Assessment Program
Through its Assessment Program, the Institutional Research department collaborates, guides, and provides resources for intentional assessment practices to encourage a college-wide culture of evidence. Programs are defined as academic, administrative, service program, department or operational units.
The primary goal is to use data to strengthen the quality of all Aims programs, services, operations, and processes, ultimately enhancing student learning, development and success through curricular, co-curricular and operational assessments.
Facilitate, develop, articulate, and review program identity, which includes mission statements, primary functions and vision.
Assist in process development, including alignment and mapping to the institutional mission, accreditation criteria and strategic plan.
Provide consultation on selection and development of quality program measures and data collection procedures in collaboration with Institutional Research.
Collaborate with programs to analyze data and provide recommendations for decision-making and assist in tracking and documenting program changes to ensure continuous improvement.
Educate employees and students regarding guidelines for ethical research methodology and responsible use of data.
Through assessment, the Institutional Research department helps improve the student experience, course experience, program experience and the Aims Community College experience.
Accomplished by finding if the student is improving, if the student is achieving learning outcomes and is learning as expected, how the student is engaging with instruction and finding the student’s strengths and weaknesses.
Accomplished by finding if the student's work has improved across courses, how well the student achieved in general learning, if the student is learning as expected across courses, if there is institutional engagement with the student and finding the student’s strengths and weaknesses across courses.
Accomplished by finding if the course is appropriately targeted, assignments are at the expected level, the course is consistent, on what level the course achieves its outcomes and how the course is fulfilling within a program.
Accomplished by finding if the program is needed, designed appropriately, formative, summative and efficient.
Accomplished by finding how much our students have learned and if we are meeting our institutional goals and outcomes and are fulfilling our educational mission.
Towards the end of each semester students can provide feedback about their course experiences. Student feedback is one of the most powerful tools to improve the student experience at Aims Community College and every voice counts. The evaluation is anonymous. After final grades are posted, faculty receive feedback summaries of the reports without any individually identifiable information.
Completing Evaluations
- Each student will receive emails near the end of the semester with a link to EvaluationKIT, the third-party platform used to administer evaluations and collect evaluation data.
- Evaluations can be completed outside of class by accessing the emailed link or via your D2L course shell.
- Upon logging into EvaluationKit as a student, the page will show all of your course evaluations for the semester. This will include the dates that they are open, and whether or not they have been submitted yet.
- Clicking on the hyperlinked title of each course will open the individual course evaluation.
- Once you have completed your evaluation click “Submit” to finish.
- For Full-Term Courses, Evaluations will be available starting 14 days before the end of the course, and will remain open until 3 days after the end of the course.
- Courses that are shorter than the normal 17 day window will have an altered schedule dependent on the length of the course; however, students will still receive access to the survey via email and will be able to access their evaluations through their D2L course shell.
- Students will receive a confirmation email or certificate once they complete the evaluation for each course.
Questions?
Read the FAQ document or contact the Institutional Research and Assessment office at courseeval@aims.edu.
- Instructors will be able to access their reports in EvaluationKit through D2L by clicking link under “My Surveys” on the Homepage.
- During the evaluation period, course instructors will be able to access a response rate tracker. This tracker will show the number of responses they have received across all of their courses, and a response rate percentage.
- Instructors will be able to click the link in the response for a breakdown of the number of response and percentage response rate for each course.
- This will only show the response rates, not any results.
- The response rate tracker will remain open until the day grades are due.
- Instructors will receive an email with a link to their EvaluationKIT results 5 days after the grade deadline.
Questions?
Visit the FAQs Page, or contact the Institutional Research and Assessment office at courseeval@aims.edu.
Students should be able to demonstrate a high level of written communication skills as necessary for their future professions through the development and expression of ideas in writing. Students with strong written communication skills will include in their writing a clear main idea or theme, include appropriate content and context, organize their materials to suit the purpose of the document, and use appropriate conventions.
Good problem solvers apply thinking skills to evaluate real-world examples in terms of course content and knowledge. Students with strong problem-solving skills will interpret the problem, develop a strategy to solve the problem, apply appropriate strategies and procedures, and arrive at a workable solution.
Students should be able to demonstrate a high level of oral communication skills as necessary for their future professions through prepared, purposeful presentations designed to increase knowledge, to foster understanding, or to promote change in the listeners' attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors. A good oral presentation includes a central message with supporting materials, is organized, clearly delivered, and may involve interaction with the audience.
Students who can think critically apply thinking skills and are able to evaluate real-world examples in terms of course content and knowledge. Examples of critical thinking include identifying and exploring issues, recognizing your audience and addressing them accordingly, framing personal references, and acknowledging other perspectives.
Students who are professional strive for excellence in their performance of required roles in their future professions. Professionals demonstrate accountability and ethical behavior, maintain a professional attitude, and conduct themselves in an appropriate and professional manner.
Academic Assessment Help
Data from reports and surveys that pertain to program-level analysis, such as program-level enrollment, retention and completion information.
Program Review is just one assessment tool used by programs as a way to set goals and measure progress towards these goals.
Program Review includes course completion and success rates, as well as the credit hours generated by courses attributed to the program. For programs with associated majors, it includes information about degrees and certificates awarded, number of students declared in associated degrees and certificates, retention rates and the contribution to total credit hours produced by Aims students declared in associated degrees and certificates.
For career and technical programs, the information from the most recently available VE-135 is also included. The report contains all of the program review data beginning in 2005 and will be updated with new information each academic year.
The report of student retention behavior for four subsequent academic years for all students enrolled in the initial fall term and declared in a degree or certificate program.
This includes all enrolled degree and certificate-seeking students regardless of progress toward award completion or prior academic experience. Students are grouped by their demographics, such as gender, race and ethnicity. Additional groupings include students’ Pell eligibility, full-time/part-time status, first-generation status, declared program department and remedial needs statuses as of the initial fall term.
Learning does not always happen in the classroom and co-curricular activities and experiences contribute to the entire Aims student experience. To understand the contribution to the overall student experience, Institutional Research assesses areas outside of the classroom.
Co-curricular assessment is comprised of five levels:
- Level 1 - Institution
- Level 2 - Division
- Level 3 - Department
- Level 4 - Program
- Level 5 - Events
The Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) is a tool developed by the University of Texas at Austin that asks about institutional practices and student behaviors that are highly correlated with student learning and retention.
CCSSE Privacy Statement
By identifying strengths and opportunities through comprehensive object review processes, Operational Assessment supports development and results in continuous improvement of services, processes, and performance.
Related Resources
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Westview - Room 102
Greeley, CO 80634