Undergraduate Academic Program Assessment at URI
For years, the Student Learning Outcomes Assessment & Accreditation team in the Office for the Advancement of Teaching & Learning has provided support to all URI colleges and departments as it relates to the effective evaluation of student learning outcomes in the undergraduate curriculum. Historically, the evaluation of student learning outcomes at URI happened on a 2-year cycle, until the fall of 2024 when the university’s largest college, the College of Arts & Sciences, was collaboratively shifted by request to a 3-year cycle.
Since then, our team has listened to other university leaders (Deans, Associate Deans, and Department Chairs, and individual faculty) from other colleges across URI regarding this topic. During the fall 2025 semester, members of our team reached out to more than 50 other universities to learn more about their assessment processes. From those conversations, along with receiving support from the Office of the Provost, we worked during the 2025-2026 academic year to reset the university’s undergraduate academic program assessment cycle to a 3-year schedule. A timeline of those events is below.
Timeline
- Fall 2023 – The College of Arts & Sciences petitions the Provost’s Office for an additional year to be added to the undergraduate assessment cycle in order to complete a deeper and richer analysis of the student learning outcomes across programs in the college.
- Fall 2023 – Conversations were ongoing to identify a positive solution to the opportunity raised by the CAS.
- Spring 2024 – The Provost’s Office supports the proposed additional year, and a pilot began during the fall 2024 semester.
- Fall 2024 – The College of Arts and Sciences 3-year pilot assessment cycle begins.
- Spring 2025 – Other college leaders begin to see the benefits of moving to a 3-year cycle and they start to express their desire to see their college moved to a one-year longer cycle, too.
- Fall 2025 – The undergraduate academic program assessment cycle schedule is paused to allow the Student Learning Outcomes Assessment & Accreditation (SLOAA) team time to research the potential implications for a university-wide change in the assessment schedule. The SLOAA team contacts more than 50 universities to learn more about their assessment cycles for evaluating student learning outcomes.
- Spring 2026 – The updated 3-year cycle is supported by the Office of the Provost, and the updated cycle is shared with the university.
The Updated 3-Year Cycle
Below you will find our new 3-year undergraduate academic program assessment cycle. We have included all undergraduate academic programs that we have consistently supported in the past, and also new and updated ones that we learned about through this process.