Assessment Resources

Hope College Assessment Updates

• September 2024 Assessment Update
• March 2024 Assessment Update
• January 2024 Assessment Update
• February 2023 Assessment Update

Hope College Assessment Calendar

July 1	Academic departments submit to their divisional dean’s office the artifacts collected in the previous academic year for the assessment of Anchor Plan Outcomes 1 and 4.
September 15	Academic departments provide Frost Center with the names and emails of seniors who need to complete the Critical Thinking Assessment during the Fall Semester.
October 1	Assessment reports are due from curricular and cocurricular programs for each program outcome that was assessed in the previous academic year.
December 1	Assessment reports are due from the General Education Council for each Anchor Plan Learning Outcome that was assessed in the previous academic year.
December 1	Assessment reports are due from the Assessment Committee for each Common Learning Outcome that was assessed in the previous academic year.
February 1	Academic departments provide Frost Center with the names and emails of seniors who need to complete the Critical Thinking Assessment during the Spring Semester.

Hope College Assessment Portal

The Assessment Portal is a tool to gather and share Hope College assessment results and improvements made.  Assessment reports are entered annually (no later than October 1) on assessment of program, general education, cocurricular, and common learning outcomes from the previous academic year.  

Submit or review assessment reports

• View or download step-by-step instructions.
• See these examples of curricular and cocurricular assessment reports.

National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment

NILOA curates an expansive set of resources for assessment of student learning in higher education, including sets of key resources for specific stakeholder groups and their assessment foci.

Good places for you to begin learning about assessment of student learning are: 

• New to Assessment
  Open-access resources for those just beginning their journey into assessment of student learning
• What Faculty Need to Know about Assessment
  NILOA Assessment Brief, Pat Hutchings, January 2019

AAC&U VALUE Rubrics

AAC&U VALUE  (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education) rubrics for direct assessment of student work are available for the following categories of learning outcomes.

Hope is an AAC&U member institution and you can click on any of the links below to create an account and download VALUE rubrics at no cost.

If you use one of these assessment tools, please review AAC&U’s citation and use policy.

Intellectual and Practical Skills

• Inquiry and analysis
• Critical thinking
• Creative thinking
• Written communication
• Oral communication
• Reading
• Quantitative literacy
• Information literacy
• Teamwork
• Problem solving

 Personal and Social Responsibility

• Civic engagement—local and global
• Intercultural knowledge and competence
• Ethical reasoning
• Foundations and skills for lifelong learning
• Global learning

 Integrative and Applied Learning

• Integrative learning

Reprinted with permission from "VALUE: Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education." Copyright 2018 by the Association of American Colleges and Universities https://www.aacu.org/value.

Writing Student Learning Outcomes

Assessment begins with student learning outcomes, followed by the collection, review and use of information about those outcomes to improve student learning.  

At Hope College we have student learning outcomes for courses, academic programs, cocurricular programs, general education (Anchor Plan) and common learning outcomes.  

Hope’s Guide to Writing Student Learning Outcomes is a tool to develop outcomes that support student learning, can be measured, and inform continuous improvement. Bloom’s Taxonomy Resources from Utica College and Writing Student Learning Outcomes from Texas A&M are additional resources to support the development of student learning outcomes.