Academic Assessment Program |
Four Initiatives |
University of Central Arkansas |
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Four Assessment Initiatives
This list describes the Four Assessment Initiatives outlined in the University's "Plan for the Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes." For a global list of departments and programs in the Academic Assessment Program, see the online Assessment Plan Library. For the schedules under which assessment plans have been developed--now superseded by the regular assessment cycle for most programs--see Assessment Timelines.
Scroll or click to view information about any of the four initiatives:
Initiative 1
Assessment Initiative 1 represents the most extensive assessment undertaking proposed in the University's "Plan for Assessing Student Learning Outcomes." Launched in the fall of 1994, the purpose of the first assessment initiative was to develop and implement assessment plans for baccalaureate majors and graduate programs--excluding only a small number of interdisciplinary programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels--originally 93 different programs or emphases within 27 departments.
Initiative 2
Assessment Initiative 2 has as its purpose developing and implementing assessment plans for the General Education Program, interdisciplinary degree programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and associate degree programs.
Work on this second initiative began in 1995 with the report of the University's General Education Committee and continued with the subsequent work of the General Education Task Force. Interdisciplinary programs and associate degree programs were brought into the initiative in the fall of 1996.
Initiative 3
Assessment Initiative 3 has as its purpose developing and implementing assessment plans for certain "special programs" within the University: two University programs with special academic missions (the Honors College and the University Writing Program) and the departmental honors program, involving most of the academic departments on campus. The departmental honors assessment plans are simply additional objectives and assessments added to degree program assessment plans. (View Undergraduate Scholars Program Assessment for a list of departments participating in the program along with a summary of the purposes of these addenda and our current expectations about their achievement.) Academic minors are no longer a part of this initiative, though the University's assessment plan originally projected their assessment here.
Work on assessment plans for this initiative began in October/November 1996.
Initiative 4
This initiative directs assessment back to the assessment program itself--assessing assessment. It uses the NCA self-study process begun in 1997 as an initial opportunity to assess the effectiveness of the University Assessment Program and of the entities that support it, the Planning and Assessment Committee and the Office of Academic Planning and Assessment. A plan for regular assessment of the University Assessment Program will emerge from that initial group of self-studies.
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