Degree Program Assessment

Every degree program at APSU asks a simple but important question every year: Are our students learning what we say they'll learn?

That's what Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) assessment is all about. Each program identifies the key skills and knowledge students should walk away with, maps those outcomes to the courses where they're taught, and checks in each year to see how students are actually doing. It's less about paperwork and more about paying attention — noticing what's working, what's not, and making real adjustments along the way.

We call this "closing the loop," and it's the heart of the process. Programs don't just collect data and file it away. They reflect on it, ask what it means, and use it to make meaningful improvements — updating a course, refining an assignment, adjusting how a concept is taught. Assessment works best when it's not a once-a-year chore, but an honest, ongoing conversation about how to help students succeed.

How We Do It

All programs track and report their SLO assessment through Watermark Planning and Self-Study, our official assessment platform. Each year, programs:

Collect and submit results for their student learning outcomes
Write a short narrative reflecting on what those results tell them
Identify specific ways to strengthen student learning going forward

This process also supports program review and accreditation, but at its core, it's simply good practice — a chance for programs to pause, reflect, and keep getting better at what they do.

Each program identifies an Assessment Coordinator to take the lead on the assessment process, but it should be a program-wide priority.

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Assessment Coordinator Description/Requirements

Assessment Coordinators should be full-time faculty teaching in the program. The department chair can serve as the assessment coordinator if necessary. The same faculty member/chair can be an assessment coordinator for more than one degree program in their area.

Point of contact for IEA/Academic Affairs on all communications regarding assessment.
In collaboration with the chair, coordinate and communicate assessment processes and deadlines to course instructors responsible for assessment data submission or collection - including adjunct faculty.
Organize and submit required assessment documentation to IEA by deadlines, including collaborating and communicating with colleagues to do so and obtaining review and approval of the chair prior to submission.
In collaboration with the chair, document and lead a program process for assessment data collection, analysis of assessment results, and identification and implementation of improvements/actions based on assessment results.
In collaboration with the chair, identify and maintain appropriate platform(s) for storing, organizing, and sharing assessment plans, data, processes, and reports.
Attend an annual required training for assessment coordinators during the Faculty Conference and Annual Meeting.

Resources and Best Practices for Degree Program Assessment

Don’t put the cart before the horse – define your program-level outcomes first. These are defined in Watermark at the “Organization Management” screen. See below for help with creating program level student learning outcomes.
Ensure that all program courses are represented in the Watermark system. Note that APSU focuses primarily on courses within the program, rather than including general education courses.
Once your program level outcomes and courses are defined and correct, Watermark will automatically populate the curriculum map. Degree program Assessment Coordinators will then need to indicate in which courses those outcomes are Introduced (I), Reinforced (R), and Mastered (M).
Best Practices:
- Look for gaps – Make sure that every outcome is introduced, reinforced, and mastered in at least one course. Likewise, make sure that every course has an outcome either introduced, reinforced, and/or mastered as part of its curriculum.
- Build in redundancy when possible. Introduce, reinforce, and master outcomes in multiple courses and at multiple levels to provide flexibility in case of extenuating circumstances.
- Make sure that there are assessments tied to each outcome at multiple levels where possible, but especially at the Mastery level.
- Mastery should be based on the hierarchy of Bloom’s Taxonomy. For example, if the outcome skill is focused on remembering or understanding, that may be an outcome to reinforce in lower-level courses, whereas an outcome focused on analysis, evaluation, and creation would be for upper-level courses.

Start with the end in mind. What knowledge, skills, behaviors, experiences, etc. should graduates of your program demonstrate? What are employers in your industry looking for in recent graduates?
Each degree program should have between 4-8 program-level student learning outcomes. Note that this may vary based on program accreditation guidelines and requirements.
Outcomes are different from goals and objectives. They are broad statements that encompass student knowledge, skills, and behaviors that result from meeting goals and objectives throughout their journey in your program. Instead of “The student will be able to explain photosynthesis”, which may be a course-level objective, an outcome encompasses many objectives and goals that are woven through the program: “Students will apply foundational biological concepts to explain biological processes and phenomena” (outcome).
Use Bloom's Taxonomy for assistance in creating and refining outcomes.

Taxonomy Level	Examples of Outcome Verbs	Program SLO Example
Remember	list, name, identify, label, define, recall	Students will be able to identify the standard legal and ethical parameters governing clinical nursing practice.
Understand	describe, explain, summarize, interpret, associate	Students will be able to summarize the primary economic theories of market inflation.
Apply	calculate, solve, illustrate, predict, choose, experiment	Students will be able to apply statistical methods to analyze sample data sets.
Analyze	categorize, criticize, simplify, compare, contrast, debate, diagram	Students will be able to differentiate between correlative patterns and causal factors within large-scale, unstructured data sets.
Evaluate	relate, determine, defend, justify, support	Students will be able to defend the critical interpretations of literary texts using diverse historical, cultural, and theoretical frameworks.
Create	design, formulate, build, generate, compose, develop	Students will be able to produce a professional, multimedia investigative reporting portfolio suitable for public broadcast or publication.