Assessment is key to understanding and improving the College’s effectiveness in all areas. Institutional effectiveness is the process of gathering and analyzing data to make informed decisions that ensure ACC is meeting its intended outcomes. The Institutional Effectiveness Committee (formerly the Achieving Excellence Committee) and the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Accountability facilitate this process.

Regular, continuous program assessment is a key accreditation principle of the
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (Core Requirement 2.5 and Comprehensive
Standard 3.3.1.1). All members of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)
agree to comply with its guiding principles.

Assessment at ACC takes place at all levels of the institution. In the area of instruction,
Program-Level Student Learning Outcomes (PSLOs), General Education Student Learning
Outcomes (Gen Ed SLOs), Snapshot data, and Course-Level Student Learning Outcomes (CSLOs)
are assessed.

The assessment process aligns the Institution’s and the Program’s mission statements.
The steps of the assessment cycle include:

• identifying Program-Level Student Learning Outcomes, General Education Student
  Learning Outcomes, Snapshot data, and Course-Level Student Learning Outcomes;
  
  
• measuring these outcomes;
  
  
• analyzing the results of the measures;
  
  
• creating an action plan for improvement;
  
  
• implementing this action plan; and
  
  
• “closing the loop” by assessing and evaluating the results of the action plan.

Because of the complex organizational structure of ACC, the terms “department”, “discipline”
and “program” are often used interchangeably. For the sake of clarity, in this document:

• departments are administrative units that may include several disciplines
  (e.g., Behavioral and Social Sciences, Health Information Technology);
  
  
• disciplines are areas of study (e.g., Psychology, Health Information Technology); and
  
  
• programs are plans of coursework that lead to an Associate’s degree, Certificate,
  Field of Study (e.g., AA Psychology, AAS Health Information Technology, Certificate in
  Medical Coding, Criminal Justice Field of Study).

A glossary of thee and other terms is available at http://www.austincc.edu/gened/glossary.php

A timeline for the assessment cycle will be developed each year and is available below.

With regard to the assessment of student learning outcomes, results of the assessments will be examined in the aggregate form, so results from multiple sections will be combined.
These results will NOT be used in faculty evaluations. The purpose of gathering this information
is for institutional and departmental decision-making.

Discipline Assessment Cycle Components

Please forward DAC worksheets with completed sections to: rboyce@austincc.edu

This information can now be input directly into CurricUNET. Here's the link to CurricUNET: http://www.austincc.edu/curricunet/

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