At the heart of Seattle University's assessment of student learning is the work of Barbara Walvoord. The defining feature of Walvoord's approach to
assessment is her emphasis on the course-embedded assignment and on the professional expertise of the individual professor, whose experience in grading student work is the foundational assessment act. What Walvoord asks is that professors become more intentional, reflective, and articulate in naming their criteria for evaluating student performance on a particular assignment. She asks professors to develop rubrics that specify levels of performance across various criteria, to use the rubrics to score student work, and then to analyze the distribution of scores to discover patterns of strengths and weaknesses in student performance. When these patterns are reported at a department meeting, the ensuing faculty discussion often leads to suggested improvements in teaching methods, assignments, course design, or curricular coverage to ameliorate weaknesses. A department's assessment plan in any given year can be based upon an assignment already embedded within departmental courses and can use as data the professor's grading of the assignments using a rubric. The assessment instrument can be any observable product or performance that can be graded.
Now that this path to assessment has permeated the entire campus, Seattle University has created a university-wide plan for studying student learning. This plan integrates and
builds on plans from each school/college/department. The information provided is the basis for connecting the university's mission, strategic plan, and future budgeting. In addition, it provides data about the university's student learning outcomes and how they are being addressed across the campus. Annual assessment plans provide faculty with the evidence and information required in periodic Program Reviews and regional accreditation self-studies.
