On Monday, February 3, 2020, the Task Force on Learning Goals & Assessment submitted its final report to the Office of the Provost. The report will soon be available to the University of Delaware Community via the Provost’s website, and the Task Force website here.

Key Recommendations

1. The University of Delaware Faculty Senate should revise the current Academic Proposal Approval process to collect program educational goals. Such goals should be required to accompany proposals for new (provisional) programs and applications for permanent status.  In addition, all existing programs should submit program educational goals through this process according to the specified timeline. These goals will be collected via the current Curriculog forms and published by the Registrar in the Academic Catalog. (See page 9 for proposed Senate Resolutions.)
2. The University of Delaware should ask the faculty of each educational program to develop (where no plan is currently in place) and maintain an annual cycle of program educational goal assessment. This schedule should be embedded within regular strategic/curricular planning conversations amongst faculty, directors, chairs, deans, and the provost. Such an ongoing process should ensure maximum participation from key stakeholders (program faculty, chairs, deans, and the provost).
3. The University of Delaware should collect program educational goal assessment data via a new Webform. Because evidence of student learning can take a variety of forms depending on the program, the Webform should be simple and flexible, in order to accommodate both quantitative and qualitative elements. (See page 10 of this report for a sample form.)
4. The assessment data collection Webform will send assessment evidence to the Office of Institute Research. IRE will store, aggregate, and share assessment data back out to units undergoing Academic Program Review. The evidence should be available to program faculty at all times and automatically returned to chairs/directors as part of the APR cycle. Further, these results should be available to college deans, the university provost, and the Center for Teaching & Assessment of Learning (to further CTAL’s mission to support UD faculty in their teaching and assessment efforts).
5. The University of Delaware should continue to keep pace with peer institutions to better assess student learning, integrate it into strategic and resource planning decisions, and emphasize its value in faculty reward systems.

The full report is posted here.

LGA Task Force co-chairs, Beth Morling and Matthew Trevett-Smith, met with Faculty Senate Graduate Studies Committee to discuss the Task Force’s draft report and associated Senate resolution.

LGA Task Force co-chairs, Beth Morling and Matthew Trevett-Smith, met with Faculty Senate Undergraduate Studies Committee to discuss the Task Force’s draft report and associated Senate resolution.

LGA Task Force co-chairs, Beth Morling and Matthew Trevett-Smith, met with Middle States Standard V co-chair to discuss program educational goal assessment and synergies between these two initiatives.

LGA Task Force co-chair, Beth Morling, met with the UD Faculty Senate Executive Committee to discuss program educational goals and gather ideas for best practices going forward to evolve our practices and culture of assessment for student learning.