Academic Assessment

Janet "Jan" Hirt, Associate Vice President of Curriculum and Compliance

Assessment is a collaborative effort that fosters effective student learning, curriculum enhancement, and program development. Through assessment, the college engages in a reflective learning process to improve institutional and program effectiveness and demonstrates the quality of programs and services, which is evident through student learning. The mission and vision statements of Greenville Technical College and that of the Learning and Workforce Development Division guide assessment. The ultimate intent of this process is to enhance student learning and improve student success.

Greenville Technical College requires that all academic programs (certificate, diploma, and degree programs), courses, and support services demonstrate continuous improvement based on data obtained through systematic assessment. Although assessment should be faculty-driven, it must be a collaborative effort between faculty, students, academic program directors, department heads/chairs, assistant deans, academic deans, and administration. Academic departments and schools must maintain documentation of systematic assessments and improvements. 

Through assessment reports, departments are expected to demonstrate analyses and assessments of student learning outcomes, core competency assessment activities, and program process outcomes, including a description and rationale for changes and recommendations for future plans. The timeline for completing annual assessment plans can be located on the Academic Assessment Lib-guide.

Assessment Responsibilities

Although assessment within a program requires participation and input from all faculty members within the program, the following outlines the responsibilities of the academic program directors and department heads/chairs. 

      They:

  1. Ensure that the program's mission statement aligns with the college’s mission statement.
  2. ​Develop a structure within the department to help ensure that assessment activities will be completed in a timely manner.
  3. Oversee assessment activities within the program.
  4. ​​Ensure the meaningful involvement of faculty and students in the assessment process.
  5. Provide regular feedback to program faculty and staff on assessment activities and share assessment information with constituencies, including students.
  6. ​​​Complete assessment reports in Anthology's Planning.

  7. Provide resources to faculty necessary to support assessment efforts and action plans developed as a result of the assessment.

Faculty – Faculty are crucial to the assessment process and should be involved in all steps of assessment.

They:

  1. Identify program student learning outcomes to be assessed.
  2. Select and design assessment tools.
  3. Create and implement assessment plans.
  4. Analyze and interpret results.
  5. Communicate results.
  6. Provide feedback to participants.
  7. Develop curricular planning and budgeting recommendations based on assessment results and findings.

Assistant Deans, Academic Deans, and Vice President of Learning and Workforce Development 

      They:

  1. Oversee the ongoing process of assessment of academic programs.
  2. Promote the use of assessment results for continual improvement.
  3. Review and approve annual assessment plans/results.
  4. Assist programs with meeting program needs necessary for continual improvement based upon assessment data, i.e., address needs through the budget process.

Academic Program Review (APR)

The APR process is an inclusive method for gathering evidence of student learning and determining program effectiveness, engaging programs in systematically assessing their policies, procedures, and practices, and making positive changes based on the use of data. The APR is designed to involve faculty, college leaders, employers, graduates, current students, and the community to assess and improve the quality of academic programs. Such evidence is delivered in the form of a self-study, which is completed by program faculty for analysis and review. Programs are assigned to a cohort, with each cohort completing multiple pieces included in the self-study annually. The self-study provides a means for:

  1. gathering a broad and varied range of information about programs;
  2. reviewing and analyzing the information;
  3. synthesizing all available information;
  4. evaluating overall program quality, viability, and sustainability through review of multiple measures;
  5. making recommendations for improvement; and
  6. following up to ensure that a program is fully supported in its efforts to address the outcomes of the review and subsequent action plans.