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FREQUENTLY ASKED
QUESTIONS
about
MIAMI PLAN ASSESSMENT
(updated 8-1-08)
It is strongly recommended that you meet with the
Coordinator of Assessment before designing your Miami
Plan Assessment. To schedule an appointment, please
e-mail assessment@muohio.edu or
call 513-529-7135.
For Frequently Asked Questions about assessment in
general, please visit the Assessment
Basics page.
Assessment Methods and Data
Collection
Report Submission
Examples and Additional Assistance
ASSESSMENT METHODS AND DATA COLLECTION
How many semesters worth of data should we include
in the data sheets?
Include data from the Fall, Spring, and Summer for
the academic year prior to the due date of your program
review submission.
Should we assess
every Miami Plan course in our department?
Unless your department
teaches a small number of MP courses, you
may assess a sample of your courses, rather
than every single Miami Plan course taught. Your report
will need to include assessments of each type of Miami
Plan course taught in your department (Foundation, Thematic
Sequence, and Capstone).
Should
we use all three tiers of the multi-tiered model
in our assessment?
Unless
you have made alternate assessment plans with the Coordinator
of Assessment, you will need to include all three tiers
of the multi-tiered model in your assessment. Using multiple
types of assessments provides a more complete picture
of the state of your Miami Plan courses. Due to the relative
ease of conducting Tier 1 and Tier 2 assessment, Tiers
1 and 2 should be applied to multiple Miami Plan courses.
However, Tier 3 assessment, which is often more time-consuming,
does not need to be applied to every Miami Plan course
that you assess. It is acceptable to apply Tier 3 methods
of assessment to only one or two Miami Plan courses. However,
please include your plans for using
Tier 3 assessment in other Miami Plan courses in the
future.
Should
we
assess all four Miami Plan principles?
Tiers 1 and 2 should address
all four Miami Plan principles. Because Tier
3 assessment is more time-consuming to conduct, it
is acceptable to focus on one or two of the principles
for your Tier 3 assessment. However, please include
a description of how the remaining principles will
be assessed in the future using Tier 3 assessment methods.
Our
department teaches a course that is included in
another department's thematic sequence. Do we
need to include that course in our assessment report?
No. Assessment of thematic sequences courses is the
responsibility of the department that officially
houses the thematic sequence. Because your department
teaches a course that is included in a different
department's thematic sequence, you may be asked
to assist the other department with their thematic
sequence assessment. However, for your department's
Miami Plan Assessment report, you
only need to assess thematic sequences that are housed
within your department.
What type of data should we provide for tiers
1, 2, and 3?
For all three tiers, please provide a
qualitative summary of your assessment results as well
as a description of the assessment tool(s) that was used
(e.g., survey questions, rubrics). You
will also need to provide enough data so that the review
committee can determine how you came to your conclusions.
Specifically:
- Tier 1: Please include a qualitative
summary of faculty findings. If faculty used rubrics
or other tools to assess course components,
include frequencies or means for each of the
rubric categories.
- Tier 2: If
qualitative techniques were used (e.g., focus groups),
include a qualitative summary of the results. For
quantiative assessment techniques (e.g., surveys),
include frequencies and/or means for each of the
survey questions. If you collected data from multiple
classes or multiple semesters, please aggregate
the results as appropriate, e.g., provide
means for each semester.
- Tier 3: Please
include the means and/or frequencies for each of
the rubric categories (or for any other tools used).
Our course surveys
include some questions that do not specifically address
the Miami Plan principles (e.g., general course satisfaction,
course content). Should we include the results for
these questions in the report?
Although we encourage you to analyze and use the
data from all of your survey questions, your Miami
Plan Assessment report should only include the survey
data that is relevant to the four Miami Plan principles.
How many syllabi should we include in the appendix?
You do not need to include all syllabi for all Miami
Plan courses taught since the last Miami Plan Assessment
report. Please include a representative sample of
syllabi from each of your Miami Plan courses from
the previous year.
If you have Miami Plan courses that are not
taught every year, you may need to include syllabi
from earlier years as well.
Should
we include examples of faculty-designed assignments
or student work (e.g., student papers)?
Because your report will summarize the department's
findings from its assessment of the assignments
and student work, you do not need to include actual
samples these items.
The report guidelines request information
that we've already provided in an earlier section
of the report. Should we provide the same information
twice?
You do not need to include the same information
twice. If you have already presented the necessary
information earlier in the report, please direct
the reader to the earlier section.
After
collecting our assessment data, we discovered that
students in some of our Miami Plan courses are
not doing as well as we would like. Should we acknowledge
this shortcoming?
Absolutely! Assessment is not about proving that
students are doing well. Assessment is about using
systematically collected data in order to improve
student learning and development. In order to improve
student learning, departments must identify students'
weaknesses as well as their strengths. Departments
are encouraged to acknowledge any problems discovered
as the result of their assessment. However, departments
must also create an "action plan" that
describes how they plan to improve
the situation. The best assessment reports are not
those that show only the "good" data, but
rather those that demonstrate how they are using
their assessment data to improve student learning
and development in their Miami Plan courses.
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REPORT SUBMISSION
When is the report due?
The report is due in October, at the same time as your
program review documents. Contact the Director of
Liberal Education and Assessment for the specific
date each year (miamplan@muohio.edu; 513-529-7135).
Where do we submit the report?
How
many copies of the report and appendices should we
submit?
Should we submit electronic copies or hard
copies of the report?
Electronic
submissions are preferred and should be sent to the
Director of Liberal Education and Assessment at miamiplan@muohio.edu.
If you are unable to obtain electronic copies
of all report items (e.g., syllabi or other appendices),
please submit ONE hard copy of the missing items to
the Director of Liberal Education and Assessment in
Culler Hall, Room 229.
How many pages should the report be?
There is neither a page limit
nor a page requirement for the report. The report should
be long enough to summarize the
assessment findings. Length will vary depending on
the number of Miami Plan courses included as well as
the number and type of assessments conducted.
Who reviews the Miami Plan Assessment reports?
An ad-hoc committee comprised of Associate Deans from each division, the Director
of Liberal Education and Assessment, and the Coordinator of Assessment reviews
the reports and submits a summary of their findings
to the department, the divisional Dean, and the
Provost. After receiving the letter of findings, the
department consults with the appropriate Associate
Dean to determine how the action plan will be implemented.
After the Program Review cycle is complete, the Provost's
Office reviews all information received - including
the recommendations outlined in the review
committee's letter - and notifies the department of
any action that should be taken.
When will we receive feedback on our report?
Departments
will receive a summary of the review committee's findings
by the end of the following Spring
semester. Some departments may receive feedback
earlier, depending upon when their report is scheduled
for review by the committee.
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EXAMPLES AND ADDITIONAL ASSISTANCE
Who can we contact for additional assistance on
Miami Plan assessment?
Contact the Coordinator of Assessment in the Office
of Liberal Education and Assessment at 513-529-7135
or assessment@muohio.edu.
Where can we find examples of rubrics and Tier
3 assessment?
Where can we find examples of survey
questions for Miami Plan Assessment?
Where can we find
examples of other departments' assessment plans and
final reports?
All of the above items can be found on the Miami
Plan Assessment webpage at: http://www.units.muohio.edu/led/assessment/Miami_Plan_Assessment/MP_Assessment.htm
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Related Links
*Miami
Plan Assessment (Program Review) Main Page*
Assessment
Guidelines
Report Details
Sample Assessment Plans and Reports
Sample
Rubrics
Sample Student Learning Outcomes
Sample Questionnaires
Frequently Asked Questions
Historical
Perspective
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