Assessment of student learning outcomes in a university setting: The case of the University of Texas at Dallas.

摘要

All institutions of higher learning in America must have national accreditation in order to receive government funding. One of the main requirements from the national accreditation commissions is that the institution must have a process for assessing student learning outcomes (SLO). The reason for the new requirement is that the federal government has demanded that higher education institutions show their accountability in terms of their demonstrated accomplishments in student learning. This study used the University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) as a case study to achieve two purposes: to learn whether or not the institution had a process of assessment of SLO and to learn the outcomes of the process.;Using both quantitative and qualitative methodology, the study examined the assessment process using two dependent variables: SLO derived from syllabus data and the Faculty Annual Report (FAR) from 2006 to 2008. The respondents were full-time faculty who held tenure, tenure track, and senior lecturer rank. The researcher also created a faculty survey and did faculty interviews in order to provide additional context for the finding. The principal conclusions are: although rank variable is significant, there is no substantive relationships between rank and faculty support on assessment of SLO; nor is there a connection between faculty compliance on the assessment of SLO with school in which they reside; and university accreditation is an important venue for members of the faculty in supporting the effort. Finding also suggests that white as well as women are more in compliance in terms of acceptance of the assessment process. The contextual finding derived from faculty interviews suggest that leadership is a crucial factor in shaping faculty attitudes towards assessment. Moreover, the study suggests some potentially fruitful lines of future research.