Assessment and Evaluation

The Office of Educational Assessment (OEA) promotes improvement of educational practice at the University of Washington by supporting assessment of teaching and learning at the level of the classroom, academic program, college/school, and institution. In addition, OEA provides evaluation services for external research grants through various funding agencies and foundations (e.g., NSF, NIH, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation).

OEA research scientists are trained in quantitative and qualitative social science research methods.  They provide expertise through consulting and conducting applied research and evaluation studies for internal and external stakeholders of UW.

OEA Assessment and Evaluation Services

Assessment services for academic departments and co-curricular programs

• Articulating goals for student learning, including course-based goals and goals for majors (see Assessment in the Majors) and co-curricular learning outcomes.
• Identifying and carrying out direct and indirect methods for assessing those goals, such as curricular maps, surveys for graduating seniors, focus groups of majors, interview studies, and portfolio assessment.
• Assessing experimental courses.
• Analyzing and reporting assessment results.
• Using course evaluation data in making decisions relating to faculty merit, promotion, and tenure.
• Designing and conducting student surveys, including developing and administering questionnaires, sampling students, and analyzing and reporting responses. OEA also maintains the UW survey website coordinating administration of large-scale student surveys.

Evaluation services for grant-funded research and programs

• Serving as external evaluators and research consultants for externally funded grants focusing on educational interventions and programs that support student learning and growth. Recent grants we have evaluated and/or supported include:
  • Molecular Biophysics Training Program (NIH #3T32GM008268-33S1)
  • Sustaining and Growing a Dispersed Community of Practice that Engages Undergraduates in Course-Based Genomics Research (NSF #1915544)
  • Polar (DCL 16-119): Engaging Students and the Public in Polar Research through Live Interactive Planetarium Shows (NSF #1712588)
  • UW Health Professions Academy (Health Resources & Services Administration #D18HP29047)
  • William H. Gates Public Service Law Scholarship Program Evaluation (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation #OPP41188)

Course evaluations

• Inform faculty members about student perceptions of their classes singly and over time
• Provide chairs and deans with student ratings data to inform decisions relating to curricular development and faculty merit, promotion, and tenure.

Surveys about the student experience, including:

• UW alumni survey one year after graduation
• Husky Check-ins
• The Student Experience at the Research University (SERU)

University-wide studies that assess teaching, learning and student outcomes, such as:

• UW Seattle Undergraduate Retention and Graduation Study 2019, a mixed methods study identifying which students are less likely to persist and graduate from UW, challenges they face, and facilitators of their success.
• Studies of General Education, assessment initiatives designed to understand student learning and assessment in UW’s general education program
• UW Senior Research Study (UW SRS), a focus group study examining the research experience of seniors in fifteen academic majors.
• UW Study of Undergraduate Learning (UW SOUL), a four-year study tracking 304 undergraduates through their years in college.
• UW Growth in Faculty Teaching Study (UW GIFTS), a study of how often faculty make changes in their teaching, what those changes are, and why they make them.