Office of Academic Assessment

In August 2022, the Office of Academic Assessment welcomed a new full-time staff member! Tyler Rowe joins the office as an Academic Assessment Designer; together, Liz and Tyler will continue to support the work of the Learning, Equity, and Assessment Program (LEAP). Additionally, the Office will work with departments during the 2022-2023 academic year to create curriculum maps for the undergraduate majors.

During Fall 2021, the Learning, Equity, and Assessment Program (LEAP, formerly the Student Learning Committee) launched its new ongoing processes for assessing student learning. Building on the strategic planning conducted in Spring 2021, all departments collected student data in Fall 2021 and, anonymized, evaluated and reported on that data in Spring 2022. We completed Spring 2022 data collection, and evaluation of those materials will begin shortly!

What's new:

• During Fall 2022, OAA is launching a new series of short videos about our office. As they are released, you can view them on our YouTube channel!
• Read about our Values, Mission, and Vision for the Office of Academic Assessment under "About Us."

What's coming:

• Accessible Assessment: as part of our continued efforts to ensure that all materials are fully accessible, we will be updating old versions of handouts and adding additional resources that address assessment from a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) perspective.

Individual Consultations (Ongoing)

The Office of Academic Assessment offers consultations, both virtually and in-person, for faculty interested in discussing assessment of student learning. We are available to discuss learning outcomes, rubrics, assignments, analysis of findings, equity-minded assessment, and additional topics. 

You can book a consultation with Liz here and Tyler here.

Workshop: Designing Outcomes for Significant Learning, November 10th, 2022, 2:30-4pm, 172 Tremont, Rm. 206.

Need help creating student learning outcomes (SLOs) for a new course? Or revising existing SLOs for a course you've taught already? Or maybe you are interesting in learning a new approach to creating equity-minded SLOs? This workshop will introduce L. Dee Fink's "Six Categories of Significant Learning," a holistic, human-centered approach to learning, and share how they can be used to shape effective and equitable SLOs. You will then be given time to reflect, work, and collaborate on your own SLOs using resources and guidance from OAA. Register here by November 7th.

Below you will find a list of past events; if you would like to know more about these events, please get in touch with us.

Virtual Course Spa (August 16-19, 2021)
August 16, 2021: Equity Minded Assessment of Student Learning

• This session explores the growing practice of Equity-Minded Assessment in higher education: What is it? Why is it valuable for us and for our students? How can we begin or further our practice of equity-minded assessment in our classrooms? The session will include an overview of what makes an assessment “equity-minded,” and participants will have an opportunity to design or revise a student assignment with these principles in mind. Participants are encouraged to have an assignment or assignment idea handy!

August 17, 2021: Rubric Design

• So you want to talk about rubrics? Perhaps you are new to writing them or maybe you need a refresher? Join Daniela Puorto as she works through the basics of creating a rubric to maximize your assessment and streamline your grading.

August 16-19, 2021: "Assessment Sauna"

• Assessment can make you sweat! Relax and discuss methods of evaluating student learning with Liz Chase and Daniela Puorto. Popular treatments include: Design student learning outcomes; Develop research-focused learning outcomes