Assessment projects and partnerships
St. Olaf is currently engaged in a variety of assessment initiatives, some in partnership with other liberal arts institutions and some internal to the College. Many of these initiatives involve the development and/or administration of specific assessment instruments, and most engage faculty and staff in a wide variety of academic and administrative units.
Collaborative Assessment for Liberal Learning (CALL)
An inter-institutional project with Carleton, Macalester, and Grinnell, funded by a three-year grant from the Teagle Foundation, the CALL initiative focuses on four key learning outcomes: critical thinking; effective writing; quantitative reasoning; and global understanding. Assessment instruments that have been piloted at St. Olaf under the auspices of the CALL project include the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) and the Collegiate Learning Assessment Survey of Student Engagement (CLASSE).
First Year Information Literacy in the Liberal Arts Assessment (FYILLAA)
A twenty-institution partnership led by Carleton College, St. Olaf College, and Grinnell College, FYILLAA focuses on the assessment of students' knowledge, experiences, and attitudes with respect to academic research. The assessment instrument developed and piloted under the auspices of the FYILLAA project is the Research Practices Survey. Funding and technical support for the project are provided by the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education (NITLE).
National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) project
A nationwide project that examines how undergraduates spend their time in college and the extent to which they engage in behaviors associated with the desired outcomes of a college education. More than 970 colleges and universities have participated in NSSE since 2000; St. Olaf participated in 2001, 2003, and 2005, and the next administration is planned for 2008. St. Olaf’s results can be compared to results for all participating institutions nationwide and for all participating baccalaureate/liberal arts institutions.
Existing Questionnaire Inventory Project (EQUIP)
EQUIP is a collaboration between faculty, staff and students in the Offices of Evaluation and Assessment and Institutional Research, in partnership with the Center for Innovation in the Liberal Arts and with support from the Bush Foundation. The project seeks to provide ready access to data about student learning available in regional and national surveys the College regularly administers, such as the Higher Education Research Institute’s College Student Survey (CSS) and the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). The questionnaire items and accompanying results from the most recent administrations of each survey are organized into a searchable Student Learning Item Catalog (SLIC). Items can be adapted for use in classroom-based assessment, program reviews, grant evaluations, and other inquiry projects.
Intentional General Education Initiative (IGEI)
This initiative promotes the use of General Education learning outcomes to strengthen and sustain student learning in General Education courses. Small groups of faculty in different departments, teaching courses that meet the same GE requirement, work together to integrate learning outcomes explicitly into communications with students, course assignments and activities, and the evaluation of student work.
