Page Description

The following page is a two column layout. Page sections are identified with headers. The footer contains update and contact information.

Learn More

  • Students

    Find out more about the characteristics of students who attend VT.

  • Admissions

    See how many students applied, accepted, and enrolled at VT. Learn more about students’ high school preparation and test scores.

  • College Costs & Financial Aid

    Learn about costs to attend VT and how much financial aid is typically awarded.

  • College Cost Estimator

    Estimate your cost to attend VT in a few simple steps.

  • Classes and Campus Life

    Learn more about professors, where students live, and campus safety at VT.

  • Student Experiences

    Discover ways to be actively involved in your education at VT – inside and outside the classroom.

  • Majors, Graduation and Next Steps

    See which majors are most popular at VT and what recent graduates plan to do after earning their bachelor's degree.

  • Student Success & Progress

    Discover how many students who start at VT finish their bachelor's degree and how long it takes.

  • Student Learning Outcomes

    Figure out what learning gains to expect in critical thinking, writing, and other important subjects at VT.

Student Learning at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

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.

 All degree programs have developed assessment processes to improve student learning.  These continuous improvement processes consist of identifying student learning outcomes, identifying/developing measures of those outcomes, measuring the outcomes, using the results to identify areas of change, making appropriate changes, and continuing the process by measuring student learning again.  The process has developed differently for different programs.  For example, the majority of programs have collected data to measure their outcomes and to inform change.  Other programs have used the process initially to make explicit changes in focus and direction and have spent more time re-writing outcomes, developing measurement instruments, and, in several cases, rewriting curriculum to map on to those more explicitly developed outcomes.

In addition to assessment in degree programs, the University also evaluates student learning in six core areas of competency as specified by the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV).  These areas include Written Communication, Oral Communication, Quantitative Reasoning, Critical Thinking, and Information Technology Literacy.

As a result of this work, many stories have emerged which provide evidence of how assessment looks at Virginia Tech and how the ultimate goal of improving teaching and learning is accomplished.  A small sampling of these stories is presented in our publication, Assessment in Action.

Learning Assessment Examples

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Pilot Project to Measure Core Learning Outcomes

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.

Virginia Tech's Office of Academic Assessment is currently evaluating the VSA-approved learning outcomes instruments for use at the university.

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