Reporting Process

The focus of the Office of Educational Effectiveness is to collaborate with each academic program offered at Stony Brook University to coordinate, develop, and enhance their program assessment process. Programs will follow the SBU Academic Program Assessment Policy and Procedures linked below. 

SBU Academic Program Assessment Policy

SBU Academic Program Assessment Procedures

 

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Academic Program Assessment Requirements 

SBU academic degree programs will conduct an assessment of at least one Program Learning Objective (PLO) and provide a brief assessment report by September 30 annually.

To complete the assessment reporting requirements for the 2024-25 academic year, please submit your updated report by September 30, 2025. 

This year, coordinators will use our new OEE Content Management System (CMS) to complete the report. Access to the CMS will be provided to assessment coordinators by July 1, 2025. Programs can continue to track their progress using the existing assessment report template. Please make sure to address the following:

• Review and revise your assessment plan based on feedback from the Assessment Council (2023–2024 reports).

• Edit, add, or remove assessment components as needed—including updating any missing criteria for your PLOs.

• Assess at least one Program Learning Outcome (PLO). Be sure to include your results/findings and any actions/improvements taken.

• In addition, programs can now track additional program outcome data optionally to fully capture your 2023–2024 efforts. This could include data such as graduation, retention, career outcomes, etc. 

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Academic Program Assessment FAQs

• Do I need to assess all of my program learning objectives every year?

  No. You can assess as many PLOs annually as you would like, but SBU's flexible approach to assessment only requires that you assess one PLO per year. 

• Do I need to redo my entire assessment plan every year?

  No. You should have submitted a complete assessment plan in 2022, year 1 of SBU's 5-year assessment cycle.  The plan should have included a complete list of your program goals, program learning objectives, assessment location, assessment methods, assessment timeline/frequency and assessment benchmarks. You are welcome to make edits and updates to these elements as you see fit, but revision is not required annually. Instead, only the assessment of at least one PLO and updating your accomplishments, improvements, and evidence is required annually. 

• Do I need to respond to the feedback from the Assessment Council on last year's assessment report?

   We hope that you will take the Council's feedback into consideration and use their suggestions to improve your assessment plan, but their feedback is non-binding and may not be applicable to the nuances of your program's mission, goals, or learning objectives. Please note, however, that if choose not to use the Council's feedback to make changes or improvements, you may receive similar feedback in subsequent reviews. 

• Where are we in SBU's 5-year assessment cycle?

  The following timeline provides an overview of SBU's 5-year assessment cycle from academic years (AY) 2022-2027:

  • Year 1: AY 2022-2023 - Report due February 20, 2023. 

  • Year 2: AY 2023-2024 - Report due February 23, 2024. 

  • Year 3: AY 2024-2025 - Report due September 30, 2025.

  • Year 4: AY 2025-2026 - Report due September 30, 2026.

  • Year 5: AY 2026-2027 - Report due September 30, 2027.

  By the completion of the assessment cycle in 2027, you should have assessed all of your PLOs at least once. Then, the 5-year cycle will start over between 2027-2032.

• My program is accredited. Do I need to submit a report?

  No. Accredited programs are not required to submit annual assessment reports at this time, unless otherwise specificed by your individual School/College leaders.

• How do I know if my program is accredited or non-accredited?

  Accredited programs have specialized, discipline-specific accrediting agencies at the program level. A complete list of SBUs accredited programs is available on our website. If your program is not listed there, then it is considered non-accredited and an annual assessment report is required. 

• Why is it important to submit my annual assessment plan?

  Submitting your annual assessment plan can help your program make incremental progress toward curricular, pedagogical, and student learning improvement in an evidence-based way.

  In addition, all non-accredited programs periodically participate in an external review process called Department/Program Review. Your annual assessment report will serve as a useful source of information and student outcomes data to support your self-study document. 

• What happens after I submit my report?

  The SBU Assessment Council review all assessment reports using a collaboratively developed standardized rubric and provides improvement-oriented feedback to programs. 

• I still have questions about the assessment process or report requirements. How can I get assistance?

  • Email your questions to EducationalEffectiveness@stonybrook.edu

  • Request a consultation with OEE. 

  • Review our archived workshops and training materials. 

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Assessment Coordinators' Words of Wisdom

Looking for some assessment inspiration? Hear what your fellow assessment coordinators had to say about keeping the assessment processes manageable and meaningful, or read the video transcript.