University of Kentucky College Portrait

All colleges and universities use multiple approaches to measure student learning. Many of these are specific to particular disciplines, many are coordinated with accrediting agencies, and many are based on outcomes after students have graduated.

UK is committed to assessing what students know and can do with the education they receive. Assessment of student learning outcomes occurs at multiple levels. Faculty assess student learning at both the course and program levels where techniques such as the use of rubrics to evaluate samples of student performance are employed. University level assessments obtain performance and satisfaction data from students to provide multiple perspectives on the quality of student learning and the environment for learning. As examples, results from the Collegiate Learning Assessment show that UK seniors perform better than expected on a series of performance tasks, given their incoming academic preparation; the Graduating Seniors Survey reveals that 9 of 10 students rate the quality of instruction by faculty as good or excellent; and over 75% of respondents to the Undergraduate Alumni Survey indicated their current position was either directly or somewhat related to their majors. Key findings from these and other surveys can be found at: http://www.uky.edu/IRPE/students/surveys.html.

Learning Assessment Examples

Colleges and universities participating in the College Portrait measure the typical improvement in students' abilities to think, reason, and write using one of three tests. This is part of a 4-year pilot project to better understand and compare what students learn between their freshman and senior years at different colleges and universities.

As the pilot project comes to a close, it is important to evaluate the effectiveness of the pilot project within the College Portrait and to disclose the results to the public. All VSA participating institutions are encouraged to report their results; UK hasn't yet completed their report on their pilot experiences. Please check back after January 11, 2013 to see their report! Institutions who have not posted SLO results from one of the three VSA approved value-added pilot measures by the end of September 2012 are required to report their results here.

At the University of Kentucky, a second longitudinal study as has been initiated with the fall 2011 freshman cohort.  Future administrations will occur in spring 2013 and spring 2015.    The fall 2011 cohort’s mean scores were higher than the overall mean scores of all schools that participated in the CLA last fall.  The mean for total CLA scores, task scores, and the standard deviations can be located on our website.