Three Year Assessment Plan

A successful PLO Assessment Report and Plan will include (a) a report of findings and outcomes from the prior PLO assessment cycle; (b) any updates to the program’s PLOs or Curriculum Map; and (c) a new plan, including a description of data to be collected, the rubric or scoring guide to be used in evaluating this data, and a timeline detailing when/where/who will be doing this work.

We strongly recommend that you submit this current Template for PLO Assessment Plans to ensure that your plan includes all pertinent details, and will be approved by the Council on Assessment.

PLO Assessment Plan - Template

Plans that are not initially approved will receive specific recommendations for revision from the CoA, and programs will coordinate with our assessment coordinator Josh Kuntzman on submitting a revised plan for CoA to review and approve. So:

• Your program's Assessment Team will submit a PLO assessment plan to the Assessment Coordinator, who will distribute it to Council on Assessment members for review and vote;
• The CoA will send a Memo to your program, either approving your plan or requesting specific revisions; 
• If revisions are requested, your program will submit a revised plan to the Assessment Coordinator, who will work with you to ensure that all CoA issues are adequately addressed;
• The CoA will send you a memo approving your plan for implementation over the next three years of the assessment cycle. 

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Of course, you can reach out to the Assessment Coordinator, Josh Kuntzman, at any point during your planning process! He can help you review draft-plans, craft PLO-specific rubrics for your program, and answer any other questions about how to make your plan work best for you, your faculty, and your program.

Here are some important points to remember:

• These Assessments target Programs: focus on required courses in the major/program (as opposed to electives or GEs).
• These Assessments are Practical: focus on what you can do (in courses/curriculum) to improve student learning; select PLOs and guiding questions/theories accordingly.
• Plans need to be Coherent: make a clear connection between your target-PLO(s), your research question(s), your direct/indirect evidence, and your rubric/scoring guide criteria.
• Plans need to be Specific: reviewers are not from your departments! So, when in doubt, spell it out - why are you collecting data at This point in your curriculum, why is this a Sufficient sample-size for your question, why is your Standard for success __% or __/5 achievement etc., in this plan? Let us know your reasoning.

For inspiration, feel free to look through some of these prior plans from Graduate and Undergraduate Programs across departments at our University.