Office of Academic Planning & Assessment (OAPA) UMass Amherst

OAPA Publications

Assessment Bulletins

Advising

• Experiences with Academic Advising: A Survey of First and Second-Year Students, April 2005

General Education

• General Education: Juniors' Attitudes and Experiences, October 2000
• General Education Courses: The Student Experience, May 1998
• General Education: Students' Perspectives, April 1998

Instructional Technology

• Uses of Instructional Technology in Courses: A Survey of Student Views and Experiences, November 2002

Learning Communities

• Living-Learning Communities: Do They Make a "Difference"?, November 2001

Student Evaluations of Teaching

• Student Evaluations of Teaching: Faculty Feedback from the Pilot Study, Fall 1996
• Student Evaluations of Teaching: A New Design for UMass Amherst, Fall 1995

Student Retention

• Non-Returning First Year Students: Stability and Change in Reasons for Leaving, October 2007
• Non-Returning First Year Students: Why They Leave and Where They Go, Feb. 2001
• Student Retention: Comparing Major Public Universities, Winter 1995

Faculty Focus On Assessment

• Faculty Focus on Assessment, Spring 2005 (Ximena Zuninga, Social Justice Education Program)
• Faculty Focus on Assessment, Fall 2003 (Isenberg School of Management)
• Faculty Focus on Assessment, Spring 2003 (Biology Course Redesign Project)
• Faculty Focus on Assessment, Fall 2002 (Hewlett Fellows, using assessment in large General Education classes)
• Faculty Focus on Assessment, Fall 2001 (The Writing Across the Curriculum Assessment Group)
• Faculty Focus on Assessment, Winter 2001 (Laetitia La Follette, Art History)
• Faculty Focus on Assessment, Spring 2001 (The Biology Department)

Other Publications

• Student Outcomes: The Impact of Varying Living-Learning Community Models.
  Author: Martha L. A. Stassen, Director of Assessment, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  Research in Higher Education, October 2003, Volume 44, Issue 5, p.581, 33pp
  
  This study explores the effect of three distinct living-learning community models on a variety of student experience and academic performance outcomes. Central to the analysis is an investigation of whether there are differences in outcomes for learning communities with different missions and structures, all three of which fall into the "Linked Course" learning community design. Even in the least coordinated, most basic, learning community model, students show more positive outcomes (first semester GPA, retention, first-year experience) than non-learning community students. The fact that simple structures that facilitate student interaction around academic work (even without coordinated faculty involvement) have a positive effect for students of all preparation levels provides encouragement to campus leaders with limited resources who are working to develop methods for improving the undergraduate educational experience on their campuses.
• Making Assessment Matter: Effective assessment can indeed inform teaching and learning: NEA Advocate article by Martha L. A. Stassen, Director of Assessment, and Mary Deane Sorcinelli, Director, Center for Teaching. Describes results from their work with the Hewlett General Education Fellows program at UMass Amherst.
• Diverse Democracy Project
• Graduating Senior Survey
• Moving Forward . . . Looking Back: An Alumni Survey of the Class of 1993
• The Patterson Pilot Program: Evaluation of the First Year (1996-97)

Presentations

• BHE Student Assessment Policy Update (PDF). Presented to the Faculty Senate on April 12th 2001.

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