Self-Study Design - Howard University, Graduate School

5. If Howard needs to offer distance-learning courses, is it committing enough resources to
ensure success?
6. How can the University offer market-driven certificate programs and maintain quality?
Standard 14: Assessment of Student Learning
• Chair: Professor Veronica Thomas, Education
Scope of Work and Objectives.
This scope of work will assess whether Howard students are able to demonstrate upon
graduation, or at other appropriate points, the necessary acquisition of knowledge, skills, and
competencies consistent with institutional and appropriate higher education goals. The work
group will organize the study design around four expected institutional outcomes:
• Developing clearly articulated written statements, expressed in observable terms, of key
learning outcomes: the knowledge, skills, and competencies that students are expected to
exhibit upon successful completion of a course, academic program, co-curricular
program, general education requirements, or other specific set of experiences
• Providing opportunities for students to achieve articulated learning outcomes
• Assessing student achievement of key learning outcomes
• Using the results of assessment to improve teaching and learning and information
planning and resource allocation
Research Questions.
1. How do units articulate what students are expected to know and be able to do upon
completion of their academic program?
2. What written plans for assessing student learning exist at the course, program,
department, and school/college levels?
3. To what extent do course syllabi clearly articulate student learning outcomes in contrast
to teaching outcomes?
4. What strategies assess the alignment among the intended curriculum (for example, course
syllabi), taught curriculum, and tested curriculum?
5. What university-based processes ensure that academic units have identified studentlearning
outcomes (for example, knowledge, skills, and attitudes) for its graduates?
6. How is the curriculum designed to guide the students toward mastery of the expected
learning outcomes?
7. How do the condition of the facilities affect student learning? Faculty teaching?
8. What is the frequency of course offering (availability of required courses)?
9. To what extent is there consistency in course syllabi and expected learning outcomes
among selected courses (multiple section of the same course)?
10. How does the type of professor (teaching assistants vs. adjunct vs. full-time) affect
student learning and the students’ perception of their learning?
11. What services and experiences do units provide to facilitate student learning? How are
these promoted, communicated, perceived, and used?
12. How do faculty members actively support the extended learning goals of students?
13. What evidence supports the existence and sustainability of a University, school/college-,
and/or department-wide Student Outcomes Assessment Plan? How have assessment
plans been implemented?
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