Academic Assessment

Continuous improvement

Our University thrives on continuous improvement, which is comprised of the processes of assessment, program review, and accreditation activities.  As a student-centered institution, continuous improvement is especially important to CI, as it allows us to be responsive to changing student needs in any individual classroom, within an academic program, and at the University-level, while additionally feeding into to our WSCUC accreditation.  With our Interim Report due to WSCU in February 2024 and reaccreditation on the horizon, everyone can contribute to these ongoing efforts in different ways. Intentional actions of continuous improvement are what help us do what we came to CI to do – to serve students and to make meaningful social change. We invite you to jump in, keep involved and stay abreast of our accreditation efforts.

Academic Assessment

Academic assessment and the review of academic programs are at the heart of the teaching and learning processes and facilitate the development of meaningful and effective curriculum. Through the strategic and methodological processes of inquiry directed at teaching and  student learning, faculty, staff, and students contribute to assessment through the collection and analysis of data to improve and enhance teaching methods and curriculum design.  Regularized academic assessment of this nature undergirds the program review process, whereby academic programs conduct self-analyses on their operations and progress, as well as inviting in external experts to offer feedback.  Together these processes are the mechanisms through which academic programs can ensure that their curricula and teaching and learning processes deliver the intended benefits to students and evolve as necessary.

The Academic Programs Office at CSUCI oversees, collects data on, and provides training, mentorship, and support related to continuous improvement, consisting of program-level assessment and program review.  Program Learning Outcomes for the CSUCI current academic programs are published and kept current here (PDF, 211KB).

Assessment of student learning

Individual faculty members who strive to continually improve their teaching practices can implement assessment of student learning outcomes in their courses to inform intentional pedagogical changes that respond to student needs (as well as providing useful information to their program about how student learning is happening in the classroom).  Programs, too, in the spirit of change and in the service of their transformation and growth, can implement a variety of program-level assessment initiatives to examine how the overall program learning outcomes are being achieved, which can serve as an important part of the program review process.  All of these efforts help identify and improve high-impact learning that is happening across campus, and they constitute demonstrable evidence that can be used in accreditation reporting. 

Contact Academic Programs Assessment staff

For general information regarding assessment,  email Kristen Linton (Faculty Director of Assessment) or email Elizabeth Showers (Academic Programs Coordinator).