General Introduction to Assessment

 

This section of the BSU Assessment Guidebook provides an overview. It includes a conceptual framework for academic assessment at Bridgewater State University, a definition of academic assessment, a general model of assessment, and a discussion of steps involved in any type of academic assessment.

• Conceptual Framework

•  Purpose and Definition of Academic Assessment

•  The Assessment Cycle

•  Overview of the Steps in the Assessment Cycle

Purpose and Definition of Academic Assessment

The purpose of assessment is to improve outcomes. Assessment is an on-going cycle of goal setting, measurement of outcomes, interpretation of results, and subsequent improvement of programs and activities. Assessment can be used in any setting. Academic assessment is focused particularly on improving student learning, so the goals addressed in academic assessment are student learning goals and the measurements are measurements of learning.

Conceptual Framework

This guidebook is built upon the assumption that as faculty members we want to teach more effectively and help students learn more efficiently, and that together faculty members and students can create a culture of teaching and learning that serves the common good. Assessment is dynamic and on-going, as it fluidly adapts and responds to changing local and global ways of knowing. Assessment is also cyclical—we are always asking, intervening, analyzing, and changing.

 

 

Last Modified: October 19, 2012