The University of Texas at Dallas
The Office of Institutional Success and Decision Support

Assessment Resources

Our desire to improve student learning drives assessment at UT Dallas. We have collected a few resources to help you in course planning and assessment. Please click on a heading below to expand.

Writing a Syllabus

A well-designed syllabus can make your class more enjoyable for you and for your students. A well-written syllabus clearly demonstrates the connection between what the instructor says the course is about and what the students are expected to do in the course. The University of Texas at Dallas provides a syllabus template for all instructors that helps you structure your syllabus (https://oisds.utdallas.edu/syllabus-templates).

Syllabus Resources

Learning Outcomes

One of the more challenging tasks for new and experienced faculty alike is writing student learning outcomes. Course learning outcomes should make it clear to students what they will be able to do because of what they have learned by the end of the course. Strong learning outcomes are student-centered, comprehensive, aligned to program outcomes, degree appropriate, and measurable (please see the Learning Outcome Rubric for more detail about each of these characteristics).

Student Learning Outcomes Resources

Using the Information from Assessment Reports

You may be asked on a semi-regular basis to write a report for your program about assessment in your course. To write this report you will need to gather information about student work in your class, analyze it, and then consider future changes.

At the program level, you may find that there are larger changes that need to be made based on the program assessment data that was gathered. Maybe your faculty see a need for a new course or another curriculum change, or perhaps the course descriptions need to be changed in order to address some new challenges. You should meet as a group to discuss possible changes based on assessment data.

Using Assessment Data Resources:

On the Importance of Faculty Involvement in Assessment

The word "assessment" often calls to mind ideas about external accrediting agencies and legislative oversight. On the most basic level, though, assessment includes what faculty members already do in the classroom every day. It is important that faculty drive how we do the assessment that affects your courses and programs.

Faculty Involvement Resources

Glossary of Assessment Terms
Term Definition
Assessment

"Assessment is the systematic collection, review, and use of information about educational programs undertaken for the purpose of improving student learning and development." (Palomba & Banta, 1999, p. 4)

"Assessment is the process of providing credible evidence of

  • resources
  • implementation actions, and
  • outcomes

undertaken for the purpose of improving the effectiveness of

  • instruction,
  • programs, and
  • services

in higher education." (Palomba & Banta, 2014, p. 2)
Benchmark The level of accomplishment against which student work is measured.
Course assessment Focused on whether a specific course is meeting its stated student learning outcomes.
Curriculum Map A chart that shows which courses in a curriculum cover which program-level student learning outcomes.
Direct measures These are any measures that are directly related to what students do: exams, essays, portfolios, etc.
Formative assessment Ongoing assessment of student learning outcomes while the learning is still taking place.
Indirect measures These are any measures that are derived from perceptions about student learning: exit interviews, evaluations, course grades, assignment grades, etc.
Program assessment "uses the department or program as the level of analysis. Can be quantitative or qualitative, formative or summative, standards-based or value added, and used for improvement or for accountability. Ideally program goals and objectives would serve as a basis for the assessment. Example: how sophisticated a close reading of texts senior English majors can accomplish (if used to determine value added, would be compared to the ability of newly declared majors)." (Leskes 2002)
Student Learning outcomes Student-centered, comprehensive, aligned, degree-appropriate, and measurable statements about what student can know and do by the end of a course of study.
Triangulation A validity test by multiple data collection methods to ensure the consistency of results (quantitative and qualitative, direct and indirect).
Want to Learn More about Assessment? (External Resources)

Forms & Templates

Please visit Hyoka Assessment Tool.

Clarifications on Reports and Plans: Let's think of a report as two parts. Part A consists of what you plan on doing this year for assessment (fill out the column labeled measure). This is also known as an Assessment Plan. Part B then looks at the past year of what you've done for assessment (fill out the columns labeled results and plan along with the summary sections). A full Assessment Report is part A that was filled out last year plus part B that you're filling out this year. Each year you will hand in Part A from the current school year (Assessment Plan) and part B from the previous school year (making it an Assessment Report).

The expectation at UT Dallas is for all program learning outcomes to be assessed every academic year. The manner in which each outcome is assessed is left up to the program.

Contact

Gloria Shenoy
Director of Academic Assessment
Academic and non-academic assessment
972.883.6786
gloria@utdallas.edu

Melissa Ray
Director of Administrative Assessment
Administrative assessment
melissa.ray@utdallas.edu