This section provides additional resources related to outcomes assessment. For information on notable outcomes assessments, visit the Noteworthy Practices page.
Outcomes Assessment Presentations
- Are They Learning What We’re Teaching? A Workshop on Designing Student Learning Assessments (Laurie Goldman – Tufts University) (ACSP Conference, 2023) (PDF)
The following presentations review program outcomes assessment in the context of the 2012 PAB accreditation standards and provide guidance to program administrators and Site Visit Teams.
- Outcomes Assessment Training Session (ACSP Conference, 2015) (PDF)
Includes information on Program Improvement Plan and Student Learning Outcomes - Addressing Outcomes Assessment in Planning Programs (APA Conference, 2013) (PDF)
- Outcomes Assessment: PAB Requirements (ACSP Administrator’s Conference, 2013)
The conference included a panel on the challenges of outcomes assessment. The following panelists presented an overview and an example of one program’s efforts therein.
- Meeting the Challenge of Outcomes Assessment (W. David Conn – Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, ACSP Administrator’s Conference, 2011)
- Program Learning Outcomes (Doug Johnston – Iowa State, ACSP Administrator’s Conference, 2011)
The National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA)
Established in 2008, the mission of the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) is to discover and disseminate ways that academic programs and institutions can productively use assessment data internally to inform and strengthen undergraduate education, and externally to communicate with policy makers, families and other stakeholders.
NILOA assists institutions and others in discovering and adopting promising practices in the assessment of college student learning outcomes. Documenting what students learn, know and can do is of growing interest to colleges and universities, accrediting groups, higher education associations, foundations and others beyond campus, including students, their families, employers, and policy makers.
NILOA’s Transparency Framework is an excellent resource intended to help institutions evaluate the extent to which they are making evidence of student accomplishment readily accessible and potentially useful and meaningful to various audiences.
In Spring 2009, NILOA surveyed chief academic officers at all regionally accredited US undergraduate-degree-granting, two-and four-year, public, private, and for-profit about assessment activities underway and how assessment results are being used. The October 2009 full report (PDF) contains a great deal of information regarding what universities and programs are doing at the macro level, what tools are being used, and how the data is being used.