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How Administrative Units Can Take Part in Assessment Activities. t o provide evidence of continuous improvement Amy Moffat, PhD Assessment Manager, School of Natural Sciences UC Merced. Different types of assessment. Academic Student Affairs Administrative. UC Merced Policy.
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How Administrative Units Can Take Part in Assessment Activities to provide evidence of continuous improvement Amy Moffat, PhD Assessment Manager, School of Natural Sciences UC Merced
Different types of assessment • Academic • Student Affairs • Administrative
UC Merced Policy • Policy for the Annual Assessment and Periodic Review of Administrative Units • Engage in annual assessment and 7-year periodic review • Designed to facilitate continuous improvement, transparency, and accountability • Enables units to adopt approaches to assessment consistent with their professional cultures
Purpose Annual assessment involves an evidence-based appraisal of the extent to which a unit is meeting its desired outcomes for the purpose of taking action to improve effectiveness.
Why? • Ultimately, as with all assessment, the goal is to show that the university’s mission is being accomplished – STUDENT LEARNING • It promotes evidence based planning and continuous improvement • Inform planning, decision making, and budgeting • Support actions to implement improvements • Annual assessment submitted by unit managers can help units and the institution make and communicate strategic choices that align unit efforts and resources with institutional priorities.
Units Vs. Individuals • Assessmentis NOT intended as a means to evaluate individuals • However, the Human Resources core competency in “quality assurance and assessment” requires staff to… • Demonstrate involvement in their unit’s annual and/or periodic assessment efforts • Make sure that quality does not suffer as the quantity of work increases • Work effectively with peers to provide and/or improve the quality of service provided • Carry their own share of team workload • Performance evaluation => merit or worth, while assessment does not make final decisions about merit or worth
How? First… PLAN • Establish mission, develop service goals with outcome statements that are measurable • Evidence is data – How do you know a unit is fulfilling a purpose outlined by that goal in a measurable way? Outcome statements addressed both customer satisfaction and objective measures of performance • Establish a benchmark or desired outcome to compare against your actual results • CAS Standards (next slide) or Professional Association good place to start • Develop a timeline for assessing each goal • What is your unit’s annual report deadline? • When is your unit scheduled for periodic review?
CAS Professional Standards for Higher Education • Example: Graduate and Professional Student Programs and Services • What to include in assessment – both qualitative and quantitative: • Demographics and characteristics of students • Student needs, experiences, and learning outcomes • Overall use of and satisfaction with programs and services • Attrition and persistence rates, such as time to degree completion and reasons for leaving prior to completion • Post-graduation career plans and outcomes • Adherence to national standards • Overall satisfaction with services and environment
How?Then… IMPLEMENT PLAN • Following your plan of which goal is to be assessed when, then • Collect data => the data/evidence collection process is specific enough to determine that data are unlikely to be biased, sufficient sample sizes. • The findings/evidence need to provide information or insight into how the unit might improve (i.e.. The findings are actionable) • Present results; identify potential limitations to the data • Clearly state whether the unit’s benchmark was met • BE CANDID about your conclusions of the results • Plan of action: timeline with milestones, identifies responsible individuals and necessary resources (budget implications)
Examples – Responding to Results • Annual assessments: • Very satisfied with the results – keep doing what we’re doing and find ways to do it even better (NSED) • Don’t make changes yet – need more years of data (Grad Programs) • What we’re doing is not working – need a new process • Refine methods – we didn’t measure what we wanted to learn (Labs) • Close the loop in a tangible way (Faculty Survey)
Examples – Responding to Results • Periodic reviews: • Reorganizing staff functions • Revisiting policies • Hiring consultants to support organizational development • Share review findings with higher levels of campus leadership to inform decision making
A Vision For Administrative Assessment in the Future • A central purpose is to better integrate academic planning (such as engaged by faculty members) with resource allocation (a responsibility of the administration). • How can we link strategic goals to quality assurance? • Being prepared for UC Merced 2030!
Resources assessment.ucmerced.edu • website has all the policies, guidelines and templates for administrative assessment (go under the tab “Administrative”) • Assessment staff: • Amy Moffat, School of Natural Sciences • Stephan Bera, School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts • D. B. Quan, School of Engineering • Any member of the Campus Working Group on Assessment • Credit for this presentation also goes to Corinne Townsend, IRDS