WOU Student Learning Outcomes Assessment

Assessment at Western Oregon University

The role of assessment at Western Oregon University is first and foremost to guide the ongoing effectiveness of our programs in promoting student learning and success. Assessment provides us with some of the information we need to examine our practice to ensure that our programs promote student learning in alignment with our outcomes and mission. Additionally, assessment provides us with one valuable tool by which we can document to our stakeholders that we are engaged in mission fulfillment.

At WOU, all academic programs engage in assessment by doing the following:

• Determining Program-level Student Learning Outcomes (PLO).
• Graduate programs align one or more PLO to one or more Graduate Learning Outcome (GLO).
• Ensuring that the course goals/course-level student learning outcomes for each course in a program align to one or more PLO (here is an example) and identifying this alignment clearly on course syllabuses.
• Courses that are offered as part of the General Education Program must also align their course goals/course-level student learning outcomes to the General Education Learning Outcomes (GELO) required for the element of the General Education program which they support.
• Selecting at least one PLO to assess annually using the instruments, assignments and strategies that the program determines to be appropriate including engaging in analysis, interpretation, and implications and report the results of these outcomes assessment activities.
• Incorporating annual PLO assessment findings into the regular 7-year cycle of Program Review as part of the self-study.

Program-level Student Learning Outcomes Assessment

Academic Programs include majors, minors, and certificates at the undergraduate and graduate levels; general education; co-curricular and academic support services within Academic Affairs. Each year every academic program assesses student learning of at least one Program-level student Learning Outcome. Reports are due annually in Week 7 of Winter term. The report filed in Winter term includes the findings and implications related to outcomes assessed in Fall based on the evaluation of evidence collected in the prior academic year.