The Office of Academic Assessment and Institutional Research, as implied by its name, has a two-fold mission:

    1.  Academic Assessment: The Office provides a central focus for the entire academic assessment process by conducting university-wide assessment activities and helping colleges, schools, departments, and other campus units create and implement focused assessment projects.

    2.  Institutional Research: The Office engages in research related to the university's mission by reporting on faculty activity, conducting comparative studies with other institutions, and gathering and analyzing data useful for internal decision making and external reporting.

University-wide assessment activities carried out by the Office of Academic Assessment  include the following projects:

The office conducts Core Curriculum Testing using various surveys and assessment instruments.  It also administers the Writing Competency Program, a requirement for students seeking bachelor's degrees.  The office sponsors MAP-Works, an annual survey of entering freshmen, and administers the Making a Successful Transfer Survey to incoming transfer students.  Sophomores are given an opportunity to reflect on their growth in the Sophomores Transitioning to Autonomy, Responsibility & Success (STARS) Survey given each fall.  May graduates evaluate their preparation with respect to various areas of skills and knowledge listed on the Senior Survey.  The Alumni Survey, administered to alumni two years after graduation, requests that they reflect on academic preparedness for their jobs and satisfaction with their majors.

Staff of the Office of Academic Assessment and Institutional Research  are available to assist faculty with activities described below:

Creating Department Assessment  Plans.  Our office can help you create or revise an assessment plan for your unit.  Creating a plan will help you sort out your goals, select appropriate assessment techniques, develop an appropriate time frame for your activities, and create a process for using the results.

Designing Survey Instruments.  Our office can help you design and administer assessment surveys  of entering students, as well as seniors and alumni.

Conducting Focus Groups.  Our staff is experienced with conducting focus groups  during which a small number of individuals respond to a set of predetermined questions.

Conducting Interviews.  Our office can help you design a set of interview questions.  We can also conduct, record, and transcribe the interviews, as well as summarize the results.

Creating Standardized Tests.  We can help you design, administer, and analyze results from standardized tests.  We can also assist you in selecting and using commercially available standardized tests.

Providing Extracts from University Surveys.  The university regularly surveys  transfer students, freshmen, sophomores, graduating seniors, and alumni.  Typical response rates are around 50 to 60 percent.  For most programs, there are sufficient numbers of respondents to generate separate reports by program.

Creating and Managing Portfolios.  Many departments have expressed interest in developing portfolios as vehicles to collect assessment information.  We can help you create a plan for portfolios and assist in developing a rating scheme to evaluate the information collected.

Managing and Analyzing Data.  Many departments have asked AAIR staff members to help them with data analyses related to assessment or institutional research  projects.  Our office can help with coding data, entering data, and generating statistical reports.

Conducting Assessment  Workshops.  If a group of faculty is interested in one or more assessment related topics, the office can develop a workshop to share information  about the topics. 

Classroom Assessment  Working Groups.  Faculty have joined our Classroom Assessment Working Groups based on the techniques in the Tom Angelo and Patricia Cross book, Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook  for College Teachers.  Participants design techniques for their classes and share information  about how the techniques worked.

Providing Institutional Data.  Accrediting reviews, internal program reviews, grant applications, and questionnaires often request institutional data.  Our office maintains historical records on aspects of departments including counts of majors, average class size, and faculty information.  We can also extract data that describes your students: class level distribution, GPA, retention rates, and graduation rates.