Assessment of Student Learning
Assessment of Student Learning begins with the Sitting Bull College mission statement. The SBC mission and its corresponding vision, values, purposes, and goals inspire all assessment activity. As the scope of assessment is widened, it involves multiple committees, along with academic and student service programs in a well planned and organized cycle. Central to this process is the Assessment Committee who functions as a collection point for the data. The Vice President is accountable to the Board of Trustees, administration, academic and student service divisions for reporting and publishing the summative results of yearly assessments activities.
Sitting Bull College has an Assessment Committee that is composed of faculty members, the Vice President, and the Director of Institutional Research. The chair of the Assessment Committee is a faculty member. The chair and the faculty members are rotated and serve a term of three years.
The Assessment Committee meets quarterly throughout the academic year. In 2022, the Assessment changed the two-day general education and program assessment reporting process from last two days of faculty academic contracts, to fall semester for general education outcomes, and end of spring semester for program outcomes. During the reporting process faculty are required to complete a one-page summary of their findings, along with the general education or program plan that lists the outcomes, measurement tools, measurement goals, findings, analysis of data, and action or recommendations.
Assessment procedures at the course, program, and institution level are at the core of the institutional activities and strategic planning at SBC. Feedback collected through these outcomes provides support for the decisions made for future SBC planning. Since planning guides resources allocation, the feedback through assessment is used to coordinate future resource allocation to guide institutional effectiveness and assessment of student learning.
Minutes are kept for all Assessment Committee meetings along with the two day assessment reporting process, which includes recommendations and action items for each general education and degree program outcomes. The minutes along with each general education and degree program findings are filed in three ring binders that are housed with the Vice President. In addition, all findings and minutes are stored in shared folder on the SBC server that can be accessed by all faculty and staff. During the reporting process, recommendation and action items from the previous academic year are also reviewed with each faculty as a follow-up to insure that the recommendations and action items from the previous year have been implement.