Assessment Mission and Goals

Mission
The Office of Assessment and Accreditation at UNK works together with members of the university community to promote effective assessment of student learning & program effectiveness. We view quality assurance as an informative process aimed at engaging faculty at the academic program level. We believe that faculty who are engaged in the structure and function of an academic program and who desire information about their student’s performance, are better prepared to direct the curriculum toward reaching it’s stated outcomes. Fundamentally, we are available to assist faculty in developing and implanting direct and indirect measures of student learning formatively so they can assist students in reaching established benchmarks of learning. We are also available to assist programs in applying summative measures of student performance for determining graduate readiness to enter the career for which they have trained. Finally, we want to assist faculty in the establishing a process for monitoring academic program effectiveness so that their programs of study remain vibrant, current, & focused on outcomes that reflect the goals of the program.

Goals

• Provide resources and expertise to assist in the measurement of student learning outcomes at the university, college, and department/program level.
• Enhance faculty and staff knowledge and proficiency in the use of assessment, promoting best practices in assessment.
• Promote continuous systematic assessment and utilization of data for quality improvement for program curricula and student success.
• Maintain an annual reporting process for program assessment of student learning and program effectiveness.
• Plan, implement, evaluate, and disseminate program-specific as well as university-wide assessments related to student learning, program effectiveness & student success.
• Assist faculty and administration in determining what quality assurance practices will be most useful at the program level.
• Support and conduct special research projects related to student learning assessment.
• Lead compliance with the Higher Learning Commission accreditation standards as well as with federal, state and local requirements for institutions and programs of higher education.
• Coordinate the Academic Program Review process for campus academic programs.
• Provide assistance with program-specific accreditation processes.