Summary of Benchmarking with other SACS Schools
Compiled for Committee of School Reps Meeting 22 March 2010
The Super-Short Version:

When it comes to graduate programs, assessment of student learning falls to the department with support from the graduate schools. Some Grad schools provide tools such as rubrics

Of the four universities, they all feel “siloed”, or decentralized, but all schools/departments use the same system for documenting assessment. The process can be the same regardless of the content

Those departments that have attempted to use WEAVE (or another tool) for their own accreditors seem to do so, and do it well. Each person thought that their system could support the individual accreditors. Usually to execute, it does take considerable work with the assessment office
Brief Summary of Schools (SACS Class Year, with whom I spoke, where assessment “sits”):
1.
University of Miami (2008)
Director of Academic Assessment, Office of Accreditation and Assessment. Office was created in
2005, Dir of Acad. Assess. Position created after SACS off-site review in response to feedback from lack of assessment background in office. Put on monitoring in Jan 2009, for both 3.3.1.1 and gen ed assessment
2.
University of Mississippi, aka Ole Miss (2009)
Associate Director, Institutional Research and Assessment. Ole Miss has been doing assessment for quite a while. There has been a standing assessment committee since 1992 with 40 members (both academic and administrative). That committee oversees all assessment at the university and reviews all assessment plans with teams of three, academic reviewing academic and admin reviewing admin.
3.
George Mason University (2011)
Associate Director, Institutional Assessment. Assessment office has 6 people. They do a lot of outreach, faculty workshops on various topics.
4.
Clemson University (2012)
Associate Director, Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Accountability. Assessment Office has been around since 1990s staffed with 2 professionals and one admin. Put on monitoring after 5 year interim for 3.3.1.1., specifically for not assessing at the program level.
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Summary of Benchmarking with other SACS Schools
Compiled for Committee of School Reps Meeting 22 March 2010
Who owns and assesses graduate programs?
1.
Departments own the assessment, but the grad school plays a role. The grad school created a generic rubric to be used at dissertation defenses, but some departments claim that it is too general. The assessment office is currently working to make the rubric adjustable. Deans are ultimately responsible for assessment, both grad and undergrad. The grad school dean plays a role in assessment and assists, but does not own it.
2.
Departments are ultimately responsible. Grad School assesses admin and support services, but departments assess student learning.
3.
There is no Graduate School
4.
The degree granting body (i.e. department) conducts assessment. Even interdisciplinary programs have to have a “home department” and they are the accountable party. Dean of Graduate School is responsible for coordinating and monitoring, but department is responsible for conducting assessment activities. Although, the graduate school does perform Program Reviews, and those reviews are in WEAVE.
How do you organize assessment documentation and do all schools use the same system?
1.
Still use word document templates. All departments must complete the template and send it into the Assessment Office. School is currently working on developing its own homegrown system. All schools use the same system. Gave an example of the Med School still reporting some SLOs on the standard template, which is outside of their primary assessment tool.
2.
Use TracDat for the last four years. All departments use the same system
3.
Use WEAVE. All departments use the same system. They give the option to faculty to let their admin enter data. At the program level, mostly faculty are using the system. Some schools have chosen to centralize WEAVE use. Each school has a WEAVE Liaison (normally a staff person), who is the technical (not content) resource for the school.
4.
Have used WEAVE since 2006, but it has not been used well until the past year. Provost mandated
WEAVE, but it was not warmly received by the faculty.
Do the schools use the same system for their own accreditors?
1.
N/A – Don’t have system. It’s all word documents.
2.
Some programs are, but the office hasn’t focused on this. Engineering is using TracDat for ABET
3.
Spotty, the assessment office isn’t selling it, but offers help as needed
4.
Yes, within the last year this has really taken off.
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Summary of Benchmarking with other SACS Schools
Compiled for Committee of School Reps Meeting 22 March 2010
What kind of cycle is in place?
1.
Tri-annual reporting. Full report due every three years, with touchbases every year. These are distributed so that 1/3 of the school is reporting every year
2.
Two year cycle, although information is provided more regularly
3.
Not sure
4.
One year
Best practices picked up from schools:
1.
Different pitches will be required for different departments; really need to focus on using findings and really making assessment meaningful for the department; bring food, or meet in a coffee shop – puts people at ease.
2.
Rule of Thumb: If you have a budget, you have to document assessment; Each division has one person that is an assessment coordinator (usually in Dean’s Office), smartest thing to do is to make that person responsible for assessment within the division or school – in place for 3 years.
3.
Goal: to have one strong assessment person in each college, make it part of their job duties; the assessment office conducts lots of workshops (not just technical, but on pedagogy, bloom’s taxonomy, curriculum mapping, etc.) and gives away books to all workshop attendees.
4.
The last year has been spent defining the vernacular and working on quality assurance. Those have to be the foundation.
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