About the Project

In 2021, the Institutional Assessment team at K proposed a project and was accepted to participate in the Higher Learning Commission’s Assessment Academy. The academy provides collaborative opportunities with other institutions and mentorship in completing a major project related to student learning assessment. The Assessment Academy is a four-year program that provides structured, mentor-facilitated opportunities and support aimed at advancing and accelerating assessment of student learning at K.

Institutional Learning Outcomes

K’s project focuses on assessment of our institutional learning outcomes developed a few years ago. Those outcomes are:

• Communicate effectively
• Address complex problems
• Collaborate successfully
• Demonstrate intercultural competency

Learn more about the Institutional Learning Outcomes

Goals of Assessment Academy

The goals of our assessment academy participation are to:

• Identify where students have opportunities to develop in each of these four areas and where there are gaps
• Refine existing and new methods for assessing student achievement of these outcomes
• Develop ways to use the information collected through assessment to tell our institutional story

Project Progress

We are currently in the “Pilot” phase of the project. We have drafted rubrics for each of the ILOs and are collecting feedback. Years three and four of the project will proceed with “Refining and Evaluating”, and “Expanding and Sustaining” this work on the Institutional Learning Outcomes. 

Current members of the academy team include: Rick Barth, Brian Dietz, Jessica Fowle, Danette Ifert Johnson, Lezlie Lull, Sally Read and Tara Webb.

Learn more about the academy team

Our students’ learning is the most important thing we do as a College and better understanding the full spectrum of ways our students can achieve our learning goals is crucial to preparing them for life after K.