University Assessment Award

Professor speaks to his class in language lab, CAS
Professor Scott Hartley, wearing protective glasses, talks with students in the lab, CAS

Overview

This annual award recognizes outstanding contributions, commitments, and efforts that academic and academic support programs have made to their improvement through full-cycle assessment.

The selected program will receive $1,000 to be used to advance its work on assessment, teaching and learning.

Programs may self-nominate for this award by sending an email to the Senior Associate Provost, Carolyn Haynes, haynesca@miamioh.edu, or the Provost Office, provost@miamioh.edu by December 8, 2023. Members of the University Assessment Fellows Committee may nominate programs also. The primary documents used for review are the annual assessment reports submitted for the previous three years.

For self-nominations, departments may submit a one-page memo that explains how the departmental assessment activity meets the selection criteria.

The University Assessment Fellows Committee reviews these documents and then selects and notifies the winner by the end of February. Award winners are recognized at the annual awards recognition event held in March.

Selection Criteria

  • Clear articulation of assessed learning or other outcomes

  • Clear alignment between outcomes and selected assessment measures

  • Use of multiple measures (direct, indirect)

  • Presentation of collected evidence

  • Involvement of key stakeholders (faculty, staff) in the assessment process

  • Use of assessment results for meaningful educational improvement

  • Educational improvement strategies tracked over time

Examples of activities that can be supported by the award funds include but are not limited to:

  • Assessment retreat

  • Faculty meetings or workshops on teaching and learning

  • Assessment consultant

  • Travel to assessment-related conference

  • Professional development funds for faculty member leading program-level assessment planning

  • Student employment for assessment assistance

  • Software to support assessment processes

  • Books or other resources on assessment

  • Incentives for students to engage in assessment processes (focus groups, surveys)

Past Winners

2021

  • Department of Global & Intercultural Studies (BA, American Studies; BA, Latin American, Latino/a, and Caribbean Studies)

  • Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering (MS, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering)

  • Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences (BA, Psychological Science)

2020

  • Department of Art (Art Education)

  • Department of Microbiology (Undergraduate education)

  • Department of Family Science and Social Work (M.A. Social Work)

2019

  • Project Dragonfly (Department of Biology)

  • Department of Political Science

  • Department of Engineering Technology

2018

  • Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering