Assessment Process
Assessment is an ongoing process. This page describes the assessment timeline expectations for academic programs, advising centers, and co-curricular units at GVSU.
- Annually: Units post regular (at least annual) updates on their assessment activities. Annual updates are due by May 20 for academic programs and by July 1 for advising centers and co-curricular programs.
- Two-year cycle: UAC reviews the academic programs, advising centers, and co-curricular unit assessments on a two-year rotation. Deadlines for any final updates for reviews are posted in GVAdvance under the Deadlines menu.
Periodic Self Study: All units engage in a periodic self study as part of the transition from one strategic planning cycle to the next. GVSU's next self study period is planned for 2020-2021. Self study prompts can be viewed in GVAdvance by selecting "Assemble Self Study Reporting" in the GVReview area of the site.

Annual assessment updates
- Student outcomes assessment (GVAssess): Units normally focus on assessing a small number of student outcomes for each program in a given year (see assessment guidelines). As assessment data are collected and analyzed, units add reporting for the corresponding measures in GVAssess. Data reporting can be added at any time, but all units are asked to update their assessment results in GVAssess at least annually by May 20.
- Strategic plan updates (GVPlan): Strategic plan updates are due by Feb. 1 every year. This is accomplished by adding data reporting for all active strategic plan objectives.
- Help keep the notification system updated (ARSS): If there has been a recent change in leadership in your unit (such as a new unit head, program coordinator, or assessment coordinator), or please notify UAC so we may update the Assessment Report and Self-study (ARSS) notification system.
The following video presentation contains additional details about ongoing assessment activities as GVSU.
Two-year quarterly review cycle
UAC reviews the assessment activities in both GVAssess and GVPlan according to the quarterly review cycle (webpage | pdf).
This process ensures UAC reviews and provides feedback on all units' assessment activities at least once every two years.
Notifications:
- Unit heads and assessment leads receive notifications for upcoming reviews within GVAdvance.
- GVAdvance users with the Group Admin tag (typically unit heads) are expected to manage the list of assessment leads for their unit via the Admin Menu area of GVAdvance (bottom of the main window).
- Note: The ARSS notification system has been discontinued now that notification functionality has been added to GVAdvance.
Preparing for review
Prior to the review deadline, units should ensure that:
- The assessment plan is up-to-date in GVAssess, and data reporting has been entered for outcomes assessed in last two years. See the Reporting Expectations page for details.
- Strategic plan reporting has been updated in GVPlan by Feb. 1 for the previous calendar year. This means adding a new reporting entry to every active objective in GVPlan. "Active objectives" are those for which the "Time Frame End" date has not yet elapsed.
Units may also wish to review the reporting expectations, reviewer rubrics, and resources and support page as they refine their assessment activities.
Preparing for review... |
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