Measuring Academic Success
The Office of Academic Assessment looks for opportunities within Belmont’s curricular and co-curricular structure to understand each program’s intentions for student impact.
With those intentions as a guide, we manage processes to facilitate the observation of student behavior to discern whether we are accomplishing what we set out to do.
In collaboration with dedicated faculty and staff we gather evidence of curricular change, student transformation, and process improvement.
Institutional Intentions
Belmont University's aspirational aim is fleshed out by three goals:
- Form diverse leaders of character
- Equip people to solve the world’s complex problems
- Radically champion people and communities so they can flourish
Academic Assessment establishes the ways that a student's curricular and co-curricular experiences support the university's stated aim. How do we know we are indeed forming diverse leaders of character – extraordinary students – who are equipped to solve the world’s complex problems and can champion the flourishing of people and communities?
University Learning Goals
The lens through which we measure academic progress
This involves disciplinary content and skill does that student develop. With that, have they engaged with the cross-disciplinary thinking that is built through the BELL Core (general education) experience.
It is through the pairing of these two, disciplinary content and cross-disciplinary thinking, that students can carry their life's work into a variety of settings and live a life of wellness and purpose.
Critical Thinking includes the the interwoven themes of logical reasoning, data literacy, and research.
Logical Reasoning
- Can students organize their thoughts?
- Can they make a point and support it to a conclusion?
- Do they have the skills and know how to access the resources to solve a problem they’ve never seen before?
Data Literacy
- Do students have foundational tools for understanding data?
- Do students know where to find the data they need?
- Will they engage with data rather than turn the page because they “won’t understand”?
Research and Information Literacy
- Do students understand the research process?
- Can they research effectively?
- Can they sort through sources of information identifying what is reliable?
Communication includes, but is so much more than, speaking and writing. In this digital world students have so many channels open to them.
But communication also includes those non-verbal skills essential to connecting and collaborating with others, like active listening, making eye contact, and the ability to read non-verbal cues.
Writing
- Do students write clearly?
- Do they convey their message effectively for their purpose?
- Can they effectively address different audiences?
Speaking
- Can students convey their message when speaking?
- Are they equipped with tools that will help them present more effectively?
Collaboration (non-verbal + verbal skills)
- Can students connect with others? Function as a team member?
- Do they actively listen?
- Can they read non-verbal cues?
This University Learning Goal includes career readiness themes as well as cultural literacy -- a student's ability to navigate differences of all kinds. Inherent with being prepared for a life's work and able to navigate a diverse world, we want student to also be world citizens in the sense that they have the sense of mission and the confidence to believe they can be agents of change.
Citizenship
- Do students sense their own power to be agents of change?
- Do they sense their own ethical responsibility in all situations?
Career Readiness
- Is there evidence they feel equipped to step into the next phase of their life plan?
- Do they sense connection to their intended work?
- Do they sense their own “north star,” what will be their definition of a life well lived?
Cultural Literacy
- Can students navigate differences skillfully?
- Do they value those different from themselves?
- Will they maintain curiosity and respect?