Assessment Structure and Contacts

Assessment of Student Learning

Assessment at UMN Morris

Assessment of Student Learning is a unit within the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Research (IER). The Assessment staff are faculty and co-curricular staff who have a part-time appointment in Assessment while maintaining classroom and co-curricular program duties. The Assessment staff for Academic Year 2023–24 include:

Assessment Facilitator

Assessment Facilitator

Peter Dolan, associate professor of statistics and data science, serves as the academic assistant assessment facilitator. Dolan is responsible for providing support, feedback, and guidance to faculty/staff in academic programs throughout the assessment process, and serves as a liaison between academic programs and Assessment staff. | dolan118@morris.umn.edu, 320-589-6307

Assistant Assessment Facilitator (Academic)

Assistant Assessment Facilitator (Academic)

TBD

Assistant Assessment Facilitator (Co-Curricular)

Assistant Assessment Facilitator (Co-Curricular)

Elizabeth (liz) Thomson serves as the Co-curricular Assistant Assessment Facilitator. liz is responsible for providing support, feedback, and guidance to faculty/staff in co-curricular programs, and serves as a liaison for co-curricular programs from both Student Affairs and Academic Affairs. | lthomson@morris.umn.edu, 320-589-6093

 

Key Assessment Areas of the Campus Student Learning Outcomes

Academic Programs, General Education, Co-Curricular Activities

Key assessment areas provide evidence that a UMN Morris educational experience yields graduates who are career-ready scholars, community contributors, and creative problem solvers. Reporting and data tracking are required by the federal government and necessary to:

  • Ensure that we meet the student learning outcomes we have established;
  • Strategically invest in people, time, and funds;
  • Have relevant data and other information readily accessible as the basis for institutional development.

 

Assessment of Student Learning at UMN Morris operates in a three-part structure.

  1. Academic Programs 
  2. General Education
  3. Co-Curricular Activities

 

Academic Program Assessment

Academic Program Assessment 

The Academic Program Assessment guides program improvement and contributes to the demonstration and ongoing evaluation of institutional quality. Each program operates guided by program student learning outcomes (PSLOs) that are mapped to and support the campus student learning outcomes (CSLOs).

Annual Actions

Faculty assessment facilitators

  1. Faculty assessment facilitators:
    1. Annually update Canvas and assessment webpage with 
      1. new academic year dates, 
      2. compliance report, 
      3. overall CSLO report
    2. Adhere to assessment timeline (posted in Canvas) and issue assessment calendar invitations/markers
    3. Ensure assessment PLANS are submitted by start of fall classes; 
      1. provide assessment guidance to colleagues
    4. Ensure that assessment REPORTS are submitted annually. 
      1. Follow up with disciplines/division chairs/dean to ensure 100% compliance
    5. Evaluate and respond to assessment reports, providing directions for improvement where necessary
    6. Provide annual summary report to vice chancellor for enrollment management and institutional effectiveness, vice chancellor for academic affairs, division chairs (October); participate in program review discussions of assessment at Curriculum Committee
    7. Ensure and track coverage of all program student learning outcomes (PSLOs) in each program over a roughly three-year cycle

Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs & Dean

  1. Ensures additional assessment for online courses 
  2. Ensures assessment of interdisciplinary courses and Honors program
General Education Assessment

General Education Assessment

The General Education Assessment contributes to program and institutional planning while it ensures that classes within the general education program (Morris Core Curriculum, from fall 2025 forward) fulfill the requirements of the general education category to which they belong and contribute to the campus student learning outcomes (CSLOs). General education assessment, including data associated with assessment, also guides future adjustments in individual general education categories and in overall requirements.

Annual actions

  • Responsibility of assessment coordinators
  • Overseen by vice chancellor for academic affairs & dean. 
  • Noncompliance may result in reduction of operations and maintenance (O&M) or other funds.

Assessment coordinators

  1. Adhere to three year rotation to cover all designators/areas in the general education program
  2. Ensure that all courses offered in each designator area participate in assessment per the schedule. 
    1. The general education assessment may overlap with the academic program assessment if desired and if possible. 
      1. Questions asked in the two assessments are different, but they often align.
  3. Lead at least one meeting of all instructors who taught a course in the category assessed 
    1. Required in the semester following the assessment to discuss results and identify opportunities for refinement for the next round. 
    2. Division chairs and vice chancellor for academic affairs & dean are invited
    3. Curriculum Committee members may also be invited
      1. Could take place outside of regular committee meeting time
    4. Minutes are taken 
      1. Attendance is included in minutes
      2. Minutes are saved to the Digital Well and with the office of the vice chancellor for academic affairs & dean
Co-Curricular Assessment

Co-Curricular Assessment

Co-curricular assessment is important because the Morris experience includes much more in addition to classes, and the campus student learning outcomes (CSLOs) reflect that. 

Co-curricular assessment currently has two components. The process forward will integrate these into a new focus on assessment of the Morris Core Experience. Areas of assessment may include study abroad, undergraduate research, service learning, honors, career services).

Student affairs units’ contributions to CSLOs

  1. Collection is overseen by the co-curricular assessment coordinator, who is designated by the vice chancellor for student affairs (VCSA) and creates an annual report that is submitted to the VCSA and campus assessment leads.

Other units’ (Academic Affairs, Enrollment Management) contributions to CLSOs

  1. Led by Institutional Research.  

Summative Campus Student Learning Outcomes Assessment

  1. Annual summary—completed by assessment leads each year by March 15 to allow for it to be reported to division chairs/vice chancellor for academic affairs & dean, committees (Curriculum Committee and others), and Campus Assembly and to be factored into budget planning for next fiscal year.
    1. Academic Programs
      1. Annually mapped to CSLOs by assessment leads; annual summary completed by assessment leads by January 31 each year.
    2. General Education
      1. Standing map of each category to CSLOs
      2. Assessment leads ensure coverage and provide annual summary report by January 31 each year.
    3. Co-Curricular
      1. Standing map of each category to CSLOs
      2. Coverage ensured by Student Affairs and Institutional Research 
      3. Summary is part of overall report rather than separate one here as for a. and b.; 
      4. Vice chancellor for student affairs and vice chancellor for enrollment management & institutional effectiveness will contribute

Correlation between early employment/next steps and CSLOs

Institutional Research updates annually information on next steps for the class that graduated in spring of the previous calendar year. More information on post-graduation next steps can be found in the annual Graduate Outcomes report.

Job functions of 2022 grads. Tier one: Teaching/Education. Tier two: Other. Tier three: Research, Lab Work/Science, Engineering–Web/Software. Tier four: Analytics, Information Technology, Sales, Customer Service. Tier five: Library Science, Marketing, General Management, Community Service, Law Enforcement/Security, Administrative/Support Services, Quality Assurance/Control, Logistics, Event Planning, Healthcare/Health Services.
Job functions of 2022 UMN Morris graduates

Review

The summative Campus Student Learning Outcomes Assessment report is reviewed by supervisors, managers, and senior leadership each spring as part of fiscal year budget planning and is presented for discussion at Curriculum Committee. Leaders and the Finance Committee also review the budget assessment survey annual responses.

Budget Implications

Assessment factors into budgeting at UMN Morris particularly in relation to:

  • Hiring requests, especially for faculty
  • Academic Program Review and program changes
  • Annual budgeting at the unit level and institutional level.

We began intentionally collecting information on how assessment informs budget decisions as part of the yearly budget process in spring 2021 as we were planning for the 21–22 fiscal year. While we had relatively widespread data collection across campus (15 offices), we quickly realized that the questions being asked were not providing the types of information needed to draw connections between assessments being conducted and budgetary decisions that were made. As a result, the questions asked were revised for subsequent years. In 2022 and 2023, a much smaller number of offices submitted information on their assessment as part of the budget process (~5 offices each year). While the information being collected helped us ensure that these offices were making data-informed budgetary decisions, the method of collection (Google form) did not allow for the type of reflection and discussion among each office that was encouraged by the way the questions were asked. In spring 2024, the submission process was changed to be a form as part of a word document to allow for individuals to discuss and share the document within their offices before submission. The submission rate dramatically increased to 21 departments and offices across campus.