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OPRAAS's Goals and Services

Goal 1:  For graduate and undergraduate programs, and associated support staff, we provide strategic, methodological, and logistical support for annual and periodic program assessment that addresses faculty and campus priorities for advancing student learning and student success and, in turn, program excellence.

For both undergraduate and graduate programs, we

  • Manage the periodic review process, advising on policy and process and coordinating site visit logistics, invitations, travel, site visit, payments, etc.
  • Act as the office of record for annual report submission, including history and documents
  • Provide assessment-related resources, e.g. templates, examples, terminology, etc. in diverse formats, in collaboration with the school assessment specialists
  • Advise on requests to PROC, regarding policy, scheduling, deadlines, etc.  

For graduate programs, we

  • Research effective practices in graduate program assessment, and support implementation of program assessment, including strategies for ongoing data collection
  • Consult on the development of assessment-related materials, e.g. multi-year assessment plans, curriculum maps, and rubrics
  • Advise on and gather qualitative data for program assessment, e.g. exit interviews, group interviews, surveys
  • Supply ad-hoc data reports and analyses
  • Review syllabi for new graduate courses

Goal 2: For administrative units and leadership, we provide strategic, methodological, and logistical support for annual, periodic, and ad-hoc assessment that addresses administrative and campus priorities for teaching, research, service, and student learning and success.

For all units, we

  • Consult on administrative assessment to advance readiness for periodic review, including assessment planning, methods, instruments, data summary, and response to results
  • Act as the office of record for annual report submission, including history and documents
  • Provide assessment-related resources, e.g templates, examples, terminology, etc. in diverse formats
  • Manage campus feedback processes on annual assessment reports
  • Provide assessment-related expertise on working groups, committees and task forces, standing and ad-hoc

For units that report to the Provost, we also

  • Manage the periodic review process, advising on policy and process and coordinating site visit logistics, invitations, travel, site visit, payments, etc.

Goal 3: For the Periodic Review Oversight Committee, we provide assessment expertise and the analytic and administrative support to enable the committee to fulfill its charge.  

  • Advance PROC’s work via the analytic and administrative support of the PROC analyst, including management of periodic review processes
  • Maintain committee record keeping, including producing meeting minutes
  • Identify for PROC emerging and ongoing areas of assessment-related needs
  • Coordinate the feedback process for annual assessment reports, and draft summary reports
  • Manage the program review budget for the campus
  • Participate on, and/or convene institutional working groups, committees to address campus assessment needs, e.g. CWGA, DAWG, PLO Report Review
  • Implement action items in support of PROC’s goals and charge
  • Coordinate efforts to advance data provisioning to, and use of, by programs
  • Coordinate assessment-related processes across the campus, promoting timely completion of assessment cycles, and ensuring alignment with accreditor and other requirements

Goal 4: For undergraduate and graduate programs and campus leadership, academic and administrative, we manage, advise on and support WSCUC accreditation-related processes with the goals of deriving value and promoting and protecting the faculty’s ownership of curriculum.

  • Advise on and facilitate development of campus strategies for, and responses to, WSCUC accreditation requirements
  • Coordinate the campus’ re-affirmation of accreditation process
  • Advise on responses to, and facilitate all interactions with WSCUC regarding, substantive change policy
  • Support development and submission of WSCUC substantive change proposals
  • Coordinate and complete annual WSCUC reporting
  • Respond to external inquiries regarding accreditation-related matters
  • Provide accreditation expertise to campus committees (standing and ad-hoc), task forces, working groups etc.
  • Communicate accreditation outcomes and maintain campus accreditation records, ensuring they are accurate, accessible, and up-to-date
  • Liaise with UCOP and other external entities, including WSCUC, regarding emerging issues in accreditation in higher education
  • Facilitate alignment of campus policies, practices, and processes with accreditor expectations

Goal 5: For campus stakeholders, internal and external, we promote a shared understanding of UC Merced's assessment-related goals, practices, and outcomes through multiple communication channels, formal and informal.

  • Communicate exemplary practices at program/unit and higher institutional levels.
  • Increase awareness and accessibility of the campus’ assessment goals and outcomes
  • Continue to develop assessment.ucmerced.edu as a clearing house for assessment-related information, including schedules, staff, resources, records, etc.
  • Promote accessible materials, decisions, records
  • Maintain UC Merced’s assessment and accreditation websites
  • Coordinate Assessment as Research Symposium

We will assess the quality of these services in keeping with our multi-year assessment plan.