Assessment - Institutional Effectiveness

Planned 2024-25 Academic Year 

Reporting Timeline, including AoL Committee activities:

• Fall semester AoL Committee members available to coach; triad check-ins with departments
• New AoL Committee members (triad members/departmental liaisons) orientation and training -- Friday, October 11, 2024; 12:00 noon - 1:30 p.m.; 410 Cohodas
• Assessment at NMU Workshop (all are welcome, but especially designed to support programs submitting detailed reports) -- Friday, October 25, 2024; 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.; Health and Human Performance Meeting Yurt (Not sure where NMU's yurt is? Link opens a PDF.)
• Departments work on reports late fall or over break
• Reports due first week of Winter term – departments submit reports to AoL Committee
• Triads receive and review reports early Winter term
• AoL committee meets -- Thursday, January 23, 2025; 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.; location TBD
• Optional triad workgroup meeting time -- Friday, February 7, 2025; 12:00 noon - 2:00 p.m.; location TBD
• Finalized feedback reports/meetings to respond to departments by Monday after spring break

Forms

• Annual Update

The annual update is collected through a Google Form.  

• For the detailed report/planning:

This is the template for a multi-year assessment of learning plan (link downloads Word doc):

Assessment Planning Guide 

The detailed report is due from programs listed under the Cohorts tab. This pdf provides instructions. Email completed reports or questions to: AoL@nmu.edu. 

Feedback on these forms -- ideas about how they can be made more useful -- are welcome. Let's collaborate to make the materials better. 

What is due, and when is it due?

All reports due first week of Winter term. 

Detailed Reports

Programs will submit documentation and discussion of the work that they’ve been doing – including evidence of student learning if that has been collected, analyzed, and used to make change – based on the NMU Assessment Planning Guide (link will download a Word doc) which is on this webpage and has been shared with assessment liaisons. Academic department heads have received instructions. 

Departments at NMU are in various stages assessing student learning. Not all departments will have completed the work to report on all the steps of a completed assessment project in any given report. Departments should present to the AoL Committee documentation of the work that has been completed and discussion of work that is planned. Planned work should present a reasonable timeline and work plan to complete a full turn through the assessment helix, ending with the ability to report on a complete assessment project. 

If anyone needs help managing this work as an ongoing project, we are available. To ask for help, to set up a workshop or meeting, or to submit completed reports, email AoL@nmu.edu.

Annual Update Reports

An annual progress report is due years the program does not submit a detailed report. The Google form asks the department to briefly answer questions:

1. Briefly, what assessment of learning work was completed in the past year?
2. Briefly, what assessment of learning work is planned for the next academic year?
3. Optional: What, if any, assistance or support would be useful as you work on assessing student learning?
4. Programs that submitted a long report last year: Please briefly describe your ongoing work specifically in relation to the report last year. What (if anything) has been progressing as planned, and what (if anything) has changed?

Opting Out

If an accredited program is opting out of NMU AoL work, just email Dan Cullen a simple statement. Please make sure to include all the programs and certificate/degree levels. You don't need to submit any documentation or justification; we know what programs at NMU are accredited and trust your judgment. 

Assessment of Learning Committee Faculty Chair: Lex van Blommestein, Theatre & Dance

Each year all the programs in 1 of the following three cohorts submit in-depth reports to AoL Committee, and other cohorts submit brief updates to Academic Affairs.

The 2023-24 NMU Assessment of Learning Report, prepared and submitted to the Provost July 2024, is available here as a pdf. 

Program Learning Outcomes

Writing clear PLOs is an important first step. This brief handout has tips (link will download an MS Word document). We suggest spending some time working on articulating the purpose of your program, but if this work is so tedious it gets in the way of real progress, don't sweat the details. Issues like double-barreled statements will naturally be addressed as you engage in the iterative work of developing a curriculum map, moving back and forth between refining PLOs and mapping expected outcomes to program requirements. 

See the CTL Resource Library webpage for a handout on Bloom's Taxonomy and other "Learning Objectives (Bloom's Taxonomy)" resources under the "INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN" heading. 

Curriculum Maps

Standard Templates:

Spreadsheet template. Use a spreadsheet to create a simple matrix with outcomes in columns and courses/requirements as rows to map how student learning outcomes are scaffolded across the program. Download as an MS Excel file. 

Word template. Use a table to create simple matrix with outcomes in columns and courses/requirements as rows to map how student learning outcomes are scaffolded across the program. Download as an MS Word file. 

NMU is promoting building program maps, a tool that will help students (and others) see the standard or typical pathway through a program. A curriculum map that is organized by term can be helpful in meeting multiple objectives. Download as an MS Excel file. 

Additional Options:

Spreadsheet template set up to chart a major with different tracks or concentrations. Download as an MS Excel file. 

MS Word template with courses as columns and outcomes as rows. Download as an MS Word document. 

Spreadsheet template with courses as columns and outcomes as rows and concentrations broken out. Download as an MS Excel file. 

Simple MS Word template. Download as an MS Word document. 

Example template for a program with many intended learning outcomes and few required courses. Download as an MS Word document. 

Scholarship:

Read about the value of mapping your curriculum: The Aspirational Curriculum Map: A Diagnostic Model for Action-Oriented Program Review

Assessment Plan Template

Departments should approach assessment of student learning as an opportunity to do work that will be useful to strengthen their programs. Approaches will vary since contexts and needs differ. A general template is available to guide the work. Click the following link to download the guide as a Word document.

Assessment Plan Template and Guide (Link will download an MS Word document.)

(Note: This essential item is also available on the main page under its own heading. The document is the same both there and here; it is available in multiple places for convenience.)

Degree Maps

Student Success at NMU is working with departments to develop degree maps for all undergraduate programs. Although the purposes and products are different, the related work might be done in concert with curriculum mapping. Student Success provided a templates document. Please make a copy (File -> Make a Copy) or download as an Excel document so you can make edits on your own version.

NMU is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and must meet standards all member institutions commit to meeting. That institutions regularly assess student learning and act on the evidence is an obligation to stay in good accreditation standing because this is good practice. NMU should engage in healthy assessment practices to maintain strong instruction. Then, compliance with accreditation standards will follow; compliance should not drive or motivate the work, but should be a consequence of our commitment to maintaining high quality.

HLC's Assumed Practices briefly address assessment of student learning:

Faculty participate substantially in... analysis of data and appropriate action on assessment of student learning and program completion. (B.2.b.iv.)

Institutional data on assessment of student learning are accurate and address the full range of students who enroll. (C.5.)

If the institution makes any claims for student learning related to its cocurricular programs, it assesses such student learning and makes improvements. (B.1.h.)

HLC's expectations regarding assessment of student learning are explained in the Criteria for Accreditation, which "convey the standards of quality by which HLC determines whether an institution merits accreditation or reaffirmation of accreditation."

3.E. Assessment of Student Learning 

The institution improves the quality of educational programs based on its assessment of student learning. 

[Note: citations are to the versions of the Criteria for Accreditation and Assumed Practices that were approved in June 2024 and go into effect July 1, 2025. NMU will be reviewed relative to this version of HLC policy at the time of our next comprehensive review, which will be academic year 2026-27.]

In order to maintain our good standing with HLC, NMU must demonstrate to the agency and the members of the HLC Peer Corps that assessment of student learning is an ongoing effective process that leads to action. That we assess student learning and that we use assessment evidence to improve student learning is required, but it is up to us to determine how we manage this work.

Another distinct, but related, process HLC expects all accredited institutions to engage in is regular review of academic programs. At NMU, the Educational Policy Committee (EPC) oversees Academic Program Review (APR). EPC expects assessment of learning and assessment precursor work (e.g., curriculum maps) to be part of APR reports.  

3.F. Program Review 

The institution improves its curriculum based on periodic program review. 

Can someone come to my department (or school, or college, etc.) to talk with faculty about assessment?

Yes. When? What would you like covered? We have met with faculty to talk about the current NMU approach to assessing student learning and documenting that work, and we have helped with workshops devoted to crafting and refining statements articulating program learning outcomes, curriculum mapping, and other related work. Let us know what your needs are and we can work together to develop an effective session. Email AoL@nmu.edu for more information.

May my program submit the form NMU previously required for reporting on assessment of student learning?

Yes. The guiding values of the current approach are flexibility and usefulness. Flexibility means being open to various approaches to reporting, including using the form that was previously required. If that is the tool the program finds most useful to document the work investigating student learning and acting on findings, please feel welcome to continue using it. If you would like to simplify the form (for example, include attachments instead of embedding documents), that would be helpful because few if any current AoL Committee members have learned to navigate that tricky Word document. Also, a program submitting that form should not expect it to be returned with notes in three different colors.  

What is due, and when is it due?

All reports are due the first week of Winter term. Detailed reports are due in January for programs in the assigned cohort (see “Reporting Cohorts” on this webpage). Instructions were sent to academic department heads and are posted on this webpage under “Reporting Forms.” Annual update reports are submitted through a Google form (the link has been shared with academic department heads and is posted on this webpage under “Reporting Forms”). 

What will be done with our reports?

Detailed reports will be reviewed by the AoL Committee. Your peers will work in triads to respond to the department, offering their cross-disciplinary perspective to be helpful. Annual update reports will be filed with Academic Affairs who will respond as necessary and will make sure any requested support is offered. Status of what was due and what was submitted will be posted on this webpage. Note also that EPC has established guidelines for completing academic program review (APR), and including documentation of AoL work is an expectation for that process.

The link below is available to users with NMU credentials. The page contains reports departments submitted 2023-24. 

Assessment Reports

Departments took varied approaches. None are "right" or "wrong," but were developed to meet the needs as determined by the department. These are not offered as a template or any kind of mandate that any other department should follow, but rather show a variety of approaches so that others can get ideas that can be taken or left. 

NMU AoL Background