Assessment of the Miami Plan

The goal of liberal education assessment is to determine how well and in what ways students are achieving the intended learning outcomes embedded in the new Miami Plan. The assessment process can provide meaningful information and feedback to the Office of Liberal Education and Liberal Education Council who oversee the Plan, and to faculty who teach Miami’s liberal education courses.  Most important, liberal education assessment identifies successes of student learning, areas for improvement and documentation of evidence-based changes.

In keeping with best assessment practices, Miami University utilizes multiple methods to examine student learning outcomes as related to the liberal education curriculum.  

These methods include:

1. Review of proposals for all new and revised liberal education courses to ensure that each course advances required outcomes through clearly described assignments and other forms of assessment
2. Items from standardized national surveys (National Survey of Student Engagement)
3. Periodic and random evaluation of existing course syllabi in the Miami Plan (using a rubric) to ensure alignment with the appropriate learning outcomes
4. Review of student artifacts from randomly selected liberal education courses/sections (meeting a particular requirement) using rubrics to assess the outcomes associated with that Miami Plan requirement.

Data are collected regularly, analyzed and compiled into a report each academic year.   The report is shared with members of Liberal Education Council who discuss findings, generate strategies for improvement based upon assessment data, and track the strategies over time to gauge their effectiveness.  The final version of the Report is included in the LEC meeting minutes and forwarded to University Senate Consent Calendar.