Essential Learning Outcomes

How do faculty know how to do this assessment?

Training workshops are held each Fall to familiarize faculty members with the rubrics.

Who works on the Essential Learning Outcome (ELO) Assessment?

There are typically two faculty members that work on this assessment. We refer to these faculty members as "coders". Ideally, the assessment should be conducted by a faculty member that is not the instructor of the course being assessed. (Exceptions may be made in programs with fewer full-time faculty.)

When should each Essential Learning Outcome be assessed?

Typically, programs assess seniors for written communication and critical thinking one year and oral communication and teamwork/collaboration is assessed in another year.

How large should the sample size be for this assessment?

If faculty are in doubt about how many student samples to collect, the University recommends the following:

• Faculty collect all key assignment samples for programs with 10 or fewer seniors. 
• Faculty collect key assignments for 10 students for programs with 10 to 40 seniors. 
• Faculty collect key assignments for 25% of the seniors for programs with over 40 seniors.

Do faculty share student information?

The assessment should be de-identified, meaning, any student identifiers should be removed.

What rubric is used for this type of assessment?

All ELOs and student products are assessed using the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) VALUE rubrics.

Are there specific forms to be used for this assessment?

Yes. Faculty must fill out the following forms: 

• There is a 1-page pre-survey (PDF document) where faculty identify the assessment and share details about which course and assignment will be assessed. Please submit the pre-survey by October 1st. 
• There is a designated scoring sheet (Excel document) where faculty break down the scores from their assessment by student and rubric criteria. 
• There is a 1-page Closing the Loop (PDF document) survey where faculty reflect on what the results of the assessment mean and what action steps they will take in response to the data. 
  • If you are collecting data in the Fall, we recommend submitting the Scoring Form and the Closing the Loop form by January 30th. All assessment needs to be finalized and submitted fully by May 15th. 
  • If you are collecting data in the Spring, please submit the Scoring Form and the Closing the Loop form by May 15th. 

At the end of the academic year, faculty must upload these three forms to Planning & Self Study (P&SS). To access the most up to date forms, please refer to the Assessment at the University of Hartford OneDrive link here (UHart login required).

Are ELOs assessed at any other level?

Written Communication is the one Essential Learning Outcome that is also assessed at the First-Year level (in addition to the senior level). The university conducts periodic assessment of randomly selected and de-identified First-Year Writing papers from WRT 110W Academic Writing I both in the fall and spring semesters, in order to evaluate incoming students’ academic writing and to establish a baseline. Using experienced writing coders, the university periodically assesses first-year writing with the AAC&U Written Communication rubric by sampling 25% of the students in WRT 110W.

The Pre-Survey Document asks for our program to create a target. What is this question asking?

This question is asking programs to set a goal for themselves, in terms of the scores that faculty are hoping students will achieve. The faculty can choose whatever benchmark they feel is appropriate for seniors at the bachelor's degree level, for the program's discipline. If the program needs ideas for a target, the University of Hartford recommends a score of three. An example target could be "80% of students will score at least an average of 3 Milestone on the AAC&U rubric."