Assessment for Students
What Is Assessment?
Simply put, assessment is an intentional process to help the university ensure our expectations for student learning outcomes match the reality of what students are actually learning and demonstrating. Assessment work should lead to action. Where learning is not happening as we expect, we work to identify changes we can make to the learning environment (courses, programs, services) to better serve students and promote their learning. And where learning matches (or exceeds) our expectations, we celebrate that!
How Does Assessment Impact Me?
Assessment is not possible without students. Again, the purpose of assessment is to measure and take action to improve student learning across the institution. Students should be essential partners in the process. See immediately below to learn how you are contributing essential data to the assessment process.
Collection of Student Artifacts for Assessment: NLU is committed to providing the best learning environment for students. To determine if courses and degree programs, student services, and institutional operations are effective, we analyze information related to student learning from student artifacts (e.g., course work, portfolios, surveys, student engagement and workshop materials). When collecting these data, student identities are kept confidential and are not shared when these data are reported. The university uses these results to take action to bring about change and support continuous improvement, which benefits current and future students. If you have any questions, concerns, or want to learn more about this, please contact assessment@nl.edu.
Within the classroom, assessment data is not necessarily just your grade. For example, the grade for a writing assignment to critique a business plan may measure how well students 1) critiqued the business plan, 2) suggested improvements, 3) communicated information clearly, and 4) formatted and cited appropriately. While all of that info is important for a grade, assessment reporting may focus specifically on #1 and #2 to see how well student performance compares to expectations, calling for program/course improvement if results are lower than expected. Where elements #3-4 may be lacking, this can extend beyond a course/program issue (where faculty can be providing feedback and support), as students can get writing and tutoring support from a variety of institutional resources. To be clear, all assignment data is important and used in some way, but assessment data may target certain elements for a given reporting cycle.
How Can I Learn More About Assessment?
For a more formal definition of assessment, as well as guiding principles to our assessment work, check out our Assessment homepage.
To understand the intentional elements of the assessment process (content and timing), feel free to review information about our Assessment Approach.
Check out the Learning Outcomes page to understand how all learning-related activity at NLU is connected.
Intending to use assessment results to act for improvement, check out our Assessment Actions to see sample reports, presentations, and data uses.
The University Assessment Council meets monthly and discusses current initiatives, trends, and relevant information about all things assessment at NLU. Meetings are open to all, so feel free to join a future meeting!
How Can I Get Involved?
Building off of the notion that students should be essential partners in the assessment process, we welcome your engagement and involvement! As mentioned above, you can look to join a future University Assessment Council meeting. We are working with the Student Assembly to have student representatives learning about and offering feedback on institutional assessment activity. We welcome additonal student perspectives and collaboration, so - whether you have questions, comments, or interest - don't hesitate to contact assessment@nl.edu.
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Assessment is part of NLU's efforts for quality assurance and continuous quality improvement. Accreditation is another major internal and external mechanism for quality assurance. Learn more about NLU's accreditation efforts here. You can get a nice overview from our institutional accreditor, the Higher Learning Commission, about what accreditation is and why it matters by clicking here for that guide.
