Our Assessment Process

Assessment data on the attainment of the student outcomes is obtained from three main sources:

• Individual student attainment data used for the yearly assessment report
• Senior Exit Survey
• Academic Advisory Panel

Yearly Assessment Report

A full assessment cycle takes place over the span of two years and works as follows.

• During the fall and spring semesters a set of courses is identified where measures will be assessed (the most current schedule is available in Table 4A-2).
• After the DROP/ADD period ends, course rosters are distributed to the department assessment coordinator by the university’s director of assessment.
• The assessment coordinator creates course roster files for each course on the assessment schedule.
• These course rosters are uploaded into a web-based software application known as TracDat and mapped to the appropriate assessment measure.
• An assignment in TracDat is then generated for each roster and emailed to the instructor of the course.
• The assignment allows the individual instructors to input whether the students met or did not meet the associated criterion.

The instructor of the course offering chooses how they will determine whether a particular criterion has been met. This determination is documented as an Assessment Vehicle. The individual vehicles are noted in the assessment schedule and archived in the assessment Google Drive folder. A sample selection of vehicles is provided in Table 4A-1.

Table 4A-1: Sample vehicles collected

Once the student data is inputted into TracDat, the process continues as follows:

• The student data is ported to a software application called Tableau, which provides a multitude of data visualization and analysis tools.
• The data in Tableau is analyzed to determine whether or not the associated student learning outcome has been met given the data from the measure.
• The results for all student learning outcomes are collected in an assessment report generated by TracDat (i.e., Results sections).
• The generated assessment report is discussed at the department meetings during the following semester.
• The department also has an assessment committee that meets each fall to go over the previous year’s report.

Action items are generated based on the discussions derived from the report. The report may be further modified if action items require responses. 

Senior Exit Survey

The Senior Exit Survey is conducted by the dean’s office. The dean’s office generates a survey for the students with questions about the university and their experiences. The department may then add additional questions to collect data points that are specific to that department. For example, the Computer Science department survey contains a question related to the department’s PEOs.

Academic Advisory Panel

The Academic Advisory Panel is a focus group constructed of former students, industry contacts, and faculty/administrators from other universities. The advisory panel is used to assess the strengths and weaknesses of our programs, as well as gain insight into the success of our students in the work force. The most recent advisory panel was held virtually on November 17, 2023 with invites given to representatives from Apple, Clover, NFL, Amazon, Splunk, and the University of Delaware.

Yearly Assessment Report

A full student attainment data assessment period takes place in a two-year cycle. Each measure is given a particular semester to be assessed. The scheduled semesters are fall of odd years, spring of even years, fall of even years and spring of odd years. The current schedule is as follows:

Table 4A-2: Schedule of assessment measures

At the end of each academic year, generally during the summer, an assessment report summarizing the findings for that academic year is generated. The routine repeats for the next academic year with full coverage of all assessment measures occurring over the span of two years.

Senior Exit Survey

The Senior Exit Survey is conducted in each section of the Senior Project course in the fall and spring semesters. A report of the data follows shortly after the conclusion of the semester.

Academic Advisory Panel

The Academic Advisory Panel is scheduled to occur once each year. The time frame for when the panel meets varies as the feasibility of the meeting depends on the availability of that year’s participants.

Expected Level of Attainment

Each course that is being assessed has a roster generated after the conclusion of the DROP/ADD period. The course roster is inputted into TracDat for data collection purposes. A student learning outcome is said to have been met if at least 80% of the students on the roster met or exceeded the goal. Therefore, the expected level of attainment for the student learning outcomes is 80%.

The Senior Exit Survey and Advisory Panel produce worthwhile information but are not given any specific attainment targets.The yearly assessment reports are generated and discussed during a department meeting in the fall semester. The reports are filed with the university’s director of assessment and archived in the Assessment Google Drive folder available to the department.

The Senior Exit Survey data is distributed to the department by the dean’s office. The data is discussed during a subsequent department meeting in the following semester to identify areas of weakness and generate action plans. The data is archived in the Senior Exit Survey Google Drive folder available to the department.

The Advisory Board meeting minutes are summarized and, together with the insights gleaned from the meeting, are shared with the department. Specific Advisory Board recommendations are further discussed in the appropriate committees, such as the curriculum committee. The minutes and report are archived in the Advisory Board Google Drive folder available to the department.