- About CELTUA
- Calendar and Events
- Full and Part-time Faculty and Staff
- Grad and Undergrad Students
- Grants and Awards
- Overview
- Past Recipients and Project Summaries
- E. Phillips Knox Teaching Award
- Small Grants to Improve Teaching
- Grants for Graduate Award Holders to Improve Teaching
- Visiting Teacher-Scholar Grants
- Summer Fellowships for the Improvement of Instruction
- Department / Program Grants for the Significant Improvement of Instruction
- Learning Assessment / Course / Curriculum Effectiveness Grants
- Faculty Exchange Relocation Grants
- Engaged Learning and Top 25
- Assessment
- Publications and Library
- Consulting and Resources
Assessment Projects at Miami
In its philosophical statement, the Assessment Task Force recommends that a University assessment plan should be “…designed to gather useful information about students’ learning and development and to use this information to continuously revise and modify the curriculum….” Thus, the main focus of Miami’s assessment activities is to further enhance its already excellent reputation in fostering student learning.
The projects outlined below were undertaken with this basic philosophy in mind. Each project focuses on using assessment as a tool for gathering information about student learning and development in order to continuously improve student learning. Brief descriptions of each project are provided below. For additional details, please click on the title of the project.
Outcomes in the Majors
The main goal of the Outcomes in the Majors Project is to further improve student learning in the major. For this project, departments examine what its majors are expected to learn, gather information about this learning, and use the results to modify the curriculum and/or courses to further improve student learning. The following departments are currently involved in Outcomes in the Majors Projects: Anthropology, Botany, Chemistry, Communication, Engineering and Applied Science, Geology, Geography, Microbiology, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology/Gerontology, Speech Pathology and Audiology, and Zoology.
Assessment Grants
Financial support is available to support departments or programs who are participating in the Outcomes in the Majors project in developing and measuring student learning or development outcomes. See also the CELTUA Grants for Learning.
Historically, some assessment projects were funded through a small grants program of Liberal Education. Sample reports from these projects are provided as exemplars of good work on assessment being done at Miami, and to provide ideas for new projects. These can be found on the Small Assessment Grants page.
Surveys
Surveys, when designed and used appropriately, can provide valuable information about student learning and development. Miami University's Office of Institutional Research (IR) conducts multiple surveys of faculty, staff, and students each year, including national surveys that allow comparisons with benchmark institutions. The Surveys page provides information on how to using survey data for assessment purposes and the types of survey data that are already available to Miami faculty and staff.
The Liberal Education office will be responsible for:
- The Assessing Critical Thinking (ACT) project
- First Year Seminar Assessment
E-Portfolio Projects
Sample materials from Honors E-portfolio project. The University Honors program is one of several groups who are piloting a new e-portfolio system for assessing outcomes for their students. The system is Chalk & Wire. Participating groups have constructed their learning outcomes, rubrics and lists of assignments through which students will upload their materials. The portfolio manual for Honors was developed by Carolyn Haynes and Leah Reynolds. It is important to understand that these are draft materials, and are works in progress . They are here as examples of the types of materials that are involved in designing an assessment plan.