Missouri State University - West Plains

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Assessment 

Levels of Assessment

At Missouri State University-West Plains, assessment occurs on three levels:
  • At the Institution/University level where our General Education Learning Objectives represent the assessable goals, assessment focuses on the abilities, attitudes, and behaviors that the sum of students' experiences at Missouri State University-West Plains have imparted and/or reinforced;
  • At the Program level, where learning involves the content knowledge and or skills for General Education transfer to upper division institutions, or for a professional or technical degree; and finally,
  • At the most basic level, the Course where faculty assess student outcomes based on specific course objectives and gain feedback from students about their ongoing classroom experience.

All of these levels are linked throughout the Assessment Process by the General Education Reporting Matrix and the General Education Course Audits

Diagram showing that Intended Learning travels from the top level of assessment (institutional) through the middle level (Discipline) to the bottom level (Course). And Assessment travels in reverse from the bottom level (Course) up through the middle level (Discipline) to the top level (Institutional). This insures that our course objectives are inline with Institutional Mission and Goals.

In addition there are two Reporting Levels that are part of our Assessment Plan that feed information on assessment outcomes and budgetary requests to the various decision making bodies of the University.

Reporting Levels

  • The Discipline Level is where Discipline Faculty make annual reports to Division Chairs for inclusion in Division Assessment Reports. Discipline faculty also participate in the linkage of discipline objectives to course objectives and upward to the Goals and Mission of Missouri State University-West Plains.
  • The Division Level is where Division Chairs monitor assessment projects in their division and report progress to the Assessment Committee for review.

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