This Occasional Paper outlines lessons learned about mapping and assessing learning in student affairs and student employment. Over the last three years, the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) assisted institutions developing Comprehensive Learner Records and scaling high-impact practices. In each of these initiatives,…

In March 2020, institutions abruptly pivoted to remote instruction, sending students, faculty, and staff away from college campuses in response to COVID-19. In June 2020, the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) launched a survey to capture a snapshot of assessment-related changes made during Spring 2020 in response to the…

Over the last several years, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) has worked with faculty from around the country to build an online library of assignments that both foster and provide evidence of student learning. The Library is now approaching 80 entries and growing. A number of those assignments include an explicit…

Internships are among the most beneficial out-of-classroom experiences designated as High-Impact Practices (HIPs). Yet, due to the diverse and unscripted nature of internship experiences, as well as the many different models for facilitating them, outcomes assessment practices are a long way from capturing the full power of internships as learning…

This National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) policy statement outlines the warrant for multiple, systematic approaches to obtain evidence of authentic student achievement. The importance of assessing student learning in college has yet to capture the attention of policy makers or the public. Indeed, few outside the academy know…

Technology can change higher education by empowering students to make an impact on the world as undergraduates. Done systematically, this would allow institutions to close the credibility gap with an increasingly dubious public. Authentic student achievements that are addressed to a "real world" audience can lead to richly detailed…

The Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP) first released by Lumina Foundation in 2011 and revised in 2014 sets forth a vision of what students should know and be able to do at the associate, bachelor's, and master's levels. It also carries an important message about assessment. Unlike the popular model of assessment as a sampling of…