will appreciate the reduction in clicks.

2013-2014

Due date for recording assessment results

Program assessment results collected in 2011-2012 should be recorded no later than September 30, 2014.

Instructions for recording program assessment results

For program assessment results, please be sure to follow these instructions for recording assessment results. If you have charts or tables, you can attach these and link to the attachments. If the chart or table is not particularly large or complicated, consider creating it right in the wiki page — your readers will appreciate the reduction in clicks.


2012-2013

Due date for recording assessment results

Program assessment results collected in 2017-2018 should be recorded no later than September 30, 2013.

Instructions for recording program assessment results

For program assessment results, please be sure to follow these instructions for recording assessment results. If you have charts or tables, you can attach these and link to the attachments. If the chart or table is not particularly large or complicated, consider creating it right in the wiki page — your readers will appreciate the reduction in clicks.

2011-2012


Oral discourse results from 2010-2011 are still incomplete! Please help by entering the information for your program!

Due date for recording assessment results

Program assessment results collected in 2010-2011 should be recorded no later than September 30, 2011.

Instructions for recording program assessment results

For program assessment results, please be sure to follow these instructions for recording assessment results. If you have charts or tables, you can attach these and link to the attachments. If the chart or table is not particularly large or complicated, consider creating it right in the wiki page — your readers will appreciate the reduction in clicks.

Gen ed assessment responsibilities for program assessment coordinators

Program assessment coordinators get a year off this year from collecting data on general education outcomes. (In 2012-2013, program assessment coordinators will collect data on the general education outcomes in Basic Research.)

Assessment and Middle States

Geneseo's self-study for Middle States will be shared with the college community this fall. The visiting team will be on campus in the spring.

The self-study's chapter on "Institutional Effectiveness" will explain how Geneseo meets the following two Middle States standards:

  • Standard 7: "The institution has developed and implemented an assessment process that evaluates its overall effectiveness in achieving its mission and goals and its compliance with accreditation standards."
  • Standard 14: "Assessment of student learning demonstrates that, at graduation, or other appropriate points, the institution's students have knowledge, skills, and competencies consistent with institutional and appropriate higher education goals."

Please take the time to read the complete description of Standard 14, "Assessment of Student Learning," in Characteristics of Excellence, the Middle States document that has provided the framework for our self-study. (Internet Explorers: if you can't view or download the document in IE, try Firefox or — if you're a Mac user — Safari.)

Please take special note of the "four-step teaching-learning-assessment cycle" referenced at the beginning of the description, particularly the fourth step:

Using the results of those assessments to improve teaching and learning.

This fourth step is also known as closing the loop on assessment. Our Middle States reviewers will be looking for evidence that we've been closing the assessment loop.

Last year, each program and general education area looked at its loop-closing activities over the past decade and attempted to summarize these in a page titled (for example) How Geography Has Closed the Assessment Loop (2010).

This fall, please revisit the page for your program to make sure it's complete and up to date. Make revisions as needed.

2010-2011



Basic Research results from 2009-2010 are still incomplete! Please help by entering the information for your program!

Due date for recording assessment results

Program assessment results collected in 2009-2010 should be recorded no later than September 30, 2010. General education assessment results collected within programs for this year's SUNY-required assessment of Oral Discourse skills should be recorded no later than June 30, 2011.

Instructions for recording program assessment results

For program assessment results, please be sure to follow these instructions for recording assessment results. If you have charts or tables, you can attach these and link to the attachments. If the chart or table is not particularly large or complicated, consider creating it right in the wiki page — your readers will appreciate the reduction in clicks.

Gen ed assessment responsibilities for program assessment coordinators

In accordance with Geneseo's SUNY-approved plan for general education assessment, assessment results on students' Oral Discourse skills are collected every third year by department program assessment coordinators, based on student work performed in the major. To record this year's results, follow the instructions here.

Assessment and Middle States

Geneseo's decennial self-study for Middle States is under way! Assessment has become a major agenda item for Middle States, and we can expect close scrutiny of our policies and procedures for measuring student learning. Two of the standards that our self-study must address are

  • Standard 7: "The institution has developed and implemented an assessment process that evaluates its overall effectiveness in achieving its mission and goals and its compliance with accreditation standards."
  • Standard 14: "Assessment of student learning demonstrates that, at graduation, or other appropriate points, the institution's students have knowledge, skills, and competencies consistent with institutional and appropriate higher education goals."

Please take the time to read the complete description of Standard 14, "Assessment of Student Learning," in Characteristics of Excellence, the Middle States document that will provide the framework for our self-study. (Internet Explorers: if you can't view or download the document in IE, try Firefox or — if you're a Mac user — Safari.)

Please take special note of the "four-step teaching-learning-assessment cycle" referenced at the beginning of the description, particularly the fourth step:

Using the results of those assessments to improve teaching and learning.

This fourth step is also known as closing the loop on assessment. Our Middle States reviewers will be looking for evidence that we've been closing the assessment loop.

Many programs have described loop-closing improvements in their yearly records of assessment results. However, for the Middle States self-study, the college needs your help in aggregating and foregrounding this information. If you go to your program's assessment page, you'll find a page waiting for you named, How [your program] has closed the assessment loop. Please help with the Middle States self-study by using this page to summarize loop-closing actions that your program has taken in the past and is contemplating for the future.

2009-2010

Due date for recording assessment results

Program assessment results collected in 2008-2009 should be recorded no later than September 30, 2009. General education assessment results collected within programs for this year's SUNY-required assessment of Basic Research skills should be recorded no later than June 30, 2010.

Instructions for recording program assessment results

For program assessment results, please be sure to follow these instructions for recording assessment results. It's acceptable to record your assessment results in Word and attach them to a wiki page, but it's preferable to put them right into the page. If you have charts or tables, you can attach these and link to the attachments, but you might consider creating your tables right in the wiki page. It's not hard once you get the hang of it.

Gen ed assessment responsibilities for program assessment coordinators

In accordance with Geneseo's SUNY-approved plan for general education assessment, assessment results on students' Basic Research skills are collected every third year by department program assessment coordinators, based on student work performed in the major. To record this year's results, follow the instructions here.

Meeting with the Assessment Committee

The Academic Program Assessment Committee no longer meets yearly with the coordinator from each program. The committee will meet with programs slated to undergo the five-year review process in the following year (i.e., one academic year ahead of the review). The following programs should plan to meet with the committee in 2008-2009:

  • Anthropology
  • Biology
  • Biochemistry
  • Chemistry
  • Geological Science/Geochemistry/Geophysics

Committee notes on program assessment results

In 2008-2009, the Academic Program Assessment Committee began taking stock of each program's assessment record to date in the form of written notes visible only to Geneseo users logged in to the wiki.

On the main page for each program, visitors will see a link to "APAC Notes" on that program's assessment record.

The notes are intended to help programs improve their assessment process. No formal response to them is required; however, department chairs, assessment coordinators, and others are free to open a dialogue on them using the "Add Comment" link right in the wiki page. Of course, chairs and coordinators may also request a meeting with the committee to discuss the notes.

The work of recording notes will continue in 2009-2010. Once notes have been recorded for every program, the committee will update them as necessary to provide continuing feedback.

So far, notes have been recorded for the following programs:

Closing the loop

The assessment process is typically characterized as a cycle or loop. In the vocabulary of assessment, "closing the loop" refers to the action of making informed program changes, as needed, based on whatever the assessment process has revealed about student learning in the program.

You can learn more about the assessment loop at Geneseo on this page. For information on closing the gened assessment loop for SUNY, go here.

In recording yearly assessment results, department chairs and assessment coordinators are encouraged to provide extended and concrete discussion of loop-closing actions that their programs have taken or plan to take. Not only do such activities represent the most important step of the assessment process; they are also, for just this reason, the part of our assessment effort in which external audiences — such as department program reviewers, the SUNY Provost Office, and Middle States — will show the greatest interest.

2008-2009



Oral Discourse results from 2007-2008 are still incomplete. Please help by entering the information for your program!

Due date for recording assessment results

Program assessment data collected in 2007-2008 should be recorded no later than September 30, 2008.

Instructions for recording results

Please be sure to follow the instructions for recording assessment results. It's acceptable to record your asessment results in Word and attach them to a wiki page, but it's preferable to put them right into the page. If you have charts or tables, you can attach these and link to the attachments, but you might consider creating your tables right in the wiki page. It's not hard once you get the hang of it.

You may be interested in some simple templates that I've created for wiki pages. It's fairly simple to do things like dividing page content into multiple columns, generating an automatic table of contents from page headings, and generating an automatic list of child pages.

Changes for 2008-2009

One-stop assessment shopping

All information related to academic assessment at Geneseo is now located in this wiki space. The original assessment website at http://assessment.geneseo.edu is still up, but it will re-direct you here.

Results now visible by default

By default, assessment results are now visible to all Geneseo users logged in to Confluence. This is a major change in assessment procedure. Previously, these results were visible only to the Academic Program Assessment Committee and the relevant program coordinator(s) and program chair.

This change should have several benefits:

  • Sharing results globally among Geneseo users makes it possible for programs to learn from each other and add to/improve their repertoire of assessment methods.
  • Sharing results promotes transparency and accountability.
  • Sharing results enables faculty to comment on them directly in the pages where they're recorded, facilitating the Vibrant Discussion that's supposed to be the point of assessment in the first place.

However, sharing results globally with Geneseo users is not required. Your program can opt out of sharing by emailing schacht at geneseo dot edu with a request to do so. If you request to opt out of sharing, your assessment results pages will be made visible only to members of the Academic Program Assessment Committee, you (the assessment coordinator[s]), and the program chair.

If you would like your results to be visible to some other configuration of users (e.g., only members of your department, or only the coordinator, chair, and department secretary), please ask CIT for assistance in creating a dedicated wiki space for your program, for which a designated individual in your program can serve as administrator. Your program can then record assessment results within its own space, and the administrator can assign the appropriate page permissions. Just be sure that your assessment pages afford full permissions to the usergroup assesscomm, and that you provide a link from your program pages on the Academic Assessment space to the assessment pages in your program space.

Meeting with the Assessment Committee

The Academic Program Assessment Committee no longer meets yearly with the coordinator from each program. The committee will meet with programs slated to undergo the five-year review process in the following year (i.e., one academic year ahead of the review) and other programs scheduled on a three-year rotation. Please check back here for more information on which program coordinators should schedule a meeting with the committee in 2008-2009.

Update (11/2008) - Assessment coordinators for the following programs should schedule a meeting with the Academic Program Assessment Committee in 2008-2009:

  • School of Education
  • Foreign Languages
  • Geological Science/Geochemistry/Geophysics
  • History/American Studies
  • Computer Science
  • Music

The committee is also available by request to meet with any program coordinator at any time.

2007-2008

Assessment results due date for AY 2007-2008

Usually, program assessment results should be recorded by September 30. However, since this year September 30 falls on a Sunday, results should be recorded by October 1, 2007.

Changes for 2007-2008

Recording assessment results

In the past, assessment coordinators have reported assessment results by completing paper or electronic forms. Beginning in AY 2007-2008, coordinators are asked instead to record assessment results in the Academic Assessment space of the Geneseo wiki. The recorded results remain in a stable, easily accessible location where faculty can both find them readily and reflect on their significance. When a program uses the wiki to reflect on assessment results, the reflection itself becomes a formal part of the program's assessment record, and assessment is more likely to produce the kind of Vibrant Discussion about purposes and methods that sustains pedagogical excellence.

Responsibilities of coordinators

Every academic program has dedicated pages in the wiki's Academic Assessment space. Links to these pages may be found at Assessment by Academic Department. The top-level page for a program lists the program's learning outcomes. This top-level page is public. Its purpose is not only to provide current information to the Academic Assessment Committee but to share the program's learning outcomes with the rest of the college and the community.

It is the responsibility of each program to keep its top-level page up to date by editing it whenever the program's outcomes change.

Lower-level pages may be either restricted or public depending on a program's preference. It is the responsibility of each program to record assessment results yearly in these lower-level pages. Instructions for recording assessment results may be found at Assessment Results.

Feedback from the Academic Assessment Committee

In recent years, the Academic Assessment Committee has sought to meet each year with each coordinator of each program. Beginning in AY 2007-2008, the committee will meet with coordinators only as needed. The committee will provide yearly feedback to programs through each program's pages of the Academic Assessment space.

A coordinator may request a meeting with the committee or its chair at any time. Similarly, coordinators should be prepared to meet with the chair or the committee upon request.

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