The purpose of the Handbooks is to assist faculty and staff in strengthening systematic, authentic, and evidence-based planning and evaluation processes focused on enhancing institutional quality. The Handbooks provide guidelines for academic degree/certificate programs, administrative, and academic/student support services units on how to best demonstrate Institutional Effectiveness (IE) using Program and Student Learning Outcomes.
Each Handbook offers an overview of what IE is, why we evaluate it, and how and when we should assess it. Additionally, they provide best practices and a roadmap for selecting and stating Outcomes, designing assessment approaches, setting goals/benchmarks, providing and analyzing results, and formulating improvement actions. The Handbooks are an excellent resource for in-depth descriptions and examples of Program Outcomes (POs) and Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) for different unit types.
- Educational Programs Handbook
- Administrative Support Units Handbook
- Academic/Student Support Services Units Handbook
As the IE Assessment Handbooks are intended to be 'living' documents, the Office of IPA will periodically update their content to reflect the most current policies and the best practices in the field of outcomes assessment. Please contact us at ipa@fsu.edu with your questions and any suggestions on how to improve the Handbooks. In addition, you may also schedule a 1-hour working meeting with IPA staff to discuss, design, and complete any or all required IE Assessment components. Below are some additional, publicly available IE assessment handbooks from our peer higher education institutions:
- University of Central Florida has an excellent assessment handbook for administrative and academic/student support services units and another assessment handbook for educational programs;
- Kansas State University provides an assessment toolkit with multiple guides and examples for key steps in assessment of student learning outcomes.