Zayed University was named as oneof ten members of the inaugural class of Excellence in Assessment, a new international program aimed at recognizing universities conducting comprehensive assessments of student learning outcomes as a means to drive improvement and advance student success. The Excellence in Assessment (EIA) program – the first internationaldesignation of its kind – highlights institutions successfully integrating assessment practices across campus, providing evidence of student learning outcomes, and using assessment results to guide institutional decision-making and improve student performance.The sponsors of the EIA program are the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA), a public college and university transparency initiative led by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), in partnership with the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) and the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA).
The EIA recognition is directly linked to NILOA’s Transparency Framework.“The inaugural class of EIA designees have a demonstrated commitment to measuring the impact of their student success efforts and are now working to improve that impact through evidence-based methods,” said APLU President Peter McPherson. “Their work is rightly being recognized with a designation that not only profiles their work, but provides a platform from which other institutions can learn and better track their own progress to drive improvement.”“Despite the national rhetoric that would have us believe otherwise, accountability and commitment to student learning and success is very much in evidence in higher education as exemplified by these Excellence in Assessment designees,” said AASCU President Muriel Howard. “The value of this designation goes beyond honoring these institutions for their exemplary work. It generates an opportunity for dialogue around best practices in improving student performance and ultimately student success.”
Dr Marilyn Roberts, Provost at Zayed University, commented that, “As an institution located outside the United States, Zayed University is in a very unique position regarding assessment. We believe that we have been applying best practices for a number of years and have continued to improve our learning outcomes and assessment practices.” “As with much of the assessment movement, we are constantly working towards continuous improvement. This is a result of a long-range focus to raise faculty awareness, increase their knowledge and skills, and to facilitate their participation in all aspects of the assessment process. Another important emphasis has been to provide faculty with new tools to facilitate effective planning, collection, analysis and reporting of student assessment results,” Roberts added. Zayed University maintains the effectiveness and the quality of its programs and courses through continual evaluation and assessment. This assessment plays an important role in providing feedback to inform decision-making to improve student learning and ensure fulfillment of Zayed University’s mission.
Zayed University’s academic program is based on a set of six general education learning outcomes, ZULOs, which span the entire four-year undergraduate curriculum and the outcomes-based assessment program upon which it is built. Introduced in 2001, just four years after the University’s foundation, the ZULOs have a long history that demonstrates their enduring quality and robust application to a range of programs. They are: language, leadership, critical thinking and quantitative reasoning, global awareness, information literacy, and technological literacy. The nine other institutions comprising the inaugural class are: Cameron University; Capella University; the Community College of Baltimore County; Indiana University–Purdue University, Indianapolis; Kansas State University; Mills College; Mount St. Joseph University; the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.