Assessment at UDC
A Short History and Current Activities
At UDC, institution-wide assessment is grounded in continuous improvement efforts and an assessment cycle that was designed for all academic and non-academic programs and units across the institution—complete with templates and reporting processes. During the 2006-2007 academic year, a cadre of Assessment Fellows served as initiating champions of outcomes assessment at UDC, to help the institutional community understand how programs/units were working and to determine where they were “contributing to student growth and development” (Banta and Palomba, 2015: pp. 9-10). In 2012, the University Assessment Committee (UAC), led by the Office of the Provost, developed an assessment handbook—which was augmented in 2016, renamed the Firebird Guide to Assessment, and is now in its fourth iteration. In 2014, the university acquired Tk20, which is being administered by the Office of Institutional Research, Assessment, and Planning (IRAP, which is a part of OPIE – see below). Tk20 is used to collect faculty teaching, scholarship, and service activities; course evaluations; and unit- and program-level assessment plans, reports, and mapping documents. In 2018, UDC hired a Director of Institutional Assessment and Outcomes, under the Office of Planning and Institutional Effectiveness (OPIE), who coordinates institution-wide assessment efforts and collaborates with the Office of the Chief Academic Officer (OCAO) on assessment in Academic Affairs. In 2019, UDC secured a Qualtrics license to provide the university community with a premier survey platform, which serves as a centralized repository for institutional survey data, while ensuring privacy and security of those data. OPIE’s Handbook for UDC Surveys is in its second iteration and includes UDC Survey Procedures (as of Fall 2024). In 2021-2022, OPIE began using Power BI to create dashboards for the university, with an initial focus on enrollment and retention dashboards. Also in 2021-2022, OPIE started partnering with UDC’s Center for the Advancement of Learning to implement two new assessment tools (Outcomes and EAC Visual Data) in Blackboard. In addition, assessment leaders across UDC have facilitated (and continue to facilitate) workshops for faculty, staff, and administrators—including OCAO professional development opportunities at the beginning of the fall and spring semesters and workshops throughout the academic year.
The UAC consists of faculty, staff, and administrators who are assessment specialists at UDC. The committee meets monthly during the academic year and focuses on policies, practices, and procedures that best serve UDC in its institution-wide assessment efforts. See a list of current UAC members and the full list of committee objectives. The Office of the CAO – via UDC’s Associate Chief Academic Officer – provides oversight of strategic planning and assessment related to educational effectiveness and student learning outcomes in Academic Affairs. OPIE – via UDC’s Director of Institutional Assessment and Outcomes – coordinates institutional assessment reporting during the academic/fiscal year. The director then collaborates with members of the UAC to evaluate and provide feedback on assessment plans and reports. The Office of the CAO and OPIE also collaborate on assessment efforts in Academic Affairs and members of the two offices serve as UAC Co-Chairs. Finally, the Director of Institutional Assessment and Outcomes develops an annual assessment report at the end of each fiscal year on behalf of OPIE and for the President, the Board of Trustees, and other critical stakeholders at UDC.
