Western Kentucky University 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.

Like WKU's strong strategic planning process, which has greatly improved the university's focus and effectiveness, we anticipate that a visible emphasis on engaging students for success in a global society will enhance the education we offer and provide a distinguishing student learning feature to the WKU experience. Unlike strategic planning, which must concern itself with the whole range of university services and activities, this QEP zeros in on student learning by explicitly tying academic experiences to co-curricular activities and concepts. We hope to encourage students to see their education as directly tied to their own lives beyond the time they spend in the classroom and to their continuing responsibilities as citizens of a broader community. Although our ultimate plan is to encourage individual programs, faculty, and students to pursue engagement in their own ways, we expect designated initiatives to advance our QEP student learning goal by promoting one or more positive outcomes.

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 pilot project to better understand and compare what students learn between their freshman and senior years at different colleges and universities.

This university is in the process of collecting and analyzing learning outcomes test results.