Assessment Overview

There are two kinds of student learning assessment at the University of North Carolina, Asheville.

Program Assessment

UNCA follows a three year cohort model.  – A listing of programs by year can be found here.

  • In year one, the program finalizes its assessment plan and begins to collect data.
  • In year two, the program continues data collection, adjusting the plan (i.e. assessment methods, objectives) as needed.
  • In the former part of year three, the program finalizes data collection. The latter part of the third year, the program spends deliberate attention considering the programmatic strengths and weaknesses of student learning based on the data that has been collected, makes changes (if applicable) based on that data and reflection, and uses the data to develop the next iteration of the program’s plan. Programs must answer the following questions based on three years of data collection:
    • (1) What do the data mean (a) in terms of data collection & the assessment process and (b) in terms of student learning in the program?
    • (2) What questions does the program have about student learning that are not addressed by the data collected?
    • (3) What does the program plan to do differently based on this data?

Liberal Arts Core Assessment

The Liberal Arts Core assessment plan assesses student learning across the LAC program rather than within any one particular course or individual unit on campus.