Update on the progress of the University Teaching, Learning & Assessment Committee

The following message was sent to OHIO faculty on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017. 

Dear Colleagues,
 
Last February, the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost requested that Deans, Department Chairs/School Directors, and assessment coordinators from all units work with the Teaching, Learning and Assessment Committee to create annual summaries of assessment-related activities within units for inclusion into the Assessment Clearinghouse. This past spring semester units were asked to provide their Program Learning Outcomes and Assessment Plans for inclusion in the Assessment Clearinghouse. To date, the Program Learning Outcomes section is almost 90 percent complete, while the Assessment Plan section of the Assessment Clearinghouse is approximately 60 percent complete. With your hard work and dedication to this project the Assessment Clearinghouse is now a live website available at http://www.ohio.edu/instres/assessment.
 
While we are excited that this website is now available for all colleges, departments, programs and faculty to be able to share assessment activities across the University, the Assessment Clearinghouse is not yet complete. The next step is for departments and/or programs to provide their Evidence of Student Learning and their Use of Student Learning Evidence by December 15, 2017. Once complete, the Assessment Clearinghouse will be a significant step in meeting the standardization and reporting expectations articulated by our Higher Learning Commission site-visit team in 2015-16.
 
Because Ohio University values continuous improvement, and since assessment is an on-going process, annual updates to the Assessment Clearinghouse must become an established process. Therefore, after this academic year, Deans, Department Chairs/School Directors, and assessment coordinators from all units should provide annual updates to the Assessment Clearinghouse by the end of each fall semester. Individual faculty members can be most helpful in these activities by being involved in regular unit-specific discussions about student learning expectations, data collection and analysis, and improvements implemented.

The Assessment Clearinghouse is the University’s most visible repository for evidence of all academic programs’ ongoing commitment to student learning. Thank you for your efforts in helping to document the outstanding work we do with students. Such information is helpful not only in meeting expectations of the Higher Learning Commission, but also for demonstrating our academic excellence to potential students, parents, state officials, and other stakeholders.

Please direct any questions to Joni Wadley at (740) 593-1054 or schallej@ohio.edu.  

Sincerely,

David Descutner, Interim Executive Vice President and Provost
Joni Wadley, Director, Program Assessment Support Services
Laurie Hatch, Co-Chair, TLA Committee
Scott Titsworth, Co-Chair, TLA Committee