Assessment Home
Assess.psu.edu serves faculty, staff and administrators across Penn State who are dedicated to providing the best education possible to students by regularly collecting, interpreting and using evidence of student learning to improve educational outcomes.
Although the recent activity around academic assessment has been, in part, sparked by a 2005 Middle States reaccreditation review, we expect that assessment will continue to be “how we do business” here, as suggested by Dr. Susan Speece, Chancellor, Penn State Berks. Assessment works best when it is an ongoing part of academic life at the University. The goal of this website is to support efforts to integrate assessment into all academic programs on an ongoing basis.
Within these pages, you will find a description of Penn State’s recent assessment efforts, examples of program goals from various Penn State academic degree programs, and an Assessment Showcase of direct experiences from your Penn State colleagues describing the assessment processes they are using, how they are improving the processes and how assessment results are being used to improve student learning.
Penn State has divided assessment into five spheres, which include institutional, general education, co-curricular, program and course assessment. This site includes descriptions of each sphere as well as detailed descriptions of the program assessment process in which most faculty and administrators will be most directly involved.
You’ll also find answers to frequently asked questions that you might have about assessment. If you don’t find what you’re looking for, you can ask specific questions from any page on the site. Check out our events page for upcoming assessment events at various locations, both within and outside of Penn State.
For additional information, please access the resources page, which includes a list of publications and websites, as well as downloadable worksheets and templates.