Assessment Plan for the New Curriculum Program

This document provides a draft for an assessment plan and timeline for the Curriculum program. Please note that the learning outcomes still may continue to change (particularly as discussions on the Catholic Benedictine Tradition continues). The assessment plan will be modified accordingly.

It is important to note that faculty own the curriculum and will conduct assessment of the program. The oversight provided below is to help ensure that it is completed, reported, and drives future curricular decisions.

We currently have 20 learning outcomes (this includes two constructed by CBTAI; this number may change). 5 outcomes will be assessed each year. This means artifacts from each course that includes this outcome will be collected during the academic year. The artifacts will be assessed in May. Faculty discussions of results and creation of next step action items will be conducted over the fall semester, led by the Curriculum Director. The Curriculum Director collates the reports and next step action items to create an annual assessment report, which will be submitted to APSAC and Academic Affairs in November. Previously, annual assessment reports were due in June. This change in the timeline allows for discussions of the results and the construction of next step action items that can be included in the Annual Assessment Report. Faculty development and other support, based on the next step action items, will be provided in the spring. All outcomes are assessed every four years. During the fifth year, the results of all the assessment will be discussed with the community. This means that there will be a complete review of the outcomes at least twice during the Program Review process.

Assessment of the outcomes will be completed in a two-day May workshop. A group of 5 faculty will be designated Team Leaders and form the Assessment Team. Under the direction of the Curriculum Director, the Assessment Team will help to recruit and facilitate the May assessment workshops. Approximately 5 faculty will be recruited, in addition to the team leader, to conduct assessment for each outcome. It is expected that those who participate in teaching courses with these learning outcomes will periodically participate in this process. Normalization of rubrics will be supported by AAE and stipends will be provided to those who participate. The team leader will receive a larger stipend to collect and report the data to the Curriculum Director who will collate the data into a final report. The report will be published online and briefly presented at the August workshop. Discussions of the results will occur during the fall semester (led by the Curriculum Director) to create a set of next step action items. APSAC will review the assessment reports when submitted in November (including the next step action items). Faculty development, with the support of the Academic Dean, Dean of the Faculty, and AAE will begin in the spring based on these action items.