EIU has long had an established tradition of program level assessment including annual reporting since at-least the mid-2000's. In 2019, the University began a campus-wide process focused on identifying strategies that would make the assessment of student learning more meaningful and impactful-and in the process advance the goal of continuous improvement. To review and refresh the process, a Taskforce, comprised of administration and faculty stakeholders from across the University, was appointed to review existing policies, practices, and timelines, as well as review the compliance regimes of peer institutions. The Taskforce issued a report and recommend a process that more fully engaged the academic deans as the former process was centralized and excluded and college-level review. Additionally, the updated 2019 process recognized the unique nature of accredited programs, required faculty to more explicitly document efforts to close the assessment loop, and created a biennial process that includes a more formal review by the Office of Academic Affairs in Year 4. The initial policy change focused on undergraduate programs only. In 2020, the Council for Graduate Students also revised their practices and adopted a biennial process.
To learn more about the policy and process, please review the summary.