Assessment Tools

Increasingly, granting agencies require a comprehensive plan for the assessment of project outcomes. This portion of a proposal is considered an essential component of a competitive presentation of your work. There are a variety of resources that various faculty and staff have worked with that can be used as a guide for your project assessment plan. In addition, several excellent resources provided by other organizations can be useful as the assessment component of a project is designed.

General Proposal Guidelines for Assessment and Evaluation

Internal Resources

1. Office of Institutional Research – Newly established in Fall 2007, the Office of Institutional Research (OIR) provides a comprehensive program of institutional research and planning. Consistent with its charge to support the University's mission and strategic objectives, the OIR reports to the Senior Vice President. The OIR is charged with ensuring the integrity and reliability of information for effective decision-making and institutional planning. The Office coordinates the collection, organization, analysis, and reporting of all institutional data in order to provide consistent and timely information to administrators, faculty, trustees, and other internal and external constituencies. The Office produces the annual Fact Book, coordinates surveys of students and other campus groups, and serves as the primary contact for compliance reporting to state, federal, and accrediting agencies. Members of the OIR staff also initiate major research projects and provide consultation on research methods, data integrity and data base analysis, survey design and analysis, and institutional assessment activities.

University Contact: Ann Stehney, Director of Institutional Research, ext. 3774.

2. Center for Academic Excellence - - The Center for Academic Excellence provides a central hub for teaching excellence. As part of its mission, the Center provides institutional support for all faculty members who want to develop new pedagogy and improve student learning outcomes in their classrooms, labs, offices, or anywhere else learning occurs.

University Contact: Dr. Larry Miners, ext. 2868

3. Assessment Examples - – Some initiatives work with external consultants to frame the assessment component of a project.  Examples of this include the Robin Kanarek Learning Resource Center in the School of Nursing and the living and learning community, the Ignatian Residential College.  Discussions with the faculty associated with these projects can provide some additional background on the assessment design.

University Contacts: Dr. Suzanne Campbell, Director, Robin Kanarek Learning Resource Center, ext. 2578 &  James Mayzik, S.J., Director, Ignatian Residential College, ext. 2697.

External Resources

5. ERICAE.net – Your clearinghouse for assessment, evaluation and research information. The ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation at the University of Maryland, Department of Measurement, Statistics and Evaluation, is one of 16 subject-oriented clearinghouses operated by the United States Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement. Since its inception in 1966, the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) has become one of the major bibliographic databases in the world. ERIC has acquired, reviewed and processed more than one million citations that policy makers, program planners, researchers and other users can readily identify and obtain. ERICAE.net provides:

• balanced information concerning educational assessment, evaluation and research methodology,

• resources to encourage the responsible use of educational data; and

• promotion of the best resources within our scope.