The Data & Analytics Assessment group provides leadership and centralized support to CU Boulder in the assessment of student learning and program effectiveness. Through collaboration with campus partners, we facilitate best practices that lead to data-informed decision making to promote student success at CU Boulder.

  • Assessment is the systematic and routine gathering of evidence that provides essential information for continuous improvement.
  • Assessment at CU Boulder is a broad-based activity that occurs at a number of levels across the university in both the curricular and co-curricular environments. Assessments are carried out at the course, program/unit, and institutional level using a variety of data collection methods. The common element to these assessment activities is that the findings from the data collection help inform change to improve student success at CU Boulder.
  • When applied to student learning, the assessment process measures the degree to which students are achieving the intended learning outcomes for a program. This allows programs to focus efforts on improving specific areas of the curriculum, thus continually enhancing the quality of the academic program.

  • Assessment identifies and supports the need for change. Assessment results provide evidence to support implementing programmatic changes and can determine the degree to which the change was successful.
  • Curricular and co-curricular program assessment focuses on what and how a program is contributing to students’ learning and development.
  • There are three fundamental purposes for learning outcomes assessment:
  1. Giving students the best possible education.
  2. Responsible stewardship of financial resources.
  3. Demonstrating accountability by sharing successes and efforts for evidence-based improvement.

The assessment team works in collaboration with partners from across CU Boulder to support the Academic Review & Planning (ARP) process, student learning assessment, program effectiveness assessment, and other ad hoc assessment projects.

We offer the following support to campus partners:

  • Meet one-on-one to discuss assessment needs at the program level
  • Assist programs in developing a formal assessment plan and provide guidance and feedback throughout the assessment process
  • Consult on existing assessment proposals and projects
  • Identify existing resources and data that may be leveraged for future assessment projects
  • Support the collection and analyses of data for programmatic decision making
  • Develop and lead assessment workshops for programs and departments
  • Track program-level assessment efforts to provide evidence of student learning and program effectiveness for accreditation purposes