Assessment and Measurement Working Group - Part 2 (Appendices)

The following material arises from the University of Oregon's productivity planning process and is made available here in the hope of engaging the whole university community in that process. This material contains the conclusions of one of the nine productivity working groups; it does NOT represent official university policy.

We solicit your responses and suggestions. Please direct them to the chair of the working group or to Charles Wright, Department of Mathematics. 

(This is part 2 of the report. Part 1 contains the body of the report, and this part contains the appendices.)

November 19, 1993

MEMORANDUM
TO: Myles Brand
FR: Assessment and Productivies Measurement Group*
RE: Progress Report

APPENDIX A: UNIVERSITY OF OREGON PURPOSE AND MISSION

[See General Bulletin]

APPENDIX B: LIST OF POSSIBLE INDICATORS OR MEASURES OF KEY CONCEPTS
Caveats:

•  * This appendix contains a veritable laundry list of indicators or measures related to higher education productivity and assessment. The list needs to be sorted and culled according to questions that need answering.
• * The list is not exhaustive and several items are not mutually exclusive.
• * Indicators of one concept also may be appropriate for another.
• * The "best" direction of change in an indicator may not be self-evident (cf. footnote 2).
• * The units of analysis vary: For some indicators, data are gathered on individual students or faculty members. Other items are of necessity aggregates and applicable to departments, colleges/schools, or the entire university.
• * Some indicators are appropriate for external audiences, while others are more appropriate for internal evaluations.
• * Some data items are gathered already and some data- gathering is planned, but many items would require new (or newly coordinated) data collection efforts.

•  Scholarly books or monographs authored or edited Textbooks
•  Refereed articles in scholarly journals
•  Conference presentations or proceedings
•  Technical reports or manuals
•  Software
•  Patents
•  Book and film reviews
•  Other publications
•  Musical or dramatic performances
•  Art exhibitions
•  Musical compositions
•  Creative writings

•  Program review
•  Academic personnel studies (demographics, highest degrees)
•  Workload
•  Faculty salary
•  Editorships or associate editorships of scholarly journals
•  Officers of professional societies
•  Members of national or international peer review committees
•  Hosting or organizing regional, national, or international conferences
•  National or international awards or prizes Honorary degrees
•  Invited national or international symposium or colloquium presentations
•  Consultancies in national clinics or workshops
•  Commissioned works of art, music, or drama
•  Sales of major works of art, music, or drama

•  Enrollment and retention
•  Entry indicators
•  Average freshman GPA
•  Average freshman SAT
•  Special recruitment
•  Placement exams (math, writing, foreign language)
• Intermediate achievement indicators
•  Program/major admissions exams
•  Academic progress of student athletes
•  Exit interviews with withdrawing students
•  Student perceptions and satisfaction
•  Student behavior
•  Proportion of students employed 15+ hours per week
•  Special advising (e.g., mentorship program, faculty advising of student organization)
• Graduation achievement indicators
•  Honors and awards
•  Average GPA of graduating seniors
•  Average SAT of graduating seniors
•  Cohort graduation rates
•  Performance on graduate and professional program admissions tests (GRE, LSAT, GMAT, etc.)
•  Degrees awarded
•  Student perceptions and satisfaction
•  Student research and publication
•  Proportion of students who studied abroad
•  Proportion of students who participated in internships
•  Proportion of students enrolled in honors or graduate
•  level courses
•  Proportion of students who worked on a professor's research project
•  Proportion of students who assisted in teaching Post-graduation indicators
•  Alumni surveys
•  Employed in career-related positions or graduate/professional programs
•  Employed in unrelated field
•  Unemployed
•  In the military
• Instruction and curriculum
•  Teaching evaluations
•  Teaching awards
•  Program review
•  Teaching load
•  Special instruction (e.g., seminars, minicourses)
•  Individualized instruction or supervision

•  Students
•  Enrollment and Retention
•  Entry indicators
•  Special recruitment
•  Admission rate
•  GPA of applicants and admittances
•  Number of acceptances per number of offers
• Graduation achievement indicators
•  Cohort completion rates
•  Awards and honors
•  Extramural funding
•  Funding per full-time graduate student
•  Student awards and honors
•  Teaching awards and honors
•  Student perceptions
•  Alumni surveys
•  Student research and publication
•  Faculty/student collaboration
•  Placement profile
• Instruction and curriculum
•  Teaching evaluations
•  Program review
•  Teaching load
•  Special instruction (e.g., seminars, minicourses)
•  Individualized instruction or supervision
•  Dissertations and theses chaired
•  Dissertations and theses served on

•  Number of OSSHE institutions where unit exists
•  Percent FTE students majoring in unit
•  Percent student credit hours taken by nonmajors
•  Number of private institutions in state where unit exists
•  Number of regional/national institutions where unit exists
•  Utilization of program by other fields for research or teaching (e.g., nonmajor course enrollment)

•  Importance in providing trained manpower to essential public and private industries in the state or nation
•  Importance in providing research expertise to essential public and private industries in the state or nation
•  Importance in providing cultural enrichment to the region
•  Importance in providing public service to the region
•  Availability of program in the region

•  University, College/School, and Departmental committee chairs
•  University, College/School, and Departmental committee memberships
•  Administrative appointments external to unit
•  Elected positions in faculty governance
•  State and community
•  Clinical or extension service
•  State government committees
•  Consultation for state and local agencies
•  Consultation for state and local business and industry
•  Voluntary service organization memberships
•  Contributions or presentations to community groups
• National
•  Consultation to business, industry, and government
•  Government committee memberships
•  Government agency consultant appointments
• International
•  Consultation to business, industry, and government
•  Government committee memberships
•  Government agency consultant appointments
• Professional
•  Committee memberships
•  Committee chairs
•  Elected positions

WHAT ABOUT ITEMS OF ENTERTAINMENT VALUE, E.G., PLAYS, MUSICAL PERFORMANCES, INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS, ETC.? CAN THIS COUNT AS INSTITUTIONAL SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY?

ADMINISTRATION AND SUPPORT

•  Number of library holdings
•  Library budget
•  Library personnel FTE
•  Number of library visitors per year?
•  Total computer budgets
•  Number of networks??
•  Student services staff FTE
•  Student services budget
•  Number of students served
•  Total square feet in campus buildings
•  Physical plant staff FTE
•  Physical plant budget
•  Measures of deferred maintenance
•  Teaching faculty support staff FTE
•  Administrative support staff FTE
•  Teaching faculty FTE
•  Administration FTE
•  Possible indicators of funding and resources:
•  Appropriations
•  Appropriations per student FTE
•  Tuition
•  Tuition per student FTE
•  Indirect costs
•  Grants, contracts, and other external funds (direct costs)
•  Percentage of faculty with external funding
•  Applications for external funding submitted
•  Intercollegiate athletics revenues
•  Costs

** Assessment answers questions such as "How well are we doing? What impact is our organization having on our clients? How well are we achieving our organizational goals?" Higher education engages in constant assessment: student progress is assessed by grades, faculty quality is assessed through the promotion and tenure process, departmental quality is assessed through periodic program reviews and by national professional organizations. The processes of assessment are under constant revision and review: tests are re-written, teaching methods changed, promotion criteria revised.

Productivity measurement introduces the notion of quantity produced of a given quality per unit of input. It answers questions such as "How effectively and efficiently, per dollar or per unit time, are we achieving our goals?" Productivity is problematic in higher education, where not only what to measure may be debated, but the interpretation of the result is not straightforward. Is an increase in students per faculty an improvement in productivity, in that more people are being educated per faculty salary dollar input, or a decrease in productivity in that there are fewer faculty contact hours per individual student?

[Submitted by: Charley Wright
Wed, 15 Dec 93 11:44:09 PST] [Copyright 1993, University of Oregon]