Saint Martin’s University Assessment Processes

“Any genuine teaching will result, if successful, in someone's knowing how to bring about a better condition of things than existed earlier.” John Dewey

The primary purpose of Saint Martin’s University curriculum assessment is to improve student learning in our community of scholars. Faculty members establish student learning outcomes for every course and major by articulating the knowledge, skills and values we expect our students to achieve upon completion of the prescribed curriculum. SMU’s assessment practices are used to measure the effectiveness of the enacted curriculum in meeting the established student learning outcomes.

Our faculty have: 

• CREATED a holistic approach to evaluating curricular outcomes in terms of student learning.
• IMPLEMENTED a systematic plan that uses results to strengthen the overall curriculum.
• SUSTAINED the assessment process through cooperative, collaborative and continuous dialogue that cuts across disciplinary lines and institutional responsibility.
• REFLECTED on curricular outcomes to promote a stronger curriculum and to integrate that curriculum into the major courses offered.

SMU’s faculty members have gathered evidence to answer the question, “How well are students learning?” Our assessment activities are based upon the underlying principle of reasoning from evidence and multiple measures are used to assess our courses and our overall curriculum. This assessment process is based upon a model of the scholarly teaching and reflects the organic nature of teaching and learning. In short, the scholarly teacher identifies relevant questions about teaching and learning, seeks answers to those questions, and shares their observations for others to evaluate and expand upon.

Each year, SMU faculty members collaborate to ask and answer a question or set of questions about teaching and learning in their course(s). Questions may address a specific course learning outcome, the development, integration and/or evaluation of a specific assignment or the evaluation of a common learning activity designed to achieve a particular learning outcome. They are being joined by other directors and staff members as SMU seeks to make the boundaries between in-class and out-of-class learning more fluid and permeable.

SMU gives voice to the underlying assumptions of its institutional assessment plan. The assessment process:

• Draws upon the knowledge and experience of a classroom or student service professional to decide what to assess, how to assess it, and how to respond to the information gained through assessment.
• Encourages faculty and student services personnel to support each other in improving teaching to meet rigorous objectives that define the expected student learning outcomes.
• Relies upon a formative process used continuously to improve the quality of instruction in and out of the classroom.
• Develops into a mutually beneficial process for faculty, student services staff and students to create a campus climate conducive to learning.
• Invites students to join a community of learning and helps students change their behavior to increase their learning potential