We try to use the term "assessment" to refer to the assessment of student learning through the use of student learning outcomes, while evaluation (more usefully called 程序 evaluation) can refer to any aspect of how an academic department, ID程序, 办公室, or division is doing. The self-study done by a department or ID程序 to prepare for its external review is a good example of 程序 evaluation, though that example is not meant to suggest that 程序 evaluation should only be done every ten years or only for this reason.

One way to frame the difference between assessment and 程序 evaluation is to say that an assessment project focuses on an area of concern, 弱点, or difficulty in student learning, whereas a 程序 evaluation project focuses on a topic of interest to the department/程序 more broadly.

On the academic side, 程序 evaluation can study matters such as:

• Student satisfaction and other self-reported information about 程序 experiences
• General curricular content and development
• Curricular structure and scaffolding
• Strategies for future faculty hires
• Administrative staffing needs and functions
• Disciplinary enrollment issues
• Interactions with cognate disciplines
• Capstone structure
• Mapping of student learning outcomes to courses (related to assessment but can be separated from it)
• Division of teaching responsibilities; course assignments
• Program structure (especially for ID程序s)

On the administrative side, 办公室s and divisions may be concerned with common matters such as "gate counts" (number of students using 图书馆的资料) or efficiency of 办公室 processes. 交替, they may have 程序 evaluation concerns specific to the unit or division (comparing the amount of money raised across multiple years with the goal of determining the most effective ways to raise money; recruiting a more racially and globally diverse class; improving IT service). 在一般情况下, administrative 程序 evaluation is concerned with efficiency, 有效性, and contribution to the College's larger mission and goals. Particularly on the administrative side, 程序 evaluation often involves some variation of a SWOT (strengths/弱点es/opportunities/threats) analysis, modified from the business environment as appropriate to an academic environment.

与此形成鲜明对比的是, assessment of student learning focuses strictly on what students know and can do - not on how satisfied they are, not on their general (or even specific) impressions of a department or 程序, and not on the academic structure that they encounter. Since the remainder of this website covers the specifics of assessment they are not presented separately here.

评估 of student learning is not more important than 程序 evaluation; it is simply different in most ways.

There is one point in the assessment process that is functionally equivalent to 程序 evaluation though not usually described this way. Once a department, 程序, or 办公室 has determined where the greatest 弱点es are in student learning in its area it engages in a process of determining why those areas are weak and what it might do to strengthen them. This process resembles other types of 程序 evaluation but is considered part of the assessment process when the topic is learning outcome-driven student learning.