Assessment of Academic Programs
Some Examples for Projects Funded by Assessment Funds
2007-2008
Food Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Awarded $11,695 to develop a new assessment tool based on an embedded question portfolio to provide a detailed evaluation of how well students in Food Science meet the learning outcomes across the program curriculum. Budget requested support for a project assistant.
Nutritional Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Awarded $9,199 to complete a detailed evaluation and analysis of achievement of program outcomes for the past 10 years. The report will result in the development of a program assessment plan for the next 10 years, allow the department to outcome measures designed to address changing roles for entry-level practice in dietetics, identify future goals (short-term and long-term) and include a detailed plan for program improvement. A focus group will be conducted with employers of our graduates as a follow-up with concerns/suggestions identified by graduates in the Dietetics Alumni Survey funded last year. Funds supported a faculty member to complete the self-study and conduct focus groups.
Curriculum and Instruction, School of Education
Awarded $3,350 to analyze focal classroom study assignments created in student portfolios of elementary education program students to evaluate what was taught in the courses, what was valued by the prospective teachers, and what they were able to apply in school settings. Funds supported a project assistant to help with the reading and analysis of the assignments.
Kinesiology, School of Education
Awarded $10,768 to assess the Athletic Training Education Program through the development of a web-based system to formalize and better organize current program data collection and allow for a more comprehensive assessment of student learning and program outcomes. Budget requested support for the system design and development and a student assistant.
Academic Affairs, College of Engineering
Awarded $20,970 for a meta-assessment and evaluation of eleven pilot projects funded though the College of Engineering’s 2010 Task Force Initiative on Transforming Undergraduate Education to provide information for strategic decision-making about the future of these projects. Funds supported a project assistant.
Graduate School
Awarded $3,496 to support the initial implementation of exit surveys of all students completing PhD degrees. Survey data will be compared with data from other universities and sent to graduate programs across the university to assist in on-going assessment activities. Budget requested support for a project assistant.
School of Human Ecology
Awarded $18,979 to analyze and align the results from an undergraduate alumni survey with student learning outcomes, including outcomes that are common across majors in the School. Further, the School will extend the existing SoHE graduate student assessment system to meet data needs for the 2009, 10-year review of the SoHE graduate program in Human Ecology. Funds supported a project assistant.
Law School
Awarded $15,000 as part one of a two-year effort to update the Law School’s Assessment 2000 project by surveying employers and graduates. Funds were provided to revise the survey instruments, develop an on-line web survey and update graduate and employer mailing lists.
School of Music, College of Letters and Science
Awarded $6,078 to develop a web-based alumni survey for the School of Music’s undergraduate and graduate programs. Budget requested support the UW Survey Center in designing and administering the survey.
School of Social Work, College of Letters and Science
Awarded $14,874 to develop an online survey of employers of recent graduates of the undergraduate and master’s programs. Funds supported use of the WebSurvey@Madison and a project assistant.
Academic Affairs, School of Nursing
Awarded $6,475 to develop and implement a nurse preceptor survey to improve processes for selection, preparation and evaluation of preceptors, and ultimately to enhance preceptor satisfaction and competence in the field. Funds provided to support survey administration and analysis.
School of Veterinary Medicine
Awarded $19,459 to develop and implement two web-based surveys to assess curriculum and the preparation of graduates, including alumni one- and three-years post-DVM and employees, for success in the profession. Funds covered the costs for UW Survey Center to develop and implement the initial surveys and to train School computer support staff for on-going survey management.
General Education
Awarded $30,754 to complete the analysis and reporting of the Communication A Self-Perception Assessment, conduct faculty focus groups and/or surveys to investigate learning outcomes for general breadth areas, and to revise and update the overall plan for assessing general education at UW-Madison.
2006-2007
Academic Planning and Analysis, Office of the Provost
Awarded $7,000 to further develop the Alumni Profiles project including a pilot version for each school and college and each major. See: http://apa.wisc.edu/alumni/alumni_profiles.html
Food Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Awarded $14,650 to develop an assessment plan to evaluate and improve a renewed undergraduate curriculum. Funds supported a number of departmental workshops, bringing faculty together from across the department to identify and prioritize assessment activities. The funds also supported a project assistant who helped develop a web-based survey, collected and summarized data, and assisted in preparing reports.
Nutritional Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Awarded $10,152 to develop and administer an alumni survey for the Dietetics Program. Survey will evaluate the programs’ goals to provide foundation knowledge and skills necessary for graduates to successfully pursue career goals and to promote the development of personal attributes for life-long learning and professional development. Results from the survey will be used to revise the curriculum, satisfy requirements for the Program’s reaccreditation in 2008, and to plan for future a graduate degree for entry level practice as a registered dietician.
Curriculum & Instruction, School of Education
Awarded $11,460 to conduct an audit of the major assessment tool used in the teacher education programs, the e-portfolio, to see the extent to which our students seem to be developing competence as culturally responsive teachers. Twenty five e-portfolios were randomly selected from six of the certification programs and examined for evidence of the developing competence of student teachers as culturally responsive teachers. Faculty developed a set of common assessment rubrics to evaluate these competencies. Funds supported a project assistant to conduct the analysis. This effort further supported program improvements that went beyond state-mandated requirements.
Academic Affairs, College of Letters and Science
Awarded $3,500 to develop a multi-department survey project to provide a set of tools that other departments across the College and campus could use to support assessment activities. Slavic Languages & Literature, College of Letters and Science Awarded $6,000 to revise multiple instruments used to assess student achievement of language learning goals. Funds also supported training for instructors in Oral Proficiency Interviews (OPI).
Radiology, School of Medicine and Public Health
Awarded $15,000 to develop comprehensive computer-based teaching modules to assess first-year medical students’ learning outcomes in human anatomy courses. Budget requested support for developing radiographic images, revising course content and analyzing and reporting on the findings. The assessment included the role student demographics account for performance.
Academic Affairs, School of Nursing
Awarded $11,915 to develop and implement an Employer Assessment Survey to assess the quality of recent UW-Madison School of Nursing graduates. Funds supported survey design and administration by the UW Survey Center. Results to be used for undergraduate and graduate program improvements.
General Education
Awarded $54,093 to support numerous general education assessment projects. Projects included examining the feasibility of identifying cohorts of incoming UW-Madison students with variable mathematics preparation in high school, administering a survey to ascertain student self-reports pertaining to their level of improvement in areas related to the Communication A criteria, improving communication about the ethnic studies criteria by conducting student focus groups to gain a better understanding of how students learn about the Ethnic Studies Requirement, and investigating the efficacy of instructional support and training provided to instructors whose courses serve the Communication B requirement.
Biology Major
Awarded $9,005 to hire the UW Survey Center to develop and administer an alumni survey for early-career graduates to assess the goals of the Biology Major in relation to the types of careers embarked upon by Biology majors, to understand how the Biology major prepared them for their first career steps, and to learn about the quality of advising students received in the major.
Academic Affairs, College of Engineering
Awarded $15,487 to develop a series of assessment workshops to assist faculty in improving the courses and programs across the departments, particularly those departments that were identified as having shortcomings as a result of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. Funds supported the partial salary of a graduate assistant to help the team coordinate the project.
2005-2006
Academic Planning and Analysis, Office of the Provost
Awarded $13,800 to further develop a prototype “Alumni Project,” a project designed to explore the potential to use alumni record data collected by the Wisconsin Alumni Association for assessment purposes. Enhancements to the existing data set were made and a common set of questions were developed. Funds were also awarded to allow the project team to travel to the AIRUM to present the results of this work.
Agronomy, College of Agriculture and Life Science
Awarded $4,750 to develop a comprehensive curriculum assessment plan, including a thorough review of the department’s course offerings, align the curriculum, and develop specific learning goals to serve as the foundation for ongoing curriculum and program assessment. These assessment strategies also meet the requirements of the specialized external agency.
Soil Science, College of Agriculture and Life Science
Awarded $5,000 to assist with the development of a comprehensive assessment plan for the department.
Academic Affairs, School of Education
Awarded $10,000 to assess, using both quantitative and qualitative methods, the global competence levels of Education students who participate in study abroad programs. In addition, the project sought information from students who chose not to participate in an international experience. Funds were awarded to support a graduate student.
Academic Affairs, College of Engineering
Awarded $3,000 to develop documentation for the College of Engineering’s self-study reports in preparation for the Accreditation Board for Engineering (ABET) site visit. Funds were provided to support a graduate student.
Communicative Disorders, College of Letters and Science
Awarded $8,000 to develop an integrated tracking and assessment system to support ongoing curricular and program assessment, including assessment of a degree program jointly offered with another UW System campus.
School of Library and Information Studies, College of Letters and Science
Awarded $5,000 to develop an assessment plan for a new distance-learning module of the master’s degree program which involves the Prairie Area Library System (PALS) in Illinois. The development of an assessment plan is necessary as the School prepares for their 2007 accreditation review by the American Library Association.
Physics, College of Letters and Science
Awarded $10,144 to enhance an introduction Physics course and to develop an overall undergraduate program assessment plan for all departmental introductory courses. Funds were awarded to support a project assistant to implement the assessment activities.
Teaching Assistant (TA) Resource Center, College of Letters and Science
Awarded $9,602 to survey the attitudes and concerns of newly hired teaching assistants. Funds were provided to further the finding from a series of focus groups conducted in previous years.
Academic Affairs, School of Pharmacy
Awarded $2,500 to support efforts to develop several new instruments for instructor and course evaluations to improve alignment across the curriculum.
Academic Affairs, School of Veterinary Medicine
Awarded $12,500 to develop an electronic format to replace existing clinical evaluation forms and student exit surveys. These surveys are used to assess student progress in the final year of the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree program. Funds supported the partial salary of a program assistant. This project may be used as a model for other clinical programs across campus.
General Education
Awarded $63,682 to fund numerous assessment projects outlined in the General Education Assessment Plan, including the development of an instrument to evaluate students’ acquisition of quantitative reasoning skills and the efficiency of the instructional training programs for Communication B instructors.
2004-05
Office of Academic Affairs, School of Education
Awarded $14,000 for continued support of the development of the performance-based assessment system for teacher education programs. This system is required by the Wisconsin teacher licensure legislation (PI-34) and this year of the project is directed to completing the integration of the performance into coursework. Plans included surveys of school principals who supervise UW-Madison graduates and interviews and observations of selected alumni in their classroom environments. Fund were requested to support a project assistant.
Engineering Physics, College of Engineering
Awarded $10,000 to develop approaches and processes for conducting surveys of alumni and of employers of UW-Madison engineering graduates. These assessment strategies meet requirements of the specialized accrediting agency. Funds were applied to the salary of an academic staff member.
School of Library and Information Science, College of Letters & Science
Awarded $16,000 to assist with the assessment of the SLIS curriculum and alignment of the school library media specialist program with the requirements set forth by Wisconsin legislation that mandates standards and competencies for teaching licensure. Budget requested support for a project assistant.
Law School
Awarded $18,000 to support on-going assessment projects as well as an expanded assessment project focused on the legal research and writing program and the changes the Law School is implementing in that curriculum. Funds supported a project assistant.
Physical Therapy Program, Medical School
Awarded $3,200 to use the Physical Therapist Evaluation Tool (PTET) to evaluate performance of Master of Physical Therapy program graduates. The funds were used to pay for each MPT to take the PTET. The results were used to do a gap analysis of content areas that needed to be added to the program in the upcoming process of converting to the Doctor of Physical Therapy.
Environmental Studies Program, Nelson Institute
Awarded $5,000 to initiate an assessment planning and implementation project for the Environmental Studies Certificate program. Plans include implementing surveys of graduating seniors and alumni.
Academic Planning and Analysis, Provost’s Office
Awarded $15,000 to support workshop development, analysis of alumni data and exploration of alumni information for assessment purposes. Funds support a project assistant and S&E for workshops.
2003-04
Academic Planning and Analysis/Assessment Council
Awarded $2,500 to fund the half-day workshop offered in December 2003.
College of Letters & Science Dean’s Office
Awarded $3,125 to fund a colloquium series on assessment oriented to L&S departments and their issues; the colloquium was to be a “just-in-time” educational series coordinated with the dean’s request to departments that they update their assessment plans. The use of local experts would keep the costs at a minimum.
Office of Academic Affairs, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
Awarded $10,000 for support to update the college assessment plan and to support new assessment efforts in several departments.
Academic Affairs, School of Education
Awarded $12,000 to support e-portfolio development and integration into the curriculum as a vehicle to meet the requirements of PI-34.
Engineering Physics, College of Engineering
Awarded $10,000 to develop survey procedures for exit interviews with graduating seniors, develop a survey to augment EBI survey, pilot new approaches for alumni and employer surveys. EP development efforts to be used across the College of Engineering.
Master of Engineering — Professional Practice (MEPP), College of Engineering
Awarded $5,000 to support research on assessment methods used in distance education programs, to identify models of good practice, and devise a plan to use these models in the assessment of MEEP.
School of Human Ecology
Awarded $10,000 to support conversion of student and alumni surveys to web-based formats. Other assessments include focus groups, employer interviews. Funding used for staff and student hourly funding.
Dean’s Office, College of Letters & Science
Awarded $16,000 to assessment the TA training program. Focus groups and training to lead focus groups.
School of Library and Information Science, College of Letters & Science
Awarded $14,855 to develop e-portfolio for school library media program up to the PI-34 standards. Project assistant support.
Zoology, College of Letters & Science
Awarded $2,500 to support the transition of graduate student exit surveys and undergraduate alumni surveys from paper to web-based formats. Funds used to pay DoIT.
Law School
Awarded $14,855 to support the analysis of LSSE, the Law version of NSSE. Support used to fund a project assistant. First assessment fund award to Law School.
2002-03
School of Education
Awarded $13,000 to support a project assistant to continue with the development of a performance-based assessment system for teacher education programs, as required by Wisconsin teacher licensing law. Work entails collaboration between school of education faculty and public school teachers. Project includes development of e-portfolio.
School of Human Ecology
Awarded $15,000 to reformat alumni survey from paper format to web-based format. Integrate school-wide assessment tools with self-study and program review for Consumer Sciences. Award will fund a project assistant, OQI fees, LEAD fees, DoIT fees.
Letters & Science Curriculum Committee
$40,000 to fund a targeted phone-based survey of L&S alumni as part of a comprehensive assessment of the L&S degree requirements.
Biology Major
Awarded $15,000 to develop and implement an assessment plan. Work will include researching other programs and developing tools and instruments for assessing the program.
UW Survey Center
The UW Survey Center, under the direction of Jim Sweet, continues to have fund to provide free survey research consultation to academic units interested in developing and improving their survey instruments.
Departments of Sociology, Political Science, Biochemistry
Awards to support alumni surveys, including the conversion of paper-based surveys to web-based surveys.
2001-02
Letters & Science Student Academic Affairs
$17,000 to develop and implement an assessment plan for all of the units of L&S Student Academic Affairs. Funds are primarily to support LEAD consultant (Dianne Bowcock).
Languages and Cultures of Asia
$18,000 to develop assessment plan and instruments for this reorganized department and undergraduate program. Focus on student learning outcomes. Funding will be used to support a project assistant and pay for consultation services from the Office of Quality Improvement (Kathleen Paris, Senior Consultant).
School of Education
$17,300 to hire 50%-time Project Assistant to assist in the development of outcomes based standards and the specification of knowledge and performance characteristics that teacher education candidates must exhibit. Work entails collaboration between school of education faculty and public school teachers. Project includes development of e-portfolio.
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
CALS was awarded $10,000 to assess academic and career advising in the college. The assessment plan was to use surveys of students and faculty advisors. CALS consulted with Jim Sweet and the UW Survey Center.
UW Survey Center
Additional funds were awarded to the UW Survey Center to provide free survey research consultation to academic units interested in developing and improving their survey instruments.
College of Engineering
$10,000 toward the salary of an Assistant Researcher to study the retention of under-represented students in the College of Engineering.
2000-2001
Freshman Learning Experience Assessment Project
$7,000 toward effort by Professor Linda Roberts (Human Development and Family Studies) to conduct assessment of new freshman course, ’Alcohol: Behavior, Culture and Science.’
Assessment of Physiology Ph.D. Program (Medical School)
$5,000 toward the development and implementation of a student outcomes assessment program for the Physiology Ph.D. program.
Food Science (CALS)
$5,000 to support the development of assessment tools for employers of graduates of the department (combination of mail and phone surveys, and small focus groups with targeted employers). Funds will be used to hire student help, pay postage and phone bills related to the administration of the survey itself, and pay for consultation services from the Office of Quality Improvement (Kathleen Paris, Senior Consultant).
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
CALS was awarded $12,000 to continue assessment activities. This year, the specific objective is to assess the educational experiences of current students in internships and recent CALS graduates in work and graduate and professional school. The primary intent is to use the results to inform educational policy and practices.
Department of Linguistics (L&S)
$6,000 to develop a comprehensive assessment strategy for its undergraduate program. Plans included departmental discussion of goals of capstone course and development of new courses, and possible development of survey of undergraduate majors and exit interviews with graduating seniors.
L&S Honors Program
Funds in the amount of $25,000 were awarded to support a systematic evaluation of the Honors Program in L&S, with the help of the Learning through Evaluation, Adaptation and Dissemination (LEAD) Center. The program intends to gather both formative and summative assessment information.
UW Survey Center
Funds were awarded to the UW Survey Center to provide free survey research consultation to academic units interested in developing and improving their survey instruments. Workshops may be offered as well.
1999-2000
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
$10,335 to hire 50%-time Project Assistant who works with departments to develop or refine alumni and employer surveys and use results for program improvement. $1,500 for supplies and expenses.
School of Education
$13,431 to hire 50%-time Project Assistant to assist in the development of outcomes based standards and the specification of knowledge and performance characteristics that teacher education candidates must exhibit. Work entails collaboration between school of education faculty and public school teachers.
College of Engineering
$9,000 toward the salary of an Assistant Researcher to work on various assessment activities in preparation for the College’s re-accreditation visit in Fall 2000. Proposal included agreement to share the web-based course description pages developed by the COE Accreditation Team.
Department of History
$315 to hire programmer to write a web-based survey of undergraduate majors that is administered annually. Survey is one part of department’s effort to measure student outcomes. Department also designated faculty team to review a sample of student papers in capstone courses.
Department of Psychology
$3,000 to hire Project Assistant at 33%-time to convert survey of graduating seniors and 3-5 year post-graduation evaluation to web-based surveys.
1998-1999
Department of Computer Science
$15,000 to develop web based survey with an emphasis on introductory courses in the department. Amount included cost of hiring researcher with the Learning through Evaluation, Adaptation and Dissemination (LEAD) Center.
Department of the History of Science
$1,000 to hire researcher with the Learning through Evaluation, Adaptation and Dissemination (LEAD) Center to conduct phone survey of recent PhD graduates.
School of Human Ecology
$30,832 to hire a 50%-time Project Assistant to work with the School’s Assessment Council to link assessment activities to strategic plan and develop assessment tools (including revision of alumni survey) for departments and the School as a whole. Figure also includes funds for additional assistance from a researcher with the Learning through Evaluation, Adaptation and Dissemination (LEAD) Center to conduct survey. Includes limited amount for supplies and expenses.
School of Veterinary Medicine
$21,500 to hire a 50%-time Project Assistant, develop survey with the UW Survey Laboratory and consult with the LEAD Center.
Department of Zoology
$10,355 to hire a 50%-time Project Assistant to assist in the development of an exit survey, revision of the alumni survey, and development of procedures to use results for curriculum improvement and strategic planning.
1997-1998
Departments of Communicative Disorders, German, Theatre & Drama,Comparative Literature, French & Italian, Mathematics, Zoology, Political Science, Communication Arts and English
Between $200 to $2,400 each to conduct indirect (primarily surveys of alumni) and direct (grading of proficiency examinations) assessment activity. A number of the proposals included copying and mailing costs.
College of Engineering
$32,000 to hire researchers with the LEAD Center to work with three departments. In Electrical and Computer Engineering, LEAD researchers helped analyze existing senior and alumni surveys and helped develop learning objectives for the new computer engineering major. In Industrial Engineering and Material Science and Engineering, faculty worked with LEAD to create an alumni survey and use results for strategic planning. Members of the IE department and LEAD staff also developed an interview protocol and interviewed a sample of graduating seniors.