Assessment

Assessment Guiding Principles

The assessment of student learning is a vital element of educational practice requiring attention to guiding principles to ensure that effective, sustainable practices are at the heart of the institution's efforts.

• Guided By Mission

  Assessment of student learning is guided by UNC's mission (including UNC’s vision, values, purposes, and goals) and the missions of individual programs.

• Institutionally Supported

  Assessment is most effective when the university provides resources for assessment activities, such as professional development, financial support, technology, and mechanisms for sharing assessment data.

• Improve Teaching and Learning

  An essential focus of the assessment of student learning is to improve teaching and learning at the course, program, and institutional levels.

• Use of Results

  Assessment of student learning results are valuable for highlighting excellence; improving teaching and learning; making evidence-based decisions; and informing planning, policy, and resource decisions.

• Faculty/Staff Driven

  Assessment of student learning is most effective when it is owned and driven by the faculty and staff in a program/unit.

• Student Involvement

   Students serve as the primary stakeholder in assessment of student learning. As a student-centered institution, UNC strives to find opportunities to involve students in assessment of student learning efforts.

• Collaborative Effort

  Assessment is most effective as a community effort involving faculty, staff, students, administrators, and the institutional community. Assessment fosters more systemic improvement of teaching and learning when representatives from across the educational community are involved in assessment activities.

• Useful and Meaningful

  Assessment of student learning is most effective when it focuses on issues that faculty, staff, and students find meaningful and when it produces evidence that faculty, staff, and students find useful.

• Manageable and Sustainable

  Effective assessment is manageable and sustainable when it is designed to align with available human and financial resources.

• Assessment is Ongoing

  Assessment is most effective when it is an ongoing activity that is part of the regular operations of a program/unit, rather than a sporadic endeavor.

• Use of Best Practices

  Assessment is most effective when best practices for assessing student learning guide the work.

• Transparent

  The UNC community is committed to being transparent to internal and external stakeholders about how assessment of student learning is conducted and how the results are used.