Co-Curricular Assessment

All co-curricular units report assessment plans and findings on an annual basis. Annual Assessment begins with a 1:1 consultation at the beginning of the annual assessment cycle, and ends with a report of the annual assessment in the summer semester of the subsequent year.

The Annual Assessment cycle ensures that unit’s goals and outcomes systematically impact co-curricular programs and services. Unit goals and outcomes are strategically linked to programs and services, and this is further aligned to divisional and institutional goals and missions. Program initiatives and student development outcomes are continuously measured through a cyclical assessment process.

Each outcome follows the same steps along a cyclical assessment path:

Write new or revised goals/outcomes
Plan the design, approach, method(s), tool(s), and success measure to be used for assessing the outcome
Deliver the program, service, or activity tied to the outcome
Collect the assessment data
Analyze the assessment data
Report and strategize on the findings

Goals and Outcomes
The alignment of the annual assessment plan to the divisional Strategic Plan provides the framework for writing and revising goals and outcomes at the unit-level. The link below discusses how to write goals and outcomes.
Annual Assessment Planning Worksheets

Student Learning Outcomes
Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) use specific action verbs that describe what students will know or be able to do after participating in a program or service. SLOs assess the impact of a program, service, or intervention on participants’ learning and focus on what students will take away or learn from the program or service. They should support the mission of the unit, be derived from the unit goals, and be measurable.

The Annual Assessment process consists of interconnected components, each with specific expectations for planning, updating, reviewing, and/or reporting along the assessment cycle:

Annual Assessment Plan
Annual Closeout
Annual Report

A timeline of what units can expect over the course of the year is presented:

[Co-Curricular Units]
	Reporting Period	Reporting Deadline
Quarter 1	July 1 – September 30	October 15
Quarter 2	October 1 – December 30	January 15
Quarter 3	January 1 – March 31	April 15
Quarter 4	April 1 – June 30	July 15

All co-curricular units must enter their end of year findings into the assessment planning and reporting platform by July 15, 2023.

Co-curricular programs are required to identify at least one student learning outcome, and map those outcomes to their curriculum through the divisional Strategic Plan and Student Learning Outcomes documents. Programs will assess outcomes and report on the assessment in the assessment planning and reporting platform.

All co-curricular units must enter the unit’s mission statement, goals, outcomes, methods and measures, results and analysis, and improvement plans into the assessment reporting platform as shown in the template below.
UnitName_FY23 Annual Assessment Planning Template

For more information on co-curricular unit assessment planning, please refer to the resource below.

TBD (Spring 2023) is Mason’s assessment planning and reporting software tool. All units will enter their annual assessment data in this system. TBD is a robust, interactive tool that can be used for tracking progress toward goals, and reporting for accreditation. For user information, please refer to TBD.