Graduate Program FAQs

Academic Programs and Departments should:

1. Establish learning outcomes for each of its undergraduate majors and update learning outcomes as needed.
2. Assess these learning outcomes on an ongoing basis.
3. Use results of these assessments to improve teaching and learning.
4. Write a report of the results.
5. Monitor changes implemented as a result of assessment efforts and determine whether these changes have resulted in improvements to teaching and learning (aka “closing the loop”).

Institutional Assessment recommends continous engagement in these activities and to assess approximately one learning outcome each year. 

Academic Programs and Departments are responsible for submitting an assessment report every 5 years.

Yes, learning outcomes were developed by all departments in 2008-2009.

View learning outcomes per graduate program

PLO Assessment Reports are due at the end of the given academic year, by August 30.

Please consult the UCI School Review and Assessment Calendar.

Institutional Assessment expects that assessment is a collaborative and widespread effort involving key faculty teaching graduate courses. However, Department Chairs are responsible for submitting the final assessment report. Importantly, results of assessment work should be widely shared within the department.

Reports should answer the following questions:

For assessment work conducted in your last assessment cycle, discuss the following:

1. Review Current Learning Outcomes: Describe your process for reviewing the existing learning outcomes for your major and describe the results of this review. Are the learning outcomes still relevant to your curriculum? Do the learning outcomes accurately reflect what graduates in your major/program will be able to do by the time they graduate?
2. Method: Describe the learning outcome(s) being evaluated, the type of assessment evidence collected (please ensure you are using direct measures of student learning), the faculty and staff involved in reviewing the evidence, and how the reviewers evaluated student work (e.g., rubrics, group discussion).
3. Results: What are the findings of your assessment? Attach relevant rubrics, grading criteria, and one or two examples of student work (e.g., an outstanding paper and a below average paper).
4. Conclusions: How will you use these findings for improvement? What are your recommendations for the program (e.g., curricular changes, need for additional faculty, etc.)? Who discussed the assessment results within your department? Attach evidence that assessment results were shared within the department (e.g., meeting minutes from Curriculum committee meetings, etc.)

This information is available in the Assessment Reporting Template.

Institutional Assessment reviews programs’ assessment reports and provides feedback on the assessment process.

Importantly, Institutional Assessment focuses its feedback on the strength of the assessment process, not on the results of a particular assessment. The goal of these reviews is to provide guidance to programs on how they can best assess their programming to foster a culture of continuous improvement in student learning.

Institutional Assessment reviews the following categories through the lens of best practices to help support continuous improvement. This PLO Assessment Review Process Inventory is designed to be a helpful resource for programs to discover opportunities for growth in upcoming assessment work.

• Define Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs): Clearly articulate what students should know or be able to do by graduation
• Map PLOs to Curriculum: Identify where each PLO is taught and assessed across courses
• Select Assessment Methods: Choose tools to assess student achievement of PLOs
• Use Rubrics for Scoring: Apply consistent criteria to assess student work
• Collect and Analyze Data: Gather student performance data on outcomes
• Close the Loop: Use results to improve curriculum and instruction
• Report and Reflect: Summarize findings and actions

The Institutional Assessment team will forward finalized assessment reports for regular review by the Senate Council on Educational Policy and Graduate Council. In addition, during a School’s academic program review year, the Senate Academic Program Review Board and External Review Team will review each program’s assessment process to ensure programs are regularly assessing learning outcomes and using the findings of their assessment work for continuous improvement and to support excellence in teaching and learning.

The primary goal of assessment is the improvement of teaching and learning, so we expect that your department will be the primary user of the assessment reports.

Institutional Assessment will review all assessment reports with the goal of providing feedback to departments to ensure high quality assessment practices.

The Academic Program Review Board will review assessment reports as part of the School review every 10 years. And reports will be reviewed by WASC Senior, UCI’s regional accrediting body, to ensure compliance with accreditation standards and to ensure the campus (1) uses data and systematic processes to improve teaching and learning and (2) provides high quality education to its students.

Assessment reports may also be reviewed by discipline-specific accrediting agencies, such as ABET, CCNE, AACSB, etc.

The reporting process for graduate assessment was recently implemented. Institutional Assessment will provide example reports in the future. 

In the interim, please find examples of graduate assessment reports from Penn State:

Exemplary Assessment Reports – Graduate Programs

Please contact the Assessment team if you have additional questions about assessment reporting for graduate programs. 

First, UC Irvine wants to emphasize that faculty are already doing assessment. Faculty provide ongoing feedback to students about their progress, grade student work, and continuously assess the quality of their teaching. Assessment is simply a means for “systematically gathering, analyzing, and interpreting evidence to determine how well student learning matches our expectations” (Angelo, 1995). While assessment does not have to be scholarly research (although in many cases it can be), it represents a way to empirically verify what you suspect is happening in the classroom. UC Irvine expects that you will document the good work you are already doing.

Second, we are here to help! The Assessment team can help you with the process. Please contact us so we can assist you.

Please visit our Resources page.