Learning outcomes and assessment frameworks guide educators in curricular decisionmaking, impact assessment, gap identification, and equity evaluation, aligning with anticipated learning objectives. Common frameworks include Bloom's taxonomy, Kirkpatrick's model, Fink's taxonomy, and Moore's Outcomes model. The authors identified a lack of focus…

Artificial intelligence is a tool that has expanded exponentially since it became available to the public. It will disrupt industry and higher education. While many faculty have concerns about the impact of AI, professional staff members are using AI at a higher rate than their faculty peers. In specific administrative areas, the use of AI will…

This study examined the assessment needs of faculty and assessment practitioners in higher education. Sergiovanni's (2000, 2004) lifeworld-systemsworld framework (LSF) and Clandinin and Connelly's (2006) commonplaces of narrative inquiry (CNI) were the theoretical lenses to investigate this topic. Through 20 in-depth, semi-directed interviews (15…

Limitations of assessment reporting are analyzed in order to reorient practice toward improving the equity of student success. Reporting practice is contextualized by scholarship within assessment and accreditation organizations, and the implicit assumptions driving current practice are examined. Two novel findings are presented: an assessment of…

COVID-19 presents assessment professionals with an opportunity to reexamine preexisting inequities for vulnerable student groups that may be more susceptible to the pandemic's economic impacts. We propose that assessment professionals incorporate student interviews more intentionally in their work so they and their stakeholders can develop more…

In order to use assessment findings for learning improvement, it is essential to improve the validity of these data. When an assessment is distributed across numerous course sections with multiple faculty members acting as assessors, issues arise concerning validity and calibration. To address these concerns, we created a training program to…

High quality student outcome measures provide the foundation for effective learning assessment. These outcomes can be organized into different categories, such as skills or habits of mind, and evidence types, such as direct or indirect. Prevailing models of assessment, however, focus only on the distinction between direct and indirect evidence…

The rapid shift to an online instructional mode necessitated by COVID-19 has been a formidable challenge for most institutions but particularly for those in which online learning was not widely implemented before the pandemic. Assessment has been an additional challenge, coupled with the accreditation requirements that higher educational…

The primary aim of institutional learning outcomes assessment is the creation of a culture of assessment where faculty use evidence-based data to validate and improve teaching and learning for the benefit of students. Faculty are key to these processes and yet, they are often woefully disengaged from them. This paper presents findings from an…

For more than 30 years, James Madison University (JMU) has used Assessment Days to collect longitudinal data on student learning outcomes. Our model ensures that all incoming students are tested twice: once in August before beginning classes and again in February after accumulating 45-70 credit hours (Pastor, Foelber, Jacovidis, Fulcher &…

I have been working as an Assessment Officer in a private university in Puerto Rico, for about two years now. It took a year to learn the job--what was assessment for, what was my function, how broad was the scope of my job, what influence did I have over institutional changes? Just as I thought I knew the job, the context changed, especially the…

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte) is an urban, four-year, public institution serving over 30,000 students. Like other institutions, we were caught off-guard by the COVID-19 pandemic and scrambled to move our instruction online to comply with our state's stay-at-home order in mid-March 2020. The shift to remote…