Assessment
The Office of Educational Assessment promotes improvement of educational practice at the University of Washington by supporting assessment of teaching and learning at the level of the classroom, academic program, college/school, and institution. We provide a variety of services, as listed below.
Assistance to departments in:
- Articulating goals for student learning, both course-based goals and goals for majors (see Assessment in the Major)
- Identifying and carrying out direct and indirect methods for assessing those goals, such as curricular maps, surveys for graduating seniors, focus groups of majors, interview studies, and portfolio assessment
- Assessing experimental courses
- Analyzing and reporting assessment results
Surveys about the student experience, including:
- Alumni Surveys - one year after graduation; five and ten years after graduation
- National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)
- Senior Survey
- Entering Student Survey
- UW Libraries Triennial Survey
Course evaluations that:
- Inform faculty members about student perceptions of their classes singly and over time
- Provide chairs and deans with one- and five-year reports on student perceptions of teaching quality in their academic areas
University-wide studies that assess student learning, such as:
- UW Senior Research Study (UW SRS), a focus group study examining the research experience of seniors in fifteen academic majors
- UW Study of Undergraduate Learning (UW SOUL), a four-year study tracking 304 undergraduates through their years in college
