Faculty Involvement in Assessment
Topic: Response to NWCCU recommendation from 2013 to strengthen faculty involvement in assessing student learning outcomes including in online programs and courses.
Challenge/Opportunity: NWCCU determined that WSU has made progress to ensure that WSU faculty assess student learning outcomes for all educational programs but concluded that some aspects still are not fully developed. A particular area identified for improvement had to do with faculty involvement in assessment along with assessment of programs and courses offered through the Global Campus.
Recent Actions/Outcomes: Over the past several years, Washington State University has continued to strengthen collective faculty responsibility and participation in the assessment of student learning, and ensure that all programs and courses, including those delivered online, are included in assessment processes. Faculty actively participate in all phases of assessment of student achievement, from developing and approving program curricula, to defining course and program student learning outcomes, to the delivery of the curriculum and the assessment of student learning outcomes at the course and program levels. In 2014 and 2016, the Faculty Senate updated the WSU executive policy on the Assessment of Student Learning in Degree Programs, Educational Policies and Procedures, to clarify teaching faculty and departmental roles and responsibilities for program assessment, including online degree programs. The responsibilities for faculty and department leaders are stated in the policy and are outlined in the NWCCU report. In 2018, the faculty senate updated the annual review process to ensure that faculty involvement in assessment of student learning is credited in annual review. To date, all undergraduate programs reported that in the past two years they completed an assessment cycle for one or more learning outcomes and used results to inform program decisions (100 percent). At the graduate level, annual assessment reports to the Graduate School support continuous quality improvement and show an upward trend over four years, with annual summary information available on the Graduate School webpages and shared with leadership.
For More Information at WSU:
NWCCU Standards Reference: Standard Four, Theme Two, section 4.3 and 4.6