Academic Assessment
At Cal Poly, assessment is an essential feature in the university's commitment to excellence through continuous improvement. It is the main avenue by which we evaluate our students' achievement of learning objectives. Together with Academic Programs and Planning staff, specifically under the leadership of the Faculty Director of Program Improvement, we develop and organize a comprehensive assessment plan each year that supports university, college, and department assessment projects.
As part of our Learn by Doing philosophy, we recognize that students show their mastery of a skill in various ways. We feel that is is essential to capture authentic, high-impact work that students complete in the classroom: speeches, portfolios, research-based reports, and group projects, to name a few. We collect these artifacts and evaluate them through a rubric-based assessment of various core competencies. In lower-division assessments, we work closely with the General Education program; at the upper-division level, we tend to focus on work students complete within their majors, such as their senior project.
Additionally, we rely on external assessments that compare our students' work with university students across the nation. Whenever possible, we triangulate the results of our internal, rubric-based assessments against these nationwide evaluations to have a more holistic appreciation of our students' learning. The Academic Assessment Council (AAC) — which is comprised of administrators, faculty, staff, and students — regularly meets to evaluate the results of our assessments, especially at the university level, and to develop a plan for improvement.
Assessment of student learning will not be effective or meaningful without the participation of our faculty, and we view assessment as a key way to promote and enhance faculty professional development. Whether faculty are participating in one of our core competency assessments or in one of our assessment-related workshops, the university faculty are essential to our assessment efforts.
For additional information, please refer to the Assessment SharePoint page, and for questions, please email Jolene Girten, Program Improvement Coordinator.
Last updated: 4/24/2025