Assessment Overview

At The University of Montana, academic assessment is an ongoing process of the highest priority. Our accrediting agency, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities dictates that we focus our attention on the quality and effectiveness of our programs.

What is Assessment?

According to Dr. Tom Angelo (1995), assessment is "an ongoing process aimed at understanding and improving student learning. It involves:

• Making expectations explicit and public;
• Setting appropriate criteria and high expectations for learning quality; systematically gathering, analyzing, and interpreting evidence to determine how well performance matches those expectations and standards; and
• Using the resulting information to document, explain, and improve performance.”

Simply put, assessment (often called outcomes assessment) is the process by which we:

• Evaluate curriculum;
• Plan improvements when necessary; and
• Evaluate the effects of the changes.

Assessment helps departments affirm those things in their curriculum and courses that are going well. Assessment also helps identify areas for improvement, and often points to the specific changes that might be needed. Assessment is not static; rather, it is an ongoing and continuous effort to improve the quality of instruction, student learning, and overall effectiveness of a department or unit.

Assessment Procedures

The steps for developing an assessment plan include:

• Reviewing, revising, and/or writing your unit’s mission statement;
• Developing goals and objectives for your program;
• Identifying the educational experiences or activities for attaining goals and objectives;
• Identifying measures to assess progress toward meeting your goals;
• Developing a plan for gathering the data;
• Collecting, analyzing, and interpreting the data;
• Using the data to continuously revise and improve students’ educational experiences and activities;
• Communicating the results.

Biennial Assessment Report

Departments are required to report on their assessment efforts biennially. The biennial report includes the department's assessment plan and communicates the assessment results from the previous year. Once submitted, the reports are reviewed by Dr. Arlene Walker-Andrews, Associate Provost for Global Century Education, and then published to the Department Reports website. Please direct questions regarding the online assessment report template to Jasmine Zink at 406-243-6135.

After the reports have been submitted, the Assessment Advisory Committee reviews each report and provides timely feedback to help departments improve their assessment efforts in the future.