UVM Office of Institutional Research and Assessment

Catamount Core Assessment

Beginning in Fall 2023, incoming students are required to complete a 42-credit general education program, called the Catamount Core Curriculum. A description of each category, along with their associated learning outcomes, can be found here.

A systematic process for assessing achievement of student learning outcomes across all curricular areas of the program is being pursued through a consultative process including the Vice Provost of Academic Affairs and Student Success, the Executive Director of the Office of Institutional Research & Assessment (OIRA), OIRA's Assessment Coordiantor, and the Catamount Core Curriculum Committee (CCCC). The goal of the assessment is to pursue continuous improvement of teaching and learning while ensuring students are obtaining the desired knowledge and skills. The following timeline of assessment has been approved by the CCCC.

Assessment Protocols

Assessment protocols for each category are developed by a working group of members of the CCCC and curriculum experts. These protocols largely emphasize direct assessment of student work through the application of a rubric scaled to the specific outcomes of the gen ed category to examples of student work collected by faculty. Outreach to faculty inviting their involvement emphasized that data collection and the rating process focus on student learning across all courses utilizing anonymized samples processed by OIRA into randomized sets and then rated by faculty in a rubric. No individual course, faculty member, or student will be identified or evaluated in this process. Examples of protocols used for different categories are:

MA – Curriculum experts helped plan an assessment protocol that allows faculty to utilize their efforts grading problem sets and exams to provide direct assessment data to OIRA regarding students’ achievement of MA outcomes.
WIL2 – The Director of Writing in the Disciplines and the Center for Teaching and Learning, worked with the Assessment Coordinator to develop a faculty communication and invitation to submit work for a direct assessment rating day in May. WIL2 faculty were also invited to participate in the rating day, which focused not only on student achievement of the WIL2 outcomes, but also faculty development needs for those planning and teaching WIL2 courses.
S1 – The Assessment Coordinator and the Vice Provost of Academic Affairs and Student Success and CCCC ex-officio member based the S1 protocol on the WIL2 protocol, with assessment of this learning outcome taking place in August during a compensated off-contract rating day.
D2 - With several semesters of survey data from faculty speaking to their perceptions of student achievement of D2 outcomes, a facilitated meeting of faculty teaching D2 courses to discuss the requirement, current outcomes, and review collected data was chosen to open a discussion on this outcome within the context of this new curriculum.

SharePoint Site

The Catamount Core Curriculum Committee (CCCC) Sharepoint site is accessible by the members of CCCC. It allows designated groups to share information such as course materials, committee rosters, schedules, and reference materials. If you are a new member of the CCCC and would like to request permission to access this site, contact John Sama (John.Sama@uvm.edu) stating your role in the CCCC and specifying the files you would like to request access.

A Note About Accessibility
The UVM Office of Institutional Research and Assessment is committed to ensuring that reported data are accessible. If the data presented are not accessible to you, please contact the UVM ADA/504 Coordinator. OIRA will work to get you all requested data in a timely fashion.