Your chief academic officer was invited to participate in a survey about program-level assessment conducted by the National Institute for Learning Outcome Assessment (NILOA). Each officer received an invitation to identify three people on their campuses representing randomly selected programs that could answer the short, five minute survey. Access the NILOA Web site to participate.

After obtaining contact information, NILOA directly asks program coordinators to voluntarily participate in this research. The questionnaire takes about 15 minutes and inquires about tools and approaches programs are using to assess student learning. The goal is to learn what various programs are doing in regard to student learning outcomes assessment, not what the programs represent in terms of institutional performance.

Stan Ikenberry (Illinois) and I are leading this project, which includes all accredited two- and four-year colleges and universities in the United States. Your institution’s participation in the survey is voluntary, and the responses will remain confidential, but results may be useful to all of us. We appreciate any support you can provide in facilitating your institution’s involvement in this survey. Please consider contacting your chief academic officer to determine whether your institution has responded. As a gesture of appreciation for your participation, we will send your institution an advance report of the survey results prior to any public release of the data.

You can direct any questions about the survey to the NILOA Project Manager, Staci Provezis at sprovez2@illinois.edu. Visit the learning outcomes assessment Web site for more information on NILOA.

Many thanks,

George D. Kuh
Chancellor’s Professor and Director
Center for Postsecondary Research
Indiana University
kuh@indiana.edu