Student Outcomes Assessment at UIUC

The University of Illinois has been actively engaged in the assessment of student academic achievement since 1994, when the Task Force on Program Evaluation and Assessment was appointed to develop mechanisms for evaluation and assessment of the University's undergraduate and graduate programs and research units. At about the same time, the North Central Association of Schools and Colleges Commission on Institutions of Higher Education began to place special emphasis on the assessment of student academic achievement as part of its accreditation process. In concurrence with and in response to that emphasis, the Provost charged a standing faculty committee with oversight of the student outcomes assessment efforts of the campus.

Since then, the Student Outcomes Assessment Committee has worked to help academic units develop assessment plans for their majors and to develop assessment measures for the broader, overarching, campus-wide learning goals that are expected of all UIUC students.

The UIUC system of assessment is uniquely unit-based and faculty-driven. The May 1997 Report of the Task Force on Assessment and Program Improvement explains this approach:

While campus leadership and support is necessary, only through faculty involvement can large institutions devise effective and efficient program-based assessment plans that will produce results beneficial for all academic units. With assessment planning located primarily at the unit level, faculty can exercise their responsibility to devise appropriate methods to measure student learning. The Task Force recommends a process that gives widespread ownership of assessment planning to faculty and enables them to determine the methods and instruments that are most applicable to their educational objectives and missions. Also, the Task Force supports the idea that academic units are best suited to determine how assessment results can be used to ascertain curricular strengths and weaknesses and to improve programs.

Campus units have access to a number of different kinds of technical assistance from the Center for Teaching Excellence. Unit assessment coordinators are invited to various outcomes assessment workshops held throughout the year, and provided with individual technical assistance as requested.

This site contains information on the following topics:

Student Outcomes Assessment Committee--a brief history of the committee, its current membership, and copies of the 1997 report and the 1999 report.

Unit Plans for Assessment--a list of degree-granting units on campus with links to the completed outcomes assessment plans.

Senior Surveys--summary reports of the 1997 and 2002 Chancellor's Survey of Undergraduate Experience; these reports encapsulate the findings from online and traditional surveys conducted to measure the opinions and perceptions of graduating UIUC seniors.

Assessment Resources--information about upcoming assessment workshops at the local and national level, as well as a collection of print and electronic assessment resources.

The Assessment Program operates under the auspices of the Center for Teaching Excellence' Measurement & Evaluation.  Contact information for the Student Outcomes Assessment Committee:

Cheryl Bullock, Head
Measurement and Evaluation
Room 247 Armory, MC-528
505 East Armory Avenue Champaign, IL 61820
217-333-3490
E-Mail: cdbulloc@uiuc.edu