About Us

In a break from the traditional view of assessment as compliance and accountability, the Office of Academic Assessment has been redesigned as a support mechanism for all University academic departments and programs. We are here to assist you with any phase of your assessment of student learning. The Director and staff serve a consulting role to departments and programs for any step of assessment, from developing and implementing assessment plans, collecting direct measures of student learning, interpreting findings and then suggesting how to use the findings to "close the feedback loop” to make assessment-informed pedagogical and curricular changes to improve student learning.

The Office of Academic Assessment was created in January 2008 when the previous Office of Institutional Research and Assessment was reorganized into separate entities. The creation of one office devoted entirely to the assessment of undergraduate and graduate-professional student learning outcomes is a reflection of the high priority DU has placed on our understanding of student learning and the pedagogical and curricular activities that lead to the strengthening the bonds between effective teaching and enhanced student learning.

In our collaboration with the Office of Institutional Research, Center for Teaching and Learning, the Deans and the Provost, we look forward to working with members of the DU community to enhance student learning.