Provost

2026-2027 Biennial Assessment

Student Learning Assessment (SLA) is how UM's academic programs examine whether students are achieving their Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs), and how effectively program curricula support that achievement over time. SLA is the current name for what was previously called Program Assessment; the process was redesigned in response to accreditation recommendations that the campus develop an inclusive, integrated framework for assessing student learning at the program and degree level, distinct from student achievement data.

What Changed

The previous departmental assessment process asked academic units to report on broad, unit-wide outcomes on a biennial cycle. SLA instead asks programs to assess learning at the program level, rooted in PLOs specific to each degree or major, rather than one shared set of outcomes for an entire department

• New narrative templates and a revised curriculum map template now support the process; the curriculum map now accommodates both mastery-based and creating-innovation learning frameworks.
• The single narrative has been replaced by three discipline-specific templates: Arts and Humanities, STEM and Social Sciences, and Clinical/Professional. The guiding questions match the norms of each field, while every program still reports the same underlying elements.
• The curriculum map now also asks programs to identify which Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs) are covered by required courses, and optionally, alignment with campus Career Readiness Competencies.
• The Assessment Advisory Committee (AAC) provides structured feedback to programs on each SLA submission, including whether PLOs align with the unit's mission and with UM's Institutional Learning Outcomes.

How It Works

Department chairs, program directors and faculty work together to design a framework for assessing the programs within their academic unit or interdisciplinary cohort. Each program will complete a curriculum map and academic units will provide overall narrative framework for how they are assessing or plan to assess student learning across programs. The curriculum map lists each PLO and identifies, for every required course, where students learn the content and where that outcome is assessed. The narrative provides an opportunity for reflection and faculty development to support curriculum design and maintenance as well as subsequent comprehensive program reviews. Completed materials are reviewed by the AAC, which provides feedback to the program. 

Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs)

Since 2024, UM's academic units have been developing distinct PLOs for each program they teach, reflecting shared disciplinary outcomes specific to that program rather than the whole department. These PLOs will be published in the 2027–28 course catalog, following completion of the first full SLA cycle in Spring 2027. For guidance on writing and publishing PLOs, see the Program Learning Outcomes page.

Timeline

• November 1 | Templates and Rubrics 
• November-December | SLA training workshops
• January 30 | SLA Curriculum Maps and Narratives Due to AAC
• February-March | AAC reviews materials
• April | ACC provides feedback to Academic Unit Chairs and Program Directors

Assessing General Education

Many programs require one or more courses that also carry a General Education designation. As part of your own SLA curriculum map and narrative, note where your required courses fulfill a Gen Ed requirement and where they contribute to the campus-wide Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs) and how you will assess those outcomes as a program. Your program does not need to independently evaluate how well a shared Gen Ed course serves every program that relies on it.

The Office of the Provost will periodically convene comprehensive, cross-program assessments of individual General Education course groups, bringing together the programs that teach and depend on those courses to assess these shared learning outcomes and examine disaggregated student performance across every section and program involved. This is the same approach used in the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Assessment and the upcoming General Education Mathematics pilot.

The Office of the Provost expects to schedule additional Gen Ed group assessments on a rotating basis so that, over time, every Gen Ed course group receives this kind of comprehensive review. Programs will be notified when a Gen Ed group they contribute to is scheduled, and can expect to participate alongside the other units that share that course. The results of that work will be reported to Faculty Senate as part of the rolling review cycle for general education, and will be used to keep the framework current and relevant for students.