Assessment Cycle

Stage 1: Define

Each Program Committee defines its program learning outcomes based on the institutional learning outcomes, industry standards, and target student population. They use Bloom’s Taxonomy and work with the Accreditation and Assessment Department to ensure that the action verbs reflect higher-order learning.

Stage 2: Align

Program Committees work to create an assessment plan. They also create maps to align the program learning outcomes (PLO) with the institutional learning outcomes (ILOs), the PGBS mission, which is derived from the ILOs, and the core coursework in the program. The Accreditation and Assessment department provides the assessment plan and map templates. The Program Committee works within these templates to schedule assessments using the assessment plan and curriculum map guidelines.

Stage 3: Assess

For course-embedded direct measures, a subset of courses near the end of the program is selected to assess mastery. Faculty members are asked to complete their assessments in our assessment management system, Outcomes Assessment Projects (OAP), at the end of each term. 

The OIE Student Annual Survey is the most used indirect measure. Each spring, the survey is sent out to all students. The survey asks students to rate their experience in the following areas: factors that influenced decision to attend, program experiences and satisfaction, career and professional development, employment/internships, institutional affiliation, community, diversity, the Pepperdine mission, and their communication preference. The survey is not tied to any program learning outcomes. The results are compiled into an interactive Tableau graph for further review. 

Stage 4: Enhance (“Closing the Loop”)

The next stage of PGBS’s AoL framework is related to the enhancement of student learning, or “closing the loop.” Faculty Program Committees then review the results from both direct and indirect assessments during their annual assessment committee meeting. Each Program Committee writes an Annual Student Achievement Report (ASAR), and every five years a comprehensive Program Review report. Analysis and interpretation lead to the development of ideas to improve the learning experience for our students, or to improve the AoL process.