Assessment of Student Learning

Assessment at Urbana University is an ongoing faculty-driven process aimed at understanding and improving student learning and success. The assessment process entails the following goals:

• Making the University’s expectations explicit and public
• Setting appropriate criteria and high standards for learning quality 
• Systematically gathering, analyzing and interpreting evidence to determine how well performance matches those expectations and standards
• Using the resulting information to document, explain and improve performance
• Creating a shared academic culture dedicated to assuring and improving the quality of higher education

In order to achieve the goals above, the University follows a cyclical model including the following steps reiterated with each assessment cycle:

• Developing or refining outcomes
• Planning assessment activities
• Collecting and evaluating data
• Documenting and reporting results and recommendations for improvement 
• Implementing recommended changes
• Assessing to see whether learning has improved